• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
2
Instructor or Guide?
educate new teachers. Here we have aresponsibility, both towards our ownand coming generations.Clear traces of yoga can be found inmany ancient cultures, but it is in Asia,especially India, that the Tantrictradition has been passed onfrom teacher to student to thepresent day. And it is from thisrich tradition that theScandinavian Yoga andMeditation School operates.Nowadays, yoga arouses agreat deal of interest, and againit is being used world-wide. Inmany countries the demand issteadily increasing. Sometimesteachers are educated tooquickly and too superficially,or they start to teach withoutany educationat all. This does nobody anyfavours. On the contrary, whenthe teaching does not yield thebenefits it should, then westand the risk of people losinginterest and missing that whichthey are within their rights toexpect.What background does a yoga teacherneed? What is necessary to keep the firealive? In order to give other people apractical and effective tool in their livesthrough yoga and meditation, a firmfoundation, based on both experienceand knowledge, is needed.Some of Europe’s yoga teachercourses are currently being co-ordinated. Behind the move liesa strong motivation to raise thequality of the education. It is anexciting process that can give asolid basis for present and futureteachers. With that background,we present the yoga teachereducation which has taken format the Scandinavian Yoga andMeditation School since itsfoundation in 1970.As a teacher of yoga andmeditation, I experience myself as a tool - one of thecontemporary exponents of anancient knowledge of man as abeing composed of body, mind,energy and consciousness. I takepart in passing on thisknowledge - just as many othershave done in the course of time,and as many are sure to do in thefuture.Yoga and meditation is a humaninheritance, a valuable gift, whichnone of us own. It is our task asteachers to administer this inheritance -to teach the people who want it, and to
 Editorial by Mira
A letter about the ‘Lotus Chair’ from one of our course participants from Oslo, Norway:
“The Lotus Chair was displayed at the Alternative Fair in Oslo in November. No one was there watching and no explanation was displayed. I could not figureout how it was used, so out of curiosity, I tried it. I sat down in half lotus. My knee made a noise and my bottom dropped.Thinking I did something wrong, I switched sides, and the damage was done. In a few seconds I had destroyed my knees. The pain increased in the days that followed. Now, after visiting the doctor, a physical therapist and having X-rays, I can walk okay. I cannot sit in the lotus or half lotus now. I wish they had called the chair something else, and I wish I had realized just how dangerous yoga props can be. Inthe ‘Lotus Chair’ one should 
 not
sit in lotus or half lotus. I don’t know what it is intended for, but it is not for people whocan sit in a meditation pose. Perhaps I should order one now.”
(Suzanne Lasher)
 
3
Content
 Yoga for the Back4
To rest need not be the best medicine.Simple yoga exercises can strenghtenyour back and make it supple - as aprevention for back problems or as anaid against pain.
Experience and Knowledge8
What demands should a good yogateacher make on him/herself? What isto be expected of a living education?About the yoga teacher education at theScandinavian Yoga and MeditationSchool. A view of more than 25 years ofteaching experience.
 Yoga at Home22
From our shop we mail: Books,relaxation tapes, CDs, Neti pots - fornose cleansing, the periodical Bindu ...
Experience Yoga Nidra23
Now also available on CD.Two deepreaching relaxations withSwami Janakananda.
Kabir24
Four poems by India's great poet.
Håå International Course Center
in Southern Sweden.
25
Do you want to learn more? Do youwant to go deeper with yoga andmeditation? The programme for nextyear is presented. There are currentcourses in September and October, andagain at Christmas and New Year. InJanuary 1997 Swami Janakanandabegins his 23rd Three Months Course,with advanced meditations and yogamethods from the Tantric yoga tradition,among them Kriya Yoga.
“
 Any therapist who would lead othersto psychic heights and depths must,himself, be able to attain these heightsand depths of the psyche.Contemporary psychotherapists willhave to begin by training themselves toascend and descend through their own psyche and thereby experience themanifold components within man and the driving forces behind human life.
”(R. Desoille)This applies no less to yoga teachers. If personal experience is too limited itwill narrow the teaching, andsometimes yoga is changed intosomething quite different.
Yoga Furniture and Accessories
A woman who had practised yoga in theUSA came to our school in Stockholmat the beginning of the sum-mer. Shewanted to start on a course as fast aspossible because she “
couldn’t do yogaat home.
” “
Why not?
” I asked. “
Well,we used various appliances and yoga furniture when we did the exercises,and I don’t have those.
”How far from the original can oneventure? Isn’t it taking it too far whenyou have to rely on accessories,furniture and cushions? All that isneeded for doing yoga is a blanket orsome kind of mat, and possibly a nosecleansing pot.Don’t let yourself be fooled byadvertisements. Appliances are not onlyunnecessary; in most cases they lessenthe effect of yoga. A man from Canadaprobably wins first prize by claimingthat you can go into samadhi by sittingon the “samadhi cushion” he sells.Yoga furniture limits the freedom of movement, and the exercise no longerhas that desired effect on the muscles, joints, inner organs and on the body’spsychic energy. And if the instructionshave been insufficient, yoga furniturecan give serious injuries. Some doctorsin the USA recently stated that mostinjuries that people bring to the hospitalcome from using training appliances ingeneral.
The Yoga Tradition
If you want to find water, then dig onedeep hole, not a lot of small ones. In theoriginal tradition, the student lived for aminimum of twelve years in an ashramunder the teacher’s guidance before he/ she was considered independent. Whenyou had found your teacher, then youremained there. Restlessness anddelusion are dropped, and what isessential appears. You gain peace andfreedom to explore the techniques andmethods of yoga, and you mature withexperience.To teach is valuable for one’s owndevelopment, but it is also necessary tohave inspiration and feedback fromcolleagues and people with moreexperience than oneself.Swami Satyananda once said:“
Teaching is like being with roses
”- they are beautiful and smell good, butthey also have thorns. For those work-ing with people, and especially for yogateachers, it is important to be able to letgo of impressions and influences, andagain and again to return to harmony. Inthat way one can experience withoutbeing coloured by states andconceptions. Then one is neutraltowards the students, giving them thefreedom to be themselves - and, in thisway, the teaching lives on.“
 Don’t ‘learn’ - but 
live
in everything you do, and through life, learn.
”(Swami Janakananda)
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...