John Campbell’s 6-week Sunday Sanskrit Course
Course Description:
Knowledge of Sanskrit is a vital support for in-depth study and practice of Yoga. Engaging the key terms and concepts of Yoga in their source language, the student opens a door to the vast and profound universe of the Yogic sciences.
The Sanskrit Foundations course provides an introduction to the language for anyone wanting to correctly pronounce and read Sanskrit. No background or prior exposure is necessary.
In six class meetings (in-person and on Zoom) over two months, the Foundations course teaches students to read and pronounce the Sanskrit alphabet in the Devanagari script, gradually leading toward full comprehension of all the powerful vibrations of the language and its writing system.
The study of Sanskrit itself can also be a powerful yoga practice. Just as the physical postures of āsana were designed to energize and heal the body and nervous system, the Sanskrit alphabet and mantras were phonetically engineered to transform and purify consciousness. Their vibrations provide access to the subtle world of prāṇa, the vital energies underlying body and mind and through which an integrated body-mind is harmonized.
The twelve-hour course also introduces students to a yogic model of learning, a method for single-pointed focus on any object of meditation – in this case, the resonant sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. Applying this model, the student learns how to bypass and even eliminate compulsive mind-chatter and afflictive, self-defeating habit patterns that typically sabotage the learning process.
Whether as the launching point for an ongoing study of the core texts of the Indic yoga traditions or as a basic orientation to the master language of yoga, students in the Foundations course learn to incorporate the language of mantra — powerful phonetic vibrations rooted in Sanskrit — into their yoga and meditation practices.
When:
5 class meetings (left) on Sunday 2-4pm, in person at the AOP studio or on Zoom.
4/30, 5/7, 5/14, 5/21, 6/11, 6/18