Laying Sūtras on your Body: Relating yoga postures to yoga philosophy

In technique, as stated by Patañjali, we must apply effort, but not force. The effort must be intelligent. The difference in effort and force can cause a reaction. Perhaps more reaction than action? TKV Desikachar

WHEN, WHERE, COST?

  • Friday June 20- Sunday June 22, 2025. Friday & Saturday 9am to 6pm with a 90 minute lunch; Sunday 9 am - 1:30 pm.

  • Yess Yoga Minneapolis Minnesota.

  • $300 includes space rental and teaching - not meals or housing.

  • Yess has all the props you might need. Bring personal items and whatever you need to keep yourself comfortable (socks and a sweater, snacks and hydration, a notebook)

  • Yess has a kitchenette we are able to use, bring lunch/snacks if you like. We are also close to lots of restaurant options if you prefer to go out.

What will we be doing?

In the contemporary yoga scene, yoga is presented as physical poses. We get hints that yoga is a ‘philosophy’ but very little exploration of what that means or what philosophy has to do with postures. If we attend teacher training or pursue self study, we tend to be moved and inspired by yoga philosophy, but begin to experience a gap between our practice of the physical postures and what the philosophy actually means.

Let’s close the gap a little bit. All yoga philosophy is something that every student can find in themselves, that is, directly in their own body. Yoga philosophy is not theoretical: it’s experiential. This has some ramifications, since not all bodies are the same bodies.

We’ll look at some principles (those things that are universal) and adaptation (no yoga technique is the same for any body).

TKV Desikachar was said to be such a master teacher, that under his instruction you would FEEL the discovery of yoga principles within yourself. He never explicitly said he was evoking or teaching Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras, but that is exactly what he was doing. “It’s like he was laying sūtras on your body,” it’s said. How much yoga philosophy a person needs is also unique to the person: so long as yoga is working for a person, they don’t necessarily need to understand the philosophy. Knowing the philosophy is up to the teacher, not the student.

This is the second big reason for this workshop: yoga culture has hundreds of thousands of ‘yoga teachers’, and most of them have only a very superficial understanding of yoga philosophy. So what are they actually ‘teaching?’

Expect lots of movement, and lots of q and a time, and lots of exploration. This workshop will stabilize your understanding, affirm your curiosity and questions, and hopefully inspire you going forward. Open to yoga teachers, yoga serious practitioners, and people who are just starting to get curious about the whole thing.