The Great Yoga Quest: A Complete Resource & Certification

This section will give you a good foundation for using Sanskrit in your practice and in your classes.

This lecture presents some of the better known chants and mantras of the Hindu yoga tradition, things that you will

hear in many yoga classes today (such as OM, OM SHANTI, LOKA SAMASTA, etc.)

This lecture provides a very basic overview of the history of yoga so that aspiring teachers are aware of the roots of the tradition. This lecture also provides a very basic introduction to the roots of  yoga philosophy, which are the Upanishads and Vedanta.

This lecture discusses some current trends in the world of yoga. Aspiring teachers might consider looking into these trends further.

In order to do this section, please read The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Swami Satchidananda, or another version. Then do your best to answer the attached questions. This will provide a nice intro to the Yoga Sutras for new teachers.

Perhaps the most important discussion we can have as students and teachers of yoga regards ethics. What are  the standards expected of yoga professionals? This lecture attempts to provide just this information.

A somewhat fun presentation regarding some issues that one might encounter when teaching yoga.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are two foundational texts of the yoga tradition. An awareness of these seminal scriptures will give the aspiring teacher some much needed background for navigating the world of yoga.

This gives the student/aspiring teacher a nice intro to one of the great yoga classics, The Bhagavad Gita, and helps to make the Gita personal by asking pertinent questions regarding it.

Some of the more well-known passages from the Bhagavad Gita brought together in one place.

An intro to the various paths (margas) of yoga so that you can determine what resonates most with you.

Also, an introduction to the ancient idea that "Paths are many, Truth is one."

20 MAJOR STYLES OF YOGA

1. Acro Yoga. A form of partner yoga that’s also known as Flying Yoga. As a style, Acro Yoga is only a decade or so old, yet the practice itself has been around for much longer.

2. Aerial Yoga. Aerial silks and yoga swings have become highly popular in the past ten years.

3. Anusara Yoga. Started by John Friend in the mid-90s, highly influenced by Iyengar, though “heart centered” and based in Tantric philosophy. Recently there has been a split in the movement due to a scandal surrounding Friend. As of this writing, Anusara is no more.

4. Ashtanga Yoga. Started by Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois, who claimed it was based in tradition, yet it also shows many signs of outside influences. Many of the more “yang” or active styles of yoga today (Power, Flow, Vinyasa, etc.) have adopted and adapted their methods from Ashtanga Yoga.

5. Bikram Yoga. Started by Bikram Choudry in the late ‘60s. Twenty-six poses done in a room heat- ed to 104 degrees. Always the same practice.

6. Chair Yoga. Yoga for the elderly, done mainly seated in chairs, hence the name.

7. Gentle Yoga. Easy yoga for beginners and for those wanting a slower practice that is a bit gentler on the body. Generally less of the yang or strengthening poses.

8. Integral Yoga. Swami Sivananda had a number of disciples that ended up coming to the West and spreading his teachings in various formats. Perhaps the most popular of these are the Siva- nanda Yoga method, and also the Integral Yoga of Swami Satchidananda. As the name Integral Yoga implies, the aim of this form of yoga is to integrate many of the main paths of yoga (karma, bhakti, raja, jnana, etc.) into one harmonious unit.

9. Iyengar Yoga. Started by BKS Iyengar, one of the most influential of all of Krishnamacharya’s stu- dents. Iyengar Yoga focuses a great deal on precision of alignment and insuring that each pose is done correctly before moving on to more advanced poses. Iyengar also innovated the use of props and created the practice of “Restorative Yoga” (see below).

10. Kids Yoga. As the name implies, this is yoga for the young ‘uns, yet in reality, many “adults” (really kids at heart) would do well to practice this, too.

11. Kripalu Yoga. A gentler form of yoga that was brought to the West by Amrit Desai, who started the Kripalu Institute in Lennox, Mass, now one of the biggest yoga centers in the world. Amrit Desai was asked to leave Kripalu in the mid-90s and has since been teaching The Amrit Method in Florida.

12. Kundalini Yoga. There are actually many forms of Kundalini Yoga, yet the most popular today was started by a Sikh man named Yogi Bhajan in the late ‘60s. His brand of Kundalini is called “3HO Kundalini” to differentiate it from other forms.

13. Partner Yoga. First popularized by Ganga White and Ana Forrest in their book “Doubles Yoga” (written in the late ‘70s), this form of yoga, like AcroYoga, has been growing in popularity. Many are realizing how working with a partner can greatly assist one’s individual asana practice, plus

it’s a lot of fun. We do it in conjunction with Flying Yoga (aka “AcroYoga”).

14. Power Yoga. Developed in the early to mid-90s by several individuals, including Bryan Kest, Beryl Birch Bender, and Baron Baptiste. Power Yoga was a way to adapt traditional Ashtanga Yoga for Westerners, particularly the American fitness market. The emphasis is on strength-building asanas, and thus is a yang practice.

15. Prenatal Yoga. Yoga for moms-to-be at all stages of pregnancy.

16. Restorative Yoga. This style of yoga comes from the Iyengar tradition and makes much use of props (blankets, straps, bolsters, blocks, etc.) to provide a deeply relaxing, soothing and medita- tive practice. Has an affinity to Yin Yoga (see below).

17. Viniyoga. This is understood to be Krishnamacharya’s mature teachings, from the later stage of his life where he was teaching yoga strictly on an individual basis. The idea behind Viniyoga is that yoga is really best taught one-on-one, where the teacher addresses the individual needs of the student and tailors the yoga practice specifically to those needs. This form of yoga was car- ried forward by Krishnamacharya’s son, Desikachar, and has since been highly influential on a growing form of yoga known as “Yoga Therapy.”

18. Vinyasa Flow Yoga. Another offshoot of Ashtanga Yoga, with less focus on strength-building pos- es and more on a smooth flow from posture to posture. This is the main style that we teach and learn at our Yoga Teacher Trainings.

19. Yin Yoga. Developed by Sara Powers, Paul Grilley, and others as an antidote to all of the “yang” forms of yoga that seem to have dominated the market. Yin Yoga aims for a deeper and longer stretch, holding specific asanas for sometimes as long as five or more minutes. It also interesting- ly has somewhat different names for the asanas.

20. Dharma Yoga. Founded by Dharma Mittra, my guru, based much on the teachings of his guru, Yogi Gupta. Dharma has Beginner to Advanced asana series and is based in NYC.

21. Mr. Smiley Yoga. Let go of style… just be still and smile.

“Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.”

— The Yoga Sutras

This section will give you some much needed information about the path of Hatha Yoga, such as the meaning of "hatha", its history and what makes this path unique.

This section will provide you with some very basic but essential information about other elements of Hatha Yoga to include in your personal practice and incorporate into your teaching.