The director of the School of Sanskrit Studies in NYC, Manorama leads workshops here in the U.S, as well as internationally, on the Path of Luminous Shabda, a path that combines Sanskrit, Meditation and Yoga philosophy. Manorama's mix of earthy charm, deep scholarship and humorous teaching style were born from years of close study with her Guru, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati. She is a graduate of Columbia University. In 2005, Sanskrit Studies released the acclaimed Learn to Pronounce Yoga Poses an invaluable tool for yoga teachers & students.  Manorama is committed to affecting the world in a positive way through Sanskrit, language of awareness and love.

For more info on Manorama, visit www.sanskritstudies.org.

Jai Uttal is a pioneer in the world music community. His eclectic east meets-west sound has put his music at the forefront of the world fusion movement. Jai Uttal's musical roots embrace a rich variety of cultures and traditions that span the globe and the centuries. From the hillbilly music of the Appalachian Mountains to the passionate strains of Bengali street singers, from the haunting rhythms and melodies of ancient India to contemporary electric rock sounds, Jai's music distills the essence of diverse musical forms.

visit www.jaiuttal.com

Magic and synchronicity led me to find the practice of Kirtan. Once upon a time I was captivated by the music of Jai Uttal, and went on a chanting retreat with him. I wasn't consciously looking for such a practice, yet my spirit was certainly dying to find it. That weekend of chanting in the snowy woods of Breitenbush was the very threshold of my dreams and longing—a sort of spiritual homecoming. It was also the end of a twelve year long singing block. The practice of devotional singing blasted the block wide open, I've been singing ever since.
 
About 5 years ago I felt compelled to share and lead Kirtans. I did not want to be singing in front of people, yet I felt drawn or pushed to do so. Once again, Jai Uttal magically came to my assistance. I went to his Kirtan Camp in California in hopes of breaking through my fear and insecurity, and I also wanted to learn more about playing the harmonium. It worked! Joyfully I found the love and bliss of sharing the practice of Kirtan and in helping others find their voices and music. To sing freely and wildly opens the heart and plugs right into the Divine. I'm grateful and delighted at how this path began by following my own internal sounds.
 
Ultimately, my lifelong fascination with the colors, sounds and stories of India came into play, showing me I had found the true path of my own colorful heart. I'd regarded it previously as a fantasyland, and through sound and music suddenly it all became very real and present within me. Sharing the art and practice of Devotion, of Bhakti Yoga, is something I take seriously playfully! Through my other practices of devotional gardening and sharing my flowers and sacred art collection, I also create devotional altars for special occasions.

I believe we are all on our own special journey of self-discovery and personal truth.  We all want to be happy, healthy, and loved, as well as feel balanced and whole.  The all-encompassing path of Ayurveda will help guide you along your road to optimal health.  The ancient wisdom and philosophy of India’s folk medicine will enhance your awareness on a physical, mental, and spiritual level, ultimately reaching the essence of your true original nature. 

My Ayurvedic studies formally began in 2006, but my quest for a healthy balanced lifestyle started long before that, with over a decade of yoga, meditation and nutrition exploration and practice. Finally, I found a holistic system of healthcare that resonates with my body and spirit, connecting me to myself, the universe, and All that exists.   Each day my life continues to be both humbled and graced by the wondrous healing wisdom of Ayurveda.

My academic studies and training include 400+ hrs. at The Kerala Academy of Ayurveda in Seattle, as well as the invaluable 200+hrs. of clinical experience in Pune, India through the International Academy of Ayurveda.  Currently, I am practicing as a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner in NE Portland and continue to be a delighted student of life. I am also studying to become a certified Vedic Astrologer, studying with NW Vedic Sciences in Seattle.   My consultations are an integration of Ayurvedic principles with modern practicality, all suited to your individual constitution and specific imbalances.  Through a detailed diagnosis we can treat the root of the disharmony and not merely the symptoms, and empower you to take charge of your own health.   My treatments may include Indian herbal supplements, nutrition recommendations specific to your dosha, yoga asana, pranayam or breathwork, mantra practice, vastu shastra, oil massage suggestions, jyotish astrology and meditation. The ancient Ayurvedic text of Charak Samhita says, “We are all in this vast ocean of Ayurveda, and it is up to each us to learn how to swim.”

Welcome to The Bhaktishop two of Lisa Mae's teachers, Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi, of New York/San Francisco's Laughing Lotus! Please join two of the most dynamic and creative vinayasa teachers around for a weekend blast of deep and juicy vinyasa yoga practice. These practices will stretch your mind to its outer edges of possibility, all the while reminding you of Who you truly are--a being of love and light! Don't miss this oportunity to study and practice with some of the greatest teachers out there today!

Thank you for your interest in and enthusiasm about our 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. We are as excited as you are to share what we love.  At The Bhaktishop, we aim to illuminate many paths of yoga, and celebrate each one as we all learn to find our voices and share what we truly love about the practice with others.  We welcome all teachers, students, and seekers on the path to join us as we dive into this exploration together, scratching the surface of the vast ocean that is yoga with our very immersive and exciting Teacher Training program.

This program fulfills the 200 hour registration level with Yoga Alliance, the national regulating body for yoga teachers in America.  These first 200 hours are the perfect place to begin teaching, as well as to deepen your own personal practice.  We recognize that yoga is a lifelong practice, and that four months will not even begin to tell us all we need to know.  Nor will four or even forty years, for that matter.  But we have to start somewhere!  We also believe that teaching itself is the real teaching, once our feet are wet enough to try sharing what we learn in our own practice.

This program will immerse us all in the intensive study and exploration of many aspects of yoga in all its many forms.  We will practice and teach classical hatha asana, explore several forms of meditation, learn basic (and some more advanced) pranayama techniques, work with mantra, chanting, and kirtan, prod each other anatomically through the lens of yoga, and start to illuminate some of these mystical traditions both ancient and modern.  From the start, students will be discovering their own unique voices and relationships to other bodies and spirits.  Practical, experiential, and devotional, our program invites you to step into the mystery of these transformational practices, one breath at a time. You will not leave this program knowing how to teach like us, but starting to understand how to teach like yourself!!

Requirements for the program are first and foremost, a great love of yoga, and a deep desire to share that love with others, in addition to a deep desire to dive into your own practice more deeply.  At least a year of relatively recent practice in asana techniques is recommended.  It is also required that you have spent at least 3 of those recent months practicing with us at The Bhaktishop. We believe that the teachers you study yoga with really matter, and that there must be a relationship that resonates deeply in place for all students to get the most out of the program. For us, yoga is largely about community, and therefore as participants in Yoga School you will be asked to show up often—taking classes weekly, performing the tasks of the program in a timely way, and attending all classes is very important, so please take the time in advance to try and schedule these four months of your life so as to get out as much as you put into this program. As students and teachers, it is vital that we commit to what we are choosing.

This program lasts for 18-20 deep and juicy weeks, where you will be immersed in yoga like never before. We will be meeting 4 or 5 days a week, and the core studies are loosely as follows:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:15-8:05am, Meditation, Classical Hatha Asana, and Pranayama
Fridays 5:30-6:45pm, Mentor Meetings
Fridays 7-9:00pm, Topics and Discussion in Philosophy and Meditation
Saturdays and Sundays 3-6pm (a few 3-7pm) Anatomy 1 and Anatomy 2, Ethics, Ayurvedic Lifestyle, Teaching Methodology, Assisting and Adjusting, Sequencing and Class themes, Seeing Bodies as Students, Incorporating Philosophy into Asana classes, and much more.

Classical Hatha Asana and Pranayama

We start from the beginning with Classical Hatha Yoga Asana and Pranayama, because we believe that only when you understand where the roots of these practices come from, can you start to break into more creative and expressive practices as they appear to you, as an individual student.
Our asana classes focus on your own personal practice, as you experience alignment and openness in the shapes. We expect each student to be participating in their own personal practice for at least 30 minutes each day based on what we are practicing in asana classes. This is the foundation for teaching! We build the practice from the ground up, beginning with preliminary poses, solid standing poses and slowly building to more complex things like twisting, seated asana, and arm balancing. Only when all these things are in place can we begin to understand the sequencing of a class!
We explore Classical Pranayama techniques from the very beginning, and go through many of them as they are described in texts like the Hathapradipika and the Gheranda Samhita. We explore both their subtle body implications as well as their physical effects on the body, and learn to fly with the subtleties of bringing our attention to the present moment, which is what Pranayama is all about! The how and why of breathwork, as well as how to introduce and teach it to students is a critical part of understanding how to share yoga.

Philosophy

We start at the beginning of it all, exploring India’s Vedic wisdom through The Upanishads. From there, we dive deeply into The Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God, and explore deeply the questions that arise with the study of this, one of India’s most sacred texts. We then go on a wild and scenic ride through some of the more esoteric texts of yoga as they pertain to Bhakti practices. Excerpts from the Srimad Bhagavatam, The Narada Bhakti Sutras, and some other lesser known Bhakti texts help give a foundation for understanding this path of yoga. Finally, we move on to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, to take a deeper look at how this text shapes the way we not only practice daily, but share yoga with others.
Our philosophy classes are held discussion-style, so that all can ask, share, and participate in these books and lessons, and have them come to life before their eyes as practical and useful in daily life. These are living, dynamic books with so much to bring out in each one of us, and we try to facilitate each student’s growth process and resonance with this wisdom. We use many translations, to share the ways that different translators interpret them, and to illustrate that there is never any ONE way to see yoga!

Meditation

The cornerstone of the yoga practice, this dive into meditation will take the shape of 2 styles of practice. As our teachers say, there are as many yogas as there are yogis, and one size DEFINITELY does not fit all with meditation. Therefore, we will explore 2 different kinds of practice that we can immerse in for 2 months at a time, testing the waters. We will explore both japa mantra meditation as a tool for focusing the mind and as a bhakti practice, and mind-quieting simple sitting practice, using the watching of the breath as the centering tool. Meditation doesn’t work if you don’t do it, so we practice together to encourage you to sit down, turn your mind off, and relax into Who you really are. Kirtan will also feature as a means of meditation on a regular basis during Yoga School.

Sanskrit

We have the great fortune of welcoming Manorama, one of the U.S.’s foremost Sanskrit teachers, to The Bhaktishop for a weekend-long immersion into the language of yoga. Learn pronunciation, mantra, history, and application of the vibrational awesomeness of this incredible language. Manorama is incredibly gifted, warm, charming and earthy, and everyone LOVES her! This language weekend will completely alter the way you see your yoga practice.

Anatomy

We study the human body as an incredible machine, to better understand the ways that asana, subtle body practices, and meditation have effects on it. We will be learning about the ways the body can and cannot move in space, the anatomy of asana, subtle body and nadis, chakras, potential for injury as well as soaring in the asanas, proper use and application of the mysterious bandhas, seeing different bodies in a class, using props and modifications to serve all levels of students, and a deeply personal exploration of your own anatomical graces and limitations. This vast and often intimidating subject is illuminated with ease and simplicity (and more than a little bit of humor!) by our experienced Yoga School staff. We encourage all yoga teachers to always study and continue to work with their understanding of anatomy, as it is a lifelong journey! This course is a jumping off point for further study.

Ethics

A requirement by Yoga Alliance standards, and one of our favorite classes to share, we get to explore the implications of teaching and sharing yoga with students! In practices where people are opening to learning more about their true selves, anything can happen, and this class is where we begin to look at how to handle those situations as they arise. The basic nuts-and-bolts of the do’s-and-dont’s list, this class generates serious discussion as well as peals of raucous laughter!

Teaching Methodology

Here is the answer to the mystery—So, how do you ACTUALLY teach a class? In these meetings we will begin to explore how to sequence an asana class for everything from beginners to full-on themed classes. How you put a class together is an art, and we try to take away the mystery without losing the magic through—wait for it—actually teaching classes! From the very start of Yoga School, you will be working with a partner or in small groups in class to begin to stretch yourself into teaching, using language, tone, theme, and intention. Nothing like jumping right in to get you started! We truly believe that teaching is the real learning, so we get you going right away.
These classes also cover all the other parts of teaching yoga, like incorporating Pranayama techniques, meditation, chanting and mantra into your classes. We look at the why and how of adjusting and assisting students in asana, as well as nuances of verbal cues. All in all we are pretty hands-off with adjustments, but value the ability to see what is needed to best serve the students.

We also require a self-study project to finish your hours. It’s a 5-hour project that you must present to the class at the end of the program, and can be ANYTHING!! This is a chance to take a deep dive into whatever you are turned on by as it pertains to yoga, and geek out, sharing it with the family. In the past we have had short films about The Bhagavad Gita, performance art, a meditation space art installation, a dance piece about the birth of Durga, an interactive workshop on mudras, ‘zines about Bengali poetry,  programs developed for teaching to special populations like Yoga in ASL and Yoga for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and on and on! Get creative and surprise us!

You are required to observe one or all of the Yoga School teachers as we teach for at least 5 classes during the program. Once you embark on the path of the teacher, you don’t look at class the same way again, and observing class is one of the best ways to bring the truths you are gathering to life.
Finally, when you feel ready, we will gently nudge you out of the nest to teaching 4 of your own classes to the community. The Wednesday and Friday 4pm and Tuesday 7pm karma classes are taught by teachers-to-be, and attended by us, for feedback and cheerleading.

All these texts are readily available and are also cheap if you buy them used from Powell’s or Amazon.com. We will also furnish a supplemental reading list once you join the program. This is a lifelong journey, so those supplemental readings are both ideas for your project and things to explore. The following books are required for the program:

The Deeper Dimensions of Yoga- Georg Feuerstein
Light on Yoga- BKS Iyengar
Inside The Yoga Sutras: A Comprehensive Sourcebook For The Study and Practice of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras- Reverend Jaganath Carrera
The Upanishads- Ecknath Easwaran’s translation
The Bhagavad Gita- Ecknath Easwaran’s transaltion, as well as one other version you find
Srimad Bhagavatam- copy provided by the Shop
Yoga Anatomy- Leslie Kaminoff
The Anatomy Coloring Book- 3rd Edition (this is important!)
Trail Guide to the Body, 3rd Edition- Andrew Biel
Awakening the Spine- Vanda Scarvelli (this is out of print and can be hard to find so start looking now!)
Light on Pranayama- BKS Iyengar
Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: The Narada Bhakti Sutras- Prem Prakash
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Edwin F. Bryant

The cost for the entirety of Yoga School are $2895.
This includes all core required curriculum, Sanskrit Immersion Weekend, Laughing Lotus Weekend Immersion, 3-night retreat to Breitenbush Hot Springs, and materials for the course.