Tag Archives: About Gurudevi

Becoming a Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation Teacher by Marlene Gast

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47Meditation Teacher Training, which brings forth new Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation Teachers, began on February 18.  It is in progress now at The Desmond through March 2.  Yesterday, students, along with Swami Nirmalananda and Trainers who are assisting, lunched at the Ashram, and Swamiji shared an update on this course.  She said, “We’re now halfway through the course days, but all the teachers-in-training are already fully deepened — as far as any group has gone before. I’ve been able to teach sections from the sutras that I always left out in the past. Their talks are so good, it’s as though the angels came in at night and wrote for them while they were sleeping — yet it is the elevated understanding their minds are reaching and the warmth their heart puts into it. I am once again in awe of these yogis, as I have been with each group before; yet this group is doing more. I’m sure the extra Trainers help: In addition to myself and Vidyadevi, we have the loving support of Rukmini Abbruzzi and Devi McKenty, so each group of students gets more coaching support on developing their talks, and from very well experienced Teacher Trainers, who are also trained as sutra teachers.

“But for me it all comes down to Baba. I walk in the room, and it feels like I’m in his meditation hall. I see the students absorbing weighty philosophy with the ease of a toddler eating cheerios from a plastic baggie. I start a chant, and the students respond; it’s all in real time and it’s all more real than real usually is. It’s all Baba.”

This 12-day immersion trains yogis to teach from the “Mantra Syllabus,” which Swamiji designed after receiving sanyasa initiation (taking monastic vows). This course is for yogis who are learning to teach meditation as well as yogis who were trained in the Master Yoga “survey syllabus” course and certified as meditation teachers through Master Yoga before 2011.  The 12-day MTT is offered every two years.  If you have already been teaching from the original survey syllabus, however, you don’t have to wait two years if you are interested in enhancing your meditation teaching now.  Swamiji’s next MTT Upgrade course starts April 30, 2014, in just over two months.  If you are still teaching from the original survey syllabus, of course you know it works beautifully, as far as it goes.  But I would encourage you to take the next giant step toward Self recognition for yourself and your students this spring: Sign up for MTT Upgrade without delay.

I recommend the MTT Upgrade based on my own experience with this combination phone course and weekend retreat. In spring 2011, when Swamiji first offered the MTT Upgrade, I wasn’t interested. In 2009 I had completed the original MTT and had been teaching from the survey syllabus for year and a half.  Students from my continuing Svaroopa® yoga classes eagerly signed up for my meditation course, and even a friend of 40 years took the course!  For me, the training itself and then the homework firmly established daily practice.  It was all wonderful!

So I didn’t see the point of an upgrade.  Yes, I knew Swamiji was now empowered to empower us meditation teachers to teach from the updated Mantra Syllabus and offer to our students the mantra from her Baba — Swami Muktananda.  But I had no idea of the power of this change — until my local Svaroopa® sister Karuna (Carolyn) Beaver returned from her MTT; it was the first MTT immersion based on the Mantra Syllabus.  To support Karuna in her MTT homework, I signed up for her series. And, as they say, the rest is history.  My experience meditating with the new mantra propelled me deeper than I ever imagined, clearly into profound levels that had I had perhaps glimpsed before or had only heard about.

The day after my last class with Karuna, I signed up for the MTT Upgrade course that was to begin in September 2011.  The phone calls were deep.  The learning was profound.  It was my first phone course with Swamiji, and, once again, I had completely underestimated the depth of the experience and the learning that I would receive — on the phone!

In February 2012, the retreat weekend that concluded the MTT Upgrade not only took me once again deeper into Self, there was an ease about it that could only have been the support of the Grace of this lineage.  In my first MTT, writing the talks was not easy.  I remember one original MTT student saying that her experience was staring at a blank page, and then looking up at the clock to notice an hour had passed with nothing being written.  I struggled in a different way — writing and revising — trying to make my talks sound elevated.  But in the MTT Upgrade, the talks simply flowed from heart into my hands and onto the page.  Now, in teaching from the Mantra Syllabus, that effortlessness continues.  Last month I taught a series, and the course filled without my even advertising.  I’m still awed by that. Of course, it’s most delicious to be in the presence of those meditation students beginning to open inward to Self from the moment they sit down for their first class.

Swamiji’s next MTT Upgrade course starts April 30, 2014, in just over two months. Allow yourself to honor that undeniable yearning to go deeper and to share this path with your students. Sign up for MTT Upgrade and then enjoy the marvelous journey.

Most Influential by (Margie) Wilsman

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swamiWhy did I enroll in the Guru and Self course starting next month?  Let me begin to answer by describing a personal inquiry practice that I have used for myself as well as my students in teacher education.

Years ago I picked up the practice of assessing who in my life has been most influential in my continued growth and adult learning.  This is an end-of-year review practice. When I first started it was fun to name an elementary or high school teacher, a family member, best friend, the priest who led the CYO group, a camp counselor, or a first employer.

In this practice, the next step is to write why — what about that person made them an influential “teacher”?  Why did I “learn” more readily from that person than others?

I also used this tool in my undergraduate teacher education classes to help perspective teachers realize that they have had many experiences with great teachers and many experiences with learning, which color their beliefs about teaching and learning — mostly experiences outside the school classroom.  When examining theories of teaching and learning and teaching, we continuously compared them with their learning experiences and most influential teachers.

Personally, I do this practice to see how my experiences with teachers and learning change.  It’s a dynamic process for all of us!

Why did I enroll in the Guru and Self course starting next month?  You guessed it!

The past few years, Swamiji has radically changed my experiences with learning from a most influential teacher; and she has continuously been on the top of my yearly list.  The monthly 8–12 page course readings from phone courses that I have taken with Swamiji are like receiving a gift wrapped in gold tissue and tied with silk threads.  In most fields of study, the “old” ideas are examined in history courses or tangentially in other courses.  Not so with the study of yoga’s “ancient” ideas from sages of old and our love-filled modern sage, Swamiji.

Each article is so filled with truth, with knowledge of who we are on the inside, deep inside, and how we come to experience this depth of knowing the truth.  Swamiji shares so many of her own experiences in the readings and even more in the audios.  Then in the monthly phone calls we share our experiences and hear from one another. I have first met many new yoga buddies through these calls, and then deepened our relationship at the final retreats in the year-long programme.

Teaching as clarity in delivering the ideas from ancient texts; using multiple texts for examining the same idea, providing multiple personal examples, as well as teaching as revelation — the flow of grace between student and teacher through the ideas and experiences.

Learning as experiencing the revelation again and again, experiencing the love that flows between Guru and students.  Experiential knowing as a deep level of knowledge and truth that transforms your life and view of what is most important and who is most influential.

All this and more are the reasons that I have enrolled in the Guru and Self course.  I hope you will join me for this year-long programme, whether it’s your first online, multi-media course with Swamiji, or you will be a returning yoga buddy.

Be Aware by Karuna (Carolyn) Beaver

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Think about your shoulders, perhaps think about where they are in relationship to your torso or your arms …try to relax your shoulders, soften into them…now become aware of your shoulders. What do you notice?

I did this simple practice, based on Swami Nirmalananda’s January contemplation article, “Relaxation and More,” with meditators in my weekly Satsang. They were amazed at the differences between thinking, relaxing and being aware. One person said that when he became aware of his shoulders he became aware of an expanded sense not only of his shoulders, but of his whole body. He was present in his body in a wholly different way.

As Swamiji says in the article, our Guided Awareness is not a body inventory or analysis. It’s not a thought practice, or even a relaxation practice. It is a consciousness-practice, a training in consciousness, a training in pure awareness.

That is the Svaroopa® difference: whether it’s poses or breathing or chanting or meditation, it’s a consciousness practice, a training in consciousness. Whether you are a teacher or student, Svaroopa® Yoga and Meditation draws you inward, enabling you to experience your body and mind in a wholly different way —an embodied way. If you’re a teacher, the courses you’ve taken prepare you to work with other’s bodies and minds, while you gain a deep experiential knowledge of your own. If you’re a student, you receive the benefits of your teacher’s training as you deepen your personal practice.

The Svaroopa® Sciences underscore yoga’s promise, that as your body becomes still and at ease, as your mind begins to quiet, as you become more aware, there is, as Swamiji’s article points out, “a tangible opening to something more, something greater, something more core to your being, something more essential – an opening to the something that is called your Essence. It’s called svaroopa, your own Self.”

While I receive so much from teaching both poses and meditation, and from my continuing teacher education, I continually crave that “something more, something greater.” I know I need to immerse myself on a more personal level more often! So this year I have planned for both professional training and immersion courses. My students will benefit from what I’ll learn in the teacher training course. I will blossom into my own Essence with the immersion course, and of course, my students will benefit from this as well! It adds more expense to the budget, but as the classic cosmetic company tagline says, do it “because you’re worth it.” I’d change that tagline to capitalize You — the larger sense of your own Self is worth every penny!

Whether you are a teacher or student, consider the investment you will make in your Self this year. As Swamiji says, “consider how you will cultivate a new way of living with your mind and living in your body as well as sharing the light of your own divinity with those you care about the most.”

There are Shaktipat retreats and week-long Yoga and Meditation retreats on the 2014 Calendar, as well as phone courses and related retreats. Help yourself to a larger serving of Grace this year, because You’re worth it!

Comings & Goings

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Welcome to Bookkeeper Peter Mallis

With over seven years of experience, Peter Mallis has joined the SVA administrative staff as Bookkeeper. A Pennsylvania native and new to Svaroopa®, Peter’s background includes working for landscapers, a nursery and car dealerships in the greater Philadelphia area.  He enjoys playing sports, especially golf & baseball, and is looking forward to trying Svaroopa® yoga. He will be working part-time to perform all bookkeeping duties for the organization, which Swamiji and other sevites had been doing as seva.  Peter’s addition to the SVA staff will continue to remove Swamiji from administrative responsibility, opening her (and you!) to more teachings.

Welcome to Staff Yoga Instructor Devaraja Thoman

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Devaraja

Every other week, the on-site SVA administrative staff step away from their computers & meetings for Ujjayi & Shavasana. Ashram resident and Svaroopa® instructor Devaraja Thoman helps them stack their blankets at Downingtown Yoga Meditation Center and leads them through an hour and a half Svaroopa® yoga class. Nearly all the staff is new to Svaroopa®; it’s sweet to see their transformation after each of Devaraja’s classes and to hear them share their deeper understanding of the teachings they serve. Previously based in Massachusetts, Devaraja serves students full time with Svaroopa® yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions at three greater Philadelphia yoga studios, primarily at Downingtown Yoga.