My entire life I have always been the dude, everyone would come to for advice or for a deep discussion on issues. Not sure why or maybe because I have always been a good listener.
I would say most westerners who take Hot Yoga or any other Yoga may have this vision of a yogi from India seating in the middle of the room telling us what to do and enlightening us. I actually experience this with a friend I brought to a Hot Yoga class for the first time. He actually mentioned to me a few days later his concern of the authenticity of the class since it was being taught by a lovely young lady. For me personally I really didn’t care who was teaching the class as long as the instructor didn’t fry us for duration of the class, or held the Triangle posture longer than usual. However, his concern actually stayed with me for a while, I wanted to ride this wave, to see where it would lead me.
The only thing that came to mind was that we are our own guru’s and our practice of yoga is just a reflection of what we are seeking to achieve. If you are taking yoga to heal an injury it can be achieved, if you are healing from emotional trauma yoga can help, if you are looking for a gym alternative yoga can serve as an outlet, or if you looking to just say you do yoga you can mark this one off your list.
So can you become enlighten doing hot yoga? I don’t really have an answer it is really up to you on what you are looking for; hot yoga may lead you to other practices that can help. But at the end of the day you are your own guru do not seek out for answers, seek from within.
A guru is consciousness and not a person, this should not be understood. Yogi Bhanjan
Peace
Dion