A CAREER IN HEALTH

Interested in a career in health and wellbeing but wondering how to move forward?

Here’s your opportunity. This is the moment to explore a career in health and wellbeing, rooted in wholistic, healing principles. Use your passion and talent to create more meaning in your life, act on behalf of your shared values and interests and build a healthier world. Interweaving motivation, strategy, action and relationships, your can build powerful communities to influence the decision and policies that affect their lives. Training courses for yoga teachers, meditation facilitators, Ayurvedic lifestyle consultants and practitioners, and massage and beauty therapists.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future.
Concentrate your mind in the present moment. Buddha

THE JOY OF TEACHING YOGA

Yoga is the most complete form of mental, physical and spiritual activity. It leaves you feeling elated and relaxed rather than exhausted and delivers a sense of wellbeing and balance which is so beneficial in dealing with the stresses of the modern world.

The Health Institute, Australia is the leading yoga and ayurvedic health educational institution in Asia, Australia and New Zealand and offers a rare, lifetime opportunity in its outstanding yoga teacher training program of yoga based self development. To learn the teachings from a living master is a miracle and a gift in human form. These teachings evoke our sacred, human principle with it’s qualities of wholesomeness, openness, depth, courage, gentleness and wisdom. They help us understand and unveil the nature of yoga within us. They show us how to voice and act on these truths, how to embody qualities of discernment towards our health, clarity, support and love in our relationships and enjoy creative possibilities.

Shanti Gowans, the principal teacher and founder of Shanti Yoga is an excellent teacher: dynamic and direct yet gentle, perceptive, keen and caring. She can mirror for us, through her mastery and through our own meditative inquiry, the embodied presence of yoga energies. Shantiji supports and trains those who have chosen the path of Shanti yoga and who aspire to share it. Under her direction and guidance, in order to deepen, reflect upon and practice teaching in ways not usually available to us, the program covers the breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge and competencies for teaching yoga.

THE JOY OF TEACHING YOGA
We have always been enlightened.
Our confusion is merely our fear of that fact.
There is nothing more or less to ‘what we are’
than ‘that’ which is immediately apparent;
but we seem unable to see it.
Enlightenment is ours to see, hear, touch, smell, taste and ideate
but all we seem to sense, is the shifting surface of that vastness.
We see reflections but are blind to the nature of the mirror.
We see waves but fail to experience the ocean.
We see clouds but cannot conceive of the sky.
Honouring our inner intelligence is a wonderful adventure.
We are all here to experience our magnificence!

Cert IV in Yoga Education teaches the foundations of Yoga. Totally immersing you in yogic knowledge and inspiration. It inspires you through a creative engagement with Yoga from the ground up. Originally, yoga was a discipline practised to facilitate the stillness in mind to emancipate one’s inherent wisdom. Yoga today is also a system for wholistic health, balance and connectedness. With its practices you learn how to clear your mind of its clutter, find stillness within and restore your body. Even if you have absolutely no past experience of yoga, you are able to apply. You will notice dramatic results from your very first class as you work with yourself, not against yourself, to tap into the highest level of energy, vitality and freedom from within. Using use the modalities of yoga, relaxation, meditation and breathwork, program outcomes include a greater sense of awareness of yourself; learning to accept challenges as they occur in life and employing healthy ways to cope; an improved sense of health and wellbeing for your entire being - body, mind and spirit; increased sense of connectedness - it’s transformational. In this 600-hour, foundational academic year, you will be required to attend the Institute for an average of 15 hours of practice a week (for 40 weeks), 6 weekend, residential, time-out retreats which include yoga duties and lectures and tutorials conducted one Saturday per month (also available via skype)

The Diploma of Yoga Teaching is core Shanti yoga teaching and provides you with the pre-requisite to teach and the sheer joy of sharing the Shanti yoga path with others. It allows an intense personal development that prepares you for your role as a teacher. Teaching rides on your learning, openness, passion and genuine communication.

The course will be conducted over one (academic) years with a further 600 hours of study and practice. Highly recommended are the Austudy requirements for attendance which are 15 hours per week (for 40 weeks). A practicum in learning how to teach is conducted on one Saturday every month, 2-5pm. You learn to teach yoga based on the foundational education from your Cert IV studies. You are invited to explore the Shanti Yoga approaches, practice, study and learn to teach a series of 55 minute core Shanti Yoga classes with your peers and give and receive feedback towards blending the ancient principles of classical yoga with the modern precision of safety and strength for dynamic and inspiring classes that strengthen and streamline the body, enhance posture and body awareness, reduce tension and stress and support the abdominal and lower back care in better overall health and wellbeing. You will be provided with technical feedback and advice and early leadership skills. In addition during your course you will be required to attend 7 week-end, residential, time-out retreats which include yoga duties.

The Advanced Diploma of Yoga Teaching is advanced yoga teaching that is conducted over one academic year. It comprises training in transformative change, incorporating the Yogic ways into your own path as a leader in designing and facilitating participative approaches for individuals and groups. Such skills which include selecting, adapting and transferring can be applied across a range of roles in a variety of contexts and are a valuable opportunity to share your practice and understanding. You will be required to attend (i) Saturday supervision practicums in supervising, sharing, discussing, listening, giving feedback and making decisions using yoga principles, every month each year. 2-5pm. (ii) monthly Sunday afternoon Tutorials to deepen your understanding of yoga (also via skype), together with the practical nuts and bolts of running your own yoga business. 2-5pm. (iii) personal practice (iv) 8 week-end, residential time-out retreats with yoga duties.

Children’s Yoga Instructor Training

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to human beings as it is, infinite. William Blake

Do you enjoy working with children? Are you looking to deepen your practice and spend a part of your life bathing in the fervent energy of children engaged in yoga? Then studying at The Health Institute as a intern/trainee in the Shanti yoga children’s program may be for you!

The Health Institute’s children’s instructor training program is taught as a weekend intensive. Parents and instructors are also invited to be present and attend the Shanti yoga kidz yoga program that runs during school terms with their children, and have their children also experience being at a yoga center and in our Shanti Yoga children’s room or enjoying the early afternoon outdoors in after school care programs, exploring their world in yoga and engaging in fun learning activities.

Date for 2010 Children’s Yoga instructor training intensive - BOOK NOW
Aug 27-29 Children’s Yoga Teacher Training (non-residential)

Fees for each academic year of Cert IV, Diploma and Advanced Diploma are $6550, if paid up front, prior to commencement of the course. Or $2000 deposit paid prior to the course commencing plus $495 per month for 11 months. Children’s Yoga instructor training fees are $2500.

CHILDREN'S YOGA INSTRUCTOR INTERNSHIP
Each successful step forward has been founded on a positive childhood experience. As a twig is bent, the tree is shaped. It is a very great thing to practice yoga at a young age and continue throughout later life. As the body, mind and emotions are growing and developing, they need to be kept strong, healthy, supple and one pointed. Early experiences can lead to lifelong, healthy passions. You may remember your own first impressions.

Children’s Shanti Yoga™ opens up a world of peace, creativity, joy and discipline for children from all walks of life. This knowledge is a wonderful treasure for children everywhere, because throughout life they will get the best out of everything they do and enjoy glowing health. Yoga is a system of many different things to practice and ways to think and feel, which make the body and mind strong and healthy and help children to be happy, peaceful and full of good energy. Yoga postures and exercises (asanas), yogic breathing (pranayama), meditation (antar mauna) and relaxation (nidra) underpin childrens’ Shanti yoga.

The Health Institute’s children’s instructor training program is taught as a weekend intensive. Parents and instructors are also invited to be present and attend the Shanti yoga kidz yoga program towards their practicum Mondays 4.00-4.45pm, conducted during Queensland school terms with their children, and have their children also experience being at a yoga center and in our Shanti Yoga children’s room or enjoying the early afternoon outdoors in after school care programs, exploring their world in yoga and engaging in fun learning activities.

The week-end tutorial is August 27-29. Friday 6.30-8.30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10.30am - 5.30pm. External placement may also apply. Course ends Dec 6 2010.

Resources
Shantiji has written some insightful, practical yogic material, helpful to children and their parents to start you on your way. These include:
• Intimacy, Love and Transformation. Using spiritual principles to guide your relationships and parenting.
• Meditation for Children on 2 Cds
• The Childrens’ Book of Shanti Yoga™
• Yoga Education in Consciousness: As a twig is shaped. Support material for teachers and parents.

School Health: Professional development programs
The Health Institute Shanti Yoga hosts yoga based self development programs that honour each individual. Programs emphasise that yoga is not about the perfect posture, the best body or flexibility - it is about getting to know the body inside and out. Yoga is suited to all shapes, sizes and personalities. Students discover that real health and vitality comes when they stop comparing and competing with each other, and start listening to the voice within that tells them what they need. Yoga teaches the student to work with themself, not against themself. Students learn to respect their boundaries and work from a place of authenticity and learn to manage their ego. In this way, an atmosphere conducive to natural expansion and growth is created.

A range of inspired programs for schools based health projects, to serve young people, parents and the school population are also offered. These deliver physical health, awarenss of inner and outer environment, compassion towards oneself and others and emotional intelligence, where students learn to respond rather than react to challenges.

Teaching aids include workbooks in:
• Concentration. How to organise and focus yourself in study and work.
• Peaceful Warrior. Workbook and lessons for peace in action, courage and to cultivate victory over war within our hearts and minds. True fearlessness is not the reduction of fear but going beyond fear.
• Transform your life. Lessons and workbook on self worth and self love.
• Your future is in your hands. Work book on setting goals and how to action them.

Everyday Yoga
It is everyone's sacred commitment to do something with their lives. To awaken and develop the heart of the enlightened mind is to ripen steadily the seed of our buddha nature, that seed that, in the end, when our practice of compassion has become perfect and all-embracing, will flower majestically into buddhahood. Cultivating this mind is the spring and source and root of the entire spiritual path. How are you doing this? How do you account for your view and action? The true nature of mind is the true nature of everything.

Shanti Yoga is an advanced, modern, living teaching that continues to implement the rich and dramatic teachings of the Mahasiddhas founded on the radical perspectives of Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta and Zen, in the indivisibility of emptiness and form as a method by which every nuance of life becomes practice. Reaching back to the dawn of Tantra in ancient India, the essential message of Shanti Yoga lies beyond time and culture and is as relevant now as it has been in every epoch of the world. Presenting powerful, ancient techniques and higher holistic practices as guiding principles to develop the physical, etheric, astral, mental and energy bodies, Shanti yoga is the path of the intellect, the will, power (love) and the heart for gaining accelerated spiritual growth and enhanced longevity with the view of attaining enlightenment in one lifetime and an ongoing dedication to the happiness of all people on this planet. It synthesises and powerfully integrates the essence of all the streams of yoga in order to intensely purify and substantially activate the psychic centres (chakras) located within the cerebrospinal system. The chakras are the stage upon which the interaction between higher consciousness and desire is played out. Through understanding and utilising the energies of the chakras appropriately, we are able to safely awaken and then circulate Kundalini (stored) energy throughout the body, in order to achieve glimpses of illumination, an expansion of consciousness and ultimately reach an enlightened state of being. Shanti Yoga is dedicated to fostering an enlightened society through sustaining and promoting cultural traditions and providing opportunities for an exchange of ideas and experiences between the keepers of these traditions, contemporary artists and the public.

Shanti Yoga offers ongoing, mixed classes for all bodies, in yoga, guided meditation, breath work, deep relaxation and self healing. The Shanti Yoga tradition’s unusual characteristics make it singularly appropriate for many Westerners. Shanti Yoga is principally concerned with transforming our experience of everyday being, rather than achieving an esoteric or spiritualised mode of existence. It is a practice of the grounded, humble and gentle beginning stages of a yogi’s journey. Here one trains to overcome arrogance - the primary obstacle to learning. Through exploring the depth of perception, one engages the elemental and magical strength inherent in the world. The principle of shakti refers to the sacred energy and power that exists when we step beyond aggression. Focusing on cultivating sharp, vibrant and uplifted energy through natural discipline take places next on Shanti Yoga’s aim is to engender cheerful courage, perceptive consideration, sincere determination, natural gallantry, graciousness, creativity and spaciousness.

Healing journey: Awakening basic health
Is it possible to embrace illness and view it as a gateway to experiencing wholeness and a sense of well being? Join us as we explore how illness and difficult circumstances can be a source of awakening and transformation in our hearts.

Illness is like sand in the engine of our lives, stalling us and often leaving us in despair. The conventional view of illness is that it’s something to be resisted and discarded at the earliest opportunity and that it offers no intrinsic value or worth. Consequently, if the illness is chronic or life-threatening, we often feel a loss of self esteem and self-worth and a sense of isolation.

The more expansive view of illness is that it is a profound opportunity to confront questions of mortality and fundamental well being and offers us the means to experience our genuine nature. This is the view of illness that members of Shanti Yoga explore and practice together. Shanti yoga affords an opportunity to connect with others who share the fear and confusion brought about by illness, as well as our underlying sanity and basic goodness and to practice alleviating both our own and other’s suffering.

To heal is to be whole. Shanti Yoga is a healing practice without boundaries and provides personal development that opens you up to a life of new possibilities. It shows you how to access the innate wisdom in your mind, the strength and suppleness in your body and the infinite exquisiteness of your spirit. Your genetic systems are already encoded with this knowledge. The only person who can open the door to the inner truths and lead you to the light is you. Shanti Yoga just awakens you to what you have simply forgotten along the way.

Come and enjoy the talks, discussions, reflection circles, contemplation, meditation and healing practices, that have time built into them to enable you to relax and enjoy the extraordinary healing qualities of the Shanti Yoga environs. Shanti yoga is also open to those who are ill or disabled, their partners and/or caregivers, as well as those who are not yet ill. Experience in meditation is not required. As a healer, the development of compassion is a deep and noble connection. Pity has its roots in fear and carries a sense of arrogance and condescension, sometimes even a smug feeling of 'I’m glad it’s not me'. When fear touches someone’s pain it becomes pity; when love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion. To take up the path of compassion is to know that all beings are the same and suffer in similar ways, to honor all those who suffer, and to know that you are neither separate from nor superior to anyone.

Teaching journey
Shantiji supports and trains those who have chosen the path of Shanti yoga, offering aspirants the experience of the richness within the Shanti Yoga path. The intensity and simplicity of Shanti yoga encourages its practitioners to become more intimately involved with life - a life not driven by personal concerns and habitual patterns.

The prescribed curriculum includes yogic health and wellbeing, anatomy and physiology, yoga relationships, yoga techniques including asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing techniques), relaxation (nidra) and meditation, teaching methodology, philosophy, the language of yoga, ethics and lifestyle.

The unique Shanti Yoga teaching-apprentice programme provides a close, personal relationship with enlightened master Shantiji, access to more advanced teachings and membership in a warm, close-knit community. The number of students is limited to enable frequent in-depth interaction.

Under the spiritual direction and guidance of the principal teacher and founder, Shantiji, the Shanti Yoga community has flourished. It is a centre for teaching and contemplative practice, where the observance of Shanti Yoga forms the core of formal practice and the ground for deepening the profound view and experience of yoga and meditation. Shanti Yoga has the status of a lineage institution, supporting the natural dignity of the lay person.

We cannot spend our entire life meditating as if we were living in the Himalayan Mountains. In the modern world, we have to work to earn our living. However, this does not mean that we get entangled in a nine-to-five existence, where we live without any view about the deeper meaning of life. Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations but to simplify our lives more and more on our path. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity.

The Shanti Yoga teachings have been founded by Shanti Gowans, a female visionary and tantric buddha. She has personally trained a small lineage of several senior, trained students within this tradition. These teachers are Westerners, who were born and raised within a Western culture. Accordingly, while they may be able to relate to the practical concerns of Westerners better, nevertheless, they rigorously avoid incorporating elements of psychotherapy, ‘political correctness’, or New Age formulæ into Shanti Yoga. The Shanti Yoga teachers are not monks or nuns. They are trained instructors whose lives are, in many ways, quite ordinary. Some are married, have conventional jobs, or raise children. Their yoga is embodied in the ways they live everyday life. Facing the same life challenges as their students, they are able to offer Shanti yoga advice that is grounded in their personal experiences as well as in their deeper scholarship.

Discipline is at the core of Shanti Yoga.
Our gentle but wholehearted discipline is the foundation of whatever we do. It provides a simplified environment, conducive to awakening courage - the courage to step beyond living a life of self absorption and personal preferences. Thus, all of us live in accordance with the precepts of yoga, the abstensions (yamas) and observances (niyamas) in general, together with all that arises in our lives as the path of awakening. To embark upon the Shanti Yoga path places the desire to wake up at the centre of your mandala. Everything else, whatever it may be, stands in relation to that and becomes a vehicle for your opening up further. Thus your life with Shanti Yoga becomes an opportunity for you to make full use of your precious human birth; an opportunity to let go of your habitual patterns and be free. It is also an opportunity to become part of bringing peace to a troubled world.

Training in residence
Nirvana is the retreat centre of Shanti Yoga.

Nirvana offers residential, wellbeing and contemplative programs conducive to your personal exploration. The centre is perched dramatically overlooking a dense rain forest with sweeping panoramic views of hills that nurture abundant wild life and features vistas of the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Feeling the presence of a living buddha in the form of a modern day yogi, being connected with the sangha (community) and the dharma (teachings) and simply opening up your heart and mind to the embodiment of truth, really does bless and transform your mind. Your own buddha nature is inspired to awaken and blossom, as naturally as a flower does in the sunlight.

Nirvana provides an ideal escape from the distractions and stresses of your everyday environment. In summer, the rainforest retreat offers cool relief from the Queensland heat. The atmosphere at Nirvana is very informal so just bring casual clothes to relax in. You’ll also need a hat, comfortable walking shoes, thick socks, a raincoat or umbrella and a light jumper/or jacket (yes - even in summer). Remember to bring your camera and torch for night walks. The program could be as simple as a short nature walk, through to daily breathing, stretching, gentle yoga, learning to meditate, total relaxation and self healing. The rainforest abounds with native wildlife. Echoing through the dense canopy overhead, you’ll hear the call of Whipbirds, satin Bowerbirds and Green Catbirds. In the thick jungle undergrowth, goannas, scrub turkeys and pademelons show no fear of visitors. The resident pair of eagles circle above the property, the cows are our neighbours and Socrates, the German Shepherd is our mascot. After all the bracing mountain air, you’ll be more than ready for Nirvana’s delicious, gourment vegetarian meals, cooked fresh daily. Nirvana’s dining room has 180º sweeping mountain views and our communal seating presents a great opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow retreatants.

Living a spiritual life at Shanti Yoga at Nirvana is very earthy and full. Even though Nirvana is situated in a remote location, one rarely feels isolated. While the discipline and silence might seem challenging, it is this discipline that lets in fresh air and inspires us. The intensity of a sangha (community life) and life lived compassionately and courageously, in accordance with the ideals of yoga, demands that we wake up. It promotes an enlightened society’s vision of wakefulness, fearlessness and gentleness. At first, life with Shanti Yoga seems rather idyllic but when you make the commitment to stay - which means when you decide that this is your life’s journey, then all those places within yourself that you don’t want to surrender become highlighted. One may want to relate to those areas in a habitual way or complain about a lot of things but it is like complaining in a house of mirrors.

Nirvana’s schedule includes:
- 4 hours of meditation, yoga and nidra daily
- Observing silence untill after breakfast
- Attending chanting
- Participating within a healing centre
- Also on offer are a program of advanced study and Youth programs

Each resident teacher trainee, whilst on retreat, is required to perform a four hour period of service to the community daily. This includes such duties as household chores and maintenance, finance, cooking and all other tasks that are needed to maintain our lives. Our yogic diet is vegetarian. Living within the precepts of the Shanti Yoga community is a tremendous support for becoming honest and gentle with yourself. Life takes on a certain simplicity, an unclutteredness that makes one’s personal resistance all the more apparent and therefore all the more workable.

Honouring our inner intelligence is a wonderful adventure. We are all here to experience our magnificence! May our practice be of continuous benefit for all.

YOGA TEACHER TRAINING 2010

Greetings to all yoga enthusiasts. You are being offered the opportunity of a lifetime. The Meditation Institute is offering an outstanding yoga teacher training program in 2010 covering the breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge and competencies in Yoga teaching with three government accredited courses. Live yoga. Then learn to teach it.

With Shanti Yoga you can
• build and maintain your physical and spiritual vitality (not just wrap your legs behind your head)
• stop smothering your spirit and soul with external knowledge and goals and start feeling and ultimately healing - yourself and the world
• infuse your mind with life and equanimity
• have truer, deeper and more fulfilling relationships
• change your destructive patterns permanently and at a cellular level
• practise with real integrity, unravelling the emotional knots that strangle you (when outer mastery becomes the goal, you are chasing the illusion once again)
• pay respect to your authentic self, your inner voice, inner wisdom
• transform your health and your life

Shanti Yoga emphasises simplicity, clarity and depth, both in practice and understanding. To wield the essential functions of Yoga is our mode of practice. To grasp the essential principles of Yoga is our mode of study.

Shanti yoga is yoga you can do and has components that are innovative, effective and immediately relevant. It can be practiced by anyone, with modifications to accommodate individual issues. The Shanti Yoga path is structured as a series of phases which allow a gradually increasing involvement and commitment as interest and understanding deepens. For the general public, we offer ongoing classes in yoga, meditation and deep relaxation, talks, weekend retreats and a host of learning materials which include courses, books, newsletters and several web sites. See our calendar for events.

Courses offered in 2010

DISTANCE EDUCATION - Off Campus. Self-Paced
When HOME is too distant, you can join the information highway from your own lounge room. Off campus distance education is by correspondance, via CD or notes, video, home study, Yoga diary. In addition to your class attendance and involvement, for Melbourne & Sydney students, three-day intensives and lectures are scheduled annually in the Yoga calendar.

Courses are available for self-paced, home study. Notes provided are complete and are:
Easy to learn
Uses a main point outline method of presentation. Course notes are exceptionally clear and well organised as well as remarkably concise.
With audio and video back-up where necessary:
It has become possible for students living in isolated locations to study this course at home while still having confidence that the techniques are being learned correctly.
Written for Westerners:
Simplified so that somewhat archaic formats and complicated Sanskrit language has been re-written in English.
Comprehensive:
Includes basic principles & practices.
Practical:
The material and exercises are geared towards practical application in your own life and the lives of those you will assist/instruct
Time Effective:
With home study, you save time. You can start when you like, study at your convenience, retain your current job and lifestyle, set your own pace and have ample time for completion. There is no class room competition.

SUITABILITY
You do not need to be fantastic in Yoga to apply. We help you develop through our training. Whether you take up Teacher-Training - to any level, as a hobby or part-time pursuit, The Shanti Yoga Meditation Institute aims to develop full-time professionals. So, we ask a lot from you:
• Commitment • Dedication • Devotion are mandatory.

Enrolment is conditional. We look for trainees that are
• Mature, dependable, responsible
• A caring nature required in the teaching of Yoga and for Ayurvedic treatments, body-work, counselling
• Prepared to make and devote time
• Devoted to (i) the art of Yoga (ii) furthering Shanti Yoga (iii) The Meditation Institute
• Pull their weight and are not shirkers or slackers
• Have and/or are willing to develop good communication and interpersonal skills
• Willing to practice and learn. We do not accept trainees that 'know it all'
• We recommend a nominal 15 hours a week in class on your mat/cushion, which is additional to retreats and tutorials. You must attend ShantiYoga™ classes and get your
Attendance Diary signed by an instructor nominated by TMI

GENERAL:
While there are no formal entry pre-requisites, it would be beneficial for
1. Applicants to be over 18 years of age
2. Applicants to have a sincere interest in the study of Yoga and natural healing arts along with a real desire to use this knowledge and skill in the service of all
3. Certificate 4 Courses require literacy & numeracy equivalent to level 4 of Certificate of General Education for adults (Accredited code 2212 ALC)
3i For Diploma Courses a Year 12 completion or equivalent is normally required
3ii Mature age entry (25+) is also available for applicants. In the situation where 'life's education' over takes formal education, two references confirming maturity and
level-headedness must accompany Application for Enrolment
4. All enrolments are subject to SYTA Code of Practice & Ethics
5. Each level of study and instruction is a pre-requisite for the next level of study. Please note that approvals are not automatic.

ACCREDITATION. ASSESSMENT. CODES OF CONDUCT

ACCREDITATION
National Training Packages (under the auspices of the Australian National Training Authority) are nationally accredited and developed units of competancy and qualifications that aim to provide a common foundation across an industry. They offer a benchmark for minimum educational standards in particular modalities and are only available to RTOs. They do not provide a curriculum.In designing the curriculum content of courses, TMI provides for the requirements of professional associations, employers and students; and leading professionals in their respective fields are consulted to determine the most current and relevant training required in natural therapies.

We also aim to provide students with the optimum training to enable them to practice with skill and confidence. In many cases this has resulted in curriculum content being included in a program over and above that which has been set down as the minimum standard. This also holds true with the national training packages. As education leaders in Yoga and Ayurveda, we are confident that your qualifications from TMI will continue to be held in the highest regard by employers, professional associations and your peers. But more than that, giving you the edge in a purposeful reality, is the satisfaction you will personally receive as a student of TMI.

Sooner rather than later, yoga teachers throughout Australia who wish to receive professional indemnity insurance and health fund recognition, or who wish to be employed/contracted by corporate business, councils and other goverment bodies, will have to prove that they have trained to an International standard, as is the case overseas.

Overseas Yoga Training: In Scandanavia 8 years is the standard training requirement; in France 4, in Britain and the EEC generally it seems that 2 years training plus 2 years of interning is required before you are able to join the main registering body, and in the USA, 200 hours is the minimum training period. Yoga teaching in these countries is a profession. Returns are commensurate with depth and intensity of study and industry experience after qualification. You can either take matters into your own hands or the bureaucracy will determine it for you. Don't be left behind.

The Meditation Institute offers nationally registered accredited Yoga Studies courses at three levels of certification specialising solely in Yoga Education and Teaching. They set the Industry standards nationally. The courses are nestled and can be studied as a fixed full-time schedule. The first year's foundational training, Cert IV, the second year of study for Diploma in Yoga Teaching and an optional third year for Advanced Diploma in Yoga Teaching. These qualifications can also be obtained by correspondence with appropriate training in residence. Training for these qualifications is competency based, taught, developed and assessed in subjects, in both full-time and modular and flexible approach, with emphasis on classroom experience. They are conducted nationally and are approved for government assistance in the form of Youth Allowance, Austudy payment, Abstudy, Pensioner Education and study loans.

The curriculum is comprehensive and holistic. It is classical Yoga, not a new form that has emerged out of U.S.A., nor just a misunderstood practice of a fitness routine popularised by well known personalities. It includes class attendance for the techniques of Yoga, Relaxation and Meditation, tutorials and lectures, non-residential intensives and workshops, practicum and apprenticeship instructing, electives, homework, exams and residential weekends of spiritual and health retreat with vegetarian meals, no smoking, alcohol, drugs, coffee and with training in Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga and Karma yoga. These standards are in line with and surpass both the international community and those in India.

ASSESSMENT
Each level of study is self-directed learning, complete in itself, enhances the previous one and builds for the next. Conducted as educational intensives, they are pitched at a tertiary level of intelligence, with assumed equivalent life experience and education.

Assignments at each level for assessment, contact with other students of like interests and hands-on teaching for guidance adds to the inspiration. There is practical assessment of your teaching as per Shanti Yoga™ requirements and a 3-hour examination, on completion of your course.

Assessment is based on assignments, research and other projects and exercises completed out of session times; attendance and participation at tutorial activities, lectures, guided study program, residential training; regular practice; internship, apprenticeship, teaching practice; practical demonstration of skills, practical and written tests, Competency examinations and appropriate Yogic behaviour.

Projects are assigned to assess competency. Students are required to answer all questions at the end of each section and submit answers to the Institute for assessment.

Ongoing Feedback
Assessment for many subjects is progressive. Every effort must be made to 'do the work' i.e. submit assignments etc. in a timely manner. (Distance ed. not restricted by time).
Possible outcomes of assessment might indicate:
Beginning 0-40%. Consolidating 40-80%.
Achieving 80-100%. Competent is 100%
• Feedback and debrief will follow where necessary
• The work is returned if it needs re-submission
• Competent assignments are maintained in an evidence folder, for storage and project management of students' portfolios, which contains evidence of standards achieved and a record of the learning process.

Competency exam
Assessment will take place in the form of dynamic and interactive feedback to student based on written and practical work.
• Written. Assessed and checked by:
i. peers ii. Shantiji iii. independent adjudicator
• Practical. Assessed on an agreed value system
- by observation
- evaluation by self, peer, Shantiji, independent adjudicator
- as competent or not-competent.
Examinations are to be taken on the set, not-negotiable date as advised. If a student is not available to attend an examination, Adminstration must be contacted for a deferred examination.
i All deferred examinations are to be sat within a time designated by the Institute.
ii Fees for a deferred examination can be confirmed with Adminstration.

EXPULSION
Students may be suspended or expelled from The Meditation Institute at the discretion of the Directors for:
• Non or late payment of fees
• Failure to uphold or maintain any of The Meditation Institute's regulations and policies
• Teaching inappropriately or inappropriate material (prior to certification)
• Misconduct.

NEW SOUTH WALES

1. Yoga classes: Your fees cover you for unlimited attendance for one academic year at City Yoga Studio, suite 203, 127 York Street, (opposite QVB) Sydney. Alternatively, you may attend Yoga classes at whichever centre you choice, which you must fund yourself. www.cityyogastudio.com
- A log book that accompanies your training package must be signed by the instructor when you attend.
- For home practice, it must be with a ShantiYoga video or our Meditation and Deep relaxation CDs. You must record this in the log book that is provided. The honour system applies.
2. One week's residential retreat at Nirvana, our retreat centre on the Gold Coast. Inclusive of return airfare (Syd/Cool or Brisbane) accommodation, activities and meals. Please note: Massage, treatments and detox are not included in your plan aand can be purchased as an optional extra.
3. One week intensive training at The Meditation Institute, Southport, Qld. Dates by aggreement, any week of the year from January to December 2007. We will try to arrange for homestay at a nominal rent if required.
4. A package that includes your study manuals, text books, CDs or cassette tapes etc. as indicated in the Students Manual.

THE TEACHERS AND THE YOGA TEACHINGS

To learn something, read about it,
To understand something, write about it
To experience something, live it,
To master something, teach it.

In every generation, adept teachers pass on their knowledge of yoga to pupils who are ready to receive thorough training and experience greater awareness.

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

You will not develop a stable personality through excessive effort but through an in-depth knowledge of yourself and an acceptance of your abilities and characteristics - your own mind. No matter how great a genius you may be, your teacher will test your real identity and you will learn to prefer real experiences to theoretical knowledge, dreams and expectations.

To thoroughly know and have independently worked with yoga and meditation over a long period of time, is a prerequisite for anyone who is going to teach yoga and meditation. This is the case with the full-time teachers of the courses conducted at The Meditation Institute (TMI). They have been through extensive personal training and their full time education has been conducted over several years, in accordance with yogic tradition. As teachers, we demand of ourselves that the study process be ongoing and include you as part of it, so that the intensity will not be lost. TMI is also a government recognised training institution, with fully government accredited yoga teacher training courses. At The Meditation Institute, you will meet and be instructed by some of our teachers in training.