This complimentary monthly Letter is the fruit of a talk given to a group of Anusara Yoga Teachers during a training with John Friend.  As we didn’t finish our discussion, we decided to continue it in this form.  Since then, friends, associates and other members of the yoga and business communities have joined us. Namaskar! 

Each Letter examines a business issue. Readers are invited to send in their insights and remarks, selections from which will be published in the next Letter. The Letter also explores the little-known yogic science of Artha Vidya and hosts a business “Q&A.”  

The Problem of Ignorance
Once as a boy, I was playing basketball in Wood Park when Ray Shapiro, a classmate, stepped onto the court wearing his first pair of glasses.  Being the sensitive children we were, we began calling him “Four Eyes” and other such names, even as I snuck up behind ole Ray and snatched the glasses off his face.  Then, hooting and hollering, I went sprinting across the summer park, waving his glasses in the air above me while poor Ray ran after me, shouting, “Give them back to me! Hey, give them back!”  But all I did was whoop the louder.   

And it was then that I had a fiendish idea.  As the grand finale to our teasing, I stopped in my tracks, wheeled about, and taking Ray Shapiro’s glasses, stuck them on my face.   

And suddenly… I could see! The green blur of trees at the edge of the park underwent a meticulous revision into thousands of individual saw-toothed leaves.  I could count each pore on Ray’s astonished face, and when I looked at the rocks, instead of fuzzy brown lumps, they were hard-edged shapes, spiked with mica.  And I realized then the joke was on me.  I needed glasses.  And I‘ve worn them ever since. 

I recount this tale because it illustrates well, I think, a verse from a text I try to chant most mornings that says:

This, in a nutshell, is the problem of ignorance.  Ignorance doesn’t know it’s ignorant, just as I had never suspected that my vision wasn’t 20-20.  

Our inability to know what we don’t is another reason why gurus, mothers, therapists, poets, editors, consultants, teachers, and friends can be invaluable.  Some things — like the back of our heads — we simply can’t see all by ourselves.  Robbie Burns, the Scottish poet, once observed a woman in a stylish bonnet which, unfortunately, had a louse crawling on it, and wrote: 

Because ignorance is so often hidden, one way to uncover it is to look at one’s world, from time to time, through a different lenses. And in this regard my experience has been that nothing brings my life into focus more clearly than looking at it through the eye of yoga.   

What is the viewpoint of this eye?  That we alone are responsible for our destiny.  “As one thinks, so one becomes.” 

While this sounds daunting, it also empowers, for if we don’t like our destiny, we can change it, beginning with our thoughts.  In fact, once this inner shift occurs, change for the better is all but inevitable, since the world out there is really an extension or reflection of the thoughts in our mind.  To attempt to revamp our life or business by moving a few props around may make us feel like we’re doing something but is ultimately as futile and as disappointing as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  

This Issue’s Business Q. & A.

In this issue’s Q&A we’ll look again at the studio-teacher equation.  Based on the mail I receive, this subject is the cause of much interest and concern.  Here’s a question that one person wrote me:  

Q: Say you own a studio, and you employ a teacher. One of the studio's students wants to have a private session with that teacher. Your studio usually charges $80 for a private lesson (and that's a standard rate in your area). What, if anything, do you think is an appropriate amount to charge the teacher for use of the studio (and, I guess, as a sort of finder's fee) to give the student a private lesson?  

I've heard of studio owners charging teachers $20. I've heard of owners charging 20%.  If the teacher passes this expense along to the student, this creates a situation in which it is cheaper for the student to have private lessons in his/her own home than it is for them to come to your studio. If the teacher absorbs the cost, it means that it is more advantageous for the teacher to give a private session outside of your studio. Both of these scenarios create a situation in which the student and the teacher are encouraged to extend — or even relocate — their relationship to outside of your studio. Do you think that's enough of a downside to justify charging the teacher NOTHING to teach the private session in your studio? Is it a downside at all?

Since the studio is incented to foster these match-ups, there should be an increase in the number of private students they send to their teachers that more than makes up for the 15% bump.   

There has to be oneness of endeavor, and with it, the creation of strong business systems that mutually benefit the studio and teacher.   

After writing this reply, I sent it off to several hatha yoga teachers and studio owners to see what they thought of it — or if they had anything to add.    

Betsey Downing at Garden of the Heart Yoga Center in Sarasota, Florida had arrived, apparently, at a similar conclusion. 

Betsey’s Answer
I think you hit the nail on the head with your summary paragraph — that is, that we can be more powerful, effective, and successful when we work together as one yoga center rather than as a group of separate individuals.  Steven Covey in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effectively People" discusses how much more synergy there is when we recognize and work together in our mutual inter-dependence, rather than each of us being independent.  That book helped me more than anything else when I opened my yoga center.  It helped me understand the importance of creating win-win situations.  

At Garden of the Heart Yoga Center, I used to charge $10/private lesson for the teacher to use the yoga center and props, etc. to teach a private lesson.  However, then I realized that some sessions were longer than others or were 2 people rather than one and the amount charged varied widely, so I went to a percentage (20%).  After 6 months, I decided that the percentage cut into the money that the instructors were making and so I just lowered the percentage to 15%.  Our usual private lesson fee is around $50-$75, so now instead of paying the studio $10, the teacher will pay $7.50-11.50 to use the space.  I regard the opportunity to teach more private lessons as a benefit to the instructors of working at the yoga center.   

We actually email all our teachers when the yoga center gets calls from someone wanting a private lesson to see who has the time and interest in doing a private with the person calling.  The yoga center provides this as a service to the instructors, as a way for them to augment their income from classes.  I am fairly sure all the instructors consider that we are a yoga center and not just a conglomerate of individuals.  We have teachers’ meetings every couple months and discuss what we can do to increase our student base as well as discuss syllabus ideas.  So far all the teachers who teach at other locations have chosen ones that are far enough away to not be directly competing for the same students.    

I want to encourage the instructors to use the studio space for private lessons.  I think it is more professional than going to their homes, and certainly more professional than the student going to the teacher’s home unless she/he has a yoga room.  Also the students appear to enjoy coming to the studio; sometimes it is a new student and after they do some privates they often sign up for a session.  Plus all the props are easily available. 

This is how I approach the subject of private lessons.  I want to create a thriving yoga center where teachers want to come to teach, where students want to come to class, and we all participate in creating something bigger and better than any of us could do alone.

Blessings & namaste, 
Betsey Downing, Ph.D.    

This Issue’s Business Contemplation
“Danda”: The Stick
Artha Vidya, the science of leadership, describes seven means by which a rajah or a rani rules his or her kingdom.  In a previous issue, we looked at dana or giving, and the different ways to compensate employees.  Having examined “the carrot,” let’s turn now to danda, literally, “the stick,” defined as firmness, force or punishment. 

In Indian history, two types of kings are consistently condemned: the tyrant and the weakling.  Both are found lacking because both in different ways fail in their duty to protect the people.  

Classically, a ruler’s first purpose is to impose order.  How close to the core of kingship this ordering function is can be seen in the relationship of the Proto-Indo-European root *reg- (from which our English regal, Latin rex, Sanskrit raj, German reich, etc. come) to our words like reg-ulate, di-rect and right, the latter having both a moral and a directional sense.  Thus, implicit in the concept “king” is the setting of a right moral direction, and the enforcement of those laws and regulations by which that cor-rect direction is maintained.  These rules of right conduct are known as dharma.  America’s dharma is set forth in its Constitution. 

Dharma, the sages tell us, is not to be thought of as an arbitrary set of “dos and don’ts” but as a revelation of the inner nature and natural order of things: what the Vedas call rta and the Chinese, the tao.  Thus someone or something’s dharma — what it does and how it does it — is an expression of its essence.  For example, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” expresses almost perfectly the dharma of human beings if our essence is, as yoga claims, sat-chit-ananda: existence, unlimited consciousness and bliss.   

If the ruler is unable to impose dharma, then the kingdom will be governed by matsya nyaya: which literally means the “law of the fish” or jungle — wherein big fish swallow little.  In such a kingdom, abhayadana, the protection of the people, is unknown. Gangsters of every stripe abound.  

Dana and danda, then, the “carrot” and “stick,” are a ruler’s two main means to uphold dharma, an activity which, according to this ancient vision, is at the core of all real leadership.    

That said, there is nothing more demoralizing or damaging to a business — or a country — than an adharmic leader.  Of the two types, the tyrant is sometimes easier to deal with as his excesses are plain. Avoidant leaders, whose sins are principally ones of omission; who refuse to ensure equity and discipline by picking up and at least waving the stick, can be harder to challenge, though the damage they do is just as great.  

A leader — and anyone who runs their own business or department is a leader — needs to be part cheerleader, part sheriff.  If she or he defaults on either role, the enterprise suffers. 

Three Tara Courses
Tara is currently offering three very different courses.  One is new; the other two have been re-tooled, based on what I’ve come to believe are the needs of many individuals and smaller businesses. 

The Yoga of Business, Tara’s flagship course, focuses on half-a-dozen business issues that affect and afflict every organization, no matter how big or small. Over a 7-hour day with a working lunch, we’ll demystify and explore these topics so that you understand clearly what they mean to your work, including those steps you’ll be taking next, based upon this renewed understanding. These topics are: 

Success and Leadership
“ The position of the head determines the success of the move” — as true for business, as it is in wrestling. 

Your Business Plan
… the first thing “angels” and bank officers will ask for. We’ll show you what one is exactly and how to get it out and down.   

The next Yoga of Business Course will be held on Sunday, February 19^th from 9 am to 4 pm at Yoga Mandali in Soho, Manhattan.  The cost is $250.  Please call or email to register and to reserve your place now.   Please see page 7 for the number and address. 

The Cream of the Vedas, Clarified* 

The Vedas contain the human race’s oldest recorded wisdom.   In this course we’ll explore: 

 This course was created with two audiences in mind: 

• yoga teachers who want to enhance their own and their students’ practices with a deeper, clearer understanding of the Indian yogic tradition; and
• who wants to spend a day immersed in the exalted, yet practical vision of the Vedas: their teachings, songs, revelations and practices.  

*Clarified cream is ghee, the quintessential offering made to agni, the sacred fire.  Ghee is offered up because it represents the purest essence of the earth.  

Peter Namdev Hayes 
 

Comments from our Readers
 
Hi Peter,

Please do send me the first Anusara Business Newsletter.  I sooo appreciate this latest one!   Having been a longtime Siddha yogi and an Anusara affiliated teacher with a studio (in western NY), all of this is very meaningful and timely.   I hope to make a workshop someday.   

Blessings and thanks,  

Jacki McCausland co-runs the Valley School of Dance and Shakti Yoga Center in upstate New York.  She’s also on the faculty of the Program of Movement and Dance at the University of Rochester.  
 
In our last issue, the anonymous Ray mentioned The Supreme Adventure and told us that he had "lent the book to a good friend who was serving time in a federal slammer.  Of course I never got it back, but he found it very moving.” 

Since then, Ray’s wife has written to inform us, “The person that was in jail now has a wonderful job as the traveling secretary for a major league baseball team.  I think he did return the book.  Merry Christmas to you all.” 

  
Dear Peter,

This is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!  I am SO GLAD you will be sending around this newsletter; I'm excited for you next one. I can't come to your workshop this time around. I hope you'll have another? 

Emma Magenta majored in Medical Anthropology, and has been practicing yoga since 1997. Emma is an affiliated Anusara Teacher and is starting a three-year program to become an acupuncturist. She's very excited by the prospect of incorporating principles of traditional Chinese medicine into her yoga classes. 
 
Hi Peter,
I enjoyed your last business newsletter, but most of all thank you for sharing at the end of it about the loss of your mother, Eve Hayes.  My heart was touched reading about her life, her love of music, and the love and support she gave her family.  I enjoyed reading "only God and her family knows what she achieved" because as you said, this is true of so many mothers.  I also loved that you included images of the angels squiring her to heaven because it allowed me to look at the old fashioned Irish saying I grew up with in a new and lovely light. 

Suzanne Lynch is a yoga teacher in Saratoga Springs, NY, who is also a Catholic hospital chaplain. 
 
 
Dear Namdev,

Many blessings for you at this poignant time of your mom's passing. It's a huge milestone in one's life when a parent dies, and it also creates new beginnings, so happiest new year to you and Uma and Siddhartha.

Thanks so much for your newsletters; they are a clear and beautiful articulation of how to deal with the realities and dharma, of drawing Laxsmi into our lives. It's wonderful to take the support of the teachings in this form.

Sujata and Marcel Ringawa are long-time friends, though I haven’t seen them for quite a while.  I know Sujata is teaching Anusara yoga on Cape Cod.   

Like Suzanne, Sujata and Marcel, many of you wrote me lovely, touching notes regarding my mother’s passing. There simply isn’t room to print them all.  But my thanks to each and every one of you for your caring and your blessings. 

Hi Namdev

I was in John's NYC training, and had the great opportunity to hear your lecture - I was the one from Northern Vermont being cynical about my farmers not wanting to come to yoga class. 

Anyway, your lecture and newsletter have been having a huge impact on me - especially the "value" concept.  And that night in NYC I made a phone call that ended a business relationship that has been sucking me dry for the last year.  Thanks again.

Charlotte Clews Lawther is a trained field naturalist and artist, as well as Director of the Johnson Yoga Studio in Johnson, Vermont.  She started practicing Ashtanga yoga in 1996, and has migrated since toward studying and teaching Anusara.

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