Consent isn't a personality trait. I'm not a person who “likes assists” and therefore permanently belongs in the YES category. Consent is specific and contextual, and no one should expect to agree in advance to being touched, without knowing the context and the specifics.

There’s a moment many yoga teachers will recognise. A student approaches before class and mentions their lower back. Perhaps it’s been troublesome for years; perhaps it’s having a particularly opinionated week. They want to practise, but they’re unsure how much to do. “Take it slowly and gently,” we say.

If I teach a series of movements involving lunges, twists, balances and stretches, those movements don't become yoga because I give some of them Sanskrit names and finish the class with everyone lying in Savasana. Without a philosophical and ethical framework, we may have created an intelligent, enjoyable and beneficial movement practice. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But is it yoga?I don't think it necessarily is.

Since words have a power that surpasses all thought, from words alone come direct realisation. Just as one who is asleep is woken by sound, so one in ignorance is enlightened only by words. sabdasakteracintyatvâcchabdãdevaparoksadhih I prasuptah puruso yadvacchabdenaivavabuddhyate – Sadācārānusandhānam (Advaita Vedanta 19) Over a thousand years ago, Advaita Vedānta recognised something modern movement science is rediscovering: language does not merely describe experience,