It is with both relief and a tinge of pity for some of the very sincere students I’ve had the privilege of teaching, that I have finally resigned from my classes at the corporate fake yoga and fitness center which for the purposes of this article shall be referred to with poetic justice as Pimp Yoga (abbreviated PY), due to disgust and outrage at the unethical & immoral habit of the mercantile management to repeatedly renege on our agreement and terms.
It is no surprise that the Chinese say “無奸不成商”, “those who do not betray can never succeed in business”. The management has broken every promise they have made and reneged on every condition and term of employment, betraying their complete lack of respect for their teacher’s rights, complete lack of respect for the student’s intelligence to recognize and enjoy quality, real yoga practice, and lack of respect for themselves in showing the management has no honor and no conscience.
One would think only at Pimp Yoga is this a problem, but after speaking to other teachers, as well as my own experience in teaching yoga well over a decade on 3 different continents, I can say with dismay and with certainty, that is the nature of corporate business – emphasis added.
Yoga in essence is a spiritual path, not a materialistic path, what matters is health, harmony, happiness, not money money money, but when unscrupulous merchants prostitute the tradition of yoga that spans literally tens of thousands of years – many yogis, archeologists & researchers say millions of years – then a system of cheaters and the cheated is created in which the quality of yoga does not exist, and everybody loses, both the teachers, and the students, everybody that is except the cheaters and pimps.
Ever wonder why yoga is practiced everywhere but it’s so difficult to find a qualified “real” yogi? How many of today’s “yogis” actually practice ahimsa and satyam, in actions rather than merely words? Better yet, how many of today’s so called “yogis” actually practice yoga? And no, demonstrating occasionally in a classroom does not count, and does not equate to real, personal, daily practice.
Oh real yogis are around, they just don’t work in the yoga-brothels of corporate pimping, which outsources young, unqualified and inexperienced teachers from poor countries, then holds them in absolute bondage & slavery in a country where they don’t speak the language, have no health benefits, no dental, no health insurance, no year end bonus, no pension, housed in barracks not in the teacher’s name and locked into one sided contracts creating a system of absolute, tyrannical control in which teachers have no rights and are acutely aware that the moment they try to voice an opinion and stand by their rights they not only face having their classes cut initially but eventually being fired and kicked out of their apartment all in the same day, only to find themselves stuck in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language, have few friends if any and certainly no savings or hope of finding other employment, in a word, slavery, and these “fitness” centers if you can call them that, are filled not with experienced, qualified real teachers who spend time mentoring and grooming their students, but rather young bodies, any-BODY, and what is pimped and glamorized as “yoga” and “fitness” is nothing more than youthful bodies in their 20’s, and sometimes even younger. You won’t find a qualified, experienced teacher in a pimp center, unless he’s either gay, or irresponsible and clueless career wise.
Real teachers go off and start their own small, privately run, REAL yoga schools. Hong Kong being a very materialistic place, one of the only places in the world you can walk down a single street and literally find a dozen banks, and for the most part being utterly obsessed with money only, unfortunately creates many such large, corporate fake-fitness-centers of pimp-yoga and youth-prostitution disguised as “health” and “fitness”. No, I’m sorry, that is NOT fitness, and I am not deceived. Everybody is healthy when they are under 25 years of age. When you can be in your mid and late years and still look fresh, fit, and strong, then you really got something.
In order to give some explanation to the many concerned and sincere students, friends, and fellow yoga practitioners and teachers, the following is a more specific list of broken promises by PY (Pimp Yoga):
Initial agreement of a monthly salary of X, with a minimum of 75 hours of classes/month and an hourly rate of Y which based on my over 20 years of yoga practice and 15+ years of professional experience was agreed at 66% higher than the average teacher at PY.
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