Why Transmit?

Transmission is part of every human culture; it is almost written into our nature. But where does the desire, the need to transmit come from? What is the meaning, the vision hidden behind this gesture?

Children learn thanks to adults and the people around them: we imitate, we transmit knowledge, a culture, but also a great many invisible things, and we learn through imitation. There is first the transmission of knowledge itself, of information, of know-how, of skills. But there is also a whole invisible part of transmission, which happens through imitating others, through internalizing that knowledge, and which shows us things the brain does not always immediately understand, subtleties that come from our mind, from our being. This is how genuine expertise is passed on, through doing, showing, sharing things, cultures, know-how, essential to a culture's development, flourishing, and continued growth.

Why transmit, then, and why want to be a trainer? Because certain knowledge is useful, useful to others, for living in a healthy way, with an understanding that is not always widely accessible in society. There is also the idea of what is called the duty of gratitude: we ourselves have received, and in turn we want to give back. We have had the good fortune of receiving, and out of gratitude, we want to give in return, to help others live, grow, and succeed.

Within programs on yoga, Ayurveda, and sustainable development, the aim is to transmit what can help people face crises, build projects, work collectively to move forward in life, and to confront, tomorrow, the challenges the world already faces, and will face over the next fifty or hundred years, and beyond, both individually and collectively.

Transmitting also means helping each person live their potential, reveal it. We sometimes speak of maieutics: seeing the best in the person we are talking with, in our student, and creating the conditions for that potential to emerge and flourish. The potential we thus seek to help grow in the other is already there: we create nothing out of nothing, we only help an already living seed find the light it needs. Perhaps this is, at bottom, what transmitting is: continuing to ask oneself why one does it, rather than believing one knows the answer once and for all.