Ashtanga based teacher training comes to Brighton this September

This is a great opportunity for Brighton/Sussex based practitioners looking to deepen their practice and get a professional yoga teacher training qualification. The course will be led by Brian Cooper and his team from Union Yoga in Edinburgh and it’ll be happening at our very own Brighton Natural Health Centre in September 2010.

As far as I know it’s the only Ashtanga based teacher training qualification of it’s kind in the UK. Brian is also the author of The art of adjusting which will forms part of the course reading. Here’s an extract of the foreward written by Matthew Sweeney: “I think Brian Cooper has done an excellent job of covering the key points of adjusting most of the postures of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga. He clearly explains the main focus of each posture, the direction to take with each posture and eventually how to learn to do each posture unaided without an adjustment.”

If you’re interested the prospectus is well worth downloading.

You can also find out more under teacher training on the Union Yoga website. If you have any queries you can contact Brian by email at admin@unionyoga.co.uk.

Hello Ashtangis,

Russell and Sally are leading a workshop in Tunbridge Wells this Saturday. Yogi Scott the organiser says there are still some places left so get hold of him pronto!

You can find his contact details and more info about the workshop on the workshops page

Sally also kindly sent me some pics too. Here’s a lovely shot of Russell in Kapotasana in a cave! How exotic! But not as exotic as those bright green pants – Nice 1 Russ!

Look forward to the workshop and seeing you guys again.

Namaste

G

I’m a bit behind the curve this week and there’s been so much going on.

The week started with Manju’s workshop here in Brighton. The workshop included a led primary pratice in the morning, a led 2nd series practice in the afternoon followed by pranayama, chanting and a Q&A session.

In the break there was also a demo by the London AcroYoga crew which was awesome. I did some AcroYoga at a recent yoga festival near Glastonbury, so I was keen to do a bit more “flying” which was pretty cool. AcroYoga is so much fun and is actually easier than it looks. There’s a workshop at BNHC in early September so be sure to check it out!

On Sunday I only did the afternoon sessions so if anyone has any comment on how they found the led primary lets hear it! Judging from the damp patches on the ceiling I’ll bet it was a good one!

The most interesting bit for me was the Q&A session and hearing Manju talk about Yoga and practice in general. He spoke about the need to relax, breathe and enjoy practice. He also said that if you don’t want to practice then don’t, saying that forcing yourself to practice asana is not yoga. My interpretation of this is that forcing yourself to practice can be regarded as himsa (harm) and we’re supposed to be practicing ahimsa (non-violence). Bringing awareness of how we are in the moment will determine what action would be harmful or not. Basically, chill out!

Manju also spoke about it being acceptable to mix asana from different series and have a more varied practice. Again my interpretation on this is that you need a sufficiently developed practice and relationship with your teacher to gain the most benefit.

Manju didn’t learn asana in any set series but started out copying his father when he was about 7 or 8 years old. His father then gave personal tuition to him and his sister. Most of us don’t have the advantage of learning yoga in this way. To me it really points again to the importance of the relationship between student and teacher which in Manju’s case was father and son too.

Manju also emphasised a balanced approach to practice. Asana is only one of the limbs of yoga. He said pranayama, chanting and scriptures should also be practiced these would then naturally lead to the development of the other limbs of yoga: Yama, Niyama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana leading ultimately to Samadhi.

Another interesting statement was “mantra is more powerful than asana.”

The question: “What should I eat after practice” which was met with the rather sensible “Your body will tell you”.

There was lots more that I can’t recall at the moment but in the interest of getting this blog up I’m going ot post now and add comment later as stuff comes to mind.

I also interviewed Manju this week and part of the interview will be available for download next week some time.

In the meantime here’s a couple of links to interviews that I read before I interviewed Manju:

Guy Donahaye interviewed Manju in NYC, March 2008

And another excellent interview by Richard Clark, Australia 2005 available as a PDF.

Namaste

Former Brighton teacher, Julie Martin returns to Brighton for a workshop on 12/13 July at Yogahaven. Contact Yogahaven for details.

Yesterday I attended Anthony “Prem” Carlisi’s workshop: Living Principles of Ashtanga Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra in Tunbridge wells.

There must have been about 35 people attending, most of whom were Scott’s students. Scott was hosting the event and it sounds like he was a great host to Prem and Heather. I’ll link to Scott as soon as I get details of his blog.

Prem has a commanding presence, tall, tanned with intense eyes and a rather huge beard. I was struck by the ease and authority with which he spoke and his knowledge, energy and humour were great. I’d say the workshop was a taster for Prem’s book The only way out is in.

The workshop started off with a talk by Prem about the concepts from the book. I’m not going to go into detail here as I don’t really know enough about this stuff to be able to do it any justice. There were four concepts outlined:

1. Inside-out
2. Ground up
3. Gross to subtle
4. Everything moves in a vortex

These 4 headings present a clear distillation of ideas that can be applied to life/practice. Prem explained and gave examples of each which helped to contextualise the concepts. I’ve not read the book yet but Prem’s talk interested me enough to buy a copy, so I’ll be doing a book review on it when I’m done.

After a couple of hours of listening I’m sure we were all itching to get onto the mat, well after going to the toilet that is. The practice consisted of the sun salutations and the standing sequence before the primary series. Here are a couple of gems I got from the practice:

• While in Samasthitihi Heather gave me a little adjustment that changed the angle of my hips – wow!
• Ground up – Ensuring a stable base for the asana is established before moving the upper body into position. This gave a reassuring quality to the asana
• Prem’s vortex – circular motion (rather than moving in straight lines) had a great impact in exploring Trikonasana
• Raising up onto the ball of the back foot when going into parivrtta Parsvakonasana really helped me to get deeper into the asana

After lunch we got down to an introduction to Ayurveda. Prem presented practical ways of using Ayurveda to change your life and practice. Again this is not something I know much about and is a rather vast topic, although Prem emphasized a practical approach. There was a brief wrap up on Tantra and a short meditation.

For me the workshop broadened my horizons generally but due to time constraints there wasn’t time to explore any of the topics in depth, but it did serve as a great introduction. Prem clearly has amassed a huge amount of knowledge over the last 30 years or so and is keen to share his insights.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day out and getting a chance to meet more of the Ashtanga community. Hopefully Prem and Heather will be back soon. I’m grateful to have had the experience to have met them both. Namaste.

Guy