An Update from the Kripalu School of Yoga

I believe each generation does the best that it can. And then the baton gets passed to the next generation.  

When I came to Yoga my teachers would go to India and study for a period each year then bring back what they learned. They did a tremendous job. In just one decade, from 2000-2010, they and their students took the number of Yoga students in the U.S. from one million to 20 million. Within the next ten years that number would grow to 33 million. 

Having gone through my teacher training at Kripalu in 1997 I have had the privilege of watching this growth firsthand. Most of the methods we used were brought back from India by our teachers or as was the case here at Kripalu demonstrated by teachers from India. A while ago I saw a black and white photograph of Swami Sivanada teaching a class, the students in rows on mats. I recently talked a young teacher through what he was seeing in a picture of a modern Yoga class. How you could trace the choices the teacher had made back to a handful of Indian Yoga linages. One of those linages is Kripalu and this year we are doing something new. 

Up to now a 300-hour teacher training has been mapped out by a teacher for the student. 

The purpose of the training was determined by the teacher. The student was free to become the kind of teacher they wanted to be, but the training process was set. They would be tasked to make of it what they could. I can remember trying to use my Vinyasa teacher skill set with the patients at the psychiatric day treatment center I was working in. It was difficult. 

Kripalu’s new 300-hour training will offer a 200-hour trained Yoga teacher the opportunity to chart their own course.

Each student can choose from a series of expertly designed modules taught by a diverse team of seasoned professional Yoga teachers. As a student moves through the modules, they can use what they are learning and living to inform their next choice. On the last day, as they receive their certificate, it will represent a skill set that is attuned to the communities they come from and serve. Join us this year. Together we can create something new.