Wealth of Experience
Yoga Awakening Africa (Issue 1, Summer 2008)

Jackie Sineck and Pat Deacon are senior yoga teachers in the Boland area who were already teaching yoga when many current teachers weren't even born yet!

Jackie and Pat trained in the Iyengar method and, like other Iyengar teachers, received important training from the legendary BKS Iyengar himself at his centre in Pune, India.

Jackie started teaching in Somerset West in 1994 but originally started classes in 1970, in Johannesburg. She recalls an important realisation with the teaching of her first class: "After receiving intensive training and workshops, when you commence teaching the Iyengar system, there is the realisation that you are only on the bottom rung of the ladder. Or, as BKS Iyengar would phrase it:’…an eternal student with the on-going excitement of challenge and growth'.”

Pat remembers attending her first class: "I didn’t know what to expect, and it was in a sports shop in Welkom of all places, in 1965.” As a result of regular home location changes due to her husband Dave's career which took him to many places, Pat spent a lot of time teaching beginners.

"With us settling in Paarl after his retirement, I now have pupils who have been with me for more than 10 years. This allows me to teach at a higher level while still having the pleasure of introducing new students to Iyengar yoga, and seeing many of them grow to enjoy it. After finding Iyengar yoga in 1970, I have always practiced the pure form of Iyengar yoga.”

Jackie also loves teaching the pure Iyengar system which requires accuracy and discipline, while "…if one understands the system, a gentleness and inner awareness is always present".

Part and parcel of the Iyengar system is that its teachers are disciplined to update their training on a regular basis. The Iyengar system involves ongoing training, working together weekly as a teachers’ group, and attending regular workshops with local and overseas senior teachers.

Jackie, who commenced her Iyengar teacher training in 1979 with Iyengar himself at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, feels it is essential to constantly upgrade certification by passing regular, internationally recognised examinations. She has been attending as many events as she can over the last 23 years, including the first International Iyengar Convention in San Francisco in 1984.

Contact with Iyengar has imbued a wonderful trinket of pearls-of-wisdom-advice which Jackie recalls with appreciation:

“If you have 10 students, teach them. If you have five students, teach them. If you have no students, go home and do your own practice.”

Apart from the annual get-together in Pune, Pat still attends classes with visiting international Iyengar teachers, arranged by the BKS Iyengar Yoga Institute of Southern Africa, as well as weekly teachers’ class in Cape Town and regular weekend workshops.

Pat fondly recalls an early the end of her first two week course with Iyengar in Swaziland. "It was 1973, and I went up to him with some trepidation to say farewell. He looked at me with his piercing blue eyes and said 'I will see you in India.' I spluttered a bit and said 'I don’t think so; I could barely afford the trip from Johannesburg to attend this course.’ He just smiled but on my first visit to Poona (as it was called then) in 1975, the first words he said when he saw me were 'I told you I would see you in India!' A man of vision?"

Jackie also recollects a unique moment during a training course. "I was so very interested in Iyengar’s amazing medical classes for injured and disabled people at the Institute. One day I plucked up the courage to ask him if I could observe his classes, as normally no one was permitted to do so. For a brief moment he looked at me intently, then said: 'Observe from outside, on the verandah, and don’t let anyone see you'. For me, to have the opportunity to observe his skill in working with these people was the highlight of that particular course in Pune."

The degree to which yoga was a foreign concept to most South Africans as recently as 10 years ago may escape new teachers enjoying the current acceptance and popularity of yoga. Says Jackie: "Being accustomed to full classes in the Transvaal before coming to Somerset West, I had to make myself known in this new environment. I put an advert in a newsletter, announcing a talk on and demonstration of my forthcoming Iyengar yoga classes in our community. Over 80 people came to hear and observe, yet only six students came to my first class."

The early days of teaching in the conservative small towns of South Africa was often frowned upon by the churches of the day. Pat encountered some opposition from the community: "In the earlier teaching days in the late 70s and early 80s in the smaller communities where we lived, there was some opposition. Now there is more open-mindedness, although there are still some small pockets of misunderstanding".

Pat remembers, with humour, how she was once condemned as an agent of the devil by a pupil in Lime Acres in the Northern Cape. "The pupil didn’t attend further classes, though another pupil remonstrated with the local dominee for putting such thoughts into the student’s mind without attending a class himself – and he didn’t take up the offer to experience one of my classes!"

Those who are passionate about teaching, whether it is yoga or any other discipline or system, are often driven to do so by a strong desire to share. Jackie feels that teaching Iyengar yoga was definitely a calling – she intended to study medicine, but could not afford to do so. "On discovering the in-depth knowledge and understanding of the human body required by the Iyengar system, I chose it with confidence. Looking back over the years, I have been very grateful for the consistency of the system, especially during trying times."

"Most important, though, is the ability to adapt the method of teaching to pupils with different abilities and different needs, a skill that evolves through many years of practical experience", she says. "I personally do my daily practice without fail and have encouraged my pupils to do likewise. It is not sufficient to attend classes only. With the help of consistent practice, one discovers that yoga leads to a more meaningful life. Like breathing, I cannot survive without it. Yoga has enriched my life beyond words."

Pat found yoga a tremendous benefit in overcoming her personal physical problems through the years. "It is an integral part of my personal life, both in yoga teaching and self-practice as well as working with our institute. It has kept me mobile and healthy, as well as continually stretching my mental abilities."

"I had a problem back and pelvis which saw me return from Pune in 2003 in a wheelchair. The journey back to physical fitness was humbling and taught me the art of patience, although my husband may disagree with that! There has been great satisfaction in teaching my pupils and seeing many of them gaining physically as well as finding relief from the increasing stress of daily life."

Jackie's says her special memories over many years of teaching are most definitely of the wonderful pupils that came into her life. She is delighted that 12 ex-pupils of hers are currently teaching all over the world. "I shall never forget them and will continue to be inspired by the fact that they too chose the same meaningful journey in life".

Pat agrees: "The joy of seeing some of my pupils becoming Iyengar teachers in their own right and beginning to pass on the teachings of BKS Iyengar to a growing community of Iyengar students for their benefit is immense".

Jackie treasures a message on the fly-leaf of her copy of the famous Light on Pranayama by BKS Iyengar. It reads: ‘Love, labour and laugh in failures’, signed by him, December 1983.

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