In the country where yoga originated, it took many years before one became a yoga master and only a few masters of their subject were commissioned by their teacher to pass on yoga to other people. This was because, in addition to teaching Hatha Yoga, the physical aspect of yoga, the mind and personality were trained above all, and that takes time. Atscha Yoga is deliberately different: we are oriented towards classical Indian yoga.

The dozen or so asanas required to keep the body healthy and flexible are easy to learn. Of course, it takes a lot of practice to strengthen the muscles and stretch the tendons enough to do the splits or hold the scorpion for longer than a minute. But neither splits nor scorpions are necessary to be a yogi.

The first goal of yoga is to prepare the body for meditation.

To make it so flexible that you can sit in a half-lotus position or at least cross-legged without pain and to strengthen the torso muscles so that the upper body can remain upright and yet effortlessly for a longer period of time – without moving, of course. Yes, that is the declared aim of Hathayoga, the yoga path most commonly taught in the West, although no one cares whether you can sit still for 40 minutes as a result.

But that is exactly the point, because meditation trains the mind.

It is the training ground for mind control, self-discipline and the birthplace of spiritual insights. And making our minds flexible takes much longer than shaping the body.

Finally, the third aspect of classical yoga is the development of personality.

And in the truest sense of the word, because our being is crumpled up like an unwanted piece of paper. Shaped by our caregivers and our reactions to the demands of early childhood life, we develop a shriveled personality riddled with chasms and gorges, far removed from the full development of our full potential.

The development of these three aspects – body, mind and personality – was the reason why classical yoga teacher training in ancient India took many years.

And the training of all three aspects is also the reason why an Atscha yoga teacher training differs from other conventional training courses.

In no other training program is the self-development process and spiritual training so much in the foreground. You become a normal Hathayoga teacher within a week, you become a true Atscha Yoga teacher within a lifetime.

Namastè 
Harald

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