13.1 Ethical Commitment and Code of Conduct

Why credential holders still have to study the Code

Yoga Alliance's Ethical Commitment page states that the Commitment consists of three parts: a Code of Conduct, a Scope of Practice, and a responsibility to Equity in Yoga. Members who register as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) or who own a Registered Yoga School (RYS) sign onto that set. Yoga Alliance presents it as shared responsibility and accountability so practitioners and the public can trust members to teach in inclusive environments. It is not a government occupational license, and it is not a national board exam with a published passing score.

This independent OpenExamPrep section covers those Code topics for school written tests, oral ethics checks, and teaching journals. It is not a Yoga Alliance national multiple-choice exam—Yoga Alliance does not administer one—and it is not the separate ISSA Yoga 200-Hour product some catalogs list as issa-yoga-ryt200. Your RYS still chooses the role-plays and the local studio policies you also have to follow. Learn the school's method. Also learn the published eight principles and the MUST versus SHOULD verbs.

The Code of Conduct page carries the date Last Updated: February 27, 2020. The Scope of Practice page uses the same date. The Anti-Harassment Policy is also dated February 27, 2020. The Sexual Misconduct Policy is marked Last Modified: February 2020. School exams reuse those years because the elevated RYS 200 common core and the Ethical Commitment were published together. Do not invent a later rewrite of the eight principles unless Yoga Alliance has published one; as of this study date, the Code page still shows 27 February 2020.

Three parts of the Ethical Commitment

Yoga Alliance's Ethical Commitment page also points members to policies, to safety and accountability, and to a path to file a claim. Section 13.3 covers how claims are handled. This section stays with the Code: what you must do, what you should do, and what you must not do.

Purpose, public aims, and the yama preamble

Yoga Alliance says the Code applies to every Member. The Code is part of the overall Ethical Commitment, together with the SOP and other policies. The stated purpose is to foster safe and respectful guidelines for the profession of teaching yoga and to assure that members maintain a high level of teaching ability and accountability.

Yoga Alliance lists four aims that sit behind that purpose:

• Broaden public understanding of the role of the RYT.
• Ensure and uphold professional behavior within the Yoga Alliance community.
• Develop and encourage high standards of professional conduct.
• Promote and protect the interests of the profession of yoga teaching and of the members Yoga Alliance serves.

The preamble centers the yamas from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras toward internal self-reflection and external conscious action. Yoga Alliance's footnote names ahimsa (non-harming), satya (truthfulness), asteya (not-stealing), brahmacharya (self-restraint/continence), and aparigraha (simplicity/non-attachment). Philosophy already required you to use those five in teaching scenarios. Ethics requires you to notice when a Code principle is the contemporary professional form of a yama—without pretending the yama list replaces the eight numbered conducts.

Eight Code principles: names, verbs, and classroom tests

Learn the eight in this order. School tests ask for the list, then for a scenario that turns on a MUST versus a SHOULD.

Principle 1 is not a spiritual exemption. If a local occupancy, music-license, or safeguarding rule applies in your city, the Code does not let you ignore it because the class is "sacred." If law and a studio custom collide, law is not optional.

Principle 2 is the bridge into section 13.2. You cannot pick the Code and skip the SOP, or pick asana skills and skip both.

Principles 3 and 4 are separate documents, not slogans. The Anti-Harassment Policy prohibits harassment based on age, gender, gender identity, pronoun use, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, body type, personal appearance, physical or mental ability, socioeconomic status, marital status, political activities or affiliation, or any other basis law names. It also names online trolling, stalking, hate speech, threats, intimidation, false grievances, and retaliation. The Sexual Misconduct Policy names unwelcome sexual conduct, including non-consensual touching and verbal sexual content that creates a hostile environment, and it names retaliation such as withholding a certificate. Yoga Alliance is explicit that it does not have the same authority as law enforcement; members still have to follow the policy.

Principle 5 is the item trainees flatten into "don't be mean." The Code's own safety clause is sharper. Members must take reasonable steps to do no harm through action or inaction. For teaching, members may not teach yoga while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, except drugs prescribed to that member for medical purposes by a licensed medical or mental health professional. Yoga Alliance states that this teaching prohibition is irrespective of jurisdictional legality and applies within certain yogic practices, lineages, styles, and methodologies. A city that legalized cannabis does not authorize you to teach a public class intoxicated. A lineage story about ritual plants does not rewrite the member teaching rule. Prescribed medication taken as directed is the named exception—not "I feel fine after a drink."

Principle 6 requires more than "we don't kick people out." Members MUST NOT discriminate on the bases listed above (the Code's list includes gender identity, body type, socioeconomic status, and political affiliation, not only race). Members SHOULD go beyond the legal floor: actively include, accommodate, and welcome people typically excluded; understand and facilitate reasonable accommodations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for U.S.-based members; and consider whether the physical location is safe and accessible. Silence plus a narrow staircase is not inclusion.

Principle 7 is where school exams love the verb. Consent-based touch: before physically adjusting, the member MUST obtain Explicit and Informed Consent. That consent can be verbal, written, an unambiguous gesture, or a consent indicator. Silence or lack of resistance is not consent. Previous consent does not imply future permission. Teacher-specific permission is defined in the SOP in the next section. Romantic and/or sexual relationships: the member SHOULD NOT enter a new romantic or sexual relationship with a Student or Trainee during an RYS, other school, conference, workshop, retreat, class, or similar event at which the member is perceived to be the Teacher. If feelings develop, or if the parties mutually agree to move forward during those events, the member SHOULD suggest that the Student or Trainee find an alternate Teacher. Tests that say "MUST NEVER, in any decade after class, speak to a graduate" are inventing a stricter rule than the Code's SHOULD NOT during the teaching event. Tests that say "secret dating during the 200-hour is fine" are inventing a looser rule. Work status: hiring must follow applicable law; non-monetary work exchanges MUST be in writing. Consent to record: do not photograph, video, or capture likeness without express consent of the people included.

Principle 8 is satya with a credential attached:

• MUST NOT falsely represent professional yoga history, including education, training, experience, and credentials. "RYT 500" on a bio after a 200-hour certificate is a Code problem, not a branding flourish.
• MUST NOT plagiarize copyrighted material. MUST accurately disclose the source of teaching, writing, or resources that are not your own. SHOULD acknowledge teachers or mentors when sharing a teaching related to that relationship.
• MUST NOT make unsupported or exaggerated claims regarding the effects of yoga (curing disease, replacing psychotherapy, guaranteed enlightenment in eight weekends).
• MUST NOT provide advice or services in locations where you are not currently and properly licensed. SHOULD create referral lists: medical and mental health professionals, law enforcement, suicide prevention, sexual abuse hotlines, and Yoga Alliance.
• Cultural responsibility: members SHOULD educate themselves about yoga's history and genesis, inform students of the origin of the lineage, style, or methodology being taught, and seek to adapt teachings for students of various cultural backgrounds while understanding appropriation and commodification and their effects on Indian and other cultures.
• Individual responsibility: members SHOULD set up peer mentoring, support, advice, and self-reflection around teaching issues they find challenging—not only consume Yoga Alliance resources.

Teaching scenarios a school exam will actually use

• You are offered a cash sub after two glasses of wine. Principle 5 is the stop. Legality of the wine is irrelevant to the teaching prohibition.
• A trainee posts that the 200-hour "is a medical yoga therapy license." Principle 8 (unsupported claims; false credentials) and Principle 2 (SOP) both fire.
• You copy another trainer's manual into your own PDF with your logo. Principle 8 plagiarism. Asteya is the yama underneath; the Code is the member rule.
• A student goes quiet when you reach for their hips. You interpret quiet as permission. Principle 7: silence is not consent.
• Your studio staircase excludes wheelchair users and you shrug because "yoga is on the floor anyway." Principle 6 asks for reasonable accommodations and a serious look at the physical location, not a shrug.

Assessment traps: collapsing the Ethical Commitment into "the Code" and forgetting SOP and Equity; treating SHOULD NOT on new student-teacher romance as either a lifetime MUST ban or as optional dating advice during the training; claiming Yoga Alliance police powers, or claiming the Code replaces criminal law; inventing a national Yoga Alliance ethics exam with a published passing score.

Official pages for this section: yogaalliance.org/ethical-commitment and yogaalliance.org/policies-priorities-progress/code-of-conduct (last updated February 27, 2020).