Everyday Nectar has been a wonderful
experience. This course has brought a deeper
awareness and unification of my mind body
connection, enabled me to understand the basis
of my yoga studies with increased clarity and
has expanded my world view. The flow of the
course material builds progressively and in a
manner that is both stimulating and practical. I
am truly grateful to have the pleasure of
studying this great science under Matthew’s
guidance. -- Lisa MacVicar
Next sections at RYA begin September 18th,
2010
Saturdays, 9 to 11:30
(no classes on 9/25 or 11/6; additional class
on 12/11: 2 to 4:30)
Next section at CCNM begins September 13th,
2010
Mondays, 12 to 2pm
Description:
Immerse yourself in the sacred holism of
Ayurvedic worldview and practice. Ideal for
anyone wishing to reawaken their internal
compass of wholeness. Especially useful as
continuing ed. for Yoga teachers and
practitioners. (Ayurveda is the ancient
support of Yogic life.)
Learn the cosmic context, earthly immanence,
and daily usages of the gunas (universal
rhythm of creation), the doshas (biospiritual
principles of growth, metabolism, and
release), the rasas (the 6 tastes of food and
the spirit), and your prakriti (natal
constitution).
Aided by streaming lectures, online quizzing
and teleclasses (for the distance students),
you’ll envision how to organize your life
according to biospiritual rhythms while
learning daily self-care and cleansing, the
economy of self and world, and the oldest
philosophy of nurturance known to humanity.
This course is instructed by Matthew Remski,
RYT, YT, AHEadv, an Ayurvedic Consultant in
Toronto, director of the
Ayurvedic Health Educator Certification
Programme, the first of its kind in
Canada.
Dates and
Tuition for the RYA sections:
Tuition is $400 +
HST, ($13.33 per contact hour). Access to
our online quizzing engine (required for
certification track, and generally helpful for
all) is an additional $25. Tuition does not include the required texts.
Individual classes may be audited for $40
apiece.
Click here to register online.
For the
Certification Track:
Our new
online quizzing engine will allow you to master
108 bits of Ayurvedic theory per class, based on
lecture information, and taken from the required
readings. This is obligatory for
certification-track students.
How much time should I budget for my studies?
The minimum study commitment weekly would
be 3 hours of review, reading --
above and beyond lecture time. Testing will add
another 2 hours weekly. There is no hard
maximum, of course, but if you were to
accomplish all the suggested tasks of the programme, including the readings, contemplative
assignments, homework projects, and weekly
practice suggestions, you might find yourself
working with this course for 90 minutes daily.
So -- minimum would be 5.5 hours weekly with the
lecture, and the full possible effort would be
12-15 hours weekly with the lecture. Most
students find their appropriate commitment level
somewhere between these two.
Distance Learning:
For students
who live beyond the GTA, a distance learning
option is available. You'll receive your
course manual by priority mail in the week
before the course starts, and 2 days after the live section
begins, you'll be e-mailed a link to stream
that week's lecture. Distance students are
also welcome to join the online discussion forum.
During the course,
for five Sunday evenings
from 7-8pm EST, Matthew will host a
supplementary phone-in tele-class for all
distance
students. This class will feature a
20-minute review of key material from previous classes, leaving 40 minutes for Q&A,
in which either course or personal material (if
appropriate to the teaching purpose) can be
explored. This will give distance students
the feeling of being fully present.
(Please note that this call will be a toll call. RYA suggests that you use a calling card or
purchase bulk minutes.)
Click
here
to listen to Matthew describe the distance
learning process.
Dates for Distance Learning Teleclasses:
-
dates 10/3,
10/17, 11/7, 11/28, 12/12
-
all calls
take place on Sundays at 7pm ET
-
directions
for calling in to the class are in the course
manual
Click here to register online. You may
also purchase the course texts through the same
page.
HOW THIS
COURSE IS STRUCTURED
-
Required texts:
- Ayurveda: the Science of Self-Healing
-- Lad
- Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution
-- Svoboda
- (both available at RYA and at the book
store at CCNM)
- if you are in the remote learning section,
you can ordered used copies of both texts
through Amazon
-
Twelve weekly classes. 12 “homework”
suggestions. 12 contemplation suggestions.
-
for
certification tract: 12 online quizzes
-
Since the
basis of Ayurvedic lifestyle is svadhyaya
(study of self and root-texts) each class will
begin with 75 minutes of theoretical overview.
-
Since
theory is best learned through immediate
practice, the third quarter of each class
will introduce an aspect of Ayurvedic
lifestyle to be practiced over the following
week. These homework assignments will
generate discussion and question-and-answer
for the following week’s class.
-
Since
practice is best enriched through jnana
(wisdom), the fourth quarter of each class
will introduce a topic suggested for
dharana (concentration) through the
following week. This is in keeping with
traditional Ayurvedic training, in which
Vaidyas are required to meditate on the
various tattvas and principles in order to
personalize their learning and enhance their
intuition.
WHO THIS
COURSE IS FOR:
-
Teachers
and serious students of Yoga who wish to
further support their Yoga knowledge with
Ayurvedic lifestyle.
-
Members of
the public who wish to learn about and
practice Ayurvedic lifestyle
WHAT
STUDENTS GET:
-
Notes for
all classes, along with references for
subsequent study.
-
Access to
our online quizzing system
-
Access to
our online Q&A forum
-
Optional
homework and contemplative tasks each week.
-
The
opportunity to learn about and taste common
Ayurvedic compounds for digestion, colon
health, and seasonal imbalances.
-
Common
recipes for doshic balance and cleansing.
-
The
opportunity to sample standard massage oils
for doshic balancing.
-
Demonstrations of nasal irrigation and nasya
application
-
e-mail
support
WHAT ARE
THE GOALS OF THIS COURSE?
The goal is
that students graduate with a solid
understanding of the purpose, breadth and scope
of Ayurvedic lifestyle, along with 3 months of
practical application of simple principles. If
the introduction of a dozen basic techniques
(food-combining, food choices, self-massage,
sensory cleansing, rising times, nasal
irrigation, digestive herbs, waste analysis,
tongue/urine/stool analysis, etc.) yields 3 or 4
lifetime daily practices, the course will have
been a great success. New habits breed new
habits…
Class One: Ayurveda Basics
Theory Portion
-
Historical overview of the Ayurvedic
tradition: texts, teachers, modern influences
-
Ayurveda within the context of Classical
Indian thought (shad darshana)
-
The three bodies that isolate the individual
from totality, and how they are treated with
the three levels of Ayurvedic therapy
-
How these three modes harmonize across the
five sheathes (pancha koshas)
-
“Failure of wisdom” as the cause of all
imbalance (prajna paradha)
-
Samkhya philosophy as underpinning of
Ayurvedic thought
-
How Ayurveda uses Samkhya to examine Nature
from the gross to the subtle, and back again
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #1
·
Harmonizing waking and meal-times with the sun
cycle
·
How to keep a dietary journal
Object for Concentration #1
·
Memorization of the Samkyha outline (tattvas)
Class Two: The Gunas and Elements
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: first observations from the
dietary journal
-
The gunas: what are they? What
promotes and what aggravates them?
-
Ayurveda as the practice of increasing clarity
(sattvavajaya) through reducing and
toning therapies (langhana and
brimhana)
-
The elements and their idealizations
(material, mental, emotional aspects)
-
How the elements naturally purify and balance
each other
-
The elements as expression of unity evolving
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #2
·
Removing core negative food combinations
·
Examining waste materials
·
Normalizing elimination (time and quantity)
Object for Concentration #2
·
The gunas and elements
Class Three: The Doshas – Bio-Spiritual Forces
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: results of removing negative food
combinations
-
How the elements and gunas coalesce into
doshas
-
Qualities and functions of doshas
-
Doshas as bio-spiritual tendencies prone to
balance or imbalance depending upon which
mental agency is in control
-
Introduction to Doshic dominance: Prakriti
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #3
·
Kitchari: what it is and how to make it
·
Fill out Prakriti chart and complete
self-analysis essay (500 words)
Object for Dharana #3
·
The doshas
Class Four: How the Doshas Express in the
Individual
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: your prakriti – group
self-assessment and observation
-
Sharing of thoughts from personal essays
-
Characteristics of the 7 doshic types in
detail
-
Common aggravators of the doshas: diet,
environment, unwise use of the senses, career
paths, etc.
-
How understanding the doshas helps in your
ethical and interpersonal life
-
Introduction to Vikriti
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #4
·
Employing common herbal teas to pacify the
doshas
Object for Concentration #4
·
Your Prakriti
Class Five: Agni, the Root of Digestion
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: more doshic self-observations
-
Digestion as the root of health
-
Agni theory – metaphors
-
Agni derangements
-
14 divisions of Agni
-
Stages of digestion
-
Failure of digestion: what is ama, what does
it do, where does it lodge, etc.
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #5
·
Learning the food charts
Object for Dharana #5
·
The many sites and functions of Agni: from
material to esoteric
Class Six: Ayurvedic Diet
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: food charts
-
Dietary practices in general to avoid ama and
build quality tissue
-
Food combining
-
Ayurvedic perspective on
vegetarian/non-vegetarian diets
-
Ayurvedic commentary on Svatmarama’s Yogic
Diet
-
Cooking protocols
-
Eating times and amounts: detail
-
Eating protocols
-
Digestive herbs in-class taste-test
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #6
·
Begin to employ at least three cooking/eating
protocols: blessing agni, cooking at midday,
eating without distraction, experimenting with
common digestive herbs etc.
Object for Dharana #6
·
Food as an esoteric offering
Class Seven: Tissues, Wastes, and Essential
Vitality
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: observing results from Ayurvedic
cooking protocols, and from the contemplation
of the esoteric sacrifice of food
-
How proper diet and elimination build quality
tissue
-
The seven tissues and the cycle of nutrition
-
The three wastes: normal and abnormal states
-
Ojas
as the end-product of nutrition
-
Destroyers and builders of Ojas
-
Ojas
as bio-spiritual essence of immunity: the
sublimation of Kapha doshas
-
How the doshas sublimate in general
Lifestyle Theme #1 (Pacifying Digestion)
Weekly project #7
·
Learn and prepare one side-dish indicated for
your Prakriti or vikriti condition.
Object for Concentration #7
·
Sublimation of the doshas
Class Eight: The Five Functions of Prana
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: challenges to learning Ayurvedic
cooking
-
Physiology detail: subdoshas of kapha, pitta,
and vata
-
How vata dosha is the “master dosha”
-
The role of the 5 vayus in health and sickness
-
The centrality of apana vayu in
treatment
-
How treatment of vata dosha is the central
medical focus of Ayurvedic and Yogic medicine
-
Main pacification techniques for vata dosha
Lifestyle Theme #2 (Pacifying Daily Routine)
Weekly project #8
·
Practice self-massage (abhyanga) with a
doshically appropriate oil
Object for Concentration #8
·
The five vayus
Class Nine: Optimizing the Breath
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: results of self-massage
-
Physiology detail: prana vayu and the
respiratory system
-
Optimizing respiration: hygiene, allergens,
colon cleanliness
-
Common Ayurvedic treatments for breath
difficulties
-
Relationships: colon, lungs, sweating channel,
and skin
-
The usage of sweating (swedhana)
therapy in aiding pranayama
Lifestyle Theme #2 (Pacifying Daily Routine)
Weekly project #9
·
Practice jala neti and nasya
·
Get in one good oiling and sweat combination
Object for Concentration #9
·
Breath awareness meditation, paying specific
attention to doshic vrittis
Class Ten: Daily Routine
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: neti practice and breath
observation
-
The doshas and diurnal rhythm
-
The doshas and seasonal rhythm
-
Rising times, sleeping times
-
Sexual activity: Ayurvedic encouragement and
rationale
-
Structuring your day Ayurvedically
Lifestyle Theme #2 (Pacifying Daily Routine)
Weekly project #10
·
Create an idealized home practice schedule
·
Implement ¼ of this schedule
Object for Concentration #10
·
The doshas through the day, and the season
Class Eleven: Cleansing – Daily, Seasonal,
Lifetime
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: your daily schedule – challenges
and triumphs
-
The necessity of regular cleansing: how
manifest disease is the end of a lengthy
build-up process.
-
Overview of cleansing therapies: daily,
seasonal, lifetime (kayakalpa)
-
Principles of cleansing: preparation, kriyas,
follow-up
-
Distinctions between Pancha Karma (Ayurvedic)
and Shat Karma (Yogic) traditions:
comparing clinical to self-directed approaches
-
What does no ama feel like?
-
Key times to undergo cleansing
-
“Measure your health by your sympathy with
morning and spring.” –Thoreau
Lifestyle Theme #2 (Pacifying Daily Routine)
Weekly project #11
·
Create a cleansing plan for the next 1, 5, and
25 years
·
Implement the 2nd ¼ of your new
schedule
Object for Concentration #11
·
Cleansing: physical, emotional, spiritual planes
Class Twelve: The Life Cycle
Theory Portion
-
Discussion: general questions raised by the
course
-
The doshas and your life-cycle
-
The major transitions for men and women: the
stages of life and how to ease their arrival
-
How Prakriti ideally sublimates with age
-
“Every natural fact is a symbol of a spiritual
fact.” – Emerson
Lifestyle Theme #2 (Pacifying Daily Routine)
Weekly project #12
·
Essay: What are my Ayurvedic priorities and
goals?
Object for Concentration #12
·
Your life cycle: the sublimation of Nature
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