Yoga philosophy course online – course overview
Welcome to this online yoga philosophy course. Yoga has the potential to have a transformational effect on your life. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get lost in a yoga practice, and just about any pattern in your life can sneak into the practice. The control freak is likely to become a “yoga control freak”, and if you are a bit too attached to be a success, then it is straight forward to try and become a “yoga success”. This is not to point fingers, because we all have negative patterns that we get lost in. The big question is: Are you tired enough of these patterns to do something about them?
If you are serious about letting yoga have a profound, positive effect in your life, you need to look honestly at your life and your patterns, and you need to challenge yourself to actually try something new. This requires both courage and dedication, but it will most probably be worth the effort.
Purpose and goal with this course
In this course, you will learn about yoga philosophy, but the goal is to take it a big step further. The aim is to present the Indian wisdom in a way that is directly linked to your life. The goal of the course can be laid out in four parts:
- To get a good understanding and feeling of yoga philosophy.
- To learn a powerful Indian philosophical model to better navigate in the unfortunate patterns in their lives.
- To learn how to apply the philosophy to the yoga practice and thereby get more effect from their efforts on the yoga mat or your yoga classes (if you are a yoga teacher).
- To learn how yoga philosophy can widen the scope of yoga, so that yoga can be much more than what you do on the yoga mat.
Who is this course for?
When it comes to applying yoga philosophy to a yoga practice, it is normally a good idea to keep the practice very simple. Therefore, you will experience that the classes taught during the course are generally simple and easy. If, however, you experience pain or discomfort, or that you find a particular yoga pose too difficult, remember that you can always take breaks and that this will not have a negative effect on the deeper levels of the practice.
An overview of the content:
The course contains:
- 25 hours of studies - including lectures, classes and self studies.
- Eleven theoretical lectures.
- Text documents for each lecture with key notes and self-inquiries.
- Four tailored yoga classes where you can practically apply what you learn.
The different parts
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“Facing the patterns”
In this part we will go to the very core of yoga philosophy and examine the yogic model of why suffering arises in our lives, and why we should keep striving towards a peace of mind that never seems to come. This analysis can be liberating in itself, because it can make it possible to navigate more gracefully in the impulses of your mind, but it is also the stepping stone to understand the underlying strategies of yoga.
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“Changing perspective”
In yoga, the traditional goal of the practice is to create a fundamental change of perspective towards yourself and your relation to the world. In these three videos, we shall investigate what kind of perspective the yogīns are looking for, why it is structurally impossible and mystical, how we can strive for it anyway, and why we do not need to be alienated by the idea of liberation.
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“Change and flow”
Here we shall look at the concept of change from two different perspectives. First, we look at change through the eyes of the early, ascetic schools of yoga, and examine why it is such a major challenge to the human mind. Secondly, we look at change through the eyes of the later haṭha yoga, where they engage in change to perfect the feeling of flow.
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“Dancing with life”
In this segment we take a closer look at tantra. Tantra brought new layers to the yoga tradition, and the modern yoga that is mostly practiced in the West is fundamentally influenced by tantra. We shall look at how the relation towards life is fundamentally different from the earlier schools and on how, the liberation should be sought IN the world rather than by turning the back on the world.
Access time
The course is comparable to approximately 25 hours of studies. You have access to the course for 12 months.
Simons word to you about the course
Dear You,
I am happy and honored that you have decided to study yoga philosophy with me. I love the topic and what I try to share with you are my greatest hits of yoga philosophy. In other words, all the key points in the course have deeply affected me, my yoga practice and my life. This is why sharing these thoughts is thrilling to me and actually makes me a bit nervous. My dream is to be able to share the Indian wisdom in a way that can resonate with you in a way, where you can not only understand it, but where you can feel it. Because it is not until you feel philosophy that you have truly let it in to your life, and it is not until then that it can possibly make positive changes in your life.
I have one single thing that I would like to ask of you. Please, do not be passive in the learning process. Often times I hear people complaining that a certain philosophical point does not make sense, and I wish to emphasize that “making sense” is a two-way street. I have tried my very best to make sense, but half of the “making sense” is the task of the student. So please don't just sit back and receive. Instead, meet me half way, and then I will promise you that you will get so much more out of the course.
During the course, I will be directing your attention towards areas of your life that are not so harmonious, pretty or flattering. This can be disturbing and even scary, and I just wish to say that I know that the process requires both dedication and courage. Please, be sweet to yourself, and if something feels too vulnerable, you are still a wonderful person even if you skip it for now.
I hope you will enjoy!!
Love,
Simon