The Gurukula System
In ancient Indian times, the tradition was for yoga students to live, work, and study with their teachers. This is the Gurukula system. Guru means teacher and master. Kula means home. Yoga students were treated as a part of a family. In addition to daily lessons in yogic theories they were taught the practical aspects of yoga, asanas, pranayama, kriyas, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, yoga philosophy, and yoga wisdom. The students were asked to do chores around the house and provide selfless services to others.
Zen Den Yoga School YTTC (Yoga Teacher Training Course) is designed to follow this ancient model. You will have an opportunity to live, study, and work with your teacher(s) and fellow students in the Home of Zen Den Yoga School, here in USA or abroad. It has five Modules.
1.One-month intensive Yoga Teacher Training Course (YTTC: RYT-200)) or Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Course (AYTTC: RYT-500). This includes four weeks intensive training at a chosen site (Israel, Eqypt, Guatemala, China, Japan, Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Samoa, Argentina, United States, and other places around the world).
2. Nine-month Yoga Teacher Training Course (YTTC: RYT-200). This includes two semesters, three months per semester, once a week, three hours each time, two one-day intensive workshops, and a five-day graduation yoga retreat in the summer. It starts in September every year.
3. Five-month Yoga Teacher Training Course (YTTC: RYT-200). This includes one semester, meeting one day a week, a couple of 2-day intensive workshops, and a five-day graduation yoga retreat at the end. It starts in February every year.
4. Self-Paced Correspondence YTTC or AYTTC. Aspirants who wish to study on their own pace will spend most of study time on their own. But they must attend yoga classes and/or participate in yoga teacher training workshops and/or yoga retreats offered by SchoolYoga Institute to gain direct experience. This module is flexible and individualized. Completion of the program is determined by the accumulation of satisfactory hours for either YRT 200 level or RYT 500 level.
5. Residence YTTC or AYTTC. Living at the SchoolYoga Institute at Turlock and/or San Francisco, California, USA is another way to immerse yourself in, study, learn, and teach yoga through the Schoolyoga Institute community. Aspirants are self-disciplined and willing to live in and experience the yogic lifestyle on daily basis. The length of stay is dependent upon the aspirants desire and/or requirement of yoga teacher training hours.
Soul of School Yoga Institute
SchoolYoga Institute is a family where we come together to share the beauty and ancient tradition of yoga. We sincerely value the wisdom that yoga tradition has to offer us and at the same time try to facilitate the integration of the wisdom into our everyday life so the ancient teaching no longer is antique but becomes alive and the art of living. Even though the yoga tradition derives from the mystical Hindu tradition but we assimilate the similarity of the spiritual traditions of the world into our teaching and practice. We see the oneness in all and the unity in diversity.
We would love to share our love and deep-rooted experience of yoga with those who are inspired to do the same. Yoga has touched our hearts and lives and has become who we are and what we want to contribute to the humanity as an integral part of our dharmic responsibilities in life. We are truly in debt what yoga has benefited us, a sense of joy, love, and compassion that have flowered in all of us.
We share our understandings of the ancient scriptures such as Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, Upanishad, Tantric Yoga, and Dao De Ching as well as modern spiritual teaching of Eckhart Tolle, Dali Lhama, and others. The most importantly we share our understandings of how to integrate these ancient and modern spiritual concepts and wis- dom into our daily practice in a form of spiritual healing and health or yoga theory and practice.
Sadhana yoga is our preferred name or style of practice in the Institute. Even though it has the name it is actually nameless and formless. It indicates that yoga is a total spiritual practice beyond form and name. The core of yoga serves as only a vehicle for all of us to experience the beauty, love and transformation. Sadhana yoga is based on ancient tradi- tions of yoga practices in India and other parts of world, primarily Ashtanga, Sivananda, and secondarily other traditions of Iyengar, Anasura, Integral yoga, Kundalini yoga, Shamanic healing, Reiki, Taichi, and Chiqong. Based on the concept we names different yoga practice to meet the needs of practitioners as Sadhana Vinyasa Flow Yoga, Sadhana Hatha Flow Yoga, Sadhana Gentle Flow yoga, Sadhana Restorative Yoga, and Sadhana Shamanic Yoga.
SchoolYoga Institute offers yoga teacher training programs and yoga retreats around the world in China, Tibet, Nicaragua, Samoa, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, west coast and east coast of United States. We offer month-long intensive yoga teacher training program around the world, five-months long yoga teacher program on the east and the west coast of US, residential yoga teacher training program and home study yoga teacher training program. We also offer regular yoga classes on the east and west coast of US when we are not traveling abroad.
As we know that yoga is a great form of healing from India at physical, mental, emo- tional and spiritual levels. SchoolYoga Institute has started introducing the healing arts of the world to yoga teacher training programs and daily practice. So we are moving towards the direction of not only preparing qualified and certified yoga teacher but also preparing healing practitioners beyond yoga. We have started to offer our trainees Reiki, Shamanic energetic healing, Chiqong, Herbology, yoga as medicine, and spiritual healing and health. Our vision is to evolve yoga and healing arts into University of Healing
Sadhana Yoga: Life & Yoga into Yoga into Life
Arts and Consciousness in the very near future. SchoolYoga Institute is a registered Yoga School (RYS) at 200 and at 500 levels with Yoga Al- liance since 2002. We honor the integrity, sincerity, and high standards of teacher preparation program offered through SchoolYoga Institute. We have teaching faculty with great experi- ences and expertise in all areas of the program. Please visit our website for more detail infor- mation on the sections of teaching faculty and the teacher training program and other relevant information of your interest. Please also visit Yoga Alliance for registry verification at www. yogaalliance.com.