Yoga Philosophy and Teaching With Depth with Paul Teodo

0:00 Welcome to the yoga teacher Evolution podcast. Namaste. My name is Paul chiodo joined here with Michael Henry. Most yoga teacher, trainings are becoming watered-down and mediocre. So we've created this podcast to help supplement those of you who graduated from a teacher training and don't feel confident going out into the real world.

0:24 Michael, and I are lucky to have been trained by some amazing people. We've gone out into the world ourselves and had success and we want you to feel confident to act your students and to build your career with integrity and authenticity, Welcome to our podcast.

0:41 What's up everybody? Welcome back to the yoga teacher Evolution podcast. My name is Michael Henry, I am one of your co-hosts for today and across the pond for me. I have Paul t0. Do the other called co-host. Paul, how are you? Good real good.

0:58 Well, we have an exciting conversation that we're going to have today and it is about the benefits or the The value that comes whenever you have a Eastern philosophy teacher, as part of your yoga teacher training or as part of, you know, your learnings, whatever you want to, depending on your situation. If you're a yoga teacher trainer having someone to actually come in and teach the philosophy from the Eastern perspective or if you're actually participating,

1:24 and being a student and a teacher training and checking to see if there's an actual philosophy teacher, and the value, and the benefits behind all that. So Paul is probably going to lead a lot of this. Conversation but I'm going to help them as much as I can.

1:37 Having a little bit of perspective on it but ultimately Paul has a training pollen buyer in the elements of Power Yoga have a training where they use a Eastern teacher, the Jeff and he I don't know exactly his back on, maybe you can speak to this little bit more, but I know that he he he was trained for quite some years and it definitely showed whenever he was teaching in the training, but maybe you can give a little bit of shining on that. Or how would you like to start

2:02 this conversation? Maybe. Yeah, yeah. So, Basically, we just started using the Jeff. Because I also work with East-West yoga, there's a company that was started by our friend Adam. And, and their whole idea is basically partnering up Western teachers with Eastern teachers.

2:24 And it's such a great idea that I basically copied Adam and was like, this needs to be done after seeing the effects that Vijaya, 'The, and other Indian teachers have on the overall experience and also me having a desire to really try and preserve as much of The traditional ideas and philosophy and lifestyle of what a yogi, or your guinea is supposed to be, it's really humbling when you are in the presence of somebody who spent 12 years at an ashram, right?

3:09 It's way different than spending one month in a 24-day teacher training. Not to say that. That can't be an amazing experience. And not Say that you can't do a teacher training in a western style and then go out into the world and teach a western yoga class, totally works. However, to have The experience in the philosophy and and just the whole perspective of somebody who spent 10, 15 years living eating and breathing, Consciousness really has an impact on the trainings.

3:52 The overall trainings. And I would say that from now on, I will do this with all of my trainings just to have that Indian presence, really bright. And everything. But what was your experience sitting in those lectures with the jet? It felt immersive would probably the word that would come to mind because of the depth of what was coming out of his mouth. Like he was saying, less words, but it felt like more only because it almost seemed like he knew what he was talking about so well that he didn't need to

4:29 say a lot. With words, but he said a lot without those, the same amount of words, you know what I mean? Maybe, I'm not saying this very well, but if you can't explain it, simply you don't understand it. Well enough, exactly. Like I'm having a hard time explaining this right now but ultimately he did a really good job of explaining things super well using lots of stories.

4:47 Lots of examples on trying to drive home, maybe like one or two points when I wanted to philosophy one or two lessons that you can't do that when you learn that, you know, when just a short period of time, like, that's something That you definitely had to have been immersed in for a long period of time and that was clearly evident when he was teaching those philosophy classes. It was, it was like a whole new experience being taught by someone with that kind of depth,

5:14 right? And like, you know, philosophy. I mean, you've pretty shallow what running 10 years in Los Angeles? You know, it's all about building a brand right. Right. But you know that you know theoretically the concepts and all this stuff like you could teach it right?

5:30 But Depth of it, is the part that is, I guess probably learn a lot more like you're saying from coming from spending so much time in an ashram. And I mean, I don't know how exactly how it works there. But no, no, we joked around before where it's like, you go in there and you wash the floors and paint the fence and all that stuff, mr.

5:48 Miyagi style for a little while to basically take your licks. Yeah. In order to get trained or to get to go through the process of becoming a yoga teacher kind of thing. Yeah. And I was, I was mostly kidding. When I said, I said that whole thing about Los Angeles but also kind of serious.

6:05 I don't consider myself a shallow person, but what the Indian philosophy in the Indian attitude of leading the life of a yogi, or a yoga teacher. It's not about building a brand, you know? And I need to remind myself of that, too. Like, we're doing this podcast and building websites, and Instagram, and all of that.

6:31 that, and all of it is, Really a waste of time if I'm not walking the walk because then I can't look at myself in the mirror and know that I have any right to stand up in front of people and offer my experience in my, and my perspective on things.

6:49 So what what this does is really on an another level. It really keeps you humble, you know, when you see someone like Vegeta Thorpe, who knew or Guru mooc and and and They delivered these. Lectures that are so profound. It makes you have a lot more respect for the deeper aspects of yoga and how yoga helps you become a more introspective person. That is capable of of noticing things and sharpening their senses and big just becoming a more sophisticated Drinker of life like just drinking life up

7:36 in a more sophisticated way and That doesn't come from building a brand or thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur or a business. Like it's a totally different state of consciousness with the totally different intention, and it's really important, like, I really try and emphasize to my students as much as I can to never put the business first.

8:09 Never you're not, you're not Not a, you're not an entrepreneur first. Okay, you're a yoga teacher. You're somebody who is trying to set an example for, right, living an imperfect example. Absolutely. But that takes practice that takes humility, that takes perseverance that takes time. It takes seeking out mentors, and all of those things need to come first and then like, yeah, bill, Your fancy website and, and do your podcast and, and, and build your Instagram and all of that.

8:48 But otherwise, you're just building a castle made of sand right to quote Jimi, Hendrix. Hmm, you know. So by having that perspective of the Indian philosophy teacher, the Indian meditation teacher, you really get a taste of Real dedication. And it's very humbling for me.

9:15 Hmm. Like I listen to the Jeff and my wife and I have spent several thousands of hours, both of us meditating and I consider myself a pretty good meditation teacher. My wife is even better than me. And at the same time, we can't offer the perspective of somebody who spent 13 years as an ashram, right?

9:36 Right? And we live in this noisy world, where somebody like me gets more attention than somebody like the Jeff. So my job is to is to is to put people like him into the spotlight where he belongs even though he doesn't want the spotlight not even about the spot, I put to get people like him in front of people.

9:57 So you know, maybe they come to my class and or they see something of me doing it Hanson or something on social media, or they see something flashy about it and that drives people to work with me. But what what You want somebody to get out of it is significantly deeper.

10:20 Than the poses or the fitness aspect or not. That there's not that, that's not all good, but too really, Examine something as simple as the yamas and niyamas has in your day-to-day life to really contemplate. Like, okay, like, where am I living with attachment?

10:41 Where am I? How am I not surrendering to God? Do I believe in God? What what are the, what, what is the the idea of a western God? How is that different from Yogi Yogi or yogini? Which way is Right? Which way is wrong? Is there a right or wrong? Or which way is my my perspective? And and I think that, To have that presence for me. It shows that respect shows that I respect you Oka and I see it a lot more than just as some sort of a fitness practice. It's a lifestyle that can

11:26 transform your life mentally physically, emotionally spiritually, but to get the emotionally spiritually mentally, particularly spiritually, I think you have to go a lot deeper than just alignment and anatomy and no offense. But yeah, you gotta go deeper than that, right? Yeah.

11:48 I agree. 100%. Point. One of the things that I love about yoga, so much is beyond exactly. All this physical stuff is, you know, the words of wisdom that are that particularly in your classes because I attend mostly your classes.

12:03 But like, you know, it's not just about the physical even though it is quite physical. But just like the things at the beginning with an opening sequence or the things at the end, or the theme of the class, whether it be about like stability, for example, like losing stability in 2020, which is a great theme for your class this morning, and then recognizing that, you know, sometimes you can't control when stability is lost, all you can do is try to build up on that

12:26 perseverance. Build up on that. It's that resilience I should say. And then whenever your stability eventually returns, you'll be that much stronger and be able to continue to move forward, which is, I mean, I don't know where you pulled that from.

12:41 But to me, it was very deep. All right? Thank you. And yeah, and it landed on me and it, I mean, the class was super physical and hard, like my body's really sore, but it wasn't just that like you. So it had that kind of holistic Viewpoint.

12:54 And basically what I'm trying to say is for me. Yoga is is, is that, is that whole package and as yoga teachers, those of you that are listening that are yoga teachers, that's that's why I want to basically support you with the anatomy of the alignment and all that stuff.

13:12 Because that is kind of like the entry point for especially Western people, right? They absolutely come to yoga because I want to go to work out and they want to sweat, they want to feel good. They want to be flexible and all the stuff but what they don't realize is when they go to a class is that they might get a little bit more, you know, they might have a conversation about on Aunt or, you know, stability or something like this, gratitude, whatever it is.

13:34 And then it was some, they walk away feeling not only good in their body but they feel good in their heart. Yeah, right. And that's transformational it's powerful, especially if it is something that they continue to incorporate in their day-to-day life and it can change their life, it can change the people's lives around them and ultimately change the world. So that's That's the goal.

13:54 I think that's the whole reason why I love this space and why I like working in it and supporting yoga teachers as much as I can with whatever I can. Yeah yeah no absolutely. And I think To go even deeper on that like, whatever, whatever depth I've been given from the practice has come from underneath the actual physical aspects, like, sitting in meditation. And, and choosing to forgive people in my life, which is massively transformational, choosing to apologize to people in my life massively

14:35 transformational. And these aren't things that are taught that are About as much in our very egocentric culture. We're not we're not encouraged to be humble when not encourage people. Always like there's always these memes. Like just forgive yourself.

14:48 Just forgive yourself, and that's important. Yeah, but that doesn't Force us to get out of ourselves like it, we have people are becoming so self-absorbed through this social media and through, where everything is, as very egocentric. And yes, forgiving yourself.

15:05 Everybody needs to do that. But go further than that. You know, everybody has a personal life they needed for gift, everybody has apologies to make you know. Are you on that? You know, that's how we stay spiritually clean and if you stay if you have teachers that can embody that they don't even necessarily have to tell you but just there's their mere presence.

15:34 It brings about within us something that says I need to become a better person. And hopefully, you're mature enough where you don't shame yourself. Because another thing that can happen, sometimes if you bring in like a really experienced Indian Guru, ish yoga teacher to come and teach and speak. Then some of the students will get down on themselves in the book.

16:01 Well, I'm so far away from that. I have no business, you know? And that's that's has nothing to do with the teacher has to do with the the student individual Not accepting and loving themselves where they are today. So we got to do that and then on top of that, be humble and work on it, you know, clean yourself out, clean out that Soul, it's really more and more.

16:26 Instead of adding things to us, we need to remove the toxicity of the modern world, which is freaking toxic. It's a very toxic environment. You know, it's becoming we're becoming more and more. Just believing that it's normal to be very self-centered, right? Like very, very individualistic and self-centered and when you come to a place like Indonesia or India, where there's more of a collective attitude, like we're all in this together. Yeah.

16:59 Community-based community-based. Exactly. And you see the benefits to both, you know? And at times like this during like a pandemic, you see all the families and Bali coming together and taking care of each other and and looking out for one another, which is such a great place to be. However, the, the opportunities for the individual to shine in a culture, like this aren't quite as much, and in America, it's the opposite.

17:31 It's everything is very much geared towards the individual. And then when A lot of people feel lonely because they don't have that Community. They don't have the family as much anymore. So, being around the Eastern perspective and that type of culture I think is very beneficial, especially in times like this, just to absorb Different attitudes about how to live life, all right?

17:55 You know yeah, sharing the different perspective. Not necessarily like you said in totally adopting it because there's benefits to both sides and I mean you can't get the benefit of the other side if you don't know it. You don't know that perspective. Yeah, you need to be exposed to it. Yeah, that's really valuable.

18:12 And I had a conversation with one of my cousin's recently about just the fear in the western world or particularly in America right now. And how just the culture in general. There's just a lot of fear about fearing people around, you fearing your neighbors fearing others, whether it be, you know, related to guns and you know terrorism and just like fearing, you know, Muslims are different religions or people that are different from you.

18:38 There's just lots of fear. So there's it's like further pushing people into that isolation further pushing people away from that Community. Yeah. And allowing acceptance allowing differences to be, you know, accepted or pushed aside, which makes it really Challenging.

18:53 I mean if you're in America or your I mean I'm using America as an example but it's not the only place, you know having that different perspective. Having a conversation with someone who You know, really sees the value and can communicate the value of that community that family, that that goes beyond just like, you know, your parents and your siblings where it's like, I mean here in Bali like like you said the families come together but it's also The Villages like The

19:18 Villages are massive here in like when things hit the fan so to speak they all come together whether they're little blood related or not. It's just like you're part of my Village, you're my neighbor. Therefore you're my friend.

19:28 How can I help you? Like how can I support you? What do you need? Yeah, and like that doesn't exist or I shouldn't say Doesn't exist. It's probably injured. Yeah, it's fractured. And it's rare to come across particularly in the Western World. It does exist.

19:42 I should say that is exist. I've seen it, but it would be better if it was more concentrated. There was more of it. And yeah, I mean yoga teachers have a great opportunity to share that Community perspective but bringing it full circle. We need to see that perspective first and getting it from someone who really, really knows like a Like an Eastern teacher, right?

20:06 Absolutely. Yeah. And like you were saying about fear and then, you know, within the yoga sutras they talk about fear being a form of ignorance and rejection being a form of ignorance. Basically the that when we respond to life with, with fear, when we respond to life with rejection, you create dukkha, which is like this sense of suffering, or Shrinking, it's kind of like a, it's described as, like, a sensation of feeling squeezed. So we are shrinking ourselves.

20:42 When we are in fear or when we reject and then you look at what's going on in the world right now, tremendous amount of fear and also a rejection. So, like if you're a Democrat and I'm a republican, I can't even be friends with you.

20:56 I reject everything that you like, you start talking immediately, my ears close and I'm not listening to you, and that's called Reveille. So, The or rejection. And what that does is it creates suffering for myself and for you and for the whole planet and if you are around an Indian yoga teacher, who has spent, you know, 13 years in an ashram, they're able to help you see this for yourself and see a different perspective and recognize like, oh, I can't

21:31 really be a yogi. If I can't sit in a room and have a civil conversation with somebody who I disagree with. And I'm seeing so much of that amongst people who are quote unquote, conscious they're not even, even able to have a civil discussion with somebody that has a different Viewpoint than them and we just cancel them, right?

21:55 And that's rejection. It's divisive. It's probably fear to but it's like textbook, like just rejection judgment, right? So I'm judging somebody based off of the fact that like they have a different political belief than the or religious belief or whatever it is, you know. And I believe it's a form of prejudice and it's causing a tremendous amount of suffering right now. Yeah, in the world and disconnection disc, and moving further away from that Community. Yeah, based perspective.

22:28 Active as well. Yeah, that's a, that's a really interesting one that one. And then how does that relate to a yoga teacher training as a yoga teacher? My job is to get people ready to go out into the world and spread Consciousness to spread Consciousness and that's not miss a lot more than just teaching, poses, you know.

22:52 So to get people ready to go out into a wounded world. And help mend it and you can't just you can't mend the world if you're only going to go and try and help people that believe the exact same thing that you want to believe.

23:08 Yeah. And you can't help people that believe differently than you if you reject them and make them feel judged. Right. That just pushes them further away. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you just see a lot of that right now and I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of it as well.

23:23 Like one of my defects is that I can be extremely judgmental and arrogant. Can't I have that inside of me and I have to watch it all the time but the fact that I'm aware of it helps me not let it ruin my life. And ruin the lives of others. Yeah.

23:44 It's, it's such an interesting topic about that rejection piece and I feel similar. I mean, I practice it quite often, recognizing whatever someone has a different belief or they see things in a different way. And, you know, I'll often times part of the rejection is if you don't see it my way, then I want nothing to do with you kind of thing as opposed to being like, more Curious and open-minded to be like, well, I'm curious to know why you see it this way.

24:12 Like why? Why is it that you follow, you know, politics in that particular? Why is it that you follow this particular belief which to me is instead of it being judgmental and being more about? Well, if my view is different from your view then like we got nothing to talk about. As opposed to being like cool, I'll hold my view or my belief aside for a moment, not to say that. I'm going to change it but I'm curious to know about yours, right?

24:40 And it's like it's easy to reject something that you don't understand. But if you start to understand something and you still want to reject it, that's fine too but you still need to provide, at least the opportunity to learn a little bit about it, or at least understand it a little bit more in-depth and that has to come from.

24:57 I wouldn't say acceptance is the right word but just being curious. Yeah, curious. And in recognizing that people are different and they I mean, everyone grows up so differently because everyone has, I mean, being human is hard enough as it is like who knows where these beliefs stem from why they believe these things.

25:13 I mean everyone has a story. So, prejudging someone beforehand and then all of a sudden, you know, if you're open to hearing their story and why they have this belief system and all of a sudden that boom they drop this bomb on your like oh wow that makes total sense. And like I really feel For that all of a sudden. Now you have some empathy and you're like, wow that's I could see why that belief.

25:31 System is like super strong with you and I mean, I'm not using a good example. I'm just kind of talking generally, but I find that Curiosity, that openness to be able to hear and to be a listener to someone else can really bridge the gap. Create a bit of the connection make room for potential Community but also put the differences aside and maybe at the end of the conversation you still want to keep your belief and they still keep their belief and that's totally fine but you walk away at least being

25:57 somewhat closer than you were before instead of it being a complete rejection and you push them away. Absolutely. And I think to go even farther or further to go even a little bit farther than that. What, what two people can say is they can come to a table.

26:15 Being like, look, we got to figure out a way to get along because things are not good right now. And and I might not agree with you but I have to learn how to live with you and respect you because we used to be able to do that easily. And right now, it sure seems like in, you know, in Western cultures particularly in the United States. People just can't do that.

26:42 They can't get along with each other. And that's part of like the whole Miracle of the American experiment. Is you have all these people from all over the world that come together to build this incredible country. And the only reason why that country became incredible is because people were able to get along, remembers this Melting Pot of different ideas and different cultures and it created this incredible experiment that just went so well.

27:11 And now it's starting to crack and all and people are retreating into their corners and, you know, and ready to fight each other and it doesn't work. So, get in front of somebody who spent 13 years at an ashram and they will point, they will shine the light on that pretty fast.

27:33 And You'll kind of be left with this humbling experience of, oh man, we really have to release some of this Collective dukkha, right? That our country has. So it after if you're listening, like I really highly recommend.

27:53 If you lead yoga teacher trainings, you have access, you can contact me. If you have access to somebody who is Indian, who spent 10 years of their life at an ashram, bring them in. For 15-20 hours during your 2:00 or 3:00 training. So that people get that that perspective, because as much as I do feel like I understand the chakras and I understand the branches of a video and I understand the yoga sutras and I've experienced incredible moments of bliss that have been transcended.

28:32 I still didn't immerse myself to the intent with the intensity of some of these teachers were 10 13 years and and our culture needs to remember to appreciate that and not just The overnight success are the next best thing or the hot thing.

28:56 It's a it's really throwing away people that are should be treasured. Yeah. The depth of life really am? Yeah. When you're making me think, maybe we can. I don't even know. Maybe you would know better than me but getting someone like magette on and may be talking a little bit on the podcast. We should get him on get poo.

29:16 New on, that'd be cool. Have him just blow people's heads. All right so you're saying yeah yeah a lot they could drop in a Let the sewed cool while about 30 minutes or so, I think it's pretty solid, definitely. A lot to talk about with regards to this.

29:31 I mean, talking about philosophy can go in so many different ways. And I mean, I'm thinking to myself, I'd love to actually sit across the table from from someone, like the Jethro, Pugh know, and just, yeah, have them. Blow my head off and blow your heads off as well.

29:44 Those of you that are listening. So if you're keen on that, let us know. You can always send us a message but we can see if we can make that happen. But otherwise, thanks Paul for sharing. The and Shining a light on all that perspective.

29:55 Thank you. Thank you, everyone for listening, as always, if you guys have any questions or any feedback, we'd love to hear it, we always love to look for cool conversations or topics to dissect digest, whatever you want to call it, so you can reach out to us either on Instagram as usually. The best way basically in the show notes, you can find some way to doing that.

30:16 Otherwise thanks so much for listening. Is there anything else that you want to add Paul or something? We want to sign off with and No other than are going pro program is going incredibly. Well, true going to offer it again soon. So if you're interested in that, send us an email. It's our six-week mentorship program, you will get tons of information on teaching methodology, practice teaching creative sequencing, just really practical real world advice and you'll also get your 30 hours of

30:47 continuing education through yoga Alliance through this program. So message, s, if you're Interested in that. And you want to get on the wait list for the next one. Yep, cool sounds. Great. Awesome. Thank you so much Paul. And thank you everyone for listening and we'll see you next time.

31:01 Thank you, Michael.