the Autistic Yogi Reflects on Credit & Citation

Sometimes when ideas are shared it is easy to assume that the subject or object of your sharing was sourced from you yourself. But not knowing the experience and insights that another has from past experience cannot be known.  

This can especially be an issue in group learning and when writing about group learning. I was struck with this when a fellow yogi commented on a post about the finances in yoga that I had done. They encouraged me to put credit on there from the teachers that had taught us at a training because the subject had come up and we had a thorough discussion about finances in the training. But for me the information was not knew, having trained in 9 different yoga teacher trainings the issue of wages and such had come up at every one of them, so there were no new concepts offered to me at this training, save some different ways to word/explain some of the areas.

This made me wonder how often I too had been caught in the trap of assuming that someone else knowledge started with me or some teaching that I am close to.

The whole capacity to give credit where credit is due can be arduous and taxing, especially if your the type of person who does not journal often or learned methods of citation.

And some topics are far easier to cite the source than other topics. I can recall often in techniques of asana whom actually taught me that, but I know very little about the sources they acquired their information from.

I do believe citation and credit to be rather important, especially seeing that many dubious ideas have infiltrated the world of yoga, and many say that 'the Rishis and Sadus of old taught this and that', yet they have no source references about where that practice or thought process comes from. I have definitely learned that a good portion of communication is spontaneous and filled with assumption. Not because we want to spread false information or misattributed information but because we are passionate and love sharing.