A Pledge For The Yoga Community
This pledge calls on yoga teachers and leaders of spiritual communities to create safe and welcoming environments in which all practitioners can investigate their unique life circumstances with care and support.
Yoga teachers and spiritual leaders are coming together to proclaim—without any reservation or hesitation—that we do not tolerate sexual abuse, sexual harassment, psychological manipulation, or the deliberate misuse of power.Those who stand behind this pledge offer their support to any victims of abuse and join a community of people striving to embody the ethical foundations of yoga. In accordance with satya, the virtue of truthfulness, we pledge to promote the following:
Safety for everyone in a spiritual community. Yoga teachers must create and uphold healthy, secure boundaries that prioritize practitioners’ well-being
Sexual harassment policies must be established and strictly upheld at all times.
Yoga studios, yoga schools, and spiritual communities must consider and investigate any and all complaints of sexual harassment and teacher misconduct as serious violations of trust, security, yoga tenets/ethics, and local laws.
Sexual harassment must be openly discussed and integrated into spiritual communities in conscious, thoughtful ways intended to educate and empower individuals and groups.
Sexual harassment training is critical and must be incorporated into yoga teacher training curricula.
Liberation begins with cultivating awareness. We can only move forward when issues of sexual harassment and abuse are allowed to be heard. We should strive to create environments that are grounded in deep trust. Teachers should empower students to incorporate sound judgment and clear communication as essential components of their practice. When victims of abuse and mistreatment speak up, they need to know that they will be heard and action will be taken.
To join us and offer your support to this collective effort, share this pledge with your community. Doing so will continue to inspire a shift toward togetherness, truth, and freedom.
Show solidarity. Take action.
Download the community pledge. Print it and post it in your studio or center.
Download an image to share on FB/Instagram. #From DarknessToLight
Join the community and engage in critical dialogue on the ‘From Darkness to Light’ Facebook Page.
About the title of this initiative:
The title is inspired by the well-known verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanashad:
"Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. Om. Peace, peace, peace."
This pledge was written by a grassroots group of anonymous yogis inspired to take action after the most recent scandals in the yoga community. The Facebook page From Darkness to Light was created to allow people share this pledge, but now acts as an information site as well as place for discussion for what is going on in our community -- most recently the settling of the Jivamukti sexual abuse scandal.
