What is a Yoga Master? by Fred Busch

Yoga Masters are few are far between these days.  Many claim to be Yogis and some even where robes and malas around their neck and chant all day and all night, but Lance Benson is a real Yoga Master.

Many people confuse those that are good at gymnastics with mastery of Yoga. This confusion leads to a false emphasis on accomplishing physical goals as the marker of advancement.

While gaining strength and fitness with Yoga is a great intention,  the fact is that mastery of Yoga involves several factors and physical markers are ultimately the least important.

Lance was born without his legs and came to Miami Yoga studio one day with the desire to bring yoga into his life already  successful life.  From the first conversation and look in his eyes i could see i was dealing with an enlightened being who sees through the lenses of positiveness and gratitude.   I also knew that to whatever degree Lance thought of me as his teacher i would be thinking of him as my teacher even more.

As we got to work with the sequencing over time Lance discovered that he could adapt even more of the yoga postures to his specific situation and do also challenging postures like Hand Stand even more often!  Lance practices the Hot Vinyasa with a deep inward attention (pratyahara) and one pointed attention to his breath…and to his gratitude.

For me, Yoga Masters are those with a strong daily practice (sadhana) and  who exude high states of consciousness and surrender and channel that into positive force for change and who make the world a better place simply because they are in it… and Lance Benson is all of the above.  Lance decided to produce a video called Yoga for War Veterans to inspire others in a similar physical environment as he is due to injuries sustained in military service.

Lance and i both hope that everybody tries yoga because as Lance Benson says, “there can be a multitude of benefits from adapting your situation to a practice!”

Whenever Lance has time from his busy schedule he practices at Fred Busch’s Miami Yoga in Brickell at 6:30am weekdays! One day soon hopefully we will convince Lance to do Fred Busch’s Yoga Teacher Training