International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” 

I was never one to make a list of New Year’s resolutions—but sometimes one is just compelled to; so I would end up generating something like a list. But I would wait until January 6th or 7th, just to take some of the pressure off! In my experience, when I created resolutions that were to begin on the 1st, I had usually broken them by the 3rd—exasperating and not a little self-defeating!

Excerpts from a lecture by Yogi Bhajan on 3/23/90, Los Angeles, California

A teacher is one who guides a person to give the person an experience of his own purity, own piety, own strength, own totality, own identity, own Infinity. And that's your job. I'm just explaining to you what a teacher is. If you do not follow these few rules, you shall be nothing but preachers. You'll have huge congregations, you'll be very charming, you'll have a lot of charisma, and the end result is there will be nothing—no juice. It'll be a very short-lived attitude.

By Pritpal Kaur

This past weekend was a typical weekend for me. I was traveling to teach in a Level 1 Aquarian Teacher program. What was unusual were the circumstances of my travel. I was flying from Albuquerque to Chicago where an usual Arctic storm was bringing temperatures of 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and wind and snow to the area. After many hours of delays, I arrived in Chicago 9 hours later than expected.

By Michael Jaidev Singh

When I began my level 1 Kundalini Yoga teacher training, the phrase “Start Now” rang in my mind like a choir of church bells. I was 22 at the time and teaching full time math and science at an inner city middle school in Los Angeles. In the first few days of training I approached my teacher, Gurmukh, for a meditation to share with my students. I was nervous that my enthusiasm to share this science would be frowned upon since I was not yet ‘certified to teach.’ Yet I received the opposite reaction. Gurmukh smiled in delight and shared a simple meditation that involved clapping and opening the arms in particular rhythm. It was the perfect segue into meditation for most of my students.

“It’s very important that you should know you and it’s most important that everybody should know you as trustworthy, honorable, graceful, steadfast, serviceful, kind and compassionate. These are a few faculties of a Teacher.” —Yogi Bhajan, April 23, 1997

By Shakta Kaur

Taught by Yogi Bhajan on 4/22/97

By Guru Singh Khalsa

It is the brightest fire of the year—June 21: the longest day, the shortest night, a time spiritual communities have celebrated for thousands of years. This is the Summer Solstice, and in June of 1969 3HO began its now forty-nine-year-old tradition of gathering from all over the world for celebrating with Kundalini Yoga, meditation, and White Tantric Yoga®.

By Yogi Bhajan

1. A Teacher will never alter the teachings because of personal opinion. You will teach by example.

2. The higher you grow as a Teacher, the more humble you have to be.

3. The Teacher always serves the students, so they can become ten times stronger than you, because every student is a Teacher for tomorrow.

4. A Teacher has to be extremely kind, caring, compassionate, and forgiving.

5. As a Teacher you should always poke, provoke, confront, and elevate your students to excellence.

by Shakta Khalsa

Our heads are logical and want "proof" about everything, which means they cannot understand anything that is outside of the limits of the mind. Our hearts can understand and intuit what the head does not know, yet our emotional heart can create a ball of confusion that clouds our judgement.