Yoga courses

What are internet yoga courses?

Free On-line Yoga Courses refer to the center of distance teaching of the International Open Yoga University. The courses provide the opportunity to anyone to obtain methodic and profound knowledge in the area of theoretical and practical yoga studies and to the full-time and part-time students of the University to obtain further vocational education in the area of teaching yoga practice and theory.

This yoga course offers extremely serious and systematic yoga studies. This is not an entertaining web site where you can have fun. The purpose of these yoga courses is gradual, step by step studies of yoga theory and followed by the implementation of this knowledge in the specific practice.

The structure and organization of the yoga courses implies that while familiarizing with the courses the student will be able to produce and show all necessary qualities for further mastering the course and successful practice. Thereby the courses are arranged in such a way that the students will not only get the practical knowledge of various types and aspects of yoga but also develop beneficial personal qualities, habits and skills.

Currently working out of some courses is finished. However the work on development of the other courses is still going on. Many yogis and yoginis are working hard in order to complete the yoga courses. According to our experience thousands (!) of hours of work are required to overcome all the difficulties and bring to an end the development of the courses. That is why for many courses there are only ‘raw’ materials that are not edited and are not followed by quizzes. So we will need some more time to make all courses ready for use, but unfortunately our human and financial resources despite their recent considerable increase are still marked by shortage of people. There are few people really ready to help us altruistically to perform the work, so we cannot fix the specific date when each course will be ready for use.

As far as we know, the creation of educating yoga courses of such scale, depth and availability is unprecedented in the whole world. We have to solve a great many of managerial, technical and even philosophical problems connected with the elaboration of the courses. We are still discussing what should be the layout of the material and quizzes, the availability of knowledge. It is always hard to be a pioneer. Undoubtedly there can be some misprints, errors and discrepancies in our courses. But only those do not commit mistakes who do not do anything at all, so we kindly request you to inform us about such fallacies. From the technical point of view our courses use open source software.

The style of presentation

We have spent a tremendous amount of preparatory work, financial resources, effort and time of high skilled professionals, many yogis and yoginis and volunteers to create these courses. Despite rather modest results we have at the moment, all these resources that we have spent are comparable to those required to create a serious industrial or scientific enterprise. But there is still much to be done. So, according to the proverb of people who deal with innovations: “If you want to create something new, feel free to multiply several times time and financial resources you are planning to spend on the creation of this new thing.” All these efforts made are worthwhile only if they really help people to make a strategic breakthrough in the field of studying of yoga, i.e., in their self-knowledge. Understanding what is happening in your life is a guarantee that you will avoid critical errors making key decisions in life. So all these efforts are reasonable in terms of human development.

But, as our experience shows, not all students realize the difficulties associated with the establishment and maintenance of these courses. Often there is some consumer and unserious attitude towards them. For this reason, the style of presentation of certain provisions of yoga in these courses may seem a little bluff, even tough. All this is a forced and temporary measure in order to shake a few students and make them think. In contrast to the western education system, where pseudo correctness sometimes gives anecdotal results. It happens that students leave school unable to read, and the teacher fearing to “injure vulnerable mentality” of a student, does not dare tell him so, not to cause an inferiority complex. Many provisions also repeated many times, so clearly and unambiguously convey to students some of the provisions in which students traditionally exhibit inattention. In the future, as soon as we have additional resources, we may make a style statement of a more gentle and polite.

In what languages are the courses provided?

At the moment the courses are provided in Russian. In the future, as soon as possible, we would like to translate them into other languages, because the knowledge of yoga should belong to all mankind, and many people all over the world show great interest to our courses. Our students live in more than thirty countries of the world, and we hope very much that they will help us in this work by the end of their training.

Who owns the rights to these courses?

We are deeply convinced that the knowledge of yoga belong to all mankind! Currently, this idea is reflected the best, in our view, in the Creative Commons license, so this course falls under the scope of this license.

What forms of learning require these courses?

All people, for whom these courses are designed, can be divided into three groups of students. Accordingly, each group has its own mode of attendance. You need to choose the most appropriate one for you. These groups are:

  • The first group – students – free participants of the courses.
  • The second group – full-time students.
  • The third group – part-time students.

What distinguishes one form of learning from another?

Students-free participants

This group includes all free students of the University, that is, all those students who study yoga for themselves. Such people are not bound by the requirements and obligations on the part of the University. For them all training is absolutely free of charge. That is, apart from Internet yoga courses, they may not attend any other classes, seminars, retreats and lectures, which involve a fee to cover the costs of their conduct. So the only thing that is required from the students’ free participants is to be interested in studying yoga and to be consistent learning in the course. Therefore students-free participants should not study the highest sections of yoga earlier than the basic sections. They may take courses with any speed they like, and can do it several times. If a free participant finds it necessary, possible and useful, he can attend all classes, lectures, seminars, retreats, which are held for other groups of students and require fees to cover all financial costs related to their conduct.

For students free participants all courses are open, except for some specific courses designed specially for full-time and part-time students, and directly related to the process of full-time and distance learning. In prospect, free participants can enroll as full-time (part-time) students of courses for the instructors of yoga. Sometimes a secret code word is required to take a course. Free participants receive this word, as they pass all preliminary courses.

Thus, if you are unsure yet whether you want to learn yoga only for yourself or you want to become a yoga instructor in the future, while you are seriously interested in yoga, this form of learning is probably the best approach for you.

The advantages of this form of training are absolutely free education and free chart of taking the courses. You do not have to fulfill strictly all requirements of the learning process for full-time and part-time students.

The disadvantages of this form of training are following. If you are a free participant, you will not be able to fully communicate with likeminded people. In addition, upon the completion of your training, you will not be able to teach yoga of our school to other people, this is to become a certified yoga instructor, because taking of some special yoga courses on-site is absolutely necessary for it. You have to keep in mind that studying yoga for yourself and studying yoga to teach others are completely different things.

How is the learning process organized?

    This form of learning implies that you will:

  • Consequently take Distant Internet Yoga courses, pass tests at the end of each lesson. This is absolutely free.
  • Attend yoga classes, seminars, retreats and lectures, which we hold for all comers, if you find it possible and necessary for yourself.

Question: I want to be a student free participant, what do I need to do to start?

Answer:

  1. First, you need to learn more about our school of yoga through the Internet and if you find it possible and necessary for yourself to begin to attend our general yoga classes, yoga seminars, lectures. Schedule and address of the venue, you can find on sites www.openyoga.ru www.yogacenter.ru www.happyoga.narod.ru
  2. Second, you need to register at website of Yoga Course www.kurs.openyoga.ru. Go to the “zero cycle” and go through the following series of courses: Course 000, Course 001, Course 002, Course 003, Course 004.
  3. Third, in Course 004 you will find the form. You have to fill it and send to: ambikavika@mail.ru.
  4. Fourth, please contact Victoria Begunova by e-mail ambikavika@mail.ru or by phone +7 495 251 21 08, +7 495 251 33 67, +7 926 021 14 55 (Moscow) and learn from her what else you will have to do.
  5. Continue consistently passing all the other courses on the site kurs.openyoga.ru.
  6. Advice. If you have a financial opportunity, we would recommend you to purchase a video (audio) archive of lectures on yoga. The size of the archive is more than 710 Gb (the amount of 150 DVDs!). It contains more than 280 (!) hours of video (audio) lectures and seminars on yoga of DVD quality. These are over 150 lectures of an hour and a half each and more than 10 six-hour seminars on different aspects of yoga for three years. Some of them were included in Internet Yoga courses and instead of downloading them from Internet, you can watch them in DVD quality. This archive is extremely important to people who live far from big cities, where Internet connection speed is low, expensive and unstable. The archive is a hard disk drive (HDD) SATA, which you can insert into your computer. Please make sure that your computer supports modern hard disks. The price of the archive is 2000 RUR, if you provide us with your hard drive with the capacity of at least 800 Gb. The archive costs 5500 RUR, if it is our hard drive. The gains from the sale of the archive are destined to develop yoga and help people who teach it. If you wish to purchase this archive, please contact the curator of the Global Yoga Archive by email k23@ya.ru. If you are planning to become a full-time (part-time) student, you will need this archive in the future.
  7. Advice. If you have a financial opportunity and time, we would recommend you to attend classes, lectures and seminars on yoga as often as possible, so you will be able to communicate with people who practice yoga and be in a spiritual area of yoga teachers, thereby receiving those aspects of nonverbal knowledge of yoga, which cannot conveyed through video, audio recording or text.

Full-time students

This group consists of people who are already our students free participants and besides regularly attend our yoga classes, seminars and lectures. These are people who plan to become a teacher of yoga and to carry and spread our tradition (the tradition of yoga Anandasvami) to other people. Therefore, in order to become a full-time student, you at least have to long to be a teacher of yoga and to like our school of yoga. Consequently, in order to become a full-time student you will have to regularly attend our seminars, general yoga classes and lectures, which we hold for all comers, because after all, in the future, you will have to conduct seminars, classes and lectures yourself. And first you have to pass it all through yourself and decide whether you like it or not, whether it is your way in life or not. These general classes, seminars and lectures are held for all comers and usually involve a fee to participate in them. Fee is required to cover the costs of their conduct. We make all the efforts to reduce this cost to the minimum, but unfortunately, in this case little depends on us. It is assumed that a full-time student will attend at least two yoga classes a week and about nine seminars a year. All special classes, seminars and lectures on yoga teacher training are currently free of charge thanks to the help of our Russian sponsors.

If you have already begun to attend our general classes, seminars and lectures on yoga and you have realized that this is your way, to become a full-time student, you will have to familiarize with the requirements for future teachers of yoga, to pass some tests and interviews, as well as to pass a competition for admission to the University as a full-time student. All this requires a certain effort. But do not be afraid of our rather strict requirements. If yoga is your vocation, you will overcome all difficulties and we will always meet half-way, wherever possible. Your persistence and determination are above all! Show your will! And remember that if you waiting, the universe is waiting, too, if you make a move, then the universe will make a thousand steps towards you.

Thus, at present, for full-time students all the basic training (i.e. all special classes, special seminars and lectures, retreats, discussions, exams, training practices, etc.) to become teachers of yoga is free, except general classes, lectures, seminars and retreats for all comers, which are not covered by sponsorship. Once again we should stress that we cannot eliminate from the learning process attending general classes, seminars, retreats and lectures, as in the future, after graduation, full-time students must be able to hold general yoga classes themselves. Therefore, they must first pass through yoga themselves, before teaching it to others. On the other hand, we do not have means to make general yoga classes free of charge.

We hope that in the future for the following admissions of students we will be able to keep the courses for yoga teachers training free of charge, but it depends entirely on sponsorship and financial capabilities of our Russian sponsors, not on us.

If you believe that the teaching yoga of Anandasvami tradition is your way of life, then this form of training is probably suits you the best.

Advantages of this form of training are a deep dive into the mysterious world of yoga, communication with like-minded people, establishing and cultivating the vast number of valuable inner qualities and abilities of your personality, such as self-discipline, rigid self-control, consistency and common sense, the ability to bring all things to end, sense in each step of your life, sense of fellowship and mutual support, honesty with yourself as well as unbending will. It is a unique opportunity to change life for the better actively with the help of real distribution of higher knowledge of yoga. You will receive one of the most difficult, exhausting and not always grateful, but at the same time, one of the most exciting, creative and inspiring professions, this is teaching yoga.

Disadvantages of this form of education: disadvantages always derive from advantages. You will have no time for other schools, trends and philosophies. You will spend all the time on immersion in our school of yoga. You should be able to find common ground with all people, even if you do not like them. You will have to face serious and sometimes very unpleasant work with yourself, your character and habits. It will be necessary to accept the fact that in your life you will have to think about others first and only then about yourself. The job of a real yoga teacher is sometimes very ungrateful and wicked smug people may not appreciate your unselfish impulses.

How is the learning process organized?

    This form of learning implies that you will:

  1. Consequently take Distant Internet Yoga courses, and then take exams at the end of each cycle. This is completely free, as well as for students free participants.
  2. Attend yoga classes, seminars, retreats and lectures we hold for all comers, which are normally charged.
  3. Attend special training classes and seminars, retreats, lectures for full-time students in your group, which currently are free of charge through the support of our Russian sponsors.
  4. Also, you will be doing all possible work to promote yoga, report your progress, engage in mentoring activities, practice teaching yoga. After passing the exams at the end of the second cycle, you will get a certificate from our school for teaching yoga.

Question: I want to be a full-time student, what do I need to do to start?

Answer:

  1. First, you need to begin to attend our general yoga classes, yoga seminars, lectures. Schedule and address of the venue, you can find on sites www.openyoga.ru www.yogacenter.ru www.happyoga.narod.ru
  2. Second, you need to register at website of Yoga Course www.kurs.openyoga.ru. Go to the “zero cycle” and go through the following series of courses: Course 000, Course 001, Course 002, Course 003, Course 004.
  3. Third, in Course 004 you will find the form. You have to fill it and send to: ambikavika@mail.ru.
  4. Fourth, please contact Victoria Begunova by e-mail ambikavika@mail.ru or by phone +7 495 251 21 08, +7 495 251 33 67, +7 926 021 14 55 (Moscow) and learn from her what else you will have to do.
  5. Continue consistently passing all the other courses on the site kurs.openyoga.ru.
  6. To become a full-time student, you should learn as much as possible about our school and pass an interview. For this reason you have to study the archives of our school of yoga. If you have a financial opportunity, we would recommend you to purchase a video (audio) archive of lectures on yoga. The size of the archive is more than 710 Gb (the amount of 150 DVDs!). It contains more than 280 hours of video (audio) lectures and seminars on yoga of DVD quality. These are over 150 lectures of an hour and a half each and more than 10 six-hour seminars on different aspects of yoga for three years. Some of them were included in Internet Yoga courses and instead of downloading them from Internet, you can watch them in DVD quality. This archive is extremely important to people who live far from big cities, where Internet connection speed is low, expensive and unstable. The archive is a hard disk drive (HDD) SATA, which you can insert into your computer. Please make sure that your computer supports modern hard disks. The price of the archive is 2000 RUR, if you provide us with your hard drive with the capacity of at least 800 Gb. The archive costs 5500 RUR, if it is our hard drive. The gains from the sale of the archive are destined to develop yoga and help people who teach it. If you wish to purchase this archive, please contact the curator of the Global Yoga Archive by email k23@ya.ru.
  7. Advice. If you have a financial opportunity and time, we would recommend you to attend classes, lectures and seminars on yoga as often as possible, so you will be able to communicate with people who practice yoga and be in a spiritual area of yoga teachers, thereby receiving those aspects of nonverbal knowledge of yoga, which cannot conveyed through video, audio recording or text. In addition, if you’re in the limelight, the curators and teachers will draw you attention, and it will be much easier for you to pass an interview with them when you enroll, as you will already know each other.

Part-time students

Everything mentioned for full-time students is completely true for part-time ones. Part-time students are those who cannot be full-time students because of the remote places of residence and the impossibility of regular visits to both general and special classes. Therefore, part-time students can only be people living in other cities. In order to become a part-time student, you need to take the same steps that have been described for full-time students. The difference is that you will have to pass an additional interview with our tutors and to set to yourselves a personal timetable of studies, as well as familiarize with the requirements for future students and pass a special interview.

Thus, if you live far away, but you have the connection to the Internet and can visit us with a certain frequency, this form of training is likely to suit you the best.

Advantages of this form of training are about the same as those of students of full-time education. But there is one undoubted advantage of this form of training. This is the fact that in the future you will teach yoga, where people need it the most, i.e., in your hometown.

Disadvantages of this form of education are the same as for full-time tuition. As a rule it is lack of personal communication with like-minded people.

How is the learning process organized?

    This form of learning implies that you will:

  1. Consequently take Distant Internet Yoga courses, and then take exams at the end of each cycle. This is completely free, as well as for students free participants.
  2. Periodically come to Moscow and attend special training classes and seminars, retreats, lectures for part-time students in your group, which normally you will have to pay for as well as to cover your expenses for travel and accommodation.
  3. Arrive at the examinations and practical trainings at the University, which currently is free.
  4. When an opportunity offers to attend general classes and seminars, retreats, public lectures which are normally charged.
  5. Also, you will be doing all possible work to promote yoga, report your progress, engage in mentoring activities, practice teaching yoga. After passing the exams at the end of the second cycle, you will get a certificate from our school for teaching yoga.

Question: I want to be a part-time student, what should I do to start?

Answer:

  1. First, you need to learn more about our school of yoga through the internet and at every opportunity attend our general yoga classes, yoga seminars and lectures. Schedule and address of the venue, you can find on sites www.openyoga.ru www.yogacenter.ru www.happyoga.narod.ru
  2. Second, you need to register at website of Yoga Course www.kurs.openyoga.ru. Go to the “zero cycle” and go through the following series of courses: Course 000, Course 001, Course 002, Course 003, Course 004.
  3. Third, in Course 004 you will find the form. You have to fill it and send to: ambikavika@mail.ru.
  4. Fourth, please contact Victoria Begunova by e-mail ambikavika@mail.ru or by phone +7 495 251 21 08, +7 495 251 33 67, +7 926 021 14 55 (Moscow) and learn from her what else you will have to do.
  5. Continue consistently passing all the other courses on the site kurs.openyoga.ru.
  6. To become a part-time student, you should learn as much as possible about our school and pass an interview. For this reason you have to study the archives of our school of yoga. You need to buy video/audio archive of lectures on yoga. Having the archive will be a necessary condition for your distance learning, as you will not be able to attend our lectures for the most time you study and you will compensate this by your independent work. The size of the archive is more than 710 Gb (the amount of 150 DVDs!). It contains more than 280 (!) hours of video (audio) lectures and seminars on yoga of DVD quality. These are over 150 lectures of an hour and a half each and more than 10 six-hour seminars on different aspects of yoga for three years. Some of them were included in Internet Yoga courses and instead of downloading them from Internet, you can watch them in DVD quality. This archive is extremely important to people who live far from big cities, where Internet connection speed is low, expensive and unstable. The archive is a hard disk drive (HDD) SATA, which you can insert into your computer. Please make sure that your computer supports modern hard disks. The price of the archive is 2000 RUR, if you provide us with your hard drive with the capacity of at least 800 Gb. The archive costs 5500 RUR, if it is our hard drive. The gains from the sale of the archive are destined to develop yoga and help people who teach it. If you wish to purchase this archive, please contact the curator of the Global Yoga Archive by email k23@ya.ru.

Which qualities will people develop in themselves and demonstrate while learning these courses and upon their successful completion?

  • Ability to focus on the material you are studying. Some students believe that knowledge gained through the Internet, it is something frivolous, because indeed the Internet contains lots of questionable information about yoga, which is senseless to focus.
  • To acquire knowledge quickly. Within a few years you will have to work out an enormous amount of material.
  • The ability to memorize information at once and for restricted time. To be able to remember from the first time not only what is interesting for us, but also something that sometimes seems irrelevant and unimportant.
  • The ability to answer many questions in tests and quizzes under tight time pressure.
  • Patience while learning. For newcomers to yoga some materials seem so illusory simple, understandable and even boring, that they want to start exploring something more interesting. Unfortunately, such an attitude in yoga breeds drop-outs.
  • The ability to interact constructively with other students and courses’ tutors. The art of communication – is the key to your future success.
  • The ability to express reasonably and laconically your views on a range of issues. The ability to pass your experience further on the other people. This will be required from you in the first place while doing the homework to each course.
  • Consistency in studying yoga. Patiently, step by step to learn the theory and practice of yoga without the “zigzagging” from one school of yoga to another.
  • Persistence in taking the courses. The courses are timed for several years. Only those who will learn to overcome the routine of systematic studying can expect a breakthrough.

Why are On-line Yoga courses and all the special classes free?

At the moment the courses are free of charge thanks to financial support of our Russian sponsors, as well as to generous assistance we receive from a large number of yogis and yoginis, who were studying at our school. In addition, we believe that the distance learning through the Internet Yoga courses should be free, because currently a large number of prospective teachers of yoga physically are not able to pay full for their studies, especially in the regions where the standard of living is very low.

On the other hand, there is a certain danger of the “free” courses, since they sometimes (we have already experienced this) attract occasional people, who are frivolous and sometimes not quite adequate. As soon as they hear the sweet word “Freebie”, they begin to grasp things they do not really need, and thus depriving the others of the opportunity to take a chance.

Therefore some “golden mean” is necessary, that we will try to grope with time.

How are Internet Yoga Courses made and what do they consist of?

Although yoga is a single study, it consists of various types of yoga. Each kind of yoga is a set of different methods of dealing with one or another aspect of a human being. For example, Hatha yoga primarily contains methods of working with physical body. Pranayama yoga is a method of working with prana through breathing exercises and so on. In fact, there are as many kinds of yoga as aspects of a human body, and in total they form a unified study of yoga. Unfortunately, only about two dozen kinds of yoga have survived. At our University each yoga course is devoted to each type of yoga. In addition, some important points or disciplines related to yoga are also subjects of separate courses.

Distance online education at our University suggests that students will consistently pass a certain number of separate yoga courses. Each separate course is devoted to a particular section of yoga. Thus, each student will pass gradually all the courses provided. In each section the courses are numbered, as each course is based on the material of the previous one. Therefore, each course must be done no earlier than the previous one is completed and the student passed the score. Otherwise, a very serious misunderstanding of the theory of the higher sections of yoga may occur that will result in errors in practice.

All the courses available, which the students must pass, are divided into several sections or cycles, such as: “Zero cycle of yoga studies,” “The first cycle of yoga studies,” “The second cycle of yoga studies ” and “Additional yoga studies”. It is assumed that you will begin to study yoga with a “Zero cycle”, and as soon as you pass it, you will have to pass all the subsequent cycles. At the same time while taking the yoga courses of these cycles, you can if desired, take any courses in the section called “Additional yoga materials” in order to broaden your horizons in yoga and to understand better the whole atmosphere that surrounds yoga.

Course

Each individual course on a particular type of yoga consists of a number of steps that a student must consistently pass.

Step of the course

Every single step of the course contains the material that a student must study, a quiz to check this material, homework or any other task within the course.

Material of the lesson

The material of each lesson can be presented at the same time in the text version, as well as in the form of video or audio lectures. The time allotted for studying the lesson, comprises the time for reading the text and listening audio or watching video files. The main and the principal form of representation the lesson in the Course is the text. Therefore, you should first examine and work out the text of the lesson. Video and audio versions are additional, since they present the material in a little modified order. Nevertheless, it may be extremely useful to view or to listen to video and audio versions of classes, because it helps to make a more profound and multifaceted view of the subject. In some lessons audio and video versions may be absent. In such cases, you should use only the text version and the time allotted for studying the lesson consists only of time to examine the text. However, if there are only audio and video versions of the lesson without any texts, then the time for studying implies listening or watching them only once. The time for studying the lesson is calculated on the basis of the time spent by students in the past. If it took you more time to do it, there is nothing wrong with that.

    The material of the lessons also can be laid out in two different ways:

  1. As a web page with the text and audio/video files of the lesson.
  2. Only the text version of the lesson, in MS Word (.doc) format, which you can download, save, view or print.

Quiz

It checks only one thing: how carefully you have learned and memorized the material of this course. The test does not assess your whole knowledge of the subject, considered in this course. Therefore, to give right answers to the test questions you will need only the material of the course you have studied. The questions and answers in the test are neither comprehensive nor uniquely characterizing the subject, nor “ultimate truth” in regard to the material in the course. They are only an attempt to help you structure and organize your understanding of the subject and to develop your attention and memory.

Each test usually consists of a number of questions which you have to answer for a fixed period of time. Normally it is a multiple choice test, where you are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. Nevertheless, we also use other forms of testing the knowledge of covered material.

You have to complete each test a fixed period of time. Sometimes several attempts to pass the test are given. Test results are saved and the total score for all the time the student has been learning is a measure of his status. Moreover, there are courses that a student cannot pass before he gains a certain number of points for the previous courses.

Home assignment

In different courses there may be different kinds of homework. Often, as a homework assignment, we suggest you make a review on the course.

Regardless of which group of students you belong to, we urge you to show a very responsible approach to your homework. Please do not miss any sections in your review, be precise and accurate. By the way people do their homework, we can judge them. Please, try to picture yourselves in the most favorable light. Pay particular attention to the section where you are asked to write questions to the course and answers to them. Keep in mind that the degree of knowledge and understanding of a subject by a person can be assessed by whether he/she can formulate a question, answer the question, choose answers that are very similar to the right ones, but in fact are false, and so on. In other words, there is some gradation of knowledge of the subject, which is defined as follows:

  1. Zero knowledge degree of the subject is observed when a person cannot make any question regarding this subject. You can judge easily whether a man understands the subject or not, if he can make at least one sensible question on the topic, then he does.
  2. The next level of knowledge and understanding of the subject is observed when a person can ask a sensible question and give the correct answer to it.
  3. It is a higher level, when a person can give not only the correct answer, but also can formulate questions that are very similar to the correct ones, but in fact are wrong. Normally it is difficult to do it, because instead of the wrong answers we often give partly wrong answers that are answers that are not absolutely wrong and allow further interpretation. Sometimes it is much more difficult to write not trivial but really wrong answer than simply the correct answer.
  4. Finally, the highest degree of knowledge and understanding the subject, is when a person gives the right answer as well as he can work out several undoubtedly wrong answers.

And, the deeper the knowledge of the subject is, the more difficult it is to distinguish these incorrect answers from the correct ones. As the tutors of the courses have to make questions themselves, they can immediately identify the man who grasps the material well enough to be able to make really wrong answers, which are very difficult to distinguish from the right ones. Certainly, such person immediately enters the tutor’s field of vision as a very promising student.

To give you a better understanding of what the homework is like, we have placed in this course one of its examples. We encourage you to try to do it, so that you can decide whether it is acceptable for you to learn at our courses and whether you are willing to fulfill our requirements for home assignment.

Marks for home assignment

If a student gives all the answers to the review, without omissions and sample answers, it is assessed as 100%. It is assumed that a student can put “I don’t know,” “I haven’t found”, “I cannot answer” in some places where he does not know how to answer.

If a student answers only some of the questions and leaves a part of them unanswered or with a sample answer, we estimate it in proportion to the number of true answers. For example, if there are 25 questions in the review and in total it is 100%, then one question is accounted for 4%. . Thus, if a person answers 6 questions out of 25, he will get 24%.

If a student has no photo, at the discretion of the tutor 1% of the mark may be removed. If a person’s name is clearly fake or explicit pseudonym like “123 sdgfsdfg», «The Enlightened Buddha”, or “Barack Obama”, at the discretion of the tutor 1% of the mark also may be removed.

At the discretion of the tutor a student may be given one week to rectify the mistakes, after which the mark for home assignment can be revised.

Can I take courses without doing the homework and quizzes? – Unfortunately, our experience shows that learning without doing the homework and quizzes is hopeless, dimming the enthusiasm, and generating half-educated people, who imagine themselves competent. Therefore, if a person is eager to learn deeply, and not to imitate learning, as it often happens, he will have to comply strictly with all our requirements. We appreciate the time and effort of our students and would not insist on doing unnecessary things. Currently in yoga there are plenty of people who have nowhere seriously studied, but claim to be familiar with yoga and even to be yoga teachers. Such people can read a couple of books on yoga at night, and in the morning they think they already fully understand yoga, and those of them who are braver and more assertive, start teaching others. We do not want to encourage this trend. It could be justified earlier, when the access to yoga was more limited, but now we must produce other methods of teaching yoga.

How you should not do your home assignment – We expect you to make a constructive, friendly, sincere review on the course to help us make the courses better, and to help you develop useful qualities of character. Unfortunately, there are some people who make mistakes in their home assignment. Below we provide the most typical mistakes, and we ask you to try to avoid them:

  1. Worst of all is when a student leaves the same options of answers as in the sample. It makes an impression that this man wants to rush through yoga, as they say, with eyes shut or “without regaining consciousness.” Therefore, the attitude of the tutors to such a student is quite clear and predictable. The tutors do not have plenty of free time to spend it on the work, which could be done by a computer program.
  2. Next level is a little better. This is when a student leaves dashes instead of answers. For a tutor it is not clear whether this is a technical failure or you just believe that it does not make sense for you to answer such questions. If you really do not know what to answer, you´d better write “I do not know,” I do not understand the question, “I do not want to answer” or something like that.
  3. Next level. This is a rambling text that has nothing to do with the questions you had. This immediately creates the impression that the person, who wrote the review, was, at best, “not in his right mind”. In the worst case, this person is inadequate.
  4. Next level. These are complaints: “The things written here, I have seen nowhere else in the Internet. And the things that aren’t in the Internet don’t exist in the universe. You may have confused something. I don’t want to write anything and won’t do it. Why you don’t have this or that? And in general I don’t like anything here. Lots of errors and inconsistencies. You had to arrange everything here thoroughly for ten years, and then publish the courses. By the way, why aren’t the tutors wearing turbans in the photos? That’s how you discredit yoga”.
    You must realize that if there had been something in the Internet what we are doing right now, we would not have done anything (since it is already in the web) and would not have spent enormous effort, time and considerable financial costs. Still Internet is not a fount of human culture of all the centuries, so it is not a reason for us. Neither can we wait another ten years for licking everything smoothly, we simply have no additional ten years. But your review would help us find and correct some drawbacks, if you indicated them to us without being grumpy. And regarding turbans, our tutors are just ordinary people who are honestly trying to do their work. They have no time for masquerade; they have to check your reviews.
  5. Next level is even better. This is when a student’s review is in a buddy-buddy style or is a lecturing in patronizing tone. This is the style of an older comrade, patting on the shoulder his younger brother and graciously giving him advice. “Well, well, you have amused me a little, amused me indeed. All right, I’ll spare another minute of my precious time to teach you how to live and, oh no, don’t thank me for it. By the way, just call me My Lord. You may even kiss my hand “.
    Of course, we welcome all the comments and proposals of any kind, but you should not forget that the tutors of courses are people with a good sense of humor and to the proposals “kissing of hands” they would react with the phrase from an old Russian movie “Hello, I’m Your Aunt “: “I’ll kiss you, later… if you like it.” But seriously speaking, people, older and more experienced than you could imagine, may read your review. Therefore, crony and patronizing style is a little inappropriate.

What should you bear in mind while studying the materials of Yoga Courses?

The purpose of the International Open Yoga University and On-line Yoga Courses is to state and explain the most difficult and poorly understood parts of yoga in a simple and understandable manner, comprehensible to the ordinary person who could have never dealt with yoga before. Whenever possible we try to use the minimum complex terms in Sanskrit.

To make the perception of study of yoga easier, we try to present all theoretical aspects of yoga in colloquial terms with clear examples from everyday life, avoiding academese. Our ideal in presenting yoga is when any person, even with zero knowledge of yoga, could immediately start taking our courses without any special preparation.

The fact that we are trying to present all the materials at most understandable, does not mean that we cannot provide the same material in a more formal and less understandable manner, accessible only to those who have long been studying yoga and are familiar with the terminology. Simply, we believe that such approach is inefficient at the moment as there are only very few people capable of grasping it. We believe that in today’s world there is lack of basic understanding of yoga, and it is the most serious and almost insuperable problem.

At the same time, this relatively simple and understandable language sometimes creates a harmful illusion that the students do not have to focus their attention and study deeply the materials, as they can just skim them as fiction or an exciting detective. Such an attitude to studying is not productive and is unlikely to lead you to true understanding of yoga.

Yoga teaches us that the more seriously we concentrate attention on the material under study, the better we understand it and, most importantly, remember. The secret of a good memory lies in the attention we direct to the fact that we want to remember. We can increase concentration by writing summaries of the material, and, uttering the new information, if there is such an opportunity. This is somewhat like cramming, but experience shows that people who have passed this “drill”, always speak well about it.

Therefore, in order to make the courses more beneficial for you, you have to study with “a piece of paper and a pencil in hand” and, if possible, to read the material aloud.

Thus, keep your own Yoga Diary – a blank notebook or a notepad of a convenient size. Gradually taking courses, you will make notes in your diary on the most important issues of the courses, you will mark all stages of your studying, working, practices, passing On-line Yoga Courses, summaries of the lectures and classes, your plans for future, thoughts and emotions, and other things you consider necessary. It is helpful to draw pictures and diagrams and insert them in your notes. When we write, draw or read aloud, we pay less attention to distractive factors and more focus on the material under study. As practice shows, Yoga Diary helps a lot to promote attentiveness, memory as well as to carry out the tasks. With the lapse of time, Yoga Diary will get somewhat impregnated with the Superior Knowledge of Yoga, as well as with your Energy and Consciousness. Then, as experience shows, you will observe a very interesting effect. Once you glance at your Yoga Diary or hold it in your hands, you will feel calm, concentrated and confident. Thus, your Yoga Diary will become your personal, guarding and soothing “Wonderful Magic amulet” that you have made yourself.

Certainly, there is nothing supernatural about it. Everything is quite sensibly explained in yoga. Some laws are rough, others are subtle. Creating a Yoga Diary is a yogic method of using the grand potential, which, according to yoga, is hidden within every person. The fact is that while you are studying the Superior Knowledge of Yoga, you are thinking about it, and your mind and thoughts “magnetize” all the things you are in contact with at that moment, and you only need to find a “battery” to “accumulate” this positive energy and the power of thought. Your Yoga Diary will eventually become such “accumulator”. When you make notes with your own hand in your Yoga Diary, you concentrate on what you are writing, and your attention will become kind of a guide between your mind and Yoga Diary.

Long experience shows that studying and practicing yoga promotes human creativity, even in some unexpected areas. We encourage very much our students’ creative work. If you felt inspired while studying the material of the course, and you spontaneously painted a picture that illustrates some statement in yoga, scan it and send us to happyoga@mail.ru and we’ll put it in the gallery of the course. It could be a “childish” picture. But we appreciate your impulse of creativity, rather than skills. Do not hesitate to send it to us. And if we like any picture a lot, we can use it as an illustration for our courses, so you can become a co-creator of On-line Yoga Courses! It also concerns your other works, such as poems, aphorisms, etc.

Yoga teaches that within every human being a tremendous creative potential is concealed. The aim of every person is to realize this potential for the benefit of all living beings. Only by realizing it, you create preconditions for gaining peace, satisfaction, happiness and sense in your life. If a person doesn’t fulfill him- or herself, this positive power doesn’t find an outlet and turns into its opposite, i.e. into depression, anxiety, aggression and other forms of negative trends of the character and destructive behavior. There is nothing “bad” or “good”, “dirty” or “pure” in people, but there are things appropriate in manifestation and inappropriate in manifestation. So it is very easy to get rid of many negative factors in life, if a man pulls the energy from the inappropriate and directs it to appropriate. The fastest and the best results are achieved when a person uses the energy for creative works for the benefit of all living beings. Yoga says: “Seek happiness through self-realization!” But there are a lot of obstacles on the way to self-realization. One of the most insuperable of them is our shyness and the lack of faith in ourselves. It is to overcome these qualities, that we call on you to appreciate your art.

Another serious factor in taking the courses is the passage time. It isn’t sufficient only to pass the yoga courses. You have to pass it for a minimum, but reasonable time. Primarily it refers to full-time and part-time students of the University. For free participants the time factor is not so significant. However, if a free participant adheres to this principle, he will get better results from learning.

Indeed, if a person takes a course for half a year, when it is a three days’ course, it will take 25 years to pass 50 such courses. This is unacceptable. Then yoga will certainly disappear. Unfortunately, sometimes it happens that a very gifted student is surrounded in his life with what in yoga is called “Tamas”. That is, inactivity, stupidity, laziness, “deadly stupor of mind”. It is highly contagious, imperceptibly penetrating, it begins to disintegrate a person from within. A lot of efforts are required to “pull” students from the “tamas”. Distinct time limit is precisely designed to “pull” a student from this state. Time is the most irreplaceable factor in human life and development. We know examples of very capable and promising people who later mentally slid into semi-animal existence, and only a shake-up and stern discipline could bring them out of this state. In yoga they say that foolishness, laziness, eclipse and sleepy stupor of mind, are followed by pain!

Passage time of the courses is calculated on the basis of the experience of other students’ passing the courses in the past.

Many important, key concepts and themes of yoga are sometimes repeated in different parts of our courses. Such things as the first and the second principle of yoga, basic requirements and recommendations for studying yoga and others will be repeated from one course to another. It doesn’t mean that we don’t value your time, making you repeat the same themes. We deliberately do it, as our long experience shows that, despite the simplicity and obviousness of certain provisions in yoga, students learn them with difficulty and don’t apply them in the practice of yoga and in everyday life. Therefore, we, as it was in the best traditions of ancient yoga teachers, are forced to insist that students literally “learn by rote” some axiomatic provisions in yoga and constantly repeat them. Sometimes it takes years of repetition, so that the hidden meaning of these seemingly obvious statements in yoga was really understood by a student.

Thus, we should gain patience and again and again try to understand the statements in yoga, which you may have repeatedly encountered before. We emphasize once again that ancient teachers of yoga appreciated other people’s time, and if they insisted on a multiple repetition of studies, it was due to an absolute necessity. Any impatience and inconsistency in the study of yoga, as well as the reluctance to repeat the main provisions, an attempt to “skim the cream” form the theory of yoga, sometimes results in slowing and giving up yoga studies.

How should I enroll in this or that yoga course after the registration?

After the registration, when you first go to a particular course, the computer system usually asks you if you want to enroll in this course and if so, asks you to confirm it. If you are enrolled, on the top left there should be the inscription “Marks”. But if there is an inscription “Sign up for the course”, you need to go through this link and confirm your enrolment. Otherwise, the system will decide that you have entered the course by curiosity.

How should you pass a particular yoga course?

  1. Start keeping your Yoga Diary.
  2. Choose a place and time where or when no one will disturb you. Remember that there are no ideal places, so choose the best of what you have.
  3. Take a pen and a watch, as well as your Yoga Diary. You’d better take a few pens of different colors.
  4. Write down in your Yoga Diary the date and the time you started passing the course, as well as the time you started passing the first step of the Course.
  5. Study the material outlined in this step. First, study the text material. While studying it, make notes and comments in your Yoga Diary. You will need them to acquire better the material and to make successfully the Home Assignment for this course. Then, if possible, watch or listen to the same material in video or audio format.
  6. Write down the time and the date you finished studying this step.
  7. Pass to the next step or paragraph. Take the Test to see how you’ve grasped the concepts of the previous step. Check the time of the start and the end of each of your attempts to pass the test. You are given a fixed time to pass the test during one attempt. This time is calculated so that you have about 30 seconds to answer each question, but you can do it faster.
  8. This way go through all the steps in the course, including additional material, home assignments, applications and explanations. Write down in your Yoga Diary the date you completed the course, as well as your thoughts, emotions, observations related to the course.

Why On-line Yoga courses are so important at the moment?

A serious study of the current situation in the field of cultural heritage of yoga clearly shows that yoga is rapidly disappearing. That abundance of information on yoga, which now seems to have swept over East and West, proves to be just an illusion. Unfortunately, the increase in the number of books, magazines and films on yoga is marked with a rapid decline in the quality of the information they contain. Often the quality of the information is below the critical level to such an extent that it confuses people interested in yoga, rather than helps them to understand this ancient doctrine. The situation can be saved only by very decisive actions to rescue the great system of self-knowledge, i.e. yoga. In the first place we need qualified teachers of yoga, who on the one hand, understood the ancient knowledge of yoga, and on the other hand were able to bring it up to modern people in a comprehensible way. If there are no such people, the knowledge of yoga will become irrelevant and consequently will disappear.

Unfortunately, in today’s world we observe two equally ineffective strategies for the preservation of knowledge of yoga.

The first strategy is a superficial commercial and frivolous attitude to yoga, which show us the West, and especially America, where yoga is reduced to the level of physical exercises or even acrobatics. In the narrow circles this trend in yoga is called “Yoga Pop” (That is, yoga on a very primitive level for those who are mad about publicity and fashion).

Indeed, it is a little strange to see people who practice yoga in the trainers, using lots of different kinds of devices, while the only thing you need for practicing yoga – it is a flat floor and a rug. Still, this strategy has positive aspects. Among them there is a large-scale involvement of people in the West, where almost every second person at least has once practiced yoga, which cannot even de said about the East.

The second strategy is an attempt to recreate a little “India” within a particular school of yoga in the West and to make everyone live in “Indian style” to dress, to eat, to communicate. This is an attempt to impose standards of behavior, natural in the East and inconceivable in the West, when the student has to kiss the ground in the appearance of a teacher or when women should practice yoga separately from men, in order not to lead the latest into temptation. Such attempts are always very similar to attempts to create some new religious sect, and not to spread the knowledge of yoga. It is clear that there are fewer people willing to participate in such organizations than the organizers of this approach in yoga would have liked. The most annoying is that this “Indian” way of life, which is presented in these organizations as a true “yogic” has nothing to do with yoga. This way of life has developed relatively recently. The lifestyle of people in the time of flourishing of yoga, apparently, was quite different, having a very distant resemblance to the one now they are trying to impose on the people in the West. In the narrow circles this trend in yoga is called “Yoga Hindu”. (That is, yoga, where there is too much Hindu color, customs, and sometimes superstitions of broad masses of the East).

But all the same and in this trend has its strengths. One of its advantages is that people sharing this approach sometimes show a very deep understanding of the theory and practice of yoga. Occasionally, even by copying automatically some elements of life in the East, they also transmit without distortion the grain of wisdom, which have reached us since ancient times.

Thus, we observe two trends: a frivolous one and a too serious one, but, unfortunately, this seriousness has little to do with yoga. Consequently, the modern world needs a completely new approach.

The On-line Yoga Courses of the International Open Yoga University were created in order to implement this approach.

According to the International Open Yoga University, at the moment several thousands of qualified teachers of yoga are required to maintain, adapt, and to bring to all the willing the ancient knowledge of yoga, and to transfer it harmoniously to the modern ground, thereby creating a base to save and increase yoga knowledge. This is an absolutely fantastic number, given all the realities of our life, and it will take to the International Open Yoga University centuries to prepare so many teachers, even if dozens of people graduate from it every year, it would be rather complicated it at the moment.

We cannot rely on the fact that western countries will “export” yoga teachers trained overseas, as in the West rules the ideology of the “consumer society”, and the quality of these teachers is not acceptable. Though if they could, they would flood the whole world and even India with “certified teachers of international level”, if only they were paid for it.

Neither can we count upon eastern countries, because there simply aren’t so many adequate training centers, and the majority of them are much like religious organizations. And in Russia, after several years of official atheism, people hardly perceive any kind of religious cults, and simply dash aside from their followers.

The vacant niche in the teaching of yoga immediately filled, at worst, by all kinds of healers, fortune tellers, magicians, wizards, and other very dubious people. At best, these are retrained psychologists, gymnastics, aerobics or dance instructors, who see yoga as a new wave of fashion.

Today only real way out of this situation – it is Free On-line Yoga Courses, which can cover an unlimited number of people, and do something really useful in the preservation and promotion of yoga knowledge. On-line Yoga courses will help find the most capable, sincere and dedicated to yoga people, who will be teachers of yoga and prevent its disappearing.

Indeed, a future competent yoga teacher has to study an enormous amount of theoretical material on yoga. It takes a lot of time, and it is much more convenient to do it distantly on Internet. The same refers to comprehension check of the material, handing over the home assignments and reports.

Of course, some personal communication is also needed for training yoga instructors. It is assumed that if a person disseminates the tradition of yoga, he will have personal contacts with his teachers of yoga. Real communication is absolutely necessary, but if it is possible to avoid it without doing harm to educational process, we should follow this rule.

In any case, it is necessary to get rid of a dangerous information gap in the theory of yoga, for all seeking this ancient knowledge, no matter whether they will become teachers of yoga, or will study with personal goals. As the decision to become a teacher of yoga is very serious, and there is no need to hurry. A person should understand where he is going and what is awaiting him. On-line Yoga courses will help decide and understand how yoga is important for you. In addition, it is necessary to improve the intellectual level of the environment where people practice and study yoga. We should just squeeze out the obscurantism and unconcealed stupidity which is now in abundance in all that is related to yoga. After all, yoga never contradicts the common sense and logic, despite the fact that there are many things that will seem fantastic and wonderful to an inexperienced person. Although yoga is a supralogical teaching and contains many aspects that are only coming in the understanding of modern people, we should remember that supralogic of yoga never contradicts to our conventional logic.

How is defined and changed the status of a person who studying Free On-line Yoga Courses?

The status of a student free participant or a full-time (part-time) student consists of many aspects, such as: how long a student has been studying, how many courses has already completed, which marks he had, how he did home assignments and how active he was while making reviews of the courses. Thus, the analysis of activity and marks that were obtained during the course enables us to distinguish the most promising and capable students and raise their status.

Indeed, you can judge a student by checking his homework: whether he is disciplined, punctual, serious in their steps, constructive, tends to be creative. The nature and character of a person are clearly portrayed in all that he does.

A general step by step instruction for everybody how to use Free Distant On-line Yoga courses!

Step One. Register (create a new account) on the main page of the Courses (at the top on the left). Create a username and password to log in and indicate your e-mail address. Please, indicate your name in Russian, otherwise it will be very difficult to find you in the lists of students. Please, also add your photo on the site. The instruction how to insert your photo, see below in the appendix. If you have difficulties registering, then please contact Victoria Begunova by email ambikavika@mail.ru. If you do not register, you will not be able to pass tests and many courses will be closed for you. Some students forget to register and this leads to many problems, please, do not repeat this mistake.

Step Two. Start passing consistently all the courses of the section “Zero cycle of yoga studies”. Once you are log in a new course, you have to register to pass this course. Otherwise, the system will come to a conclusion that you just entered the course by curiosity.

Question: How do I enroll in a course?

Answer:

  1. Once you entered a new course, at the top on the left sometimes you can see the inscription “To sign up for the course.” You will have to click it.
  2. Then you will be asked to confirm by clicking “Yes”.
  3. You again get on the page of the course and at the top on the left you see the inscription “Marks”. Here will be your marks for this course.
  4. You can browse your marks. Sometimes the system immediately offers you sign up for a course when you enter it for the first time. In this case, you start from the second point in the sequence mentioned above.

One after another take courses, according to their ordinal numbers. Study all the material for each course and go through all the tests of the course. Do not proceed to the next course, until you pass all the tests of the previous course.

If you have any problems or something doesn’t function, please contact Victoria Begunova by email ambikavika@mail.ru.

Step Three. Pass the last course in the “zero cycle of yoga courses” and decide for yourself whether you want to become a student free participant or a full-time (part-time) student. If you decide to become a student free participant, you will have to start taking “first cycle of yoga courses”. If you are planning to become a full-time (part-time) student, then as soon as you complete courses 000, 001, 002, 003, 004, you have to contact Victoria Begunova by email ambikavika@mail.ru in order to complete other activities necessary for your enrollment. After that you have to continue taking all the rest of the courses of “the zero cycle”.
If you have any problems or something doesn’t function, please contact Victoria Begunova by email ambikavika@mail.ru.

Step Four. One after another take courses within the “first cycle of yoga courses”, according to their ordinal numbers For some courses you may need a “secret code words.” You can get them, if you successfully pass the quiz of the previous course. But some courses you can take without a secret word.

Step Five. Also you have to pass the “second cycle of yoga courses”.

Step Six. If you were a free participant student and had completed two cycles of yoga courses, you can try again to determine for yourself whether yoga is a matter of your life and whether you want to teach it. If so, please contact us. If you do not intend to continue studying at our university, it still makes sense to contact us to get a “Certificate of successful completion of theoretical courses of Yoga”.

Good Luck!

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