Certified Yoga Teacher Training School

Summer 2008

Instructor: shakti mhiHatha Yoga

The flow-based classes will be taught by shakti mhi, founder of Prana Yoga Teacher College in Vancouver.

shakti mhi has been studying and teaching hatha yoga for over 25 years. Through developing the Prana style, which focuses on flow, safety, alignment, and the integration of breath, her classes invite students to move beyond the mind and practice stillness in every asana (posture).

Summer 2008

Instructor: shakti mhiKriya Yoga

Learn the ancient methods of the wise yogis for body cleansing, detoxification, and perfect health. Improve your immune system, digestion, elimination, breathing, sleep, skin condition, and allergies. Learn techniques such as how to cleanse the nose using sea salt water (excellent for relieving allergies) and more.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Bernie ClarkThe History & Philosophy of Yoga - From pre-history to modern Yoga

Open to the public

This lecture series will cover the ancient roots of Yoga from its rising in the ancient Vedic traditions, the various influences that helped shaped it, and the evolution from the Classical Yoga of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra to Tantra and Hatha Yoga to Yoga as taught in modern times. Along the way we will learn about the Hindu culture, within which much of Yoga developed. The major philosophical systems as well as the practices of the main schools of Yoga will be briefly touched upon.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Todd CaldecottIntroduction to Ayurveda

Open to the public

In the beginning there is only silence. And from this silence emanates the whole of creation, a vibration called Love that binds one thing to another, weaving the tapestry of the universe. Within the ordering of this emanation are simple, timeless laws, that show us how to live, how to love, and how to return to the silence. While these laws resonate within our very being, they are obscured by conditioning, by our thoughts and emotions, and we find ourselves lost and adrift in the vastness of eternal ignorance. The sages of India understood this problem, and so revealed the 'Divine Science of Living', or Ayurveda, that allows us to understand, observe and respect these natural laws. Come join us in discovering the path of Ayurveda, and how to apply its principles in your daily life.

Ayurveda translates into English as the "Science of Life". It is considered to be the oldest healing science in the world which is passed down through time. This ancient science of healing focuses on the connection between the body and the mind, and is directly linked to the foundations of yoga. Using natural cures, Ayurveda maintains the body in a balanced state of health.

Module 1 - Introduction to Ayurveda: anthropological and cultural background of ayurveda, an overview of the philosophies and ontological systems that support ayurveda, tridosha theory and constitutional analysis.

Module 2 - Ayurvedic physiology, daily and seasonal regimens and pharmacology (dravyguna). Diet, factors in disease, and assessment of disease.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Wendy EytonRestorative Yoga

Open to the public

Restorative yoga is a healing yoga.

This interactive course will teach how to modify some of the asanas (yoga postures) to suit:

• People with special needs
• People with physical limitations
• People under stress
• People with injuries
• People that are dealing with fatigue
• People that are emotionally drained
• People that are dealing with illness
• Older people

Knowing how to teach restorative yoga will give you the tools to welcome beginner students from all ages and physical states, to yoga in the safest way.

In the course you will learn:

• Poses which are restful and rejuvenating, even for those who can perform very little physical movements.
• How to support the body in each posture with props so the muscles open with out expending energy.
• Gentle, supported poses to help your students to immerge into a deep state of relaxation

Fall 2008

Instructor: Swami Vivekananda SaraswatiTantra 1

Open to the public

The esoteric Tantra 1 teachings are presented in a coherent, step-by-step approach, well adapted to the Western mentality without losing their original mystique and richness. The mysteries and secrets of spiritual eroticism are presented in conjunction with the relevant information from Yoga, Chinese Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, alchemy, and Middle Eastern Imsak. Printed supplemental material is provided, and the workshops are marked by many exemplifications, meditations, and initiations (energy inductions). Videos on relevant topics are presented whenever possible. The course keeps a commitment to a clear and elevated level of communication, but there are no explicit presentations or nudity whatsoever.

Tantra 1 is consecrated mostly to theory, training, and practical issues for the individual. Tantra 2 follows with more in-depth treatments and covering mostly couple-practice issues.

The syllabus for Tantra 1 includes these subjects:

1. modern Sexology
2. the difference and separation between orgasm and ejaculation
3. analysis of the curves of pleasure and methods of retention/control of the sexual energy
4. the different forms of orgasm
5. meditations of transmutation-sublimation of the sexual energy
6. Hatha Yoga relevant to the tantric practice
7. healing
8. medical correlations with Tantra
9. specific forms of training for men and for women
10. study of the tantric sexual union.

The course includes all the necessary knowledge for participants to start mastering tantric sexuality.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Swami Vivekananda SaraswatiTantra 2

Open to the public

The Tantra 2 workshop builds on the foundations established in Tantra 1. This workshop explores the depths of tantric lovemaking, and covers the following issues:

1. teachings from the Kama Sutra (postures, erogenous zones, techniques, principles of pleasure)
2. methods for enhancing virility and removing frigidity
3. reshaping parts of the body (including the genitals)
4. the specific tantric postures of lovemaking
5. birth control, fertility, and maternity in Tantra
6. oral sex and its tantric techniques
7. collective eroticism
8. love vs. possessiveness
9. sexual freedom and social taboos
10. astrology and Tantra
11. transfiguration
12. alchemy.

The intense teachings of Tantra 2 reach a profound spiritual level of sexuality intended for the victory of the couple relationship. To participate in Tantra 2, you must first study Tantra 1.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Swami Vivekananda SaraswatiParapsychology 1

Open to the public

This workshop explores two main topics in depth:

1. clairvoyance (seeing beyond the normal);
2. astral projection (travel in the astral body, as well as lucid dreaming).

The term "parapsychology" is generally credited as being the scientific study of the paranormal or of extraordinary phenomena.

We will outline the best methods known in Yoga for practicing and training in these two exceptional fields of study.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Swami Vivekananda SaraswatiThe Art of Dying

Open to the public

An enlightened approach to death and dying. Explore the Tibetan Bardo Thodol rites and training. Lectures, initiations, meditations, practice, Hatha Yoga.

This workshop could be the first in the world to address a very important gap in modern times: the spiritual preparation for death, one of life’s greatest passages.

Today, especially with the secularization of daily life, we are witnessing an appalling carelessness about the phenomenon of death, as well as a deep spiritual ignorance about its meaning, which is illustrated most often by the cloud of taboo and embarrassment surrounding the subject. The contrast between our great attention to birth – a new child benefiting from both the assistance of its mother and qualified medical personnel or midwives in an air of celebration – and our cold, medical treatment of the dying is reason enough to highlight the need for this workshop. The Art of Dying intends to change this focus, not only to teach an understanding of the process of death using the Bardo Thodol, the centuries-practiced Tibetan manual of dying, but also to provide training to pass to the other side in a spiritual manner and to help others go through this process.

Yogis consider that dying is a very important process from the standpoint of one’s spiritual evolution and future destiny. Therefore, we accept that we will first learn the process of death, and consequently we will train for it so that when it arrives, we are prepared to look it in the eye and make the best of it, spiritually, beneficially. Hence, the first purpose of the course is to train individuals to eliminate fears, to identify and recognize the process of death, to do away with misunderstandings, and to be given yogic training to prepare for death during this lifetime using methods both from Indian and Tibetan Yoga. Aside from this, the course has the ambitious goal to train people not only to deal with their own death – mastering the tools offered, and producing effects energetically to assist in their own deaths – but at the same time to learn to help loved ones die more easily, more happily, more consciously, and with more dignity. It is envisioned that the course may inspire students toward an interest or vocation in a new spiritual era of hospice care. Thus, people who perhaps did not train at all spiritually in life may be helped to a more spiritual fate.

The course will use physical methods from Yoga, breathing technology, mantras, secret tantric meditations, Tibetan techniques, methods from parapsychology, as well as a wide array of other resources, such as shamanic processes.

Fall 2008

Instructor: shakti mhiShivambu (Urine Therapy)

Open to the public

Shivambu (Urine Therapy) is an ancient yogic practice known for many centuries that has lapsed into obscurity. Our own shakti mhi is Vancouver's foremost authority on this powerful healing technique.

Urine therapy is a very ancient and drugless form of intrinsic medicine. Its application is so simple that it can be done anywhere and at any time. Urine has been used as a healing agent in many cultures. Often it is called the Water of Life or Living Water Within. In many religions it is believed that this water will enhance one's spiritual growth and even give one everlasting life. Learn to heal yourself of: skin disorders, ear and eye infections, fungal infections, and immune system disorders.

Fall 2008

Instructor: shakti mhiThe Five Tibetan Exercises

Open to the public

The Five Tibetan Exercises are a rejuvenating series of movements that will keep you young, healthy, and energetic throughout your life. This series can be performed by yourself in the morning in as little as 12 minutes with no equipment required. By balancing the hormonal systems, improving circulation, and increasing bone density these exercises can halt or reverse the negative effects of aging.

Fall 2008

Instructor: shakti mhiPranayama

Open to the public

Prana is a Life Force which flows through all living things. The amount of prana in your body will largely depend on your capacity to hold it. This capacity can be changed. Prana is the force which provides us with a strong and healthy physical body, creates clear, calm minds and balances and controls our emotions. With insufficient prana, one becomes physically weak, mentally foggy, confused and often emotionally unbalanced.

The more prana we have, the more alive we are, the more passionate we are about our moments.

In this workshop you will learn different breathing exercises and their effects on the physical and energetic bodies.

Fall 2008

Instructors: shakti mhi & Daniel MireckiYoga Nidra

Open to the public

Yoga Nidra means Yogic sleep. This part of the Tantric Yoga tradition uses a specific practice which induces extraordinarily deep relaxation. Far more than just relaxation technology, it is a way to penetrate the veil which separates the conscious and subconscious minds. An active guided meditation using technology only recently confirmed by neuro-scientific research, it is used to manifest any desired condition and especially higher intentions in ones existence. In the tradition on the yogic practice yoga nidra is also used by Yogis to purify the Samskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Bernie ClarkThe Physical Body - Going Beyond the Muscles

Open to the public

In this workshop we will look at the body in a unique way. We will begin by looking at the physiology of the tissues of the body and how our yoga practice affects these tissues. Next we will investigate the ranges of motion of the eight major joints of the body and discover what stops us from going deeper into poses, when to push further and when to accept our limitations. Finally we will look at what all this means for you personally and how your own unique anatomy affects your practice.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Bernie ClarkYoga and the Joints - an advanced look inside the key joints: the shoulders, the knees, the hips and the spine

Open to the public

In this workshop the four major areas worked in most yoga practices will be examined in detail. The structure of the joints, their ligaments and main movers (muscles) will be reviewed. The way the joints function and how to move them safely will be presented. The implications of the safe ranges of motions of these joints on the practice of asanas will also be investigated. This will include looking at the way to come into a posture, come out of a posture and the alignment while in a posture.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Bernie ClarkThe Energy Body - The Eastern and Western Views of the Subtle Body

Open to the public

In this workshop we will investigate the various models the Yogis of India, the Yogis of China and the Medical Scientists in the West have developed to explain the workings of the body's energy and its associated systems. We will explore the world of prana and the energy channels and vortexes of Indian Yoga (called nadis and chakras) and contrast it to the world of Qi and its associated network of channels (called meridians) utilized in China. Then we will discover how modern scientific investigations in the West are finding remarkable parallels to these ancient models.

Fall 2008

Instructor: Bernie Clark1.) Basics to Yin Yoga

Open to the public

With this introductory class we will learn the basics of the Yin Yoga philosophy and work through the practice of Yin Yoga. In this session it is valuable for the student to have taken the Energy Body and Physical Body workshops in order to understand the physiological benefits of Yin Yoga. Emphasis in the YYTT will be on the Yin Yoga postures, their benefits, contraindications and practice in actually teaching in the Yin Yoga style.

Instructor: Bernie Clark2.) Yin Yoga Certification

Open to the public

Students interested in receiving their Yin Yoga certification are required to participate in all of the following workshops throughout the month of May (see individual workshop descriptions on this page for complete information and dates):