Sati Yoga is a comptemporary approach to yoga that weaves together the mindfulness and ethical teachings of Buddhism with the teachings of classical yoga (Pantajali, Yajnavalkya and Swatmarama) and those of 20th century hatha yoga masters such as Krishnamacharya, Sivananda and their students.
Sati means mindfulness in the language of the Buddha, and Sati yoga is a balanced eight limbs practice which aims at developing mindfulness through the practice of ethical living as well as asanas, kryas, pranayama, and various meditation techniques.
Sati yoga emphasizes the need for students to develop their own practice, and this website will hopefully help you do this.
Elements of Sati yoga
Mindfulness (presence)
In all Sati yoga practices, one of the main aim is to develop mindfulness of body and breath.
In asana practice, we are mindful of the body, and particularly of the joints and muscles that are involved in the posture we are working with. We first simply bring our awareness to these, exploring the sensations created by the posture with a focused, receptive attention. Later on, we learn to actively use this focused attention to create softness or firmness as required.
In asana practice, we are also mindful of the breath. This constant awareness of the breath in asana work fosters an understanding of the relationship between the breath and the body. As this understanding deepens and we learn to work with the breath to affect the body and with the body to affect the breath, asana practice and pranayama practice support and enrich one another.
The practice of Surya Namaskar is an essential tool to do this, and this one of the main reasons why this practice is taught very early on in the Sati yoga approach. Through the practice of Surya Namaskar, students develop an understanding of the relationship between breath, body and movement (Vinyasa).
Mindfulness of the breath is also developed in sitting meditation and therefore, Anapana sati practice is taught early, as it is by observing it patiently and consistently that we gain insight into the working of our own breath. Later on, through the practice of Pranayama (controlled breathing), we (re)train the breath, freeing it up by undoing unhelpful patterns of breathing and learning new, more efficient ones.
Balance
Another crucial element in Sati yoga practice is the importance of balance.
Balance (the middle way) is making sure that no aspect of the practice is developed to the detriment of others. For example, in Sati yoga, asana practice always seeks to develop strength (stability) and flexibility (ease) together. Without flexibility and ease, strength easily becomes tension, while without stability and strength, flexibility can turn into dullness or heaviness. So keeping these two opposites in balance is essential to continue progressing in our practice. In asana work, this is achieved through a balanced mix of poses and counter poses. In Pranayama, we seek a balance between heating and cooling practices, calming and energising Pranayama, while taking into account the season and the general condition of the practitioner.
Balance is also a concern when devising and developing a practice. All limbs of yoga must be developed together as practising only a portion of what is meant to be a complete system leads to an unbalanced practice. This is one of the reason why ethical, meditative and breathing practices are introduced early on alongside asanas and kryas.
At the heart of the Sati Yoga Training are four foundations for practice which have been distilled from the eight limbs of classical yoga and from early Buddhist teachings: Ethics, Body, Breath, Mind. Each foundation is integral to the others, all are equally weighted, each contains within itself aspects of the other three. These are not steps on the ladder which once mastered are left behind, but essential elements of a positive feedback loop to which we keep returning. These four principles provide an obvious framework for Sati Yoga Training.
Ethics
While many Western approaches to yoga overlook ethics, traditionally they are integral to all other practices. The Sati yoga approach offers a solid, non-dogmatic exploration of the ethical practices of yoga and Buddhism from a secular perspective. Understanding ethics in its widest sense: how do I become the kind of person I aspire to be? how do I lead a good life? how do I flourish as a human being and contribute to the flourishing of the society in which I live?
The inquiry into ethics provides us with essential tools for living more fully in a world increasingly out of balance.
The yama and niyama practices of yoga along with the ethical training guidelines of Buddhism enable us to cultivate specific qualities of heart and mind which support us . All speak directly to our lives-- on and off our mats. Our Sati yoga training helps us face the various elephants that are here with us in the proverbial room: climate change, species extinction, social inequality, etc, putting to the test our readiness to respond to Georg Feueurstein’s exhortation:
“The time has come to live Yoga with as much heartiness and genuineness as we can possibly muster. If yoga practitioners won’t respond to this unique and perilous crisis, who will?” Georg Feuerstein (2007)
Body
Postural practice (asana) holds an important place within the Sati yoga training, We will be practicing and learning to teach a range of asanas which we regard as essential for a balanced practice. There will be an emphasis on safe and intelligent alignment, experientially integrating the anatomy and physiology component of the course.
But what sets the Sati yoga training apart is how we approach ‘doing‘ these postures. An integrated asana practice takes place within an embodied awareness, one that is established through diligent cultivation and thus directly effects our normal, everyday lives as physical beings.
Through the integration of mindfulness into the physical practice, our interest and sense of curiosity develops, encouraging a sense of playfulness and creativity within asana work. We explore what it means to undo, understanding effort and ease, our fundamental relationship to gravity and to our breath. As we practice a particular asana, we begin to notice the effect it has on our emotions and thought patterns, we notice unnecessary tension, we learn to understand our breathing patterns and if necessary skilfully alter them. Seeing the relatedness of postures as well as understanding the fundamental characteristics of core postures allows us to practice advanced asanas whilst still enthusiastically exploring their simple roots. This understanding becomes invaluable when teaching all levels of students. In general, we find that our lived experience as physical beings is both enhanced and deepened.
Breath
“Without full awareness of breathing, there can be no development of meditative stability or understanding.”
(Thich Nhat Hanh)
Awareness and cultivation of the breath constitutes a hugely important role within the Sati yoga approach.
You will establish a basic foundation practice in mindfulness of breathing (Anapanasati) to foster an understanding of the relationship between breath, body, and mind, with which you can explore the anchoring role of the breath in meditation. A foundational practice of breath cultivation will be established in tandem, from which you will explore classical pranayama techniques.
These parallel practices will highlight the difference between passively observing the breath (in meditation) and actively engaging with it through pranayama. This two-pronged approach enables us to better manage our emotional responses. With regular practice of both Anapasati and pranayama, when we are under stress, or in the grip of tumultuous feelings we have enough experience to consciously use breathing patterns that bring us back into balance, enabling us to respond more creatively to life situations.
Our relationship to our breath within the physical practice is of paramount importance and is a natural extension of this balancing approach. We explore the quality of our breath as we practice asana, either observing it passively or actively engaging with it. Generally, we will look at how free, unconstricted natural breathing is crucial to our health and well-being, and explore ways to skilfully correct unhealthy patterns of breathing.
Mind
Yoga is, essentially, mind training. The various ethical, physical and meditative practices offered by yoga are all aimed at fostering a peaceful mind that possesses enough balance not to be swayed by attachment and aversion, and enough clarity to investigate reality at is. It’s only when we are free from greed, hatred and ignorance that we are free to make informed choices and respond creatively and appropriately to life, rather than react blindly to it.
The meditation approaches that will be explored through the four postures of meditation of the Buddha will include Samatha (concentration) and Vipasana (wisdom) practices, paying particular attention to the practice of Anapanasati, (mindfulness of breathing) and Metta Bhavana, (loving kindness). You will learn how to use these skillfully to further your practice. They will be introduced through guided meditation practices from the outset.
In addition to exploring meditation as a mind practice (drawing on current neuroscientific research), the Sati yoga approach recognises how meditation practice is firmly grounded in the body. We explore how meditation can become an integral component of our daily routine, togther with more physical practices.