Renaissance Yoga and Ayurveda
in the heart of Cabbagetown
391 Ontario St., Toronto, ON, M5A 2V8
Phone: 416-920-4520
info@renaissanceyoga.ca
AHECP #7: Ayurveda and Sexual Wholeness

 

 

Next section TBA

Dates and Tuition

Class times are: Fridays 6:30 to 9pm.  (Total of 12 classes.)  Tuition is $400 +GST  ($13.33 per contact hour.)  Click here to register online.  Individual classes may be audited for $40 each.

Overview

This course will introduce the fundamental aspects of sexual and reproductive holism from the perspectives of both ancient and modern Ayurveda, while referencing a broad library of contemporary sexological research.  This course is ideal for Yoga practitioners and teachers who wish to gain insight into how the health, quality, and variety of sexual and reproductive experience is fundamental to Indic visions of mind-body health.  It will also be of great benefit to marital counselors, sex therapists, and those who wish to bring more emotional, logistical, dietary, and spiritual intelligence into their sexual lives.

Course lectures will unfold the most practical and common-sense advice from Ayurveda and Yoga traditions concerning sexual wholeness.  They will also provide an overview of common reproductive imbalances and the Ayurvedic/Yogic therapies that address them. We will also take a critical look at the purpose and theory of esoteric sexual practices.  While this is not primarily a course in practical sexual technique, it will provide the resources for further self-guided study in the context of constitutional balance and emotional equanimity.  While the ethos of sexual wholeness unfolds over many years, simple awareness of these traditional concepts and instructions will begin to make an immediately positive impact on your own sexual and reproductive experience.

Topics Covered

Class One: Central Themes essential creativity; ‘natural’ vs. ‘spiritual’ applications; intimacy and the interpersonal; Ayurvedic visions of reproductive balance; creativity, destiny, bliss;  What goes wrong in general?  How is the bodily material of sexuality produced?  Cycle of nutrition; male/female tissue difference; essential vitality as the transubstantiation of sexual tissue; complementarity in energy exchange; receptivity/activity; Surrender and personal will.

Classes Two-Three: Men’s Issues orgasmic dysfunction; resentment of creative imbalance between genders; penile health and hygiene; impotence, premature ejaculation; STDs; sexual skill; honouring/regulating desire; ideal intercourse: timing, amount, mood, space, position; pain after ejaculation; semen quality; rejuvenatives; prostatitis; signs of vitality; ramifications of vasectomy; notes for gay men

Classes Four-Five: Women’s Issues menstrual regularity vs. menstrual chaos; uterine cleansing and fortifying; dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, leucorrhea, endometriosis; the gunas of your desire; vaginal health, hygiene; STDs; yeast infection; candidiasis; birth control; perineal strength; uterine prolapse; rejuvenatives; breast care; honouring/regulating desire; enhancing vaginal secretions; notes for lesbians

Class Six: Relationship Logistics and Pelvic Floor Introduction doshic types and Kamasutra types: compatibility; lovemaking time; TIME + SPACE + ENERGY;varying drives according to dosha; how these can be harmonized; bedroom advice: sense preparation, recovery through rasayana; structural experience of pelvic floor (Iyengar lineage); practical application (gentle asana)

Class Seven: Spiritual ideas in the bedroom overview of Ayurvedic, Tantric and Taoist thought and teaching; a critical look at classical texts: Kamasutra, Kokashastra, Gita Govinda; sense pleasure and the pleasure of wisdom; ecstatic experiences: how/why they happen and what they mean

Class Eight: Review of homework, plus pelvic floor practice #2

Class Nine: Sexual techniques for harmonization and vitality positions, strokes, pulses, seminal retention; pranic exchange; pros and cons of turning sexual experience into a discipline; left-handed practices: purpose, safety

Class Ten: Relationship Cleansing function and challenges of long-term bonding; the “furnace” of householder life; Conscious Communication; cleansing practices for your relationship; bio-psychological sources of tension (fantasy, etc.); change management; forgiveness; Vedic fire ritual adapted for the backyard or camping

Class Eleven: Pregnancy and Early Motherhood uterine cleansing, purposeful abstinence, rejuvenation, ideal conception circumstance; pregnancy support; perineal prep; causes of post-partum depression; the first 40 days after birthing, breastfeeding, vaginal retraction, the rebuilding of sexual vitality

Class Twelve: Sexuality in the Vata stage of Life:  The doshic stages of sexual life:  pleasure, accomplishment, self-completion; preparing for menopause/viropause; restoring ojas after householding years; hot flashes; the natural resolution of sexual life into spiritual contemplation