Sama Yoga Teacher Training 2011- 2012
Samayoga vision and meaning:
How is Samayoga taught?
Hatha Yoga
Personal growth
Spiritual Understanding
Clear Yoga definition: one meaning is "upayah" - a means to reach an end, the end being emotional maturity, objectivity. The means are dictated in Bhagavat Gita – Value of Values, Yama Niyama, disciples of Asana and 5 daily sacrifices are all included in the meaning and need to be discovered by the student.
A life that is balanced, free from extremes, recognizing oneself as a spiritual person, taking guidance from Gita and Teacher who has assimilated and followed the disciplines.
Samayoga vision in a nutshell:
To provide support and training in all aspects of Yoga. Offering teaching that is based on the Vedas and guided by a traditional teacher, one who has been living a life of yoga for many years, has practiced all the disciplines and has integrated them into daily life. Encouraging self -development, study, practice, and living according to Universal Values and Vedic values. Emphasizing knowledge of oneself, the world and God, and understanding what is the purpose of life and the common human goal.
What is Samayoga?
Samayoga –The practices and disciplines that bring us to harmony and balance in all aspects of life as well as understanding the choices that bring us equanimity.
How is Samayoga taught?
Teaching Samayoga includes the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects, therefore the teachers go through a complete course of training and are required to work with themselves on all levels, have a steady practice of yoga, mantras, prayers, and listening to spiritual teachings (Vedanta).
Having absorbed and assimilated the teachings, practiced well and consistently for years, Samayoga then flows intuitively from the heart of the teacher who is relaxed and open, totally present, and responding to the students needs. The teacher will draw from their own life experiences and offer a class that is aligned with assimilated yoga principles and also allows their own creativity and passions to shine through.
1) Physical healing and stabilizing through Hatha Yoga.
The physical presentation of Samayoga is an integration of Hatha Yoga, Kriyas, Qi gong and heart opening mantras, intuitively delivered in a relaxed way, that honors the students and lets them feel comfortable being themselves, the whole way through.
There’s a sense of continuous flow even in the stillness, the poses lead gracefully from one to another allowing the practitioner to go deeply into the sensations and feel the more subtle aspects of the poses. Guidance is given in an appropriate way, enough to direct students to set up the pose correctly, then pay attention to specific aspects and feelings in the body.
2) Emotional growth using wisdom of the Vedas and Bhagavat-Gita in a practical, appropriate way.
The emphasis of yoga is about growth. One grows through meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles. Ultimately it’s a cognitive journey, owning up one’s emotions and learning how to express them in a healthy way. We learn how to take responsibility for our own life situation, which includes settling account with our dark side, accepting our past and find forgiveness in our hearts.
Living a Yoga life helps us to see our holding patterns expressed in our bodies as tension and pain, expressed in our behavior as lies and complications and ongoing conflicts. Yoga can also help one to break free from this suffering and establish new, healthy habits based on Universal Values and teachings from the Vedas. For this reason Samayoga teacher trainings include the study of Puja (sacred ritual and offering), and learning how to effectively pray, bringing devotion into our life in a meaningful way. Understanding that prayer is only for the individual to grow and expression of our emotions in a healthy way (Dama). The metaphor of a blooming lotus helps us see that from the mud and decay grows a most beautiful flower. This is our heart when we allow the yoga to work, to nourish and fertilize our desire for freedom from suffering.
Samayoga includes the study of Vedas and Bhagavat Gita as these are the primary authorities of yoga life. We look into the verses with a teacher who has the key and can unlock the meaning of the scriptural words. We listen and discover how brilliantly they guide us to live a lifestyle of yoga, which means: balanced, healthy, bright and emotionally stable in and through life’s many challenges.
These sacred texts teach us about what is the essence, the nature of oneself, the world and God, and that all three are really one non-dual being. With that knowledge our hearts relax in fearlessness (moksa). The teachings help us to gain objectivity, seeing the big picture and not getting lost in the forest of emotions. They emphasize understanding the Value of non-injury, truthfulness and many more ethical values common to all human beings. Without this there can be no yoga, it will remain a mechanical exercise program.
Spirituality, understanding what it means, why it’s important.
When the students are ready and in their hearts they truly wish to know, “What is the goal of life? Is there a defectless goal? (nirdosha sadhyam)” they are prepared to listen to Vedanta, the end portion of the Vedas, also called Upanisads, which deals with Atma-jnana (self-knowledge), liberation from all forms of suffering through understanding that the individual is not separate from the total. This teaching is super therapy! In the understanding that you’re better than the best, a very powerful transformation takes place, and the student who stays with this study for some time will erase all sense of emotional disease, smallness, separation and doubts about who they are essentially.
Teaching Vedanta requires many years of study with a traditional teacher who has a clear understanding of this most subtle of topics, and can handle the words with the utmost care and accuracy so the student doesn’t get further confused or lost on another trip. This is immediate knowledge, that we are absolutely ok in and through all the human conditions, and this knowledge will profoundly impact the one who listens and understands this fact.
This teaching is rare, and the teacher is also rare, which means the one who can stay steady and understand is also rare and exceptionally blessed!
Samayoga is a School now!
Samayoga is now officially recognized as a School by the Yoga Alliance and therefore the Students can apply for certification and membership with the Alliance. Ultimately, the wish is for the students to recognize themselves as acceptable and have the confidence to teach because they know they can, not because they have a paper.
Samayoga presents the new team
A few words from Sky…
It’s been 4 years of offering Teacher Training programs and I must say it’s been an amazing journey! It’s been a great pleasure and joy sharing my heart, and passion for yoga, seeing the many students bloom and become great teachers. I too have grown a lot and continue to find better ways of conveying the Yoga teachings, mostly by being a devoted student of yoga in all aspects of my life.
I’m deeply grateful to Emma Öberg (Saumya devi) whom among many other roles has been a friend, student and teacher to me over the years. She has been an absolute blessing with all her efforts and devotion to organize and host yoga trainings, wholeheartedly supporting Samayoga from its conception. Understandably, she wishes to reclaim some of her precious time and re-direct her efforts into offering yoga therapy and healing, as well as spending time with her growing family. Wishing her all the best and blessings on her journey, she is ever a huge part of Samayoga and we honor her for all she’s contributed.
So now we gratefully welcome Klas Landahl and Anna Sunesson to the SamaYoga team for 2011.
Klas has been through a Samayoga teacher training program, and has been an absolutely shining student of yoga, over the years coming to be a good friend, brother and co-teacher/musician on several SamaYoga courses.
Not only is he a great musician he also has spiritual depth and is able to confidently lead a sacred ritual in the form of a 16 step Vedic Puja, handling the Sanskrit Language with clarity and precision. For aspiring yoga students this is a rare blessing that teaches us about devotion and healing emotions.
I've seen Klas grow a tremendous amount over the past 4 years, and he's clearly used the yoga teaching and wisdom of the Vedas to help him on his journey. His practice and commitment to Yoga and Vedanta is very solid, and because of this he's quickly become a great yoga teacher. Klas is an excellent example of how one can transform their life and truly shine in their full potential. I am very happy that he’s chosen to help organize, run and continue to participate with Samayoga.
Anna Sunesson is a dear friend and yoga student of many years. She is devoted to yoga life, teaching and maintaining a steady practice, self-reflection and exploring her passion to grow. Her heart is at home in the earth, offering her home-grown foods and luscious cooking, her knowledge of nature is a deep part of who she is. She truly values non-injury (ahimsa) and lives in harmony with nature. I always see her with her feet in the earth. She brings a sacred feminine balance to the Samayoga team.
Anna has great organizational skills and ideas plus the ability to implement them in course form. We have successfully run several yoga retreats together and they’ve always been smoothly run, heartfelt and well appreciated by all. I’m grateful to work with her again in this capacity and grow the Samayoga garden into a deeply nourishing School for all who come.
Teacher training 2011/2012
A wish for all students.
“May the students/teachers of Samayoga gain the blessing of Moksa (liberation from a sense of limitation) and have the capacity to share with comfort and confidence the true teachings of yoga. May all beings have freedom from suffering.”
Many new teacher trainings are being born all the time. What does Samayoga offer that is unique and different from the others?
1) Emphasis on Self-Development
Samayoga presents a full yoga lifestyle, how one can live in harmony with their environment, and most importantly how we can mature and grow into responsible, stable, spiritual people that honor and live a life in accordance with human values. The teachings come directly from Bhagavat Gita, Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Vedas.
We learn about meditation, Puja, Prayers, Devotion, Emotional management, proper chanting, Mantra, and meanings of mantras, psychology and how the consistent practice of these disciplines earns us grace and blessings in the life.
2) The yoga classes are uniquely presented
The Yoga is delivered straight from the heart, from a deep trust in the yoga wisdom and knowledge to flow from teacher to student. It is delivered as a prayer. The confidence to teach this way comes from absorbing the teachings over several years of study and practice. We train ourselves to be very present, available to learn, quiet and focused in the mind, inspired, and devoted to yoga as a way of life. The yoga arrives more and more deeply in our heart and available to come out as the situation calls it to come. We learn how even a simple Asana (posture) can be richly presented in such a way that its effects go deep and the students relax and resolve into the more subtle aspects of the pose the heart-centered presence of the teacher is developed as they embody the teachings more fully due to a consistent commitment and a love for sharing the knowledge. The teacher feels grateful and mutually honors the students, free from manipulation and control issues. Relaxed in non-competition, students are encouraged to honor their body/minds, they are praised, beautiful qualities are recognized. Freedom form competition, comparison and control, which means freedom from sorrow.
3) The physical presentation of Samayoga is an integration of Hatha Yoga, Kriyas, Qi gong and heart opening mantras, intuitively delivered in a relaxed way, that honors the students and lets them feel comfortable the whole way through.
There’s a sense of continuous flow even in the stillness, the poses lead gracefully from one to another allowing the practitioner to go deeply into the sensations feeling the more subtle aspects of the pose. Guidance is given in an appropriate way, enough to direct students to set up the pose correctly, then pay attention to specific aspects and feelings in the body.
Mantras and movements are incorporated into the class to deepen focus and devotion this also brings an opening to the voice and heart. The teaching is conveyed with simplicity and depth.
4) Learn how to teach with your heart and full presence
While teaching Yoga we take great care to use language that is appropriate and non-manipulative, so the students can truly trust and relax. This is absorbed by the students throughout the course and will become their language too. We learn how to teach without using notes. The mechanics and technical aspects of the Asanas are explored in depth and students get a good understanding how to perform the Asanas and practice teaching them to the group. We devote 2 classes per day to being on the yoga mat and engaging in Hatha yoga, both in flow and structure, solo and group work.
5) It takes a commitment:
Yoga is a commitment to cognitive and emotional maturity! The teaching is there and guides us as to how to do this. Going pain is Growing pain, we learn to stay present with painful feelings.
Yoga Sutras presents the Yamas and Niyamas as the first limb of Yoga practice. It’s not to be taken lightly or passed over. Samayoga asks the students to commit to living a life in alignment with these sacred values. We teach these thoroughly, we live these values and see how they bless us, deeply strengthening our character and freeing our heart from conflict. The benefit of this is: less reaction, less frequency of reaction and sooner recovery from reaction.
We commit to practice Yoga Asanas and Pranayama as a means of stabilizing the mind and body.
See what happens when you commit to a daily practice of nadi shodana for 6 months or longer.
6) Personal programs are prescribed for all Teacher Trainees.
Sky meets all students individually, seeing where they are at, what is the physical/emotional state of the person and what they can focus on in between the 3 segments. Personal programs are not set in stone and sometimes altered accordingly to the changing needs of the student. All personal programs are shared with other students in the course so they gain a resource bank of different practices and they can see how the practices are suited to the individual needs.
7) We learn and practice Japa Sadhana –repetition of Mantra:
This is a rich resource for the student, and all students are initiated into Mantra Japa. They are encouraged to chant every day, and over time they can gain deeper and deeper focus and devotion in the chanting. This is a great way to learn to manage our thoughts, when we repeat the same sacred words over and over we clearly see what thought patterns pop up that's not part of the chanting.
Our voice is the tool to convey the words, there must be a confidence and strength to deliver these special words. Chanting and repetition of mantra gives this voice strengthening. Also the mantras are taught correctly, how they were originally presented and honoring the sacred Vedic sounds. The meanings of the mantras are also unfolded.
In the mornings we chant Mantra 108 times.
8) We get to travel to Bali:
The 10 days in Bali are special indeed. By the ocean, warm, away from all familiar forms, on a magical, spiritual, island where the people are living in prayer. To grow we need to stretch our comfort zones, sacrifice some of our personal likes and dislikes - see what happens when we show up in a different culture.
Travel is a great way to deepen our yoga study, we give our ourselves time to break away from our familiar story and enter a new chapter, the title being, “I’m going to deepen my yoga knowledge”. It’s powerful. Bali has a certain healing power and many healers live here. The culture and climate enhance your yoga study by reflecting it in the eyes of the people here - people living a life of ritual, offering, and constant sacrifice.
9) We get classes with a very rare traditional teacher, a Swamiji (master) who deeply understands the purpose of yoga and has practiced it, lived it thoroughly and taught for over 35yrs.
Swami Vagishananda Saraswati has been an important aspect of this training, teaching us traditional Vedanta and yoga lifestyle as taught in the Bhagavat Gita. Swamiji takes the role of a seeing-eye dog and guides us with words to see what we truly ARE, to see the essence of ourselves that is unaffected by the various states of the body and the mind. We get to ask questions about the nature of oneself, the world and God. The purpose of this teaching is to help us be content in ourselves, by ourselves, no matter what happens in body and mind. Sri Swamiji is a rare jewel indeed, we are blessed to have classes in Bali with a teacher so deep and so available to share this knowledge clearly.
Asato Ma Sat Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrytyor Ma, amrtam Gamaya
Lead me from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge from untruth to truth and from death to understanding of my true nature as deathless.
