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From the NITYANANDA INSTITUTE NEWS Fall 2003

Nityananda Institute Begins Hatha Teacher Training

by Ruth Knight

This March, Nityananda Institute welcomed a new group of participants into its hatha yoga teacher training program, offered through The Movement Center yoga studio.

Over the last three decades we have trained many students to become instructors, and as instructors ourselves, have studied and practiced with accomplished teachers from the Viniyoga and other hatha yoga traditions. Several years ago, Swamiji met with Institute hatha yoga teachers to begin developing a collective understanding of the interface between Trika yoga and hatha yoga. Energized by those discussions, our individual practices and program overall have expanded in scale and depth. This current teacher training is part of the blossoming of that inspiration.

For the first time, we have opened our training to the public. This is significant and exciting because it demonstrates that our perspective of hatha yoga has coalesced to the point where we are ready to make it available outside the boundaries of the ashram and Movement Center studio. As we continue to explore and refine our expression of this interface, we expect the scope of our day-to-day instruction and trainings will be communicated to yet a wider audience.

So how have we expressed our unique understanding of hatha yoga? It starts with the recognition that the state of Total Well Being—that joyous actualization of each person’s creative potential on every level: body, mind and spirit—is accessible to everyone, no matter what. The goal of hatha yoga, simply, is to facilitate the unfoldment of Total Well Being. The method is to release tension from mind and body so that the flow of the creative energy, Vital Force, is optimized.

Recognizing that body, mind and breath are totally linked, a core component of thath yoga is learning to link body and mind into the experience of breath so that all three parts are integrated. Over time, it’s the integration of body, mind and breath that releases the constrictions in a person’s body and breath enough that they are able to experience the flow of Vital Force through their energetic mechanism. The ability of hatha yoga practice to effect this change of state is why it is such a useful adjunct to spiritual practice. It literally makes the experience of meditation more accessible. Likewise, a person’s experience of openness and flow in meditation feeds their hatha yoga practice. So, both continually reinforce each other. It’s all about flow.

The hatha yoga teacher’s role, then, is more subtle than knowing how to teach the physical form of the asanas and pranayama exercises. The practical information is certainly a necessary foundation that any qualified, careful instructor needs to teach safely. However, the most important part of teaching is that the instructor must first connect to the state of Total Well Being within themselves. From that state of openness, they connect with the students in the classroom, observing and feeling what is needed, and then teaching a class that serves that person’s needs. In this way, an experience of flow is facilitated for everyone.

The current training began with a look at the energetic foundations of yoga, both as a way to set the tone for how we understand the goal of hatha yoga practice, and to set a context for the practical tools and methods that we use to achieve that goal.

The training curriculum includes lectures and workshops, practice sessions, a teaching practicum, study groups and mentoring. This intensive training is organized so that each of the categories of asanas: forward bends, lateral bends, back bends, twists, extensions, balances, and inversions are being taught side-by-side with anatomy and observation and adaptation skills. Other course topics include pranayama, learning to sequence asanas and breathing, specific physiological effects of hatha yoga, and specialized topics such as the effect of sound and vibration on breath and asana.

The full schedule and program description for the training is available on request. If you are interested in attending parts of the training on a “drop-in” basis, please call The Movement Center for more information.

 

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