yogatrex viniyoga trainings in bali
ABOUT STAN HAFNER
"Yoga is about having a very stable, focused, and directed mind. It’s about being able to look into your situations with lucidity and hopefully make the right decisions in your life. It's about developing emotional buoyancy, because life has a way of taking that away from you. For a lot of people, yoga is just the discipline, or tapas, without any philosophy or spirituality. Lots of people think tapas means “to burn” as in a strong workout, but it means to live a disciplined life. That can mean going to bed at a decent hour, waking up and making your bed, washing your dishes, cleaning your clothes, taking the time to cook food, taking the time to walk, and do your practice. It takes a disciplined life, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun. I must admit, in the morning I’m very yogic, but around 5 or 6 o’clock, I want to celebrate life….with some music, a glass of wine, and a nice meal. I try not to get everything out of yoga asana and yoga philosophy. We all need to enrich our lives in whatever way we can, whether thru yoga, or art, or literature, or music. And relationships are very important. Yoga can be a great way to enrich your life. It makes things go easier, especially if you have a yoga that’s realistic. That can be a big problem with yoga, and it’s one of the reasons that I like Viniyoga, not the brand name, but the teaching technique of Viniyoga. The first thing you do is figure out where you are, then where you want to go, and where you want to go has to be realistic and achievable. Viniyoga is how to go from where you are to where you want to go, whether thru exercise, or diet, or meditation, or counseling, or relationships. It’s a process that’s real. It's an age appropriate yoga, and a yoga that adapts to the individual's circumstance. And Viniyoga is a work in progress. As we continue, we keep learning more and more. As my late, great, philosopher teacher, Robert Solomon said, "It’s about educating yourself in public."
~Stan Hafner's comments on the essence of yoga
STAN'S BIO
In 1974, Stan Hafner began his study of yoga with Lex Gillan in Houston, Texas, with the opening of the Yoga Institute, now one of the oldest studios in the country. A year later, with Lex's blessing, and permission to use his study sheets, Stan moved to Austin with his wife, Johanna Sullivan. There he made the commitment to become a yoga teacher. He started by teaching 6 classes per week at the YMCA in the method he had been taught by Lex. For awhile, he was the only yoga teacher in Austin. A short time later Stan crossed paths with a guy by the name of Doug Swenson at Barton Springs in Austin.
As Stan recalls, "He was doing the most acrobatic yoga I'd ever seen, long hair, beard, no shirt. I was very impressed. He said, 'you come back here tomorrow, and I'll show you how to do this.' And sure enough, at Barton Springs, he showed me how to do the primary series of Pattahbi Jois's Ashtanga yoga. Later Doug mentioned that he had a friend, Gary Lopadota, at the Ashtanga yoga center in Encinitas, California, and recommended that I go there to study. Unbelievably, I knew Gary Lopadota. A friend of mine owned a health food store in Encinitas and Gary worked there. I went out there and he became my teacher. And he taught me the series. Pattahbi Jois had just been there, but I didn't think I was good enough to study with him at the time. So, I waited until the next time he came, in 1978, his second time in Encinitas. That that was when I Pattahbi Jois and did yoga with him for the first time. When I got back to Austin, I decided that when I taught at the YMCA, I would teach the Ashtanga primary series. So, that's what I did.
"Sure enough, Pattahbi Jois flew into Texas with his wife, and stayed here for 2 1/2 months. There were all sorts of people here..."
"Pattahbi Jois had invited me to come to India. He liked me for some reason. So I saved up my money, went to Mysore, and studied privately with Pattahbi Jois. There were only two of us there, Gary Lopadota, who at that time we considered the greatest hatha yogi in this hemisphere, and me. It was so amazing, because Pattahbi Jois's Indian students, the police chief, the mayor, and a few other guys, all very overweight, would come in and just gawk at Gary and I doing the series. They couldn't believe what we were doing. Gary told me that they thought because they were Indian they didn't have to do the yoga as hard, but because we were westerners, there was something about us, and we needed strenuous yoga. Patthabi Jois would actually go out into the alley, and sometimes do a little skip of beetle nut with tobacco, and boy, when he came back in, he would climb on us, and try to make us perfect as he said. Before Gary and I got there, he didn't have any students. He was kinda sleepy. He was waiting for some new blood to come in and excite him. This was at a time when very few people were doing Ashtanga yoga. While I was there that time, I told him one day that my wife said I should invite him to come to Texas. I had a little picture of me and my students practicing yoga in the front room of our house in Austin. He looked at it and said, 'I'm going to Texas.' I'm like, wow, look out what you ask for. So, sure enough, Pattahbi Jois, in 1982, flew into Texas with his wife, and he stayed here for 2 1/2 months. I taught one class per day, in my front room, and he taught two. In those two classes, he would teach me how to teach in the Ashtanga method. There were all sorts of people there: Tim Miller, Chuck Miller, Gary Lopadota's wife Spring, my wife, Johanna, my twin brother, Steve, and all of our students. A lot of teachers came out of that time, including Peggy Kelly, who became an Iyengar teacher. And Gary Lopadota would drop in from time to time."
Stan continued to practice Ashtanga yoga for the next 8 years true to Guruji's instruction going deeply into the primary and intermediate series. As time passed, he developed a severe back problem.
"Hmm, I realized I need to rethink this, because every time I'd get healed, my back would go out again."
As Stan explains, "I asked Pattahbi Jois about it, I used to call him Guruji, "beloved teacher", he said, 'yoga pain, good pain'. Someone mentioned maybe I wasn't holding mula bandha enough. I doubled my effort on mula bandha, and I had so much faith in the yoga, I was dedicated, I'd gone to India and brought back the master, but the pain didn't go away. I asked Guruji, 'what if this kills me?' he said, 'yoga death, good death'. Hmm, I realized I need to rethink this, because every time I'd get healed, my back would go out again. I was about to give up yoga, actually, after all this time.
Then, Tim Miller, the Ashtanga yogi, gave me a book, "Religiousness in Yoga". I read it and I thought, wow, this is yoga about self-discovery and self-understanding. I saw that it was written by T.K.V. Desikachar, T. Krishnamacharya's son, and edited by Mary Louise Skelton. It was about a class that she had taught in 1976 at Colgate University. Some great yogis came out it, one of whom was Gary Kraftsow. So I called her up and told her I was about to give up yoga. I was about to throw it out the door. And she said, 'come up here and see me.' I saved up some money, flew up to Hamilton, NY and she started mentoring me."
Mary Louise Skelton explained to Stan that he was addicted to the asanas. After years of practice and study, if Stan didn't do 100 or more asanas per day, he didn't feel right. Mary Louise slowly weaned him down to a routine of only 12 postures per day. He eventually got to a place where his back was pain-free. He was sold. He enrolled into a teacher training program with Skelton. Over the next ten years, he slowly transformed himself from an Ashtanga yogi to a Viniyogi with intense study and practice, and extensive written exams. He taught practice classes that were witnessed, and any mistakes were corrected before going on. Of the 5 people who went into this teacher training, only two finished, Stan and Steve Phelps, a professor at Syracuse University. Part of the process was going to India to study privately with Desikachar, attending his asana and sutra classes. Mary Louise Skelton's husband, Bill, facetiously described it as a "guru factory". Suffice to say, it was much more than just how to be a hatha yoga teacher.
As "Religiousness in Yoga" had described, the training was based on some important principles. There is no perfect asana form. We all start where we are. Desikachar used simple drawings of human figures rather than photos of attractive and athletic young people modeling perfect asana forms. It was strong on beginning poses, counter poses, and the use of vinyasa krama, a series of asanas building toward a goal. Mary Louise Skelton and Desikachar both emphasized the dual aspects of theory and practice with a thorough overview of the 8 limbs of Patanjali. There was special emphasis on personal effort and how to use it to overcome obstacles. There was corresponding deemphasis on "religiousness in yoga". Since the book was sponsored by the Colgate Department of Philosophy and Religion, perhaps there was a need for something "religious" in the title, though it's a misnomer. Desikachar tells the story that he was slow coming to yoga, and actually climbed a coconut tree one day to avoid practice with his father. He thought that yoga was boring and laden with religion. It was later, in his 20's, that he enthusiastically took to formal training, but initially he was unwilling to acknowledge a spiritual force any higher than his own ego. Over time he began to see that the spirituality of yoga was expansive, where religion could often be restrictive.
Unfortunately, Mary Louise Skelton died of cancer before Stan's training ended in 1998, so his certification process was completed by Martine Burat and Sonja Nelson. Since then, Stan has continued to teach and practice the Desikachar Method of Viniyoga. He lives with his wife, Johanna Sullivan, in their home of more than 30 years near downtown Austin. He has taught a multitude of classes and numerous teacher trainings over the years. He's a warm, generous, and compassionate teacher with a unique ability to offer intelligent instruction to meet the needs of the individual. He revels in one-on-one sessions and specializes in mentoring aspiring and practicing instructors of yoga. He excels at bringing the art and practice of beginner's mind into his teachings. He is a true teacher of teachers, and a genuine master of Viniyoga.
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Join YOGATREX and Master of Viniyoga, yoga teacher Stan Hafner in Bali Indonesia for our 2010 Teacher Training Program. The teaching technique of Viniyoga and Yoga taught by Stan Hafner is about self-discovery and self-understanding. It’s about being able to look into your situations with lucidity and developing emotional buoyancy. Stan Hafner began his study of yoga with Lex Gillan in Houston, Texas, with the opening of the Yoga Institute. Stan Hafner will be the lead teacher and will provide in-depth asana instruction covering the mechanics of the postures, and their related advantages, disadvantages, counterposes, and contraindications. YogaTrex is proud to partner with Stan Hafner to offer this Teacher Training Program in Bali Indonesia All levels are welcome, but a genuine desire to learn is required. Whether you wish to teach entirely in the Desikachar method of Viniyoga, or add it to your current repertoire, or if would like to go deeper with your practice, this program will provide you with the necessary tools. Our viniyoga Yoga Teacher Training Program in Bali Indonesia prepares students to teach safe and effective group and private yoga classes. We emphasize the personal practice of the yoga teacher as the foundation of the training program. If you continue with viniyoga teacher training, you may find that yoga can lead to a journey learning more about yourself. viniyoga, Yoga, Teacher Training, Stan Hafner, Teacher Training Program, viniyoga Yoga Teacher, Desikachar, Yoga Teacher, practitioner, Johanna Sullivan, philosophy, Jerry Kuhlman, Eva Kuhlman