Vedic Chanting Essentials

A 6-WEEK INTRODUCTION TO  CHANTING THE VEDA WITH CLAUDETTE EVANS

Sundays, Jan 12 - Feb 16, 9:00–10:30 am PDT

Learn the essentials of Veda recitation to begin your journey with a solid foundation.

The oldest known Indian scriptures are the vast corpus of Sanskrit poetry known as the Veda-s.

Considered divine revelation to the Ṛṣi-s (seers) of ancient India, Vedic Chanting is bound by strict adherence to six rules – Varṇa (pronunciation), Svara (chanting notes), Mātrā (duration), Balam (force), Sāma (continuity), and Santāna (conjugation, punctuation). Adhyāyanam, the process of study that involves repeating exactly as the teacher recites, has preserved these rules for thousands of years.

In this course, you will learn the very essentials of Veda recitation to start you off with a solid foundation. This course is a recommended prerequisite to other Vedic chanting courses.

At the end of the course you will:

• Develop a basic understanding of the first 3 of the 6 rules of Veda recitation.

• Learn the rule of Svara – the notes used in Veda chanting that distinguish it from other chanting or music

• Learn about aspirated sounds.

• Learn about conjugation – develop a basic understanding of why some sounds in Sanskrit change based on a set of rules (i.e. your text may look different from how something is actually recited).

• Understand the method used to explain Vedic phonetics.

• Learn the famous Gāyatrī mantra with meaning.

• Gain some tips and guidance to build your personal practice.

Meets Sundays for 6 weeks, Jan 12 - Feb 16, 9:00–10:30 am PDT

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Tuition: $195 US, Enroll by Dec 29 for $169 (use code: VCE25 at checkout)

Join me and the wonderful team at Love Your Brain this spring at the beautiful Wavus Camps Retreat Center in Jefferson, Maine.

Accommodations

Located on beautiful Damariscotta Lake in Maine, Wavus offers a peaceful environment. All individuals attending the retreat sleep in communal cabin-style accommodations. Each cabin has its own bathroom for use only by residents of the cabin. Cabins are equipped with beds, toilet and shower facilities, and electrical outlets. All participants are responsible for their own bedding and bath towels.

Nourishment

Participants will enjoy brain-healthy meals each day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Wavus Camps’ nutrition team also provides education around recipes, meals, and ingredients. LYB serves food compliant with all CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the Retreat. Food is served communally/buffet style.

Activities

LYB Retreats offer gentle yoga, mindfulness activities, nutrition support, art inquiry, and community building. With scheduled rest time, self-care is always encouraged and prioritized. Time for recreational activities such as swimming and kayaking is also provided. The hope is that folks gain additional knowledge around TBI healing, feel part of a community, and connect to your inner resilience.

3-Day Devanāgarī Bootcamp with Claudette Evans, June 22-23 and June 30, 2024

In the west, we speak of a person who is well-read. In Sanskrit, the word, bāhuśrūtyam, suggests that a great learner is a well-heard person. Sanskrit is a language of sound and vibration, and the sound holds more importance than literal meanings because the phonemes hold within them the elemental qualities of the objects they describe.

Knowledge of Sanskrit makes it possible to grasp the wisdom of the Veda, whose body of teachings were composed in Vedic Sanskrit. This Sanskrit course will teach you how to approach the language of the Veda as a practice that is both enjoyable and inspiring. The first step in learning Sanskrit is to develop an intimacy with its sounds; become familiar with the exact locations the sounds are produced in the body, feeling their force and power, and the unique way they vibrate the palate and engage the breath. Above all, exploring and enjoying sound is at the heart of this program.

Anyone can resonate with Sanskrit's timeless sounds, and connect to words and ideas that are incredibly beautiful and profound. Rewards are many for those who take the time to see, hear and feel the power and elegance of Sanskrit. Those interested in yoga philosophy particularly benefit from this study.

The Devanāgarī Bootcamp provides participants with an opportunity to explore the Sanskrit language using a yogic model outlined by Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtra-s. In this course, students will learn the Sanskrit alphabet and feel the resonance of the beautiful sounds of the language in their own palate, explore vocabulary relevant to chanting mantra, and develop greater fluency and confidence using the language in their chanting practice and beyond.

During this 3-Day Immersion, participants learn how to read and write in Devanāgarī (the script used for Sanskrit) in a systematic and friendly way, and we’ll chant, and read, and deepen our knowledge, taking our practice to the next level. This training will give participants a permanent connection to the beauty and energy of Sanskrit as well as a dynamic learning model rooted in the principles of yoga to support cultivating greater focus and deepening attention.

This course will allow us to experience the practice of recitation as adhyāyanam, a practice to bring us closer to ourselves, and one another. Chanting and reciting as a community can inspire compassion and a strong sense of unity. Our class will be experiential, and you can expect to explore the potent effect learning of simple Sanskrit sounds and mantra from the Veda that we will share together as a group.

The learning model and design of this program is rooted in the traditions of the American Sanskrit Institute and depend on a unified, collective group experience. This course will be delivered online, and participants should be comfortable with this approach. Though recordings will be made available, students are strongly encouraged to be present for each of the live sessions. It also means being able to focus on the lesson with little interruption, and speak and chant aloud with the group.

Learning Objectives:

• Read, Pronounce and Write the entire Sanskrit alphabet in Devanāgarī

• Understand how the Sanskrit phonemes are linked to form words

• Gain the confidence needed to recite mantras from the Devanāgarī script and read simple Sanskrit words with ease

• Develop authentic insight into why Sanskrit is called the language of vibration and why that’s important

Elements of the Course:

• Learn the five mouth positions for recitation of Sanskrit phonemes

• Practice reading the Sanskrit syllabary in Devanāgarī

• Reading and writing vocabulary from sūtra, mantra, and śloka

• Practice chanting short mantra

• Individual practice and small group exercises

Dates: June 22-23 and June 30, 2024

Times: Sat, 12:30 - 6:30 pm / Sun (both), 9:30 am - 3:30 pm PDT

Tuition: $375 US, Enroll by June 8 for $299

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Restorative Yoga: Teaching the Art of Stillness

with Claudette Evans and Nicole Bratt

MAY 31 - JUNE 2, 2024

TRAINING SCHEDULE

Fri May 31, 1:00 - 7:00pm (with 1hr break)

Sat June 1, 1:00 - 7:00pm (with 1hr break)

Sun June 2, 12:00 - 4:00pm (two 15min breaks)

Sat June 29, 1:00 - 5:00pm (THIS LAST SESSION - JUNE 29 - IS LIVESTREAM, NOT IN PERSON)

TRAINING PRICE: $450

300HR MODULE: $450

Applies to Asana Specialist and Wellness Advisor Tracks (8 T, 2 TM, 1 AP, 1 PLE, 6 P, 5 non-contact hours)

Note: Two non-contact hours are a reading packet and assignment, sent in advance of the training weekend. Please register by May 20 to receive the pre-training materials.

Steeped in the lineage of Iyengar, and the style of Judith Lasater, Restorative yoga has become one of the most sought-after class styles in the US, particularly in urban areas. The reason is obvious—relaxation. With the speed of modern life, people desire efficient, effective, and transformative ways to rest and rejuvenate.

Restorative yoga is a receptive practice where the body rests comfortably on the floor, completely supported by props. By stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, Restorative yoga allows students to release physical, mental, and/or emotional exhaustion, tension, and patterning, while cultivating compassionate attention to the inner landscape. Among its benefits are improved sleep, digestion, and blood pressure, as well as reduced stress, anxiety, and depression.

Embrace and explore the art of relaxation with Claudette and Nicole as they weave lecture with practice for this nourishing and experiential weekend.

During this training, you will:

• Define Restorative yoga and how it is distinct from other forms of yoga

• Gain an understanding of the science behind why Restorative yoga works

• Become adept at traditional Restorative postures, and learn to refine them to meet individual needs

• Learn to plan thoughtful sequences and mindful transitions between poses

• Develop your instructive and prop usage skills to create attentive physical support for different bodies

• Sharpen your observation skills, and make appropriate adaptations to optimize your students’ experience

• Learn how to create an appropriate setting for a Restorative yoga practice, including cultivating spaciousness in the classroom

• Please plan to be present for the entire training; partial enrollment will not be allowed.

Join me and the wonderful team at Love Your Brain this spring at the beautiful Wavus Camps Retreat Center in Jefferson, Maine.

Accommodations

Located on beautiful Damariscotta Lake in Maine, Wavus offers a peaceful environment. All individuals attending the retreat sleep in communal cabin-style accommodations. Each cabin has its own bathroom for use only by residents of the cabin. Cabins are equipped with beds, toilet and shower facilities, and electrical outlets. All participants are responsible for their own bedding and bath towels.

Nourishment

Participants will enjoy brain-healthy meals each day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Wavus Camps’ nutrition team also provides education around recipes, meals, and ingredients. LYB serves food compliant with all CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the Retreat. Food is served communally/buffet style.

Activities

LYB Retreats offer gentle yoga, mindfulness activities, nutrition support, art inquiry, and community building. With scheduled rest time, self-care is always encouraged and prioritized. Time for recreational activities such as swimming and kayaking is also provided. The hope is that folks gain additional knowledge around TBI healing, feel part of a community, and connect to your inner resilience.

The iyaKIN 200hr Non-performative Yoga® Teacher Training, a Black-founded training program was created for service providers, wellness professionals, and yoga practitioners looking to learn yoga for nervous system regulation to better service their clients, grow their businesses, and support their own emotional care.

Although our program is rooted in the Indian origins of yoga, we offer modern approaches to the practice. Including post-traumatic growth strategies, stress management techniques, modern psychology and more to support the social and emotional wellbeing of our trainees working in high-trauma, high-stress environments.

Here we de-prioritize perfecting poses, and educate practitioners on evidence-based yoga practices that will guide their bodies out of fight/flight and into their rest/digest center to live better.

Here you’ll receive a vetted toolkit for emotional regulation, leadership and self actualization to lead and live better on and off your mat.

Join me and the wonderful team at LoveYourBrain this fall at beautiful Rocky Mountain Village in Empire, Colorado.

Accommodations

Located in the beautiful Colorado Rockies, Rocky Mountain Village offers a fully accessible, peaceful environment with picturesque mountain views. All individuals attending the retreat sleep in communal cabin-style accommodations. Each cabin has its own bathroom for use only by residents of the cabin. We are unable to provide individual room accommodations at this time. Cabins are equipped with beds, toilet and shower facilities, and electrical outlets. All participants are responsible for their own bedding and bath towels.

Nourishment

Our lead chef and kitchen team provide brain-healthy meals each day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Our nutrition team also provides education around recipes, meals, and ingredients. LYB serves food compliant with all CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the Retreat. Food is served communally/buffet style (i.e., not in individual servings).

Activities

Our Retreats offer gentle yoga, mindfulness activities, nutrition support, art inquiry, and community building. With scheduled rest time, self-care is always encouraged and prioritized. Our hope is that you gain additional knowledge around TBI healing, feel part of a community, and connect to your inner resilience.

Join me and the wonderful team at Love Your Brain this spring at the beautiful Wavus Camps Retreat Center in Jefferson, Maine.

Accommodations

Located on beautiful Damariscotta Lake in Maine, Wavus offers a peaceful environment. All individuals attending the retreat sleep in communal cabin-style accommodations. Each cabin has its own bathroom for use only by residents of the cabin. Cabins are equipped with beds, toilet and shower facilities, and electrical outlets. All participants are responsible for their own bedding and bath towels.

Nourishment

Participants will enjoy brain-healthy meals each day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Wavus Camps’ nutrition team also provides education around recipes, meals, and ingredients. LYB serves food compliant with all CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the Retreat. Food is served communally/buffet style.

Activities

LYB Retreats offer gentle yoga, mindfulness activities, nutrition support, art inquiry, and community building. With scheduled rest time, self-care is always encouraged and prioritized. Time for recreational activities such as swimming and kayaking is also provided. The hope is that folks gain additional knowledge around TBI healing, feel part of a community, and connect to your inner resilience.

The 8 Limbs Yoga Centers 200-hour Grounded Wisdom Yoga Teacher Training meets 10 weekends from September through April. Spread your time, commitment, and studies over the course of eight months!

Our training is a great fit for both the aspiring teacher and the dedicated practitioner ready to learn more. Whatever level of commitment you choose, our Grounded Wisdom Training offers excellent opportunities to deepen your yogic knowledge and self-study in a supportive community.

20+ years offering this amazing training!

Join me and the wonderful team at Love Your Brain this spring at the beautiful Wavus Camps Retreat Center in Jefferson, Maine.

Accommodations

Located on beautiful Damariscotta Lake in Maine, Wavus offers a peaceful environment. All individuals attending the retreat sleep in communal cabin-style accommodations. Each cabin has its own bathroom for use only by residents of the cabin. Cabins are equipped with beds, toilet and shower facilities, and electrical outlets. All participants are responsible for their own bedding and bath towels.

Nourishment

Participants will enjoy brain-healthy meals each day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Wavus Camps’ nutrition team also provides education around recipes, meals, and ingredients. LYB serves food compliant with all CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the Retreat. Food is served communally/buffet style.

Activities

LYB Retreats offer gentle yoga, mindfulness activities, nutrition support, art inquiry, and community building. With scheduled rest time, self-care is always encouraged and prioritized. Time for recreational activities such as swimming and kayaking is also provided. The hope is that folks gain additional knowledge around TBI healing, feel part of a community, and connect to your inner resilience.

Every sound in the Sanskrit language produces a powerful vibration which, when combined with other sounds to produce specific words and phrases, bestows nourishment to the one who chants, as well as to the listener. Sanskrit’s unique power and beauty reflect the great importance that sound had to the ancient sages.

Knowledge of Sanskrit makes it possible to grasp the subtleties of yoga, ayurveda, and jyotish, whose teachings are written in Sanskrit. Since ancient times the practice of the vedic sciences has included the study of Sanskrit and the chanting of Sanskrit mantras to induce calm and clarity in meditation. Sanskrit is integral to yoga meditation and its pure sounds essential for harmonizing and balancing the mind.

This Sanskrit training will teach you how to approach the language of yoga as a yoga that is both enjoyable and inspiring. The first step in learning Sanskrit is to develop an intimacy with its sounds; become familiar with their exact location, feeling their force and power, and the unique way they vibrate the palate and engage the breath. Above all, enjoying sound is at the heart of our program.

This training is an educational adventure that will give you a permanent connection to the beauty and energy of Sanskrit as well as a dynamic model of yoga in the classroom that supports a natural and effortless focus. Join Claudette for this weekend immersion to learn the language of yoga, take your practice to new heights.

F 6 - 8 pm , Sa 10 am - 4:30 pm, Su 10 am - 5:30 pm (Pacific)

Tuition: $250 per person

Hosted by the Ayurvedic Health Center in Bellingham, WA

Vedic Chanting Essentials

A 5-WEEK INTRODUCTION TO  CHANTING THE VEDA WITH CLAUDETTE EVANS

Sundays, February 12 - March 12, 2–3:15 pm PST

Learn the essentials of Veda recitation to start you off with a solid foundation.

Continue your learning with Claudette, and expand your understanding of Sanskrit with this Level IV training that builds on ASI’s Sanskrit Level I, Level II, and Level III course offerings.

Experience more of Sanskrit grammar and build your knowledge of simple sentence structure, including verbal roots, verb endings, noun formation, noun endings, and cases.

We will deepen our practice by chanting various mantras and invocations, and translating select verses from the Bhagavad Gītā.

Each immersion includes a brief one-on-one orientation with the instructor prior to the session.

Pre-requisite: American Sanskrit Institute's Sanskrit Level I, Level II, and III, and/or permission of the instructor.

Friday 6 pm - 8 pm , Saturday 2 pm - 7 pm and Sunday 9 am - 4 pm (Pacific)

Course tuition: $250 per person

Register by November 4, 2022: $185 per person

Join Claudette to deepen your exploration of Sanskrit and the power of sound and vibration with this Level III training that builds on ASI’s Sanskrit Level I and Level II course offerings.

By reviewing the content from ASI’s Level II weekend, you will further refine your awareness of the mouth positions, the use of the palate in the formation of sound through chanting, as well as reading and writing consonant combinations in Devanāgarī script. Over the course of this 14-hour Immersion, you will be introduced to Pāṇini’s rules of sound blending or sandhi, along with other fundamental concepts of Sanskrit grammar.

We will develop our understanding of Sanskrit grammar by chanting and translating verses from the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, the Bhagavad Gītā, and various mantras and invocations.

Pre-requisite: American Sanskrit Institute's Sanskrit Level I, Level II, and/or permission of the instructor.

Friday 6 pm - 8 pm , Saturday 2 pm - 7 pm and Sunday 9 am - 4 pm (Pacific)

Course tuition: $250 per person

Register by October 14, 2022: $185 per person

Continue your exploration of Sanskrit and its healing power of sound and vibration in this Level II course.

During this 14-hour American Sanskrit Institute course offering you will enhance your understanding of the mouth positions and use of the palate in the formation of sound through chanting and continued study. The first day will be devoted to reviewing the material from Level I and refining your understanding of the alphabet and vowel/consonant combinations.

On Day 2 we’ll cover consonant combinations with an emphasis on reading and writing the Devanāgarī script. You’ll also be introduced to the first sūtras of Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī, the text that lays out the structure of Sanskrit grammar.

Each immersion includes a brief one-on-one orientation with the instructor prior to the session.

Pre-requisite for this course is the American Sanskrit Institute Level I

Friday 6 pm - 8 pm , Saturday 2 pm - 7 pm and Sunday 9 am - 4 pm (Pacific)

Course tuition: $250 per person

Register by September 9, 2022: $185 per person