Die O Yogi Die

Zahir Akram
3 days ago
2 min read

A question I get asked a lot (and no, it isn’t “what does Laura see in you?”) comes from yoga teachers asking me what they should be learning next.

And when I hear that, I often find myself getting a bit philosophical.

A student once asked his Zen master:

“How can I find my nirvana?”

The master replied:

“Lose your head.”

The student spent a lifetime trying to solve this mysterious riddle. But the master wasn’t being mysterious at all. What he meant was: let go. Drop everything you think you know.

I say the same thing to yoga teachers (well, to the ones who listen to me 😏). Once you become a yoga teacher, you don’t actually have as much to learn as you think. What you really have is so much to unlearn.

Unlearn the clichés, the phrases, the recycled teaching cues, and the dogma passed down from - generally speaking - subservient yogis and teachers.

The moment we cling to certainty, we stop seeing clearly. The moment we learn to unlearn, we open the door to real understanding and wisdom.

I remember reading about the Buddha who, upon experiencing enlightenment, said he didn’t learn anything new from being “awake.” All he had done was drop what he had once clung to.

That’s the real lesson. Further education as a yoga teacher is a must, but it’s less about adding more and more knowledge and more about going in with an open mind, ready to unlearn what you’ve been clinging to all this time.

The great yogi Gorakhnath used to say, “Die, O yogi, die.”

Meaning: die as you are, and be reborn with an open mind.

Lose your head. Or you’ll become lost in your own head 🫥

So maybe the question isn’t: What do I need to learn next?

Maybe it’s: What am I ready to unlearn today? 🧐

We can start with “hands to heart centre.” Because your heart isn’t actually in the centre, fam 🥴

Namaskar

Zahir

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