Guru Purnima 2025
On this full moon, celebrate your teachers, the teachings and you
Today is Guru Purnima, a day to recognize and honor your teachers, in whatever form they take.
Typically observed in July on the full moon (‘guru’ meaning chaser of darkness, ‘purna’ meaning fullness or perfection), Guru Purnima is an opportunity to acknowledge all of the people and experiences that have shone a light on your path and contributed to shaping the whole you, inside and out.
Celebrate everything
According to Vedic meditation teacher Thom Knoles1, Guru Purnima is:
“(…) an opportunity for us to celebrate everything — every form, every phenomenon, every person who has taught us anything, including those whose lessons may not be expressed in experiences we prefer to have.”
I love that bit about experiences we prefer not to have. Those count, too.
Because as challenging as it is in the moment, unpleasant experiences form us as much as pleasant ones do because they also have things to teach us about ourselves. Those not-so-pleasant experiences deserve our deepest gratitude. “If we learned from them,” Thom says, “we became wiser.”
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”
—Mary Catherine Bateson, cultural anthropologist
Guru Purnima is also about being a receptive student
Wisdom is passed down from teacher to teacher, teacher to student, student to student, parent to child, friend to friend. Plants communicate, animals teach each other, the world we’re a part of is an interdependent web that imparts wisdom and binds us to one another. Wisdom is all around us and available for connection and absorption if we have the willingness to learn, the desire to receive.
On Guru Purnima I thank my loved ones, my teachers, friends, my far-flung yoga kula, my Substack readers. Yes, you! Thank you! I even show gratitude to the graphic design mistake I made a month ago (learned a lot there,) and to the unpleasant experiences with my former landlady (mostly grateful she’s no longer a part of my life, but I did learn a lot about the definition of unscrupulous.)
If you were to make a list of what you’re grateful for — the good things, the not-so-good — what would make the cut? If it helped you grow, say thank you. Write that thing down, celebrate it and then offer it up to the universe with a triumphant “Swaha!”
Have a great summer, tout le monde.
Summer Hours
→ Low-cost yoga in the jardin des Tuileries this weekend
→ 10 classes for 160€, a July and August deal at one of the prettiest yoga studios in Paris
→ This summer, do yoga with a water view
→ Affordable drop-in yoga classes in August
→ Don’t forget to check the Programmation Été 2025 on paris.fr for free yoga and fitness classes in every Paris arrondissement
A deep pranam to Tanya Dyhin for her teaching and more practically, for the quote from Thom Knoles.