There is a certain effortlessness to our ability to select words and produce sentences whenever we have something to say. We also immediately know how to produce the sounds required. For example, the ‘e’ sound at the end of the word ‘the’ in ‘the bed’ when spoken by a native speaker is very different from the ‘e’ sound at the end of the same word in ‘the apple’. In Sanskrit this principle is known as sandhi. Yet without knowing that such a thing as sandhi exists, and also without knowing anything about the rules by which it operates, we can freely produce the appropriate sound in the appropriate context. This comes from a deep familiarity with our language—something which seems to go beyond instinct. A principal aim of this yoga teachers’ training course is to create that same kind of easy familiarity with the principles, effects, and methodology of yoga, and more specifically with the asanas and pranayama of hatha yoga.Top↑Bottom↓

The course of tuition that makes up the 110-hour programme will combine both theory and practice. Some of the training sessions will have a slightly more theoretical bias, others a slightly more practical one. Additionally, Part I will tend to concentrate slightly more on investigating the workings and possibilities and potentiality of yoga from a slightly more Western-analytical and atomistic vantage point; while Part II will concentrate slightly more on an Eastern-metaphysical and holistic one. Some issues and concerns to be studied in detail in Part II will be initially approached, in Part I, from a slightly more Western viewpoint. When the same issues are later approached from the more Eastern perspective to be adopted in Part II, the differences can be more easily appreciated. Similarly, some issues that were previously dealt with in detail using the Western approach of Part I will be revisited in Part II from a somewhat more Eastern vantage point.Top↑Bottom↓

The programme is divided into six modules. Modules I–III make up Part I; while Modules IV-VI make up Part II. It is perhaps the more appropriate if all six modules are studied in order; but they do have a certain degree of independence and can in fact be studied in any order, or in any combination, at any location, and at any time. Therefore as long as space is available, and as long as the modules concerned have been paid for and enough notice has been given, the course can be continued and completed in any other location and at any other time. (Please consult with your place of initial booking for further details).Top↑Bottom↓

As detailed more fully in the downloadable syllabus available by following the links for any location, the course is divided into nine subject areas. Each will feature in all the modules ... although each particular module will concentrate on its specialized area of concern.Top↑Bottom↓

Each of the six modules has two principal themes and a variety of subthemes. The two principal themes, which will be explored across all the six modules, are the subject areas “A. The Eight Subdivisions” and “B. Western anatomical/physiological systems”. Whilst studying these themes, course participants will be encouraged to learn how to "see" their yoga, their practice, and their students from both the Western scientific and the yoga-ayurvedic perspectives.Top↑Bottom↓

A. The Eight Subdivisions: According to Ancient Indian and Sanskrit philosophy, the complete individual, as also the complete society, should have a thorough knowledge and a practical understanding of eight distinct branches of knowledge, these being ethics, religion, cosmology, psychology, the nature of being, the nature of reality, the nature of knowledge, and teleology or the reasons for the existence of things. Yoga contains these eight. Each module will take one (sometimes two) of these branches as a principal and guiding theme. Using these ideas, students will be encouraged to place yoga in both its social and individual psychological context both with respect to its ancient and traditional practice in India and its setting in modern day society through such works as Machiavelli’s "The Prince", Kautilya’s "Arthashastra", the life of Asoka and Gandhi, the world’s great epics and spiritual literature such as "Gilgamesh" and similar topics.

B. Western anatomical/physiological systems: The complete yoga teacher should also, of course, have a thorough knowledge of their own society as it relates to yoga in general, and asana and pranayama in particular. Western anatomy and physiology divide the body up into a variety of systems such as “the nervous system”, “the glandular system”, “the skeletal system” and the like. Although the more holistic perspective of yoga prefers not to divide the human being up in this way, the Western approach nevertheless provides a most useful—and indeed a necessary—framework. Each module will therefore take, as its second principal theme, the study of one or more of these accepted Western systems. Every such system will always, however, be related to all the others, and always bearing in mind that they cannot really be isolated. This Western scientific tradition will be presented from a largely historical perspective so that its aims and principles can be the more easily grasped thus greatly simplifying attempts to apply yoga therapeutically.Top↑Bottom↓

All modules will also take, as one of the subthemes, some particular “condition” or “ailment” that yoga teachers are prone to meet in their work. Those conditions will be either directly or indirectly related to the Western anatomical system being reviewed. The purpose of the review is not to learn how to provide a “cure”. Some of the conditions are serious, and sometimes genetic, and they do not, from the Western perspective, have any known cure. Common conditions such as asthma, lupus, sciatica, “infertility”, carpal tunnel syndrome etc. will be reviewed. Each given module will discuss the underlying causes of its selected conditions from both a yoga and a Western scientific point of view, so that the aims and possibilities of the yoga approach can be more clearly explicated. An analysis from both perspectives will be undertaken. The maladies and conditions are selected with the broader aims of the course in mind, and do not necessarily “fit” with the Western anatomical system under which they are being reviewed. For example, Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system, caused by a degeneration in the pigmented neurons of the substantia nigra. However, yoga teachers usually meet sufferers because those sufferers want assistance with the trembling that frequently accompanies the condition—a symptom that not all sufferers in fact exhibit. With that context, it can be helpful to approach the condition proprioceptively, and so as a manifestation of a difficulty with the sensory system—which is in itself an integrated and vital part of the nervous system. Parkinson’s is therefore included in Module II … which also reviews the Sankhya philosophy and the role played by perception and the senses in the construction of the manifest universe. Other cosmological and religious approaches are studied in the same module. Similarly, respiratory difficulties such as asthma are often best approached from the perspective of pranayama or the theory of breath. This is a part of antaranga sadhana, the “outer quest” of the astanga yoga presented by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. This is also studied in the same module.

The aim of the subthemes will be to show how the knowledge embedded in yoga can be used to design a beneficial programme not only for the particular condition being considered, but also for other related “maladies”, and more broadly for the person with the condition. Course participants will be able to understand not only what the knowledge gained by West and East is, but also how and why it was derived. They will thus understand more clearly what its underlying principles are; will be able to make a more informed judgement of what its likely helpfulness is; and so will be able to apply it more fruitfully.

The other subthemes to be studied in each module will be selected from the remaining seven subject areas. Each module will contain an overview of traditional, and essential, concepts from yoga and Indian philosophy. There will be an abundance of knowledge dispensed regarding the practice, philosophy, psychology, mythology and ancient texts and such like of yoga. The four Vedas, the ten principal (and many minor) Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika—and of course the Yoga Sutras—will all be covered. There will be a review of the essentials of Ayurveda. Also introduced will be the essentials of Sanskrit, its pronunciation, its grammar and so forth. Several important Vedic chants will be taught and their meanings and significance elucidated. The primary darsanas or schools of Indian thought will also be presented.Top↑Bottom↓

Whilst studying these various themes and subthemes, course participants will be encouraged to learn how to “see” their yoga, their practice, and their students from both the Western scientific and the yoga-ayurvedic perspectives and to build up their own integrated understanding, using their own personal interests as a foundation. Students on the course will additionally be encouraged to place yoga in both its social and its individual psychological context both with respect to its ancient and traditional practice in India, but also with respect to an appreciation of its setting in modern day society through such works as Machiavelli's The Prince, Kautilya's Arthashastra, the life of Asoka and Gandhi and similar.Top↑Bottom↓

Overall, this course will concentrate on giving useful and practical information to both working yoga teachers and those still in training; knowledge which they can then incorporate directly into their teaching, giving it a broader and a deeper background. However, the course will also be of great value to those long-standing yoga students who simply want to integrate yoga more deeply into their lives.Top↑Bottom↓

Kofi Busia, as the intructor of the programme, is a long-time and dedicated student of Sri BKS Iyengar and was awarded an Advanced Certificate by him over 30 years ago. Therefore the material in the course relating to the practice of asana, pranayama and yoga therapeutics will be presented according to Kofi's best endeavours to instruct within the style and the methods of his Guruji's teachings. But please see underneath.

Each of the modules in this programme has been designed so that it has a certain degree of independence and can stand alone, although they clearly share a certain organic and thematic unity. Thus while the programme arguably has its best and most consistent flavour when the six modules are studied in sequence, they have been especially constructed so that they can be studied in any order. Since the six modules do not have to be studied consecutively, it is therefore possible (as long as space is available) to join the course at any time; to begin the programme of study with any specified module; and to take the modules in whatever order—and also at whatever locations—may prove to be the most convenient. The various locations and dates on which the course is currently being held are above in any current booklet, or by consulting the menu at the top of this page. Thus as long as space is available and the modules concerned have been paid for and enough notice has been given, the course can be continued and/or completed in any location no matter where it was begun. Please consult with your place of initial booking if further details are required.Top↑Bottom↓

Four payment plans are generally offered at each location: (a) paying in full; (b) paying in parts or else by intensives (according to location); (c) paying by the module; (d) paying by the individual session. The cost of option (a) is usually in the region of $2,500.Top↑Bottom↓