Next round starts January 10th, 2011.
12 weeks, Mondays and Thursdays 6:30 to 9pm
Details and Tuition:
You may
attend either Monday meditation (practical
introduction and practice), or the Thursday
lecture/practicuum, or both. Tuition is $400
+HST ($13.33 per contact hour) for each part, or
$692 for both together.
Click here to register online.
Course
Description:
There are 2
main components:
-
Mondays:
Meditation instruction and practice. A
full description of this course, which can be
taken on its own, is
here.
-
Thursdays: An in-depth
experiential overview of Ayurvedic
Psychotherapeutics in theory and practice,
intermingled with comparative review and
appropriation of salient Western theory and
techniques. Ideal for all therapists and
counselors, yoga community workers, and for
those who seek an integral mode of self-inquiry.
Course
Preparation:
If you have
no prior experience with Ayurvedic theory, it is
strongly advised that you read a primer text by
Drs. Lad or Svoboda to bring you up to speed. We
will not be taking class time to discuss basic Ayurvedic theory.
Required
texts (Corey, all available
at RYA):
-
Ayurveda
and the Mind:
Frawley
-
The Yoga of
the Nine Emotions:
Peter Marchand
-
Tantric
Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses
– Frawley
-
Ramayana:
Ramesh Menon
Other
suggested Reading:
-
Theory and
Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 7th
Edition:
Gerald Corey (best to get this
used online
through Amazon, or through the library)
-
Meditation
and its Practices:
Adiswarananda
-
Mahabharata:
Krishna Dharma
-
Meditations
from the Tantras:
Saraswati
-
Vedantic
Meditation:
Frawley
-
any of the
books by the key writers cited by Corey
Practice/homework commitments for certification
track (not required for general interest
students):
-
The
jnana shakti of the class is in lecture
and reading. It is important to read all
lecture notes within a day of the lecture
itself; the lecture will not cover all of the
notes, but emphasize the most important points
-
The
kriya shakti of the class is the beginning
or enhancement of your own mantra and
meditation practice.
-
beginning
(or including into) a morning sadhana of 108
recitations of tridoshic non-initiated mantra
-
for all 12
weeks: no media (esp. rajasic) after 8pm and
before 8am; sattvic influences only
-
20 minutes
of nadi shodhana before bed, with the mantra
SO-HAM, meditating upon its meanings, OR
-
reading
The Ramayana nightly (to be finished by
the return to class in mid-January
-
weekly:
online quizzes of 108 questions each taken
from the readings of Ayurveda and the Mind
by Frawley, and other texts
-
personal
project: Take concrete steps to heal a
significant relationship in your life:
-
with a
parent or sibling
-
with a
spouse or lover
-
with a
religious tradition you grew up in
-
The
healing effort can take place externally
(with the participation of the other
person) if appropriate, or internally.
You must remember that healing does not
imply erasing or denying any part of your
experience.
-
In
the final class, be prepared to tell the
story (5-10 minutes) of your healing
journey: the internal or external steps
you took and the realizations you had to
make
Course
Structure – 5 basic themes
-
practical meditation techniques: mindfulness,
analytical, devotional
-
what is the
Ayurvedic/Vedic view of the mind?
-
what is the
story of the journey of consciousness
according to Vidya and the West?
-
what is
the heart of APT technique? What can it
borrow from modern Western models?
-
how do the
teachings of Yoga interface with the
goals of Western psychotherapy?
Class
Structure (2.5 hours, 2x weekly):
-
Mondays: meditation and contemplation
practice, including mantra
-
Thursdays:
Vedic/Ayurvedic
principles and discussion, and techniques,
plus relevant western psychotherapeutic principle (key
elements only) and general discussion (30
minutes)
Week
One: Basic Premises of AP
-
notes on worldview
-
overview of Ayurvedic and Yogic views of the
mind
-
essential problems of the human psyche
-
developmental paradigms: the spiritual arc
-
noticing meditation
Week
Two: Gunas, Elements, Nature of Mind
(and Freud)
-
triguna theory: the binding of consciousness
-
elements as non-physical phenomena
-
mind: purpose, qualities, structure
-
Freud as primarily a study of the determinism
of rajas guna
Week
Three: Ego and Ahamkara (and Adler)
-
levels of mind and their functions
-
the conditioned and unconditioned
-
we do not kill the ego
-
Adler: focus on relationship, presence, and
personal dharma
-
Adler: focus on the identification and
modification of mistaken beliefs about self,
others, and life
-
Adler: focus on self-belief of inadequacy
delves into the yogic idea of
misidentification with the limiting
ego-function
Week
Four: Counseling and Constitution Basics
(and Existentialism)
- counseling
as pranic exchange
- what to
expect from those crazy doshas
- pratipaksha
bhavana
- the beauty
of the existential mode
- the
spirituality of angst
Week
Five: General Care of the Mind (and Carl
Rogers)
- ahara/vihara: the sacred economy
- caring for mental digestion
- care
according to dosha
- so-ham
practice
- the
empowerment of the person
Week
Six: Outer Methods, Mythology (and
Gestalt)
- diet, herbs, cleansing, form, colour
- the power of myth: key themes of Ramayana
- gestalt: contact, experiment, catharsis
Week
Seven: Inner Methods, Mantra,
Meditation (and Behaviourism)
- mantra: meaning and energetics
- devotion, compassion, love
- mantra sadhana
- behaviourism applied to Ayurvedic Therapy:
reinforcement schedules and more
- golden Ayurvedic rules and procedures from
BT for self-management and self-direction
Week
Eight: Dharmic Living: outer and
inner methods (and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
- the meaning and purpose of ethics
- The psychotherapeutics of Patanjali
- dharana practice on the elements
- cognitive behaviour therapy addresses
incorrect worldview
Week
Nine: Rasa Yoga -- the 9 expressions
of prana (and Reality Therapy)
- rasa: the essence of life
- love, wonder, joy, calmness, sadness,
courage, anger, fear, disgust
- practicing the sattvic rasas
- Reality Therapy and the 4 classical aims
of life in the Vedic system
Week
Ten: The Divine Feminine (and Feminist
Therapy)
- the feminine as a cosmic attribute
- earth, water, kapha, ojas
- logos did not kill mythos
- the mahavidyas
- visualization practice
- feminism as the political and personal
response to the realization that the divine
feminine has been disparaged by logos culture
for 2000 years
Week
Eleven: Rasa Yoga Practical -- (and
Postmodern Approaches)
- vata aggravation as the bane of modern
existence
- ahara and vihara
- fasting on or off a rasa
- daily routine
- halting the search for "truth" to deal
with what is seen
- narrative therapy and the construction of
meaning
Week
Twelve: Psychological Imbalance,
Spiritual Searching, and the Kaliyuga --
(plus Family Systems)
-
the rasas
as direct outcomes of our ethical context
-
rasas in
Kaliyuga
-
emotional
awareness and practice of rasas is ideal in
householder life
-
expectations
of modern spiritual life -- use the richness
of emotional life in householding stage to
fully experience joy and the mystery of
attachment
-
emotional
asana will enhance all spiritual practice
-
the purpose
of artistry in all integral traditions
-
family,
society, nation, culture: moving beyond the
vision of personal autonomy: how does the
whole thing work together, how does the
individual manifest the energy of the living
system
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