After Immigrating From India, Subbappa Ribeiro Teaches Yoga to Spread Enlightenment 

With everything happening in our world today, it is not uncommon for many of us to be feeling heightened levels of stress, anxiety and depression; all of which can be detrimental to your health. During a global pandemic, staying healthy is more important than ever. Yoga is a great way to help reduce stress and boost your immune system. Lucky for us, Linn-Benton Community College is home to a world-class yoga instructor–Subbappa Ribeiro. 

“Coming to the United States was hard. It shocked me,” said Subbappa Ribeiro, a yoga instructor at LBCC. “Before coming here I lived an isolated spiritual life. I think even if I had gone to a big city in India I would have been shocked.”

Ribeiro is from Mysore, Karnataka in the southern part of India. He started practicing yoga in high school at age 16, and got serious about it a few years later when he met his teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar. He soon began dedicating more time to his yoga practice and moved into his teacher’s ashram where he spent 10 years of his life.

“I started out working as the head of the kitchen. I ordered the groceries and things like that,” Ribeiro explains. “Then I started assisting my teacher [Iyengar] doing things like cleaning the studio. But this was just a couple hours a day.”

“During my free time I studied, worked on my yoga practice, and attended spiritual gatherings. I was searching for truth. I was learning to control my body and mind and searching for the connection between myself and God or the supreme being. Then the opportunity came for me to teach.”

“Not everyone in India was familiar with yoga,” Ribeiro said. “At the time I began, it was only used as a form of medicine. People in the U.S. often think that yoga is part of religion, and some people use it for that, but when you remove religion, yoga is just therapy.”

The type of yoga that Ribeiro teaches is Iyengar yoga. This type of yoga was founded by his teacher, Iyengar, who was considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world until his death in 2014 at the age of 95. Iyengar yoga focuses more on detail, precision and alignment in its postures. Also, Iyengar was the first yogi to use many props such as blocks, blankets and belts, which allow beginners, the elderly or individuals with disabilities to benefit from the practice as well. 

During the time he was teaching yoga in India, Ribeiro met his wife, Michelle Ribeiro.

“She was studying abroad and she started coming to my class,” Ribeiro said. “The first year we didn’t pay much attention, but then she left. After a while, she came back to see me and we fell in love.”

“I was impressed with her servitude. Even my mother was impressed with her. She told me ‘Subbappa, if you need a wife, she should be like this girl.’”

Michelle was working on her doctorate in psychology and had to return to the U.S. For the next year, the couple kept in touch as best as they could through phone calls and letters. Then Michelle’s mother became ill with cancer and told her daughter she wanted to meet Ribeiro before she died. So, in 2000 he immigrated to the U.S.

“It was difficult because they didn’t want to give me the visa,” Ribeiro recounts. “My first application was rejected, so I told my wife I could not come. She talked to her father who then sponsored me and my second application was accepted.”

The two were married within a month of his arrival and after spending the first few years of their marriage living in Brunswick, New Jersey, Michelle was offered a teaching position at OSU. The two moved to Corvallis, along with their two children, in 2005.

Ribeiro continued to dedicate his life to the practice and teaching of yoga. He taught at several studios in New Jersey, and when he moved to Corvallis he opened his own studio, Iyengar Yoga Center of the Willamette Valley, and began teaching yoga in educational settings. He taught at the Bala-Vihar Indian Children’s School in Corvallis, created several DVDs for OSU on yoga in higher education, and in 2012 he began teaching part-time at LBCC.

He currently teaches three classes in fall, winter and spring term at LBCC: two one-hour sessions of “Yoga” at 8 and 9 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; and one 90-minute session of “Yoga Strength” at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. This year, he is also teaching an online class summer term on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 – 9:20 a.m. through LB’s Extended Learning. 

Gayle Rushing, the administrative assistant for the athletics department at LBCC, has known Ribeiro since he first started teaching at LBCC.

“He is a very friendly person and has a great sense of humor,” Rushing says. “He’s always smiling and has a very calm demeanor. As an instructor, you can tell that he is very invested and he really wants his students to succeed.”

“He is a very nice man who genuinely cares about people and he’s very passionate about yoga and his discipline,” said Linda Dompier, who has taken Ribeiro’s class every term since he started in 2012.  “I like that he’s so careful about making sure people can do the positions right and offers modifications for those who need it.”

Dompier had taken yoga with other instructors in the past but says she prefers Iyengar yoga over “flow” yoga. 

“I think this type of yoga gives you more of a chance to get in the pose and do it correctly. You work up more of a sweat with flow yoga, but this yoga works your muscles deeper and it’s great for balance and flexibility.”

“ I enjoy teaching students because I am a learner. I like learning and I like to accept challenges. Teaching students is a challenge,” Ribeiro said with a laugh. “Making students realize the benefits of yoga and making them serious is an art. It requires knowledge and skill to prove it to them.”

Ribeiro demonstrates his skills during his classes. He carefully examines his students to ensure they are doing each posture correctly. If not, he gently corrects them and offers modifications when necessary. More than once during his class, he imparted some of his knowledge to his students while they rested in pose, telling them how yoga will improve their digestion, agility and their life as a whole. 

Aside from teaching students at LBCC and his studio in Corvallis, Ribeiro dedicates a lot of time to working with individuals with terminal illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.

“The practice of yoga with degenerative diseases can bring a lot of benefits. Every day when I see serious cases it challenges me and I become more serious,” Ribeiro said. “I have taught several ALS students. The longest period was maybe 15 years, and it made me realize how numerous symptoms can be managed or prevented.” 

Ribeiro has published several papers on his work and the benefits yoga has for ALS patients. ALS Worldwide also offers several articles and podcasts on their website about the benefits of yoga for individuals with ALS. One podcast states: “Meditation, massage and yoga are beneficial forms of self-care for everyone, but for a person with ALS, they become essential and important resources.”

“Whether you have a disability or not, yoga can be very beneficial for everyone,” Ribeiro continued. “Even if you’re not sure, try it. It can help with pain, depression, restlessness and has been proven beneficial at relieving stress and anxiety, which many students suffer from.”

“Even if you have no problems you can benefit. We are all divine beings and yoga leads a person to reach the true nature of the person. When we reach that state, love, brotherhood and compassion follow.”

At a Glance:

If you’re interested in more information about Ribeiro’s yoga classes offered at LBCC, or classes at his Corvallis studio, Iyengar Yoga Center of the Willamette Valley, you can contact Ribeiro through his email ribeirs@linnbenton.edu.

Subbappa Ribeiro

Hometown: Mysore, Kanataka, India

Family: Wife, Michelle Ribeiro, two children

Occupation: Yoga Instructor

Education: Vivekandada Yoga Anusandana Kendra in Bangalore, India; and Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India. Certified by B.K.S. Iyengar at the Intermediate Junior Level 3 for Asanas & Pranayama

Hobbies: Ribeiro plays on a cricket team in his spare time. He also enjoys hiking and running.

Contact: ribeirs@linnbenton.edu.