Āsana – What’s in a name?

NEW ONLINE COURSE
ĀSANA – What’s in a name?

9 sessions of two hours, dates to be announced soon

As on previous courses, it will be possible to participate without attending live. All participants will have access to sesssion recordings right after the live meeting and for a full calendar year after the course culminates.

Is this course for me?

The yoga tradition is about inquiry. If:

• You have a spiritual longing that is not being satisfied by conventional religion or dogmatic approaches
• You’ve read the books but still long for living guidance.
• You want wisdom that can actually be applied to everyday life.
• You’re looking for a thoughtful community rather than ideology.
• You’re searching for a path that welcomes your whole self, your intellect and your heart, that acknowledges your body and its deep innate wisdom.

Then this course is for you!

More about the course – ĀSANA – What’s in a name?
These days, many people’s first contact with ‘yoga’ is through āsana.
If the āsana class and practice is done skilfully it often leads people to find that the benefits of āsana practice and ‘yoga’ start to influence the rest of the day.

If you have ever wondered what āsana really means, what’s behind the names of yoga postures and how it all relates to the bigger picture of yoga as a practical perspective that can help us navigate life, this course is for you.

For āsana practitioners and teachers, this can help deepen appreciation of how āsana practice, whatever it looks like, can be a potent lifelong support.
Whether or not you practice āsana, this course will give you greater access to the rich supports of the yogic vision and resources for greater integration of the powers of your body, mind and heart.

Rooted in the authentic living tradition, working with intellectual rigour and emotional depth, this exploration will take you so much deeper than the sometimes reductive tendencies of modern yoga brands.

Course focus and general overview
As always, I will prepare to be spontaneous and the sessions may evolve depending on the group. That said, here are some of the themes that we’ll use as platforms to continue exploring how the yogic vision can help us connect to our deeper selves, orient through the challenges and opportunities of life, and find a sense of home and purpose in this changing world.

1. Yoga and Āsana – how yoga is so much more than mere āsana. And how āsana is so much more than how it is sometimes perceived!
Microcosm and macrocosm. Āsana as the seat of practice and the seat of awareness.
Classic definitions of āsana in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra and in the Bhagavad Gītā and how they relate to daily life.
Nāma and rūpa – name and form.
The naming of parts, integrity and going beyond partiality.

2. Yoga and the Natural World – The mountain – āsana and the evolutionary supports for practice. Working with Life, harnessing the elements. Stories of Matsyendranāth – āsana and listening, āsana and the dynamic path of practice.
Tadāsana, samasthiti, bhūdhāra and the ‘dog’ postures

3. Padmāsana – the Lotus and the Sun
Aesthesia, beauty, the gaṅgā and the himālaya, the lotus stalk and leaf. Friend of the sun – opening to the light, going beyond the known. Actionless action. Symbolism of Sūrya Namaskāra

4. Āsana, senses and emotions
The seat of consciousness and the pairs of opposites.
The dancer and the warrior.
The embracing and resolution of paradox, āsana and nourishment

5. The snake and the eagle – Gāruḍāsana and bhujāṅgāsana
Peacocks and Poison, birds and reptiles, āsana and the perennial, āsana and the eternal.
Viśvarūpa and vṛtra

6. Vṛkṣāsana – rootedness, crookedness and the guru in the trees
Stories of the Buddha, teachings of the trees

7. Trīkona – what is haṭha yoga and āsana really about?
Simultaneous translation – working in both directions, and creating a third thing.

8. Ṛṣi-s, sages and ancestral wisdom
Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, sādhana and the story of the Gāyatrī.

9. Beyond isms and schisms – how Hanumanāsana is not the splits! 
Stories and symbolism of Hanuman. How āsana-s are so much more than how they are sometimes regarded and how they point beyond name and form.