Yoga 108: Foundations in Whole Life Practical Yoga
Practical Yoga Philosophy and Mythology
Live online immersion
10 sessions September 26th to November 28th 2024
Would you like to:
• Gain deeper, more rounded and refined understanding of practical yoga principles so you can integrate them more reliably into your everyday life?
• Soak in the rich flavour and timeless supports of Sanskṛt mantra and yogic mythology?
• Support your yoga practice and inquiry with a satsang community and classes that keep the teachings front of awareness to help support lifelong learning?
• Gain tools for ongoing inquiry as we steadily deepen and expand our understanding and appreciation of the riches of the Yoga and broader Indic tradition.
• Along the way we will join dots and learn about Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Tantra, Veda-s, Upaniṣad-s, mantra-s, deities, stories, mythology and the rich, practical Indic perspectives.
• All sessions are recorded so it is possible to join the course even if you cannot attend the live sessions.
• All participants will have access to all the recordings and associated readings and inquiry exercises for the duration of the course and at least thirty days after our culminating session.
Further Information
YOGA 108: Foundations in Practical Whole Life Yoga
Live sessions on Thursdays 5:30-7:00pm UK time – Provisional dates and timings
Autumn 2024 sessions:
September 26,
October 3,10,17,24,31,
November 7,14,21,28
Autumn 2024 session overview:
1. Let’s begin: vande gurūṇām: on the opening mantra-s of the ashtanga-vinyasa method and their practical import
2. Yoga: what, when, where, who, how and why? The Sāṅkhya model of reality and the user’s manual for a human life.
3. Pūrṇamadaḥ, zero, 1,2,3, tattva-s/gaṇa-s and the Sāṅkhya model
4. Guṇa-s, karma and doṣa-s
5. The puruṣārthāḥ – aims of life and how to realise them
6. Five Acts of Consciousness and five tantric āgamāḥ
7. Six schools and how yoga works with them, including pramāṇa-s and vivekakhyātiḥ
8. Seven days, constancy, adaptation, evolution and the nature of practice, working with cycles, qualities of the days
9. Eight limbs, one body and passing through the eye of a needle, octopus yoga
10. Eight limbs part two, pratipakṣa bhāvana and the essential practices
COURSE FEES: GB£300 or 4 monthly payments of £75 for the 10 week autumn series
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Planned Spring 2025 session preview
1. Now yoga begins: significance of the opening/setting of Yoga Sūtra and Bhagavad Gītā. How yoga texts work and demonstrate yoga.
2. Yoga and the battlefield: the Mahābhārata and the kṣetra – the field of practice, the arena of bondage and liberation
3. Classic definitions of yoga from Yoga sūtra and Bhagavad Gītā
4. The essential qualities for ongoing practice
5. Īśvarapraṇidhāna – Īśvara, intensity and devotion
6. The compulsory yoga practice
7. Meditation – the basic yoga technique
8. Kriyāyogaḥ, samādhi, kleśa-s, harnessing yoga techniques to promote samādhi and attenuate the afflictions that are intrinsic to life.
9.Foundations in ashtanga-vinyasa: bandha – what are we binding ourselves to when yoga is all about freeing ourselves? Dṛṣṭi – where are we aiming? How are we oriented? What eyes/attitude are we looking through? Can we refine our perception? Ujjayi – prāṇa and the ‘upward moving breath of victory’.
10. Practical Mytholgy and Introduction to Purāṇa – Icons, symbols and stories to live by
11. The Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra – background and practice
12. On studentship – with stories from the Upaniṣad-s/Purāṇa-s
These days, the word yoga is familiar to many, but its deeper power and significance often remains totally unknown. The path, perspectives and principles of yoga did not develop in a vacuum but in a rich environment of ongoing inquiry. The yogic vision and practical understandings are informed by broader Indic perspectives.
This course offers all participants the chance to develop a clear understanding of the foundational principles and understandings that inform the yogic vision. This provides great opportunities:
• to empower your practice and inquiry,
• to gain deeper access to robust, time-proven supports to navigate the inevitable challenges of life
• to develop a reliable map and compass to explore and navigate classic yoga texts, stories and teachings so we can apply them practically in the context of our own lives.
• to soak deeply in the teachings as part of a group of committed seekers.