Foundation Practices of Tantric Yoga, Trimester 2 of 3
Course Material
Foundations of Tantric Yoga, Trimester II
- Bodily Awareness and Breathing 2
- Alimentation and Nourishment 2
- Opening the Subtle Body 2
- Training the breath and body together 2
- Purifying Actions 2
- Seats of Meditation 2
- Sanctifying the Body 2
- Auditory/Mental Tools 2
- Visual Yogas 2
- Sexual Energy Cultivation and Circulation 2
- Gestures, Seals, and Inner Attitudes 2
- Yoga of Sound 2: Nada Yoga and Inner Sound
Topics by Class Session
Introduction and Orientation
Class 1: Timing and Breath Ratios in the Complete Breath
Class 2: Breath timing for energy and relaxation| reverse breathing and nabhi bandha
Class 3: Alimentation and Nourishment: timing and sadhana
Class 4: alimentation & nourishment: sleep cycles, adaptogens, and listening to (feeling with) your body
Class 5: Opening the Subtle Body: Adding kumbakha
Class 6: Opening the Subtle Body: kumbhaka with subtle energy awareness and emotional amplification
Class 7: Nyasa in movement…
Class 8: Nyasa with thought forms, in movement
Class 9: Seats of Meditation: abiding in the internal seat while breathing to and from it
Class 10: breathing subtle energy and emotional content to and from the seats of consciousness
Class 11: Training the Breath and Body Together 2
Class 12: Training the body and breath together 2, con’t
Class 13: Purifying Actions – Bhasti
Class 14: Purifying Actions – Vaman Dhauti/Kunjal Kriya
Class 15: The Visual Yogas 2- Shambhavi Mudra in 3-D
Class 16: 3-D Shambhavi Mudra, continued – feeling and projecting
Class 17: Gestures, Seals, and Inner Attitudes: Dhyan Mudra
Class 18: Secret Smile in Dhyan Mudra, with correct and incorrect application of the seven points of the posture
Class 19: The Yogas of Sound: AUM – correct pronunciation and practice
Class 20: Yogas of Sound: AUM with 3-D Shambhavi Mudra
Class 21: Nada Yoga part 2: Inner Sound Yoga
Class 22: Inner Sound Yoga with 3-D Shambavi Mudra
Class 23: Integrating sexual energy cultivation/circulation into garuda squats, kapalabhati, uddiyana bandha
Class 24: Integrating sexual/sensual energy with 3-D Shambhavi Mudra
Summary Session: Foundations Trimester 1
Class 25: Summary
2nd Trimester
In one of my journal entries I noted how through Tao Semko’s “Foundation Practices of Tantric Yoga” I was building a much surer House of Tantra. Like many others who dabbled with this and that yoga practices, I had lots of snippety information but lacked a true yogi sequence to build my practice.
Looking back on two trimesters of the curriculum, I see how Tao systematically covers all the essentials. If you go to Yoga classes (Hatha Yoga) and do this Foundations curriculum you would have a much deeper understanding of what you are doing and where you could go.
For instance, I really needed Tao to help me think clearly about the ways of breathing. The complete breath, belly breathing, “reverse” breathing, and all the variations in timing and breath retention (kumbhaka). Now I have a good idea of what breathing technique would work for a particular result.
After each lesson I experiment and test out the material to verify it for myself. Everything in Tao’s course is experiential. All movement or non-movement becomes awareness and absorption, and the opening up of the subtle body.
This is real No Fear Tantric yoga, though as Tao teaches it, there is nothing to be fearful about. Tao provides expert guidance for the Shatkarmas, purification techniques. Three of the six (shat =six): nasal and sinus clearing (neti), colon cleaning (bhasti) and stomach wash (vaman dhauti) are simplified and updated but are still genuine and powerful yogi practices to enhance health and the flow of consciousness. This yoga is about the amplification of sensuality and emotion through breath, nyasa and the Secret Smile.
Body bliss becomes mind bliss, as the senses are withdrawn into the brain through Shambhavi and inner sound. Funny, regular yoga classes don’t usually teach any of this, you just begin to intimate it, and then somehow you find your way here and are ready to sign up for Foundation Practices of Tantric Yoga.
–Nick, Foundations of Tantric Yoga online student, Miami
I never considered studying yoga until I found the course on the Umaa Tantra. The only yoga I had seen before your course was fitness and relaxation oriented. I wasn’t interested in these because I wanted to learn about more of the internal aspects and definitely get this from your course.
I really like how when you teach a fundamental technique you encourage students to experience it for themselves, and journal on the results. Learning this way takes a lot of effort but when I put in the work, the result is that I feel like I really know the technique because I have experienced it. This is much better than just being able to recite and talk about the theory.
One thing that surprised me about the course is the breadth of material that is covered. Many unexpected aspects of my life have been changed for the better including sleeping better and dreaming again and understanding how food and what I eat affects my body. I am learning to listen to and understand my body in so many different ways. More and more I am realising that tantra is an all encompassing way of life.
I highly recommend this course to anybody who has done KAP1 and would like to delve deeper into some of the additional supplemental material. A lot of the course work covered in Foundations I have found really beneficial to my KAP practice. Thanks to studying the foundations course I am really breathing properly and have worked out a lot of the tension I had in my abdominal area. I have a much better awareness of the energy flows in my body and really strong feelings of energy movement. I am finally starting to see auras after struggling with this during KAP – I had given up and thought I just could not do it.
I find it really hard to put a lot of the other changes down in words, but I feel like my consciousness is changing (I have to attribute this to the KAP course as well). It’s happening slowly so I don’t notice it day to day, but when I think back a few months I can see it. I see myself, others and the world differently. More and more I can see outside of a situation and think about it critically rather than just being an actor. I don’t know what to make of a lot of it yet. I am reluctant to say but I think I am developing a bit of clairvoyance (sometimes when I see people a word or phrase about them pops into my head, like they have just told me).
All the Best,
Ramon, Australia