Description

           Yoga Sutra Master Course Prep School & Study Groups – free versionCourse Description We all want to experience fulfillment in life, and we hope that our yoga practice will lead us there. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is the source wisdom and root of the yoga tradition. We invite you to let it empower you, expand your vision, and breathe new life into your practice through its systematic approach. The Secret of the Yoga Sutra is intended to link you directly to Patanjali’s intention and experience so that you can have this experience for yourself.   Online Prep SchoolThe Secret of the Yoga Sutra Prep School is our online study guide to help you connect with the spirit of the yoga tradition and engage with reading the book, so that you can get the most out of the Master Course lecture series. Presented by senior faculty of the Himalayan Institute, the Prep School progressively highlights key concepts leading up to the Yoga Sutra Master Course. Each month, from May to October, we’ll post an intensive in two parts including short lectures, lively discussions, answers to frequently asked questions, reading assignments, and contemplation exercises and practices to help you deepen and assimilate the core ideas of the Yoga Sutra.Content:1. Why Yoga Sutra, Why Now? The Yoga Sutra has a unique capacity to empower us and to breathe new life into our practice. Expand your scope of vision and understand the power and vastness of yoga.2. Yoga Sutra – The Text The Yoga Sutra is the source wisdom and the root of the yoga tradition. The text is much more than the 196 sutras that embody it, just as practice is more than technique, and wisdom is more than words.3. Patanjali and His World Many streams of knowledge come together in Patanjali’s work. Explore the geographic and historical context of Patanjali and the Yoga Sutra.4. Yoga Sutra Timeline 5. Yoga Sutra Contextual Map See and explore locations in the land of the sages.6. The Quest of Life The Yoga Sutra holds the key to our deepest questions about life. What is the true meaning and purpose of being in the world?7. Why Study the Yoga Sutra and Why Now? We all want to experience life’s fullness. The Yoga Sutra offers a systematic approach to personal practice and a context for understanding life amidst the many opportunities of the modern world.8. Six Pillars of Yogic Living We need a strong, healthy body to practice and study Yoga. If we pay attention to the six pillars of a yogic lifestyle, we can have all the energy and vitality we need. These pillars are diet, exercise, sound sleep, stress management and breathing, cleansing practices, and mindfulness or self-reflection. We’ll cover them one by one.9. Pillar 1 – What Makes a Yogic Diet? We eat to live, so our food needs to have life in it. Fresh, whole foods are full of the life force, or prana, whereas most packaged and processed foods have much less life in them. Fresh grains and beans, the staple of a vegetarian diet, are ideal (if you plant them, the prana in them makes them sprout!), but fresh animal products are also good. Organic food is preferable, but one thing is very important: Do not be anxious about what you eat. Just do your best and enjoy your food! Saying Grace at Meals This food offering prayer helps us connect the act of eating with our sadhana and with the all-pervading Consciousness within and outside us.Download PDF of the prayer’s words and translation10. Pillar 2 – Right Exercise Scientific research shows that exercise is good for everything—from bones to immunity to learning. We need both aerobic exercise (which builds muscle, strength, and endurance) and asana or stretching (which creates lengthening, space, and fluidity). Both types of exercise serve us best when they are guided by the breath. From an ayurvedic perspective, people of all doshas or constitutions (vata, pitta, and kapha) need exercise. Even as little as 10 minutes of exercise 2-3 times a day is helpful.Stretch and Breathe In less than 30 minutes, this sequence of simple daily stretches and postures will cleanse, nourish, and strengthen all areas of your body. You’ll start with standing warm-ups and then work from the floor with postures that increase circulation, flexibility, and strength in the back, neck, abdomen, hips, and legs as you coordinate movement with the breath. Finally, rest on your back, letting the floor support you as you bring awareness to your breath and let your whole body relax and breathe.Prop: thin cushion.11. Pillar 3 – Sleep Well Sleep is essential for good health. Illness can disturb our sleep, but for most of us, it’s our revved up mind and nervous system that interfere with sleep. The good news is that we can train our mind to sleep by creating a regular sleep schedule: go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, and take an hour before bedtime to wind down and prepare for sleep with gentle activities that nourish the nervous system and inspire the mind. There’s a definite connection between the state we go to sleep in and the state we wake up in.An Experiment with Sleep Download:   Sleep_ExperimentTry this sleep experiment to discover what bedtime gives you the best night’s sleep and the most energy the following day.12. Pillar 4 – Your Breath and Stress Reduction Our breath integrates and strongly affects our body and mind, which is why good breathing is such an important tool for both healing and spiritual practice. Deep, smooth, and even breathing, with no pauses, jerks, or noise in the breath moves us out of stress and into relaxation and healing. Through biofeedback techniques, we can observe how changing our breathing changes the body’s stress response. Make smooth, deep, and even breathing a habit by practicing it frequently during the day—at work, in the car, at the store.  Guided Diaphragmatic Breathing Practice This short, guided practice will help you establish deep, even, and smooth diaphragmatic breathing, if you do it regularly. As you lie on your back with your head supported, you’ll soften the way you hold your body and then bring awareness to your breathing, feeling your abdomen rise and fall as your inhalation and exhalation flow smoothly into one another. As the practice continues, you’ll begin to sense that you’re the quiet observer of your body breathing and that your nervous system, mind, and whole body are relaxing deeply. Prop: thin cushion.Download 13. Pillar 5 – The Importance of Cleansing Like a good motor, the body will run well for a long time if we keep it clean. The lifestyle pillars we’ve already talked about support the body’s cleansing organs by minimizing and releasing toxins. Yoga also suggests specific cleansing practices such as using a neti pot, doing a spring cleanse, and periodically taking triphala (a cleansing herbal formula). Cleansing affects our energy and mind as well as our body. In the yogic model of the koshas (the layers covering our core Self), when all layers of our being are clean, including our mind and body, the light of our Self can shine and be seen.What in the World Is Triphala? Download:   What_in_the_World_Is_TriphalaLearn about this famous ayurvedic herbal formula that both cleanses and supports the colon, and find out the best ways to take it.14. Pillar 6 – Self-Awareness and Reflection Mindfulness applies to all the other pillars. It’s the act of paying attention to ourselves—noticing how we eat, exercise, sleep, breathe, and cleanse—and observing how our choices affect us. Instead of condemning ourselves for our choices, we can approach making lifestyle changes with a spirit of interest, curiosity, kindness, and compassion for ourselves, as we look deeper into why we may be making choices that don’t serve us well. This will help us make small, sustainable changes and feel supported as we study the Yoga Sutra with Pandit Tigunait.The Secret of the Yoga Sutra Book ClubRelated material – text and video_This is the free version of the Prep School, only first part, and I added the Yoga Sutra Book Club, related articles and videos from Yoga International in preparation for the in-depth study of the Yoga Sutra Master Course uploaded here: Part 1, and here: Part 2.Maybe a special mention for the Sanskrit pronunciation sutra by sutra and translation with commentary of Samadhi Pada, the first book of Yoga Sutra, found in related material folder. This may be a major interest for many.A search for adishonerv69 will give you all my uploads.