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Yoga is a 5000 year old tradition ...
of individual and collective investigation into the nature of reality, consciousness and subjectivity. Over its history, thousands of practices have developed to assist the realization and discovery of the most fundamental truths and deepest insights possible for human beings. Exceptional saints and sages, deeply realized beings, courageous explorers of consciousness and scholars of the highest order have contributed to the combined knowledge of this science of interiority.
In the past hundred years, yoga has made a cultural transition from its origins in the east to new adaptations and interpretations in the west. In its surge of popularity over the last 30 years, yoga has also been viewed from modern and post-modern perspectives, shining a whole new light on a what was once a very traditional understanding of human awakening.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
The system of yoga that I teach is called Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, distinguished from Patanjali’s Ashtanga yoga, the eightfold path of meditation. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga has been developed as a system of movement, postures and a certain breathing technique to progressively purify and tone the body and quiet the mind.
The Ashtanga Vinyasa system is intelligently sequenced so that each posture prepares the practitioner for the next. One must master each posture and sequence to a certain degree before moving on to the next. The series gets progressively more demanding, challenging the body to increasing levels of strength, flexibility, agility and balance as well as challenging the mind to increasing levels of concentration and relaxation.
I consider Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga a profound moving meditation and I teach it as such. It is a practice that anyone can do no matter how old. It only requires a willingness to learn.
"It is encouraging to see so many Westerners turning to yoga," Feuerstein is quoted in Yoga Journal. "I see 'fitness yoga' as an opportunity for discovering yoga's deeper side: mind training leading to inner freedom and happiness. Yoga teachers have an obligation to be grounded in yoga's understanding of the human mind, its profound philosophical and moral teachings, and its many practices. Only then can the Western yoga movement make a lasting contribution to modern humanity." | 