Fanning the spark

I'm a regular listener  to the Rich Roll podcast. It's a very popular podcast and I'm sure some of you will have heard of it. For those of you who haven't, Rich Roll is an endurance triathlete who has a background in competing at ultra-ironman distance triathlons. "Ultraman" is a three-day race consisting of (day 1): a 10km swim followed by a 145km bike ride, (day 2): a 276km bike ride, and (day 3): an 84km double marathon! And I thought primary series was hard...I think his podcast is great; long-form interviews with some of the world's most interesting and inspirational figures in sport, health, diet, politics, business and more.I was listening to a panel discussion the other day between Rich Roll and Marco Borges in which they were talking about veganism (Rich Roll also happens to be a vegan and an advocate for following a plant-based diet). It's a point that I have heard Rich make on a good few occasions on the podcast and I wanted to share it with you and how it relates to ashtanga yoga.The point is that, within the vegan movement, there are many people who take a very hard line on what other people should and shouldn't be doing. For example if a celebrity says they are going to follow a vegan diet for 30 days they get abuse online for only doing it for 30 days. If someone starts to follow a plant-based diet but doesn't immediately throw out all of their leather shoes they get called a disgrace. The list goes on.The point the two speakers were making is that, rather than pointing fingers and judging each other, what the vegan movement needs to do in order to grow is to 'fan the spark' of anyone who comes to it with any sort of interest.I feel like this is very closely related to ashtanga yoga. I have seen so many teachers and students of this method judging other people based on the various criteria of what they personally consider to be 'correct method' (how often they practice, how they practise, even how far along in the series they are... seriously!).I would like to propose to the wider ashtanga yoga teaching community that we need to make more effort to 'fan the spark' of practitioners who are coming to ashtanga yoga and Mysore-style regardless of their background, who their last teacher was, what they practised before (anti-Bikram snobs I'm looking at you), and even their level of apparent commitment.Not everyone is going to walk into a Mysore-style class, love it, and then commit to practising every day for the rest of their lives. We need to meet people where they are at and not judge them for trying and failing to establish their practice in a way that we deem valuable. The beauty of ashtanga yoga is that it is a useful tool for many of the afflictions that humans are susceptible to. It is useful to practise regularly and it is less useful to practise sporadically but, even sporadic practice, if done in the right way, has huge benefits on many levels.If we fan the spark, rather than pouring cold water on it, the potential for practitioners to develop a practice over a number of years is hugely increased. Then we might see the practice spreading even wider and, who knows, even becoming a mainstream thing. If that happens we all know that the world will be a happier, healthier place.