Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School - Homepage
collected and edited by Sita
That which is planned is tradition.
That which is unplanned is imagination.
That which is both is spirit.
(old Sufi saying)
The Yoga teacher education is both a creative process, a dynamic training, a period of learning, and above all a way of living. This is a process which is outwardly directed towards society with which we constantly communicate and profound in the meditations and the methods we use, as well as in the way we live in the different Schools and communities (ashrams).
Our Yoga teacher education is not just about meeting occasionally during the week and on certain weekends. It is a full-time education. It concerns people who are serious about yoga, who sincerely seek a meaningful way of living and working and who will help others too.
The living conditions which have been created around the education make it possible to realise priorities normally unattainable in society - to incorporate and increase the joy of being, and struggling less towards becoming.
The aim of the education and the training is personal growth and spiritual insight, based on a solid knowledge of yoga and meditation. It is a training which stands in contrast to the media society, where people's minds are filled with information, while the lack of personal experience is disastrous. This results in fear, numbness and passivity. Unfortunately many forms of education suffer from this shortcoming. Even some yoga teacher training courses are only about cramming theoretical and mythological knowledge, with very little personal or individual practice, which limits the experience of the effects of yoga and meditation.
It takes a minimum of four years to become an independent yoga teacher at our School, and at least two more years if one also wishes to teach meditation.
The education is an exciting and rich chapter in one's life, not something to be undertaken just to receive a diploma. Those who have fulfilled the teacher training can receive a diploma according to the length and nature of the education: 1) yoga; 2) yoga and meditation, and finally; 3) yogacharya (a spiritual preceptor and master of yoga). The diploma contains both general and personal information as well as listing what the teacher is qualified to teach.
The Yoga Teacher Education begins with the residential three month sadhana course at Håå Course Center. Like most courses at this Center, it is international and taught in English. There are no other entrance requirements for this retreat, but the desire to participate and learn what the course offers. (Get a free course brochure with details from the School.)
This retreat alone is more comprehensive and profound than many yoga teacher training courses conducted around the world. Nevertheless, the objective of the three month sadhana course is not to educate teachers, nor does it give one the qualification to teach. It is foremost a process for your own development and insight. Regardless of what you will be doing after the three month course, it is a learning period which provides a unique basis for your sadhana (your personal practice of yoga and meditation) for years to come. Most people who partake in this retreat do not set out to join the Yoga teacher education.
Apart from the classes in the yoga room, a yoga teacher seminar at Håå also involves the teachers solving practical tasks together, as here where a drain ring is manoeuvred into place. The children look on in the background.
At the end of the 3-month sadhana course a talk takes place between the teacher and the student who has decided to join the education. If this interview is to the mutual satisfaction of both parties, then the student commits him/herself to be part of the education, and the teacher commits himself to accept and teach the student according to the conditions outlined in this paper.
The education will then take place in one of the city Schools and/or at Håå Course Center.
The Yoga Teacher Education is based on four aspects of the tradition. It is a practical and theoretical education with training in a group as well as individu-ally. Naturally it all starts with one's own use of yoga and meditation,
followed up by advice and guidance from the teacher. In addition, there is a less tangible training of wisdom according to the secret, oral or whispered tradition - a tradition that will not and cannot be written down. It can only be passed directly from teacher to pupil, and only to one who is responsive.
The four aspects are:
1. Communication
The ability to be present in every situation, to meet life with initiative and receptivity, contrary to when one hides behind expectations and mythologies about other worlds, behind astrology or religious fanaticism. To be able to devote oneself to the present moment, without demanding that the conditions or the people first have to be different, ideal or formally correct and without creating a distance through an overbearing attitude.
This ability to be open, whether confronting a situation, a person, or a group of people - is not reached through many of the modern therapies. Often the personality is only hardened or hypnotised, making it able to "cope", but less capable of accepting and joining life as such.
The education is based on the reality in daily life, where in the long run it is impossible to agree upon rules of the game. In daily life, after all, one has to count on oneself, with heart and brain. The education takes place when we teach or are being taught but, first of all, it happens in the work and the communal life (ashram), in the Yoga Schools and at the Course Center.
2. Experience and Knowledge
You develop knowledge of body, mind and energy through using the yoga exercises and the meditations. This experience is followed up by the relevant aspects of physiology, anatomy and the scientific investigations into yoga and meditation - and, naturally, by a study of the original source material of yoga.
3. Karma Yoga
The ability to engage whole-heartedly and with energy in the daily chores, however big or small. One learns to take responsibility and to be consistent in the carrying out of a task (see more on Karma Yoga below).
4. Self-knowledge
To awaken and train consciousness - to stay aware - is among the most important and essential requirements in the tradition. The ability to experience is the foundation for health and insight.
Tantra teaches us to let go, to join in, to act and to experience ourselves in the whole. Through meditation we realise our real identity. It gives meaning and perspective to life.
Can the pose be improved a little more? Correcting the Shoulderstand during a 14 days course at Håå.
The year is divided into three teaching seasons, all of which consist of roughly four months each.
In the summer, the Schools in the cities are open most of the time, but the teachers and aspirants also spend time travelling, teaching at holiday resorts and at Håå Course Center, as well as solving individual tasks. At Håå, they either take part in a retreat or help in running the retreats.
The rest of the year (September - December and January - April), the Yoga teacher classes provide theoretical as well as practical insights into yoga.
It is not enough to be a good yoga teacher. One also has to know something about how a brochure is put together, such as here at the light table in the school's layout room in Håå.
The subjects of some of the classes are grouped in the form of modules. One major module and other minor ones are dealt with between September and April. All modules are covered in 4 years.
The four major modules are:
1. Hatha Yoga cleansing processes, including tratak (a concentration technique). Asanas, the physical yoga poses and their effect on body mind and psyche. Yoga therapy, which involves both the traditional knowledge of the yogis as well as current medical research on yoga; how yoga can be used as a healing method.
2. The cleansing of energy flows, the awakening and use of psychic energy, involving Pranayama (breathing exercises); Mudras and Bandhas (attitudes and locks); Prana Vidya ("knowledge of energy" - a healing method). The physical and psychosomatic benefits of Pranayama. The balancing of the communication of the two brain halves and more.
3. Yogic relaxation in theory and practice, mainly based on the different structures and variations of Yoga Nidra (yogic deep relaxation), and on Savasana (lying dead still) as well as on the methods of overcoming influences (Pratyahara). The latter happens through awareness, acceptance and confrontation, as well as through relaxation and meditation techniques.
4. Concentration, Dharana; Tratak (inner and outer) and visualisations (see part two: A Module).
Other subjects that are covered in the same four years in connection with the main subjects are:
a) Fundamental Concepts of yoga;
b) Tantra, attitude and practices;
c) Original or classical texts;
d) Songs and dances from different parts of the world, with emphasis
on Kirtan (singing of Mantra);
e) Scientific research on yoga and meditation (research done in
the School as well as studies of reports from elsewhere);
f) basic anatomy and physiology;
g) Yoga for pregnant women;
and more...
Meditation: most teachings on meditation take place in the Yoga Teacher Seminars and the retreats at Håå Course Center (see below), in Satsang with Swami Janakananda, in Antar Mauna courses at the larger Schools, as well as in individual guidance and practice.
The list below includes names of most of the subjects, methods, disciplines or groups of such, that the aspirant will become acquainted with during the education, both in practice and in theory.
Abstract Meditation
Ajapa Japa
Antar Mauna (Inner Silence)
Asana
Awareness
Bandha
Bhakti Yoga
Brahmacharya
Breath Awareness
Chakra
Chakra Arohan/Awarohan
Chaya Upasana
Chidakasha Dharana
Chit-Agni Kriya
Communication
Confrontation
De-automatisation
Dharana and Dhyana; sthula, jyotir, sukshma; swarupa
Dreams
Fundamental concepts of yoga
Hatha Yoga Shatkarmas (Cleansing Processes)
Japa Yoga
Jnana Yoga
Karma Yoga
Kirtan
Kriya Yoga
Kumbhaka
Kundalini Yoga
Laya Yoga
Maithuna, the tantric sexual ritual (in theory)
Mantra
Mauna
Medical research on yoga & meditation: a. reports of external researchers
b. research in which we participate
Mirror Meditation
Mudra
Mysticism
Nadi
Nada Yoga
Non-Meditation
OM chanting
Prana
Prana Vidya
Pranayama
Pratyahara
Public speaking
Raja Yoga
Relaxation
Sadhana
Samadhi
Sankalpa
Satsang
Scriptures of yoga and tantra
Shamanism compared to yoga and tantra
Spontaneous Meditation
Sufi-dancing
Swara Yoga
Tantra
Tratak; Antar, Bahir, Tattwa
Vairagya
Vishuddhi Shuddhi
Visualisation
Viveka
Yantra
Yoga in different (ancient) cultures
Yoga Nidra and compared to Yoga Nidra also subjects like: clinical hypnosis;
Autogenic Training; Progressive Relaxation; etc.
Yoga therapy
The aspirant takes part in three yoga teacher classes every week. Each class is of about two hours duration. The subjects are:
1. The pedagogic and practice of yoga. Here the teacher-aspirant teaches the other yoga teachers and receives constructive feedback. He or she is taught the structure of the different yoga programmes, and learns how to teach different levels of students, the content of each class, as well as learning how to progress from week to week, and from season to season.
2. The past week... Through questions and reports from the teaching of the ordinary classes in the School, the aspirant continuously receives the nec-essary guidance as the education progresses (see also below, the first year).
3. Each of the above-mentioned four modules is presented through:
a. Source material in the form of texts.
b. Scientific reports.
c. Practical classes in the methods pertaining to the subjects of the current module.
d. Individual practice and experience of the methods listed in relation to the module.
Every week one also attends the group meditations and participates as a student or an assistant teacher in the yoga and/or meditation clas-ses for the general public taught by the more experienced teachers of the School.
Every season Swami Janakananda gives Satsang in the different ashrams - and teaches Antar Mauna courses (see also the previous issue of Bindu), in which the aspirant participates.
An indispensable part of the education and training is Karma Yoga. It involves working together and communicating with the other yoga teachers in running a Yoga School, including all tasks that it involves, such as writing, learning to use and work with computers, making lay-outs, printing and distributing brochures, creating our magazine Bindu, keeping the gift shop and communicating with pupils, administration, planning courses, food preparation, cleaning, book-keeping, caring for and training our horses, farming and gardening, forestry work, construction work, looking after the children of our students during classes on the residential courses, counselling and, of course, teaching.
"Karma Yoga trains your aware-ness and boosts your energy. It is easy to intellectu-ally know what to do and how to handle a situation or a task, but what happens in practice? Are you able to break with old habits and limiting influences? You will know this through committing yourself to Karma Yoga.
The attitude of Karma Yoga is essential for a yoga teacher. You do what is necessary and you learn not to be self-concerned. There should be no ulterior motives for teaching yoga. I expect the pupils to say good-bye when they leave, but I do not expect them to thank me. This does not mean that there is a lack of communication...
The ashram forms a good foundation for imparting Karma Yoga in practice." (Mira, leader of the School in Stockholm)
"In the Yoga teacher education we work practically with abilities essential for good leadership: Overview by handling various kinds of tasks, intuition through personal practice, training in communication and a conscious relationship to responsibility. The training is not laid down in advance, but evolves as a personal course according to capacities and skills - in the same way as the dynamics of a sound organisation.
Actually, I experience that the education touches upon an essence behind it all, which goes deeper than theory of leadership and communication analysis. It is the spontaneous ability to be present and act in a given situation without having a motive. Para-doxically this attitude does not connect with a society built on competition - a leader for no reason at all..." (Uri, a yoga teacher under education)
The school continuously collaborates with doctors and researchers on scientific research on yoga and meditation. Here a teacher is being measured at the University Clinic in Cologne. EEG, breath, blood pressure, and other data, are gathered in a computer for later evaluation.
A fundamental part of the education is four yearly Yoga Teacher Seminars at Håå Course Center: two weeks in May, two weeks in August/September, a weekend in October and two and a half weeks in December.
These seminars are guided by Swami Janakananda together with experienced yoga teachers from the different branches of the School.
Since we have students in the group not only from the Scandinavian countries but from other countries as well, the common language is English.
Apart from the general practices of yoga, meditation and Satsangs, each seminar has a main topic or theme, around which classes and discussions take place.
The seminars are quite intensive and serve to strengthen the meditation and insights of the individual teachers - they also function as a "cleansing process" at the end of each season. They allow the teachers to more thoroughly let go of the influences and tensions collected during the busy work of teaching in the various Schools - to again and again recharge, center oneself and reaffirm the perspectives of the work we are doing. Therefore only a few hours each day are dedicated to strictly "theoretical" classes.
During these seminars, the individual's practice of yoga and meditation is valued. Each day starts with Kriya Yoga practice in the meditation hall (which is also the case for daily life in the Schools), and followed up by one or two yoga classes during the day. In the evening apart from talks and discussions, there are group meditations, and sometimes kirtan (music and dance).
The teachers and teacher aspirants from all the ashrams meet and exchange experiences. Furthermore, the education is co-ordinated here for each season between the School's different branches. We also work together with various practical tasks, e.g. the production of our magazine Bindu, as well as keeping the Course Center in shape.
People come and go, and some of the independent teachers who have finished their formal education keep returning to the Yoga Teacher Seminars in Håå. But the size of the proper yoga teacher group has remained stable for the last 15 years, around 35 to 40 people. With this size the intensity is kept and everyone knows each other. Swami Janakananda, as the teacher, is able to communicate with and give every aspirant a personal, thorough and deep-going training.
From time to time medical doctors and other researchers from the fields of psychology have been invited as guest teachers on the Yoga teacher education, mostly at our Yoga Teacher Seminars. Courses have been conducted with Roop Verma in the type of Nada Yoga taught to and practised by Indian musicians. Other courses held include one in the Tantric Yantra given by the Indian Tantric painter Sohan Qadri; Sufi dancing (see picture); African drumming and dancing. Recently we had an intensive course in time management, conflict resolution, and communication with Robyn Taylor, a highly qualified teacher from Australia.
Scheduled for this season is a speech pedagogue and a neuro-psychologist; and in the spring a medical doctor from Australia with yoga therapy as his speciality.
Ajit Mookerjee, who has written many books on Tantric art, and Jabrane Sebnat, a Moroccan Sufi master, are just two of the guest teachers the yoga teacher group has met at Håå over the years.
The first year is preceded by participation in the 3-month course in Håå, from January to April. After the course, the aspirant remains living in Håå providing back-up for the summer courses. When the summer is over he or she moves to one of the other ashrams in the cities: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Århus, Hannover etc. or continues to live at Håå Course Center. (Often part of the training is to move to another ashram after living a year or two in one place - and perhaps later, to a third one.) There the aspirants take part in the daily work and attend the yoga teacher classes.
Sadhana: One's own independent yoga and meditation practice is part of the daily routine of every year, for the duration of the education.
Teaching practice: One starts to teach one or two beginner classes during this year under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
In the second year the individual practice of the aspirants is continued, deepened and stabilised further. The yoga teacher classes are continued. The aspirants begin to teach more classes and assume responsibilities in the various Karma Yoga tasks. During the summer, they help at Håå and take part in one of the 14-day courses there.
During the third year the activities remain the same. Now the aspirant has gained experience and assumes more responsibility in the running of the School, in administration and planning, with the education and in teaching and guiding others.
The fourth year is like the third year. The aspirants now start to prepare to teach meditation. After the fourth year, they have more and more opportunities to teach meditation.
Naturally the education varies according to individual needs and wishes, motivation and abilities. A yoga teacher education alone, however, is no guarantee, it is up to the individual - or said with the words of Swami Satyananda "yoga does not liberate you, that you do yourself".
Yoga-Show with Swami Janakananda and yoga teachers in the Olympia Hall, London, 1979. The picture below on the left is from the same show, while the picture on the right is from a teaching situation at the same place.
From time to time, starting with the International Convention in Monghyr in 1973, groups of teachers travel and participate in international yoga conventions under the auspices of The International Yoga Fellowship Movement. In 1977, the School itself arranged such a convention: Yoga, Meditation ´77 under the patronage of Swami Satyananda. A group of teachers visited Swami Satyananda in Deoghar in 1994 and another group participated in a convention held in Bogota in 1995, to name a few.
Groups of teachers and aspirants have also participated in several festivals such as Body, Mind and Spirit in London, New York, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and other cities.
We, the majority of the yoga teachers, do not call ourselves sannyasins (initiates) and only a few of us have received a swami initiation over the years. At present 12 out of 38 participants have received new names. This is based on a personal resolution and is not required in order to be part of the ashram or education. The life we lead, however, is as intense as and is consistent with that of a sannyasin, in a joyful balance between the inner life supported by meditation, and the life in society as active and creative teachers. Titles and outer rituals do not seem to matter much to the Nordic people; what counts is a meaningful lifestyle and the way we explore our potentials (sadhana).
Many of us have had valuable training and communication with Swami Janakananda for more than 12 years. We are now seen as teachers and preceptors rather than students, running the various Schools in co-operation with each other. Others have, after many years in the School, created independent schools or are teaching on their own.
Single individuals, as well as families with children, live in the Schools.
There are also people living and participating in the ashram who do not want to become yoga teachers but who wish to devote a period of their lives to sadhana, where they can work with yoga and meditation in the best possible environment.
Many of the teachers' initial motive for joining the School was, in fact, to live in a place where sadhana was part of daily life. Little by little, however, they began to see the usefulness and sense in teaching yoga to others.
Concerning the expenses for the education: The fee for the 3-month course and an ordinary two weeks course in 1996 is 17.500 Swedish crowns (aprox in £1700 and in US$2650), and 4.500 Sw. Cr. (£440, US$685) respectively, while the two weeks Yoga Teacher Seminar in Håå costs at present (May 1996) 1.800 Sw.Cr. (£175, US$273). The yoga teacher classes cost approx. 1.800 Sw.Cr. per year, and added to that is the cost of living, accommodation and food, which is now approx. 2.000 Sw.Cr. (£195, US$300) per month. These are the standard fees but they may vary somewhat from person to person and between the different branches of the School.
The reason for the fees being so low is that one lives an integrated life in the ashram. With higher costs, one would probably have obligations elsewhere, without time to spare, and it would be impossible to receive a comprehensive training and education.
Personal growth cannot be measured in terms of money or time. Time and motivation, however, make it possible to obtain substantial and consistent guidance according to a tradition that is alive and timeless.
Paramhamsa Satyananda at the congress Meditation,Yoga'77 in Stockholm.
The education actually has three objectives:
That the teachers, once they have finished their education, can work independently and use the knowledge and experience of the rich Tantric yoga and meditation tradition in their own lives as well as passing it on to others.
That they have been rooted so firmly that they can carry out their work without being overcome by the fear, doubt and faintheartedness which one often encounters in society and which we see limiting the way many yoga teachers teach around the world.
And last but not least, that the teachers through the education, the training and their sadhana have received both tools and a perspective on life, which make it possible for the spiritual and the mundane, the inner and the outer, to merge in a natural and harmonious unity
- a good basis for a life full of inspiration and meaning.