What are we trying to do here?

Thanks to everyone who came to the class yesterday and participated in the filming. It seemed like having a camera in the room upped the intensity of the whole experience a notch. As if it wasn't intense enough already!Quintin (the producer/cameraman) asked us a few questions after the class so that he could capture our thoughts and feelings about ashtanga yoga on camera. One simple question really got me thinking."What are you trying to do here at the shala?"I don't think I've ever had to explain exactly what it is we do, and why; our "mission statement", I suppose you could call it. Of course I have an underlying sense of what we are trying to create at the shala but to put it into words has never been necessary before. On reflection, this is what I think. It's pretty simple:Our intention is to hold a space where we can facilitate yoga practice and therefore create an environment in which people can come and have an experience of stillness.That is all. We see ourselves as facilitators of practice rather than teachers. The practice itself is the teacher.If we can succeed in the above mission then we will have created something very rare and truly beautiful.