YOGA = SAMADHI

Patañjali defines yoga as samādhi - a special state of mind, which happens when mental activity stops. He continues by saying, that when the mind is in this state - consciousness (the Self/our true nature) is experienced in its pure (true/unconditioned) form, whereas, when the mind moves, it seems as though consciousness moves with, or is modified by it.

It is generally assumed that such states of yoga are not accessible to ordinary people, but yogis suggest that Samādhi is a natural phenomenon that all human beings are able to experience. In fact, they assert, a human being should experience Samadhi on a regular basis: it is just as important for our good health, as the three other natural states of consciousness - the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states.

According to yogis, every human being experiences Samādhi in utero. We have a dim memory of this deep state of peace and bliss, and our drive to satisfy desire or to avoid discomfort in life is nothing but the craving to recover this natural state of peace.

The bliss of Samādhi is accessible through yoga practices, and cultivating this is a central theme of our course.

TEACHING METHODOLOGY  

“Yoga is the practical field of knowledge” * Śrī BNS Iyengar

Kṛṣṇamācārya and his students were critical of book learning - they used to say, you cannot understand yoga through reading about it, you can only understand it through practice.

Just as the study of cookery will not provide one with delicious and nourishing food, unless you also actually cook and eat your meal, the study of yoga will not produce any desired results without reflection and practice.

Yoga is meaningless without practice: one cannot understand or appreciate it abstractly - it only makes sense through experience. This applies equally to āsana, prāṇāyāma, meditation and using the analytical mind (discrimination).

Exploring yoga philosophy is therefore a practice - it should transform our understanding (and mind), just as āsana transforms the body.

For this purpose we apply a timeless three part methodology, first described in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, which involves first hearing about the truth, then reflecting on what one has heard and finally understanding the truth in depth through meditation.

आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यो मन्तव्यो निदिध्यासितव्यः ।

ātmā vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyaḥ

“To see the Self (ātmā) you should hear the exalted truth, reflect on it and then meditate on your reflections”

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.5

This is the method we will follow.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

For students looking:

To deepen practice through authentic spiritual teaching

For guidance in the more subtle aspects of yoga

Curious about Samadhi and whether it is accessible

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you are invited to join a transformational journey…

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What you will receive:

in depth study of the Yoga Sūtra

deepening of prāṇāyāma and meditation practice

paralell study of the Upaniṣads, Haṭha Yoga Texts and Advaita Philosophy

theory understood through discussion and reflection and then deepened through meditation

community of self-study undertaken together, in weekly discussion

Yoga Alliance (CE) Certification

COURSE STRUCTURE

This eight month course is subdivided into the study of the four "pādas” (chapters) of the Yoga Sūtra (Samādhi, Sādhana, Vibhūti and Kaivalya Pādas). We will dedicate around two months to each of the first two chapters, with a one month break between. Then the third and fourth chapters, which are shorter and have less commentary, will be taught together over a 10 week period.

The Yoga Darśana, which is represented by Patañjali’s teaching, is one of six systems of Indian philosophy, all of which base their teaching on Vedānta (the Upaniṣads). Other Darśanas include Sāṃkhya and Advaita Vedānta - two world views that we shall explore in some depth.

Yoga did not evolve in a vacuum - it emerged alongside these other systems of philosophy and our sūtra study will be complimented and enhanced by exploring these other sources.

We will extract essential readings from the Bhagavad Gītā, Sāṃkhya Kārikā, Sāṃkhya Sūtra, Kaṭha Upaniṣad, Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Yogatārāvalī, Dṛg Dṛśya Viveka, Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, Yogayājñavalkya Saṃhitā, Yoga Upaniṣads and more…

Each week we will explore one section of the Sūtras in depth, looking at important commentaries and then we will also look at another text that can shine more light on our studies.

Readings from the supplementary texts will be in English, without reference to the Sanskrit original or in depth commentaries.

Two lectures will be recorded per week - one will be a commentary on 4-5 sūtras, the other will be a talk based on a relevant essential reading from the Indian Corpus.

Students will have access to source texts and will be guided by several questions to research deeper. Then we shall meet on Saturday to discuss. After discussion we will set aside time for prāṇāyāma and meditation.

We will focus on the original Yoga Sūtra commentary of Vyāsa and on that of Hariharānanda Āraṇya. I will also share my own reflections based on my studies with various teachers in India, mainly from my studies with Dr KL Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa Jois.

SCHEDULE DETAILS

This eight month study includes:

28 recorded talks on the Yoga Sūtra (average 75 min each)

28 recorded talks on the Secondary Texts (average 60 min each)

28 live meetings to discuss the texts/practice prāṇāyāma and meditation (2hrs Saturdays)

Yoga Sūtra Text including Vyāsa’s Commentary, digital copies of the supportive texts, where available

LIVE SCHEDULE *

Saturdays
12 PM London
7 AM New York

* All Classes are Recorded for Review

DATES

Samādhi Pāda - December 5 - January 30

Sādhana Pāda - February 27 - April 24

Vibhūti and Kaivalya Pāda - May 29 - July 31

ABOUT my APPROACH

Having become disillusioned by Western academia, I travelled to South India in the early 90s, to study yoga in a traditional setting. I fell in love with Mysore, which became a second home, and I returned so many times that I lost count.

The approach to study was very different. We would sit on a simple stone floor with the teacher, a small group - often only 5-6 students, and we would go through a text - say the Yoga Sutra - one verse at a time until the whole text was finished.

I was privileged to study with some wonderful teachers, the most important of whom, Dr KL Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa Jois (Ācārya) has been my guide on the path of yoga for over 35 years.

Over the years we studied many texts - Yoga Sūtra numerous times, Haṭha Pradīpikā, Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā, Upaniṣads, Gītā, Sāṃkhya, the Epics etc..

The texts are often cryptic and are typically composed in a condensed poetic form, which needs to be unpacked. But the study of the text itself was not our main focus. The unpacking or expanding of what it contained was the main emphasis.

The unpacking, or commentary is essential for one’s understanding. So the text simply provided a jumping off point for further or deeper teaching.

The Yoga Sūtra is only around 1250 words - or around 3 pages of text. There are 28 Sanskrit commentaries, with a combined word count of over 1,000,000 words. If you include all the modern interpretations of the text, that number reaches the 100s of millions.

This gives some idea about how much has been written about the 195 Sūtras.

Our intention is to use the text to get deeper and fuller understanding about the nature of Samādhi, which through reflection and meditation can lead towards the cultivation of experience.

The most important insight I gained from teachers in India is that this experience of Samādhi is a natural phenomenon which is accessible when the conditions are right.

We will look at the original text, then by exploring several important commentaries, we reflect on it and we will conclude all our classes with pranayama and meditation on our reflections.

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“The wise should always be one with that silence wherefrom words together with the mind turn back without reaching it, but which is attainable by the Yogins.”

Śaṅkarācārya - Aparokṣānubhūtiḥ

CONTENT DETAILS

Samādhi Pāda

1. Yoga = Samādhi
YS 1.1-1.4

2. Vṛttis - Ways of Knowing
YS 1.5-1.11

3. Practice and Non-attachment
YS 1.12-1.16

4. Stages of Samādhi
YS 1.17-1.22

5. Īśvara Praṇidhāna and the Sacred Syllable OM
YS 1.23-1.29

6. Obstacles and Solutions
YS 1.30-1.33

7. Objects for Stabilising the Mind
YS 1.34-1.40

8. Absorption - with/without Thoughts - Gross and Subtle Objects
YS 1.41-1.44

9. Subtlety of Objects Culminates in the Un-manifest and Seedless Samādhi
YS 1.45-1.54

Secondary Texts for this Section:

Kaṭha/Māṇḍūkya/Taittirīya Upaniṣads

Sādhana Pāda

1. Causes of Suffering and the Means of Overcoming Affliction
YS 2.1-2.11

2. Karma as Root Cause of Suffering
YS 2.12-2.15

3. Future Suffering can be Avoided
YS 2.16-2.20

4. Nature of the Seer - its Isolation through Discrimination
YS 2.21-2.26

5. Seven Levels of Achievement, Eight Limbs of Yoga
YS 2.27-2.31

6. Yama and Niyama
YS 2.32-2.45

7. Āsana and Prāṇāyāma
YS 2.46-2.51

8. Pratyāhāra
YS 2.52-2.54

9. Review

Secondary Texts for this Section:

Sāṃkhya Kārikā/Sāṃkhya Sūtra/Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā/Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā/Yoga-Yājñavalkya

Vibhūti Pāda

details to TBA

Secondary Texts for this Section:

Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā/Yoga-Yājñavalkya/Yoga Upaniṣads

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Kaivalya Pāda

details to TBA

Secondary Texts for this Section:

Śaṅkara Advaita Texts

SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS

In order to get a deeper understanding of the Yoga Sūtra, it is valuable to study several other texts, in particular, the Upaniṣads, some of the Haṭha texts, some Advaita texts (Gītā and Ādi Śaṅkarācārya’s works) and a study of the Sāṃkhya system.

In this course we will extract some essential readings from the Bhagavad Gītā, Sāṃkhya Kārikā, Sāṃkhya Sūtra, Kaṭha Upaniṣad, Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Yogatārāvalī, Dṛg Dṛśya Viveka, Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, Yogayājñavalkya Saṃhitā, Yoga Upaniṣads and more…

Many texts, contain significant portions which are of a lesser interest. Our purpose will be to extract the sections with deeper significance, to extract the “juice” or “nectar” from these teachings.

Readings from the texts will be in English, without reference to the sanskrit original or in depth commentaries.

These talks will be recorded.

TEXTS INCLUDED

Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā

Along with the Yoga Sūtra and the Bhagavad Gītā, the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, is considered one of the most important yogic texts. It is particularly valuable for its description of the nāḍīs, bandhas and prāṇāyāma and the connection between the physical practices and the mental states of meditation.

Yogayājñavalkya Saṃhitā

Another very important Haṭha text, though it is one that is not widely known, and one of Kṛṣṇamācārya’s favorites, the YYS is also valuable for its description of the nāḍīs, for an in depth exploration of pratyāhāra and much more.

Bhagavad Gītā

The BG is one of the most widely read texts in the World, translated into over 100 languages, it is a seminal text on the subject of yoga, seeing it is a practical path of knowledge, as distinct from the theoretical path of Sāṃkhya - though both paths have the same end.

Sāṃkhya Kārikā/Sāṃkhya Sūtra

Sāṃkhya means enumeration, the means of defining, categorizing and explaining the phenomena of the natural, psychological and spiritual world, as well as the means for emancipation from suffering. The categorization, which includes description of both the phenomenal and the psychological landscape is the underpinning of practically all Indian philosophy.

Kaṭha Upaniṣad

The six systems (darśana) of Indian thought all rest their authority on the vedas and particularly on Vedānta, or the Upaniṣads. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad is one of the earliest, and contains some of the earliest examples of yogic thinking.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is devoted to the sacred syllable OM and its relation to the waking, dreaming, deep sleep and transcendental states of awareness. Being only 12 short verses, it doubles as a beautiful meditation on consciousness.

Taittirīya Upaniṣad

The Taittirīya is particularly valuable for its description of the five bodies (physical, prāṇic, mental, intellectual and bliss bodies) and their relationship to each other.

Yoga Upaniṣads

There are numerous little-known upaniṣads that give us valuable insights about many aspects of yoga.

Yogatārāvalī

This is the source text for the “Vande Gurūṇām…” mantra. A short treatise on yoga by the great saint Ādi Śaṅkara.

Dṛg Dṛśya Viveka

Another text from Śaṅkara - a deep meditation on attaining the non-dual state.

COURSE FEE

ONE-TIME PAYMENT
€2415

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EARLY BIRD (before November 1)
€2175

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PAYMENT PLANS

BY PADA (3 instalments)

€865 × 3

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MONTHLY INSTALMENTS

€730 × 1 & €356 × 6

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QUESTIONS?