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Yoga Next
About 17 million people in the US practice yoga today. To most of these people, yoga means the practice of āsanas, the physical postures that are taught and practiced in yoga studios. The yoga sutras composed by the sage Patanjali, a standard reference in modern yoga education, describe yoga as an eightfold path to self realization. This eightfold or eight limbed approach is obviously much more than āsanas. Many call yoga a science of self realization. This message has been reiterated many times by prominent teachers all over the world. Yet, majority of the 17 million yoga practitioners in the US practice only āsanas. The reluctance and hesitance to embrace yoga as a comprehensive spiritual practice at such a systemic level calls for an examination of why yoga has been reduced to a bunch of physical poses.
Yoga Next is a movement championed by Yogiloka.com to identify the various causes for this situation and explore solutions to make this situation better. It is a call for taking the discussion on yoga to the next level. It is about stepping up to a higher consciousness realm to solve problems created in the lower consciousness realm. Systemic problems are not caused overnight; they are also not caused by just one person. All the stakeholders: yoga practitioners, yoga studios, yoga schools, makers of yoga related products and certifying agencies, have contributed to the reduction of yoga to āsanas. Yoga Next is a systemic attempt to solve systemic problems. It is a call to all stakeholders to come together and find ways to recognize and embrace the spiritual aspects of yoga.
A number of discussions on this topic have taken place amongst some leading yoga teachers in the Los Angeles area. There was unanimous support to further the goals of Yoga Next by reforming the following aspects of yoga in the US.
- Improving yoga training curricula
- Setting higher standards for yoga certifications
- Ethics of teaching yoga
- Conscious business practices for the Yoga industry
As a next step in this movement, Yogiloka will conduct a one-day conference to further the goals of Yoga Next, on May 5th, 2012 in Los Angeles (Culver City). This conference will consist of working sessions on each of the above 4 topics. The learnings from these working sessions will then be disseminated to the appropriate individuals and organizations that may be interested in enforcing these learnings.
Please use the links on the left to know more about the conference and to explore each of these topics further.
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