The essence of practice will inevitably call you in deeper [but we need resources to help us keep meeting what arrives]. The ultimate aim/path of yoga is to discover/reveal a deep connection with the innermost Self / a deep connection with the inherent peace, wisdom and compassion residing at of our innermost Self. Yoga itself is a bridge inwards. When we are grounded in this awareness ….These realizations have great practicality in our everyday life, and expand to knowing our relationship to all beings, and to be more at peace with the way of things. The beautiful quirky paradox of yoga that when we can learn to be present to the moment just as it is - in all of its messiness - we find peace. We’ll explore how the fundamental principles of asana can guide us on that path, including how to understand the mind, body and Self through a yogic lens. Let’s invite the poses/postural practice home to their/its yogic womb of spiritual and philosophical context. For all yoga practitioners and teachers curious about the yogic path, wondering how the postural practice of yoga functions within a spiritual context, and wanting to take a step further - here’s the course for you! It’s actually the course I wish I had been able to take many years ago, and it’s a response to the strong draw many people are feeling towards meaning, insight, depth, and connection. As Ram Dass said, “the most important work you can do is in the privacy of your own heart,” and any of us who love postural yoga feel know the great opportunity/potential that time on our mat presents. To spend some time with ourselves (Beana).
to feel who we are, what we are, and what we are a part of. // to know what is happening inside of you and outside of you (equally important)// power is being able to orient ourselves towards what we would like to become or how we would like to behave and act in the world - skillfulness of being intentional about where we place our attention, how we orient our mind, and then what do we do with that focused attention.
We will consider modern postural yoga as a method of mind training, towards a focused mind that allows us to glimpse our true nature (peace etc).
I’m sharing the concepts that I use in my postural practice and teaching. connecting poses to …..the rich earth of yoga’s spiritual and philosophical context. I am not inclined to frame this as “yoga off the mat",” because it is important to understand that throughout history yoga has always been off the mat (it’s only in very recent modern Western culture that we decontextualized the poses). Drawing heavily from the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya, I want to help you plug your postural practice back into its mothership in meaningful/accessible ways.
Discover your loving essence, find steadiness under any circumstance, and learn to offer the good out into the world. The power of yoga.
If you like, skip down to the course outline below.
I have practiced postural yoga for over 20 years, of various traditions and styles, studied yoga through an academic lens, and through India. Most importantly (to me) I work to integrate the teachings dear to my heart. So I’ve learned some things that I’d love to share with sincere souls on their own paths.
There was a time that I came to understand the postural practice was not the whole story, and I was determined to do some deep inner work and reverse engineering to plug my physical practice back into its womb of Yoga. There were studio classes where the ability to learn yogic wisdom is severely limited, and there were courses and books that were too specific or just felt over my head. So I started looking anywhere I could to untangle some answers - in books, academic coursework, India, and to my own teachers. I hope my time and devotion to the path can offer others some clues / breadcrumbs.
This course will provide an overview of yoga's vast history in order to understand the context and evolution of today’s modern yoga practice, make key concepts from yoga philosophy accessible, offer an entry into the more nuanced spirituality of yoga, challenge you to engage with the principles of yoga more directly in your physical practice, and stoke more critical thinking and curiosity.
This course is not focused on a specific lineage of yoga, and it is certainly not intended to create a hierarchy of modern postural yoga vs “traditional” yoga, but rather I’ve pulled together key themes & threads that have most important to me in the process of contextualizing the physical practice from the big ocean of yogic practices and possibilities that extend well beyond asana (the physical poses). It is important to understand that there is more.
THE BRIDGE
सेतु
Connecting your physical yoga practice with its spiritual context.
(A 6-week course on Sundays, Jan 11th-Feb 15th)
This isn’t a certification. I can’t certify anyone as “spiritual.” And there’s no certificate of completion, because none of us are ever “done” on the path. But it IS a doorway for your own deeper discovery, an invitation to take a few steps further on the path. Yoga has always been a wisdom path born from direct personal experience, knowing that information alone will never yield integrated insight. But, we certainly need a light and some crumbs to follow. So my aim is for this series can be a launchpad, to demystify any confusion and to give a really good foundation and plant some seeds of inspiration - and that you’ll maybe do what I did and keep following your curiosity to learn more. Not in any way trying to be a complete study of yoga, I’m opting to make this a broad brush stroke You’ll have the recordings for 3 months so you can rewatch and excavate what makes your heart sing!
My aim is to deliver some context - I’ll guide you to the water, but you do the drinking. I am not presenting one lineage, one way, The Way, “The” Yoga, but a slice across traditions & concepts. It’s you that would need to do it. I’m not spoon hand feeding or giving a protocol, you need to practice & integrate to understand. Yoga is based on direct experience/perception, not explanation. I’m not so presumptuous as to be able to teach spiritual experiences on zoom.
Some of this content (maybe 20%) is what I get to share in yoga teacher trainings, but I have a wholehearted belief that the depth of yoga should be more available to ALL sincere students of yoga. This format also affords me the ability to bring in more content and to really tune the dial towards practitioners. I don't like to keep the study of yoga behind a curtain, which only perpetuates the decontextualization of postural yoga, stifles students’ inner growth, and hinders the seekers from seeking. With the grace of my teachers and my devotion on the path, I want to share what I’ve come to know, far and wide.
Much of the course will be based on the teachings of Tirumali Krishnamacharya, the Father of Modern Yoga. My teachers Indra & AG Mohan were students of his for many years….innovated breath/ movement into something that gave rise to resembled the physical classes we see love in yoga studios today. I get to share what I’ve studied and practiced.
There’s a lovely compound word in Sanskrit: yogastha, meaning ‘one who stands in yoga.’ We need more practitioners rooted in a deeper sense of yoga (which is not one way, or one lineage, there is big open field of possibilities and inspiration).
When it comes to developing new yoga teachers, I’ll be honest, I often see things happening a bit backwards. Rising teachers most of all need guidance and mentorship to deepen their own studentship: personal practice should be at the center of learning to teach yoga. Our individual experience with yoga and meditation - the study of our own inner workings - should be the foundation for teaching. It takes a great deal of time, guidance, and practice to understand yoga. In Session # 4 we’ll actually spend some time talking about how to get started with an independent self practice.
I am happy to report that I get a delightful number of emails, text messages, and DMs from curious yoga practitioners asking some form of, “I feel like there’s more? How do I go deeper into the spirituality of yoga?” I take this as a great honor and I want to rise to the integrity of this inquiry. And, here we are, you can start here! This is your answer to The Call :) I’ll be excited for you to come along with me.
“It takes dedication to keep the quality of yoga alive. Quality is a way of living a spiritual life, that’s what we are seeking from yoga, a more spiritual way of being in the world.” - Maty Ezraty
I’ve divided the content up into five sessions: historical context, the Soul (Self), the mind, the body, and devotion. There’s also a bonus module geared towards teachers (though all are welcome to attend) in which I’ll share my reflections on some ways to approach weaving yogic wisdom into teaching studio classes.
Please note: I am even smaller than a small business, so I am unable to offer refunds.
“Nowadays, the practice of yoga stops with just asanas…. There is a need to search once more to reestablish the practice and value of yoga in modern times.”
— Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
Yoga practitioners who wants to establish themselves more deeply in the practice of yoga, expand their understanding beyond the poses, or to amplify their physical practice with more traditional context
Teachers who want to become more confident integrating dharma into their teaching (If you’ve completed a YTT, I am rather confident that most of this material will be new to you. And for the any aspects that are already familiar, you’ll get to hear things presented in a fresh way. The full course counts as 12 hours of continuing education with the Yoga Alliance for RYTs.)
Anyone seeking to live in harmony with the way of things and with more compassion and mindfulness. (If you aren’t engaged in physical yoga classes, great! In some ways you will actually have a learning advantage of being without bias.)
Studio owners/managers or anyone involved in yoga business who would like hold their work with a more spiritually informed lens
Healers & those holding holy space who are interested in incorporating yogic perspective into their toolbox
WHO IS THIS FOR?
"Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world."
— Sri Ramana Maharshi
SESSION 1: YOGA योग
historical context including a brief timeline so we can see how/when the postural practice developed and why (from the early yoga of Patanjali, to Hatha in the Medieval era, to Modern Postural Yoga)
we’ll unpack the ultimate goals of the yoga system
introduction to T. Krishnamacharya who will be a key reference for us in this course.
ETC ETC
WHAT WE’LL COVER
SESSION 2 : SELF आत्मन्
Who are you, really? Sāṃkhya, what is the nature/essence of your Soul?
OM
why we suffer (mistaken identity)
your true nature (sat chit ananda), shifting your self concept to a yogic lens can change everything about how you connect/interact with the world around you….etc etc
SESSION 3: MIND चित्त
“Yoga psychology,” citta,
meditation, mind training, mental steadiness
Ego and other hurdles
key terminology, tapas, gunas, kleshas/attachment? concepts that bridge you into living in yogic ways….etc etc
SESSION 3: BODY देह
Over the history of yoga the body has been embraced in numerous ways
We’ll consider the physical body in the context of the yoga system as well as the subtle body (or yogic body).
micro/macro,
nadis and prana, asana, tapas, bandha, mudra, starting your self practice….etc etc etc
SESSION 5: DEVOTION भक्ति
Bhakti (devotion) and what does it matter?
The many and diverse ways that divinity is conceptualized across yogic traditions - form and formless, local and pervasive, etc etc etc
Key gods & goddesses (ram, sita, Hanuman, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Siva and Shakti)
BONUS! SESSION 6 : How to weave teachings into studio classes
This session is oriented towards teachers, but all are welcome to attend! From my experience, I will share some ideas and reflections on how to bring yogic dharma into teaching studio classes. I plan to leave extra time for questions and discussion in this session.
