Yoga and self-inquiry is an evolutionary journey. Fortunately, the path leads us to teachers that give us the tools and guidance that inspire us to deepen our practice. A teacher that embodies this guidance is Sean Feit Oaks.
Sean is a multi-faceted teacher with a deep passion for inner work in resilience, love and liberation. Whether he’s guiding meditation or raising vibrations through music, he has a way of guiding the journey inward.
We’re excited to introduce Sean as the next featured teacher. We hope his insight opens your eyes as much as it does ours!
(YGSF) Tell us about yourself! What was your first job? Any fun hobbies or personal interests?
(Sean) I got a job in the one bookstore in my small bay area suburb when I was 15 by doing the best on an alphabetizing test. And here I am 30 years later, still surrounded by books! Then, it was experimental science fiction, now it’s Buddhist and Hindu texts, existential philosophy, and critical theory. All of which I actually consider “fun”! A long evening away from the computer, looking things up in books, then melting into the floor trying to understand the theories through my body… that’s an evening well-spent.
(YGSF) How did you become interested in becoming a yoga teacher?
(Sean) I was on a Buddhist meditation retreat in India and they wanted someone to teach yoga to the meditators. No other teachers were around, so I just volunteered. Turned out to be a sweet way to hang out with people doing this delicious, embodied thing that was both inward and outward at the same time. Good people. So I stayed. As my interest and academic life turned towards philosophy, I began to read the yoga texts with students as a way to bring the richness of the ancient traditions into our postmodern practice.
(YGSF) What style(s) of yoga do you offer? Can you explain what makes this style unique?
(Sean) I was trained in what I call “San Francisco Vinyāsa” with Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Viniyoga, Bihar teachers and many others. My āsana classes emphasize slower, flowing movemenst with a one-breath vinyāsa style that I learned from my teacher Alice Joanou. I emphasize prānāyāma and continuous meditative awareness as the heart of the practice. I have practiced Buddhist meditation for 20+ years and now teach in the Insight Meditation lineage. So mindful inquiry is a very central aspect of my teaching along with working with trauma and nervous system resilience.
(YGSF) What do you feel makes a really good yoga class?
(Sean) I like it when the space, the teacher and the community feels nurturing and welcoming of everyone’s process, even through unified activity. I love the ritual of coming to class and the shared intentional space we create together. I chant and bring in aspects of the Hindu and Buddhist yoga traditions and enjoy when teachers are able to include aspects of the source traditions in ways that feel deeply studied and reverent.
(YGSF) What is your favorite yoga pose and why?
(Sean) Well, as the Yoga Garden house philosopher, maybe I’ll say svādhyāya, the “pose” of self-inquiry. I understand the yoga traditions as wisdom traditions, oriented towards the deepest questions of our lives. How we engage with identity, relationship, community, action and our role as privileged consumers on an unstable planet is the substance of yoga for me, just as much as cultivating personal health and joy. The physical shape I value most is siddhāsana. The stable, easeful meditation posture that invites a rooted stillness of body and buoyancy of heart and mind.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Sean and his passion to connect with books, meditation and self-inquiry.
