Yoga Sūtra-s Foundations

Yoga Sūtra-s Foundations 14 week Series - Spring 2025

Description

In-depth introduction to the essential foundation text of classical yoga.
Discover and deepen your understanding of the practical power andtimeless support of the yoga sūtra.
Develop a personal, living relationship with the text so you can use it as it was intended: a lifelong guide and companion for practice, study and being more fully human.

Dates:

Course fee

Join us to learn and explore:

What is the yoga sūtra?
Why is it such an important and treasured text?
How does the sūtra work, and what does it have to offer us?
How does the Yoga Sūtra relate to other key texts like the Bhagavad Gītā?
What has the yoga sūtra text got to do with me, my life and my yoga practice?

Find out the answers to all this and much more in this 21 hour in-depth introduction to one of the most treasured texts of the yoga tradition, the distilled manual for yoga practice and a user’s guide to human incarnation and consciousness.

This course will run bilingually, via zoom, Mondays in French, Thursdays in English 18:30-20:00 Vevey time. It is possible that some sessions will also be conducted live in Vevey if James is able to come to Switzerland. Any such dates will be confirmed ahead of time.

This course is part of the in-depth education program running at Casa Vinyasa Ashtanga Yoga Vevey, and is also open to all. Course participants can attend either or both the French and English sessions and will have access to class recordings and associated learning materials for the duration of the course and a full month after the culminating session.

Sessions will be lecture/presentation based with time for interaction and q and a in the latter part of each class.

James has a Master’s Degree in Sanskṛt, has been studying and practising the text for over twenty years and teaching courses on it regularly since 2006.

We will study chapter one of Patañjali’s masterpiece in depth, unpacking the original Sanskṛt so we can begin to develop a living, personal relationship with the rich, practical layers of guidance and instruction encoded in the ultra-distilled sūtra form.

We will also integrate a thorough overview of chapter two and the way the text works as a whole.

We will gain practical understanding of:

-What sūtra-s are, what is special about the yoga sūtra text and how we can work with it practically over a lifetime of study and practice.

-What yoga is, how practice works, the essential qualities and foundation principles for practice, the inevitable obstacles along the way of practice, how to recognise them and work through them.

-The role of ‘god’ or īśvara from the yogic perspective

-The underlying principles that enable and empower all classic paths of yoga practice.

-Why and how yoga practice works and deepens.

-The mechanisms of yogic meditation, including how it is much more than so called ‘mindfulness’.

-The eight limbs and how Patañjali’s yoga underpins and is related to paths of haṭha yoga, especially in the context of prāṇa and prāṇāyāma

Though condensed and only a relatively short course, this will be traditional style study, working closely from the text and exploring its practical teachings in relation to our own lives, study, practice and teaching.

For any sincere practitioner or teacher, this course offers a great opportunity to invigorate deeper understanding of the time-proven principles of yoga to empower and enrich your practice and teaching.

Join us for an inspiring and empowering journey into the heart of this ancient, living tradition.

Course Dates:

Session 1 Thursday 20 February, Monday 24 February
Session 2 Thursday 27 February, Monday 3 March
Session 3 Thursday 6 March, Monday 10 March
Session 4 Thursday 13 March, Monday 17 March
Session 5 Thursday 20 March, Monday 24 March
Session 6 Thursday 27 March, Monday 31 March
Session 7 Thursday 3 April, Monday 7 April
(No class Thursday 10th April)

Session 8 Monday 14 April, Thursday 17 April
No class Easter Monday national holiday 21 April)
Session 9 Thursday 24 April, Monday 28 April
Session 10 Thursday 1 May, Monday 5 May
Session 11 Thursday 8 May, Monday 12 May
Session 12 Thursday 15 May, Monday 19 May
Session 13 Thursday 22 May, Monday 26 May
Session 14 Thursday 29, Monday 2 June

Outline of the 14 classes

Session 1: What are sūtra-s, what’s special about the yoga sūtra text? Sūtras 1.1-12, what is yoga? What’s happening when we are not in yoga? The three pramāṇa-s in yoga, and their importance for study and for teaching, the means to cultivate yoga, the nature of vṛtti-s.
Session 2: 1.12-1.18: abhyāsa and vairāgya, practice and its effects, how yoga works, samprajñātaḥ and asamprajñātaḥ samādhi, the process of samādhi
Session 3: 1.19-1.22: essential qualities for practice, intensity
Session 4: 1.23-29: īśvara and īśvarapranidhāna, the praṇava
Session 5: 1.30-33: cultivating oneness, obstacles and their attendants, the essential practice
Session 6: sūtra 1.34, prāṇa and prāṇāyāma, sūtra-s 2.49-53 + relate to 2.46-48
Session 7: 1.35-39 further options for meditation practice + relate to 2.46-48
Session 8: 1.40-1.51 the mechanisms of yogic meditation, ṛtambhara, gradations of samāpattiḥ and samādhi
Session 9: 2.1-9: sādhana pāda intro, kriyāyogaḥ and kleśa-s
Session 10/11: 2.10-27 overview, nature of the seer and the seen, the role of avidyā, suffering and disconnecting from it
Session 12/13: 2.28-45 yama-niyama and pratipakṣa bhāvana
Session 14: 2.54-3.4 pratyāhāra, internal limbs and saṁyama

Yoga Sūtra-s Foundations