Advanced Yoga Training Program

              Advanced Studies Outline:

(Depending on the level and interests of the group, some of these topics will be covered in more depth than others, some not at all, and new topics will be added as the cosmos continues to unfold its surprises.)

Non-dual studies:

1. Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie

2. Vedanta
3. Dzogchen
4. Zen
5. Vipassana
6. Gempo Roshi's "Big Mind/Big Heart
7. Ramana Maharshi
8. Nisirgadatta Maharaj
9. Krishnamurthi
10. Satsang teachers including Adyashanti, Neelam, Francis Lucille, Jean Klein and others

Embodiment/Yoga: Vibrancy, Flow and Stability

Vibrancy: Causal body, cosmic coherence, embedded fields

1. Cellular breathing

2. Sensory level asana

3. Taoist harmony

4. Anandamaya kosha (bliss body)

5. Rainbow Light Body

Flow: Subtle body

1. fundamental organizing patterns in the energy body

    a. tonic function: organizing relationships to earth and sky

    b. prana/apana and the bandhas

    c. wave motion in the fluid body

    d. developmental movement patterns

    e. evolutionary movement

    f.  balancing the 5 elements

2. asana

    a. physiological level asana

    b. organic level asana

    c.  pranic level asana

3.  breathing

    a. working with beginnings students and breath
    b. prana vikshanam (observing the process of breathing)
    c. ujjayi pranayama
    d. viloma pranayama
    e. retentions (kumbhaka) in pranayama
    f. other explorations in breathing

4. teaching yoga from the subtle body

5. other related movement disciplines
    a. Body Mind Centering
    b. Continuum
    c. martial arts
    d. dance

Stability: Gross body

1. Fundamentals of structural alignment
    a. the 'Deep Front Line'

    b. joint congruence
    c. working with open and closed bone circuits
    d. anatomy/kinesiology of the feet, ankles and knees
    e. anatomy/kinesiology of the hips and sacral area
    f. anatomy/kinesiology of the spinal column and skull
    g. anatomy/kinesiology of the shoulder girdle, arms and hands

2. Teaching asana: Physical level
    a. role of standing poses in teaching yoga
    b. role of seated poses in teaching yoga
    c. role of forward bending poses in teaching yoga
    d. role of inverted poses in teaching yoga
    e. role of backbending poses in teaching yoga
    f. role of restorative poses in teaching yoga

Nourishing the Heart

Heart/Mind Balancing

Shadow/Psychological/Emotional

Eastern perspectives

1. From Patanjali's Yoga Sutras:

     a. the 4 Brahma Viharas
     b. yamas and niyamas
2. From Busddhism

    a. Buddha's 8 fold path

    b. The 6 Parimitas (perfections)
3. From the Bhagavad Gita

    a. what is karma ?

    b. what is wisdom and maturity

Western perspectives

7. "The Pain Body" from Eckhart Tolle

8.  Internal Family Systems and the Diamond Path

9. From Psychotherapy:

    a. Affect theory and pathologies in the developing self sense

    b. the role of shame in self regulation

10. Peter Levine's "Somatic Experiencing"

   a. tracking sensations in the autonomic nervous system

   b. discovering and cultivating resources

   c. pendulating betweeen the resourced state and dis-regulation

Evolutionary Enlightenment/Visionary Thinking

1. Ken Wilbur's AQAL mapping
2. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme' s Cosmological vision
3. Don Beck's "Spiral Dynamics Integral"
4. Andrew Cohen's 'EnlightenNext' community
5. Itzak Bentov's "Stalking the Wild Pendulum"

6. Heart/Math Institute: heart rhythm coherence w. breath and brain waves

7. Yasuhiko Genku Kimura "Vision in Action"

8. Hubert Goddard's "Tonic Function" model

First Weekend, January 26 - 28

Preparatory readings:

"A New Earth "  Eckhart Tolle, chapter 10

"Bhagavad Gita" (any translation)

"A Brief History of Everything"  Ken Wilber

Non-Dual: An introduction to Non Dual View:

                    Discrimination or Viveka

                              between

Consciousness                      what arises in consciousness

Self                                        not self, small self, egoic self

Formless                                world of forms

Silence                                   movement

Purusha                                  prakriti

Embodiment:  An experiential exploration of the world of forms:

                General principles in the world of forms:

forms arise as yin-yang pairs of energies, tendencies, movements that are seeking dynamic harmony and balance through continuous flow

imbalances arise from various conditions that inhibit some aspect of the flow

stuckness, (dukha) is an inhibition that has crystalized through lack of attention

attention awakens the healing force to help transform the stuck energy

easing the flow of breath is the primary opening

breath can be disturbed by spiritual (causal body), psychological, emotional, physiological (subtle body) and structural (gross body) imbalances

structural and physiological imbalances are remediated with attention to leverage, gravity and alignment through the asanas

the other imbalances are remediated through meditation and psychotherapy

chanting and other forms of prayer are healing on all levels

as balance deepens in gross, subtle and causal bodies, discrimination naturally arises.

tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam ( then (tada) the true nature or form (rupa) of the self (sva) remains clear and stable (avasthanam, from the root stha) (as consciousness itself)

          Asana Practice: Relating to ground and sky

Attention in the standing poses: feet, feet and knees, feet and hips

Heart/mind balancing:

   1. Understanding egoic structures (shaping flow of mind activity)

      a. "being structures"

      b. "becoming structures"

   2. Eckhart tolle's "pain body"

   3. Gempo Roshi's "BigHeart/Big Mind

Evolutionary Enlightenment:

   1. Yasuhiko Genku Kimura: authentic self knowledge, concentric vs. omnicentric thinking

Second Weekend, March 23 - 25

Non-dual view:

   1.  Read dharma talk by Surya Das

   2.  Deepening work on acceptance of what is

Embodiment:

   1. The 6 bones of the pelvis

   2. Moving from the pelvic disc(the fibro-cartilaginous synchrondrosis)

   3. Integrating feet and legs into pelvis

   4. more standing poses

   5. pelvis and legs in inversions

   6. the language of embodiment: types of tissues

Heart/Mind Balancing

1. Introduction to Voice Dialogue, the Diamond Approach and

    the Internal Family Systems model

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. The kundalini process, energy fields, fascia and asana

Third Weekend, April 20 - 22

Non-dual view:

   1. Review last month and homework

   2. Francis Lucille

Embodiment:

   1. lateral line: awakening sides and differentiating front and back

   2. lateral wave motion in asana to open and expand interior

   3. releasing lateral ribs and lateral diaphragm

   4. connecting hands and feet to diaphragm and ribs

   4. "Somatic Experiencing" and more with Caryn McHose

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. Tracking autonomic nervous system fluctuations in self and other as process of grounding and healing.

  2. The W.I.G.O. chart (What is going on?) and tracking mind movements from sensation to abstraction

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Kevin Frank on "Tonic Function" and other wonderful things

Fourth Weekend, May 18 - 20

Non-dual view:

   1. Review last month and homework

   2. Intro to Krishnamurti

Embodiment:

   1. Opening the anterior spine and the "character knots"

   2. "Deep Front Line"  feet to pelvis

   3. Finding deep core

   4. Caryn McHose: Vessel breath and deconstructing structure

   5. Breathing with attentional awareness

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. More autonomic nervous system tracking

   2. WIGO and "Epistemics"

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Kevin Frank on Tonic Function: part 2

    attentional fields, G and G', tonic and phasic muscles

Fifth Weekend, June 8 - 10

Non-dual view:

   1. A New Earth, chapter 6,7,8

   2. Stitha Prajna (continued)

   3. Dzogchen

Embodiment:

   1. Opening the Heart Space

   2. "Deep Front Line" integrating feet through core to heart

   3. Understanding ribs and shoulder girdle

   4. Inversions in depth

   5. Continuing pranayama

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. More 1-2-3 Shadow work and principles of psychotherapy*

   2. Buddhist teachings: 4 Noble Truths

   3. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Yamas and Niyamas

   * Using "Thoughts Without a Thinker" by David Epstein

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Brian Swimme's "Powers of the Universe" (part 1)

Sixth Weekend, July 20 - 22

Non-dual view:

   Holding the paradoxical views:

   Absolute: all is whole, complete and perfect just as it is

   Relative: every detail counts. Karma happens.

Embodiment:

   1. Lateral space through the upper ribs and shoulders

   2. Sustaining interior space in all three dimensions

   3. Refining action of the shoulder girdle

   4. Breathing into upper lungs and chest

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. Social Intelligence and Individual development

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Integration in life

Seventh Weekend: August 10 - 12

Non-dual view:

   1. Review last month and homework

   2. Vedanta intensive

Embodiment:

   1. Review of everything

   2. Evolutionary Movement

   3. Sequencing and vinyasa

   4. Continuing pranayama

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. Vedanta Intensive

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Review

Week long intensive: August 27 - 31

tba

Eighth Weekend : September 21 - 23

Non-dual view:

   1. A New Earth, chapter 9,10

   2. Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Saram

Embodiment:

   1. Review of everything

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. to be determined

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Review

Ninth Weekend : October 26 - 28

Non-dual view:

   1. Krishnamurhti, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and others

Embodiment:

   1. Review of everything

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. to be determined

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Review

Final Weekend : November 30 - December 2

Non-dual view:

   1. the satsang community

Embodiment:

   1. Review of everything

Heart/Mind Balancing

   1. to be determined

Evolutionary Enlightenment;

   1. Review