About the Open Source Approach

There are many paths of Yoga - as many paths in fact, as practitioners. Open Source Yoga is an approach that
seeks to remember the space between the paths - it is actually the forest between individual paths that gives each path definition. Yoga is the remembrance of our connection to this source. Every school of Yoga is simply an
approach. Some approaches work better at certain times than others. Open Source Yoga also understands that the practice is always evolving, and every Yogi adds her voice to that evolution, increasing consciousness and adding the beauty of deeper understanding to the world. This is the Yin, or the receptive principle, to the Yang of one path. An Open Source Yogi therefore has access to all approaches while refining the ability to discern the best approach for her.

Yoga cannot be owned because it is in all of us. Every time you've experienced a feeling of clarity, lightness of spirit or just taken a deep, conscious breath you've done Yoga. Learn to share your practice.

Namaste
Daniel Clement

Philosophy & Methodology

O.S. Yoga’s approach is inclusive. As individuals, we learn from one another and have the opportunity to share our innate wisdom in the service of something greater than our individual egoic needs – to expand our consciousness, and to remember our true nature. Yoga is a tool to harmonize all pairs of opposites – to work skillfully with strength and ease, pose and repose, inhale and exhale - to come to the center of our being, to reflect, to remember. This skill simply allows a richer experience of life, intimacy and relationships.

O.S. Yoga is Tantric in nature. One meaning of Tanta is to weave together – to take apparently disparate threads of knowledge and weave them together into an integrated tapestry. If you look closely at a woven cloth, you can see the individual threads, often different colors and textures. When you stand back, you see the cloth as one. The same is true with schools of Yoga. So, rather than a separate system, or school of Yoga, which would imply a fixed approach, O.S. Yoga is a process – an evolution.

O.S. Yoga honours the traditions of Yoga, and recognizes also that Consciousness is continually evolving. Sharing wisdom and information freely accelerates evolution. Protecting, branding and copywriting information can serve to clarify, but can also limit the natural expansion of understanding. Both paths exist, and both inform each other by contrast.

O.S. Yoga’s approach to asana practice is informed by reflection on daily practice, and the understanding that although we may all look similar, we are also all very different – like the individual threads in the cloth. From limb length to bone structure and density, mental and physical dexterity, age, culture and sex, our human experience is unique. The asana practice, to be truly effective, must adapt to the individual.

To dictate a specific approach to the physical practice of Yoga would be contrary to the understanding that we each will approach asana in our own way, given the opportunity. But we can begin with some things we all have in common, as a logical starting point on this path – we can meet at a trail-head before we begin our own journey.

Principles of Asana Practice

O.S. asana practice uses a conscious, audible breath through the nose (Ujjaii) to guide movement. The postures develop within the envelope of the breath, using the breath as a barometer to guide the appropriate level of intensity for the practitioner. As the breath – inhale and exhale, is one of the most illustrations of the binary nature of our embodiment, O.S. Yoga asana practice begins with the breath.

The next example of the binary nature of embodiment are the two types of tissue in the body that asana practice affects – Yin tissue, which is the connective tissue, and Yang tissue, which is muscle tissue. O.S. Yoga practice recognizes the difference in these tissues and trains them appropriately – dynamic practice for muscle tissue and long, muscularly passive practice to target the connective tissues.

Conscious muscular action performed in a balanced way (integrative and expansive), and appropriate to the individual’s ability is innately healing and therapeutic. Therefore, O.S. asana practice seeks to bring the body back to balance through the skillful use of opposing forces - an approach to alignment that also recognizes individual differences.

We need both periods of appropriate stress and rest in all areas – physical, mental, and emotional. O.S. Yoga recognizes the pulsation of opposites here as well. The age and constitution of the individual practitioner determines the appropriate schedule, duration and intensity of practice.

The practitioner learns Yoga from a teacher in order to develop her own practice – not to become dependant on an outside source. Yoga practice yields its greatest rewards when approached in a creative and individual way.

The focus of O.S. Yoga instruction is to increase not just the student’s knowledge base, but to encourage discernment and creativity. With these tools, the student becomes her own teacher.

Using these six "threads" as a starting point, weaving an appropriate individual practice can begin. Open Source Yoga offers workshops and Yoga Alliance registered teacher training to meet international standards of safety and integrity.

Open Source Ethics

Yoga cannot be owned. Breath, movement, reflection and inquiry are innately human qualities. O.S. Yoga’s development has been informed by the accumulated knowledge of those who offered their understanding freely. If this approach rings true for you, then you are and Open Source Yogi.

The relationship between a student and a teacher is based on friendship – not a guru/disciple power differential.

O.S. Yoga agrees with the Tantric understanding that each one of us is a condensation of Source. There is one reality – and from the one comes the many. As teachers, we see every student for who they are – part of Supreme Consciousness.

O.S. Yoga teachers teach to enable and support the student’s individual practice – not to create dependency.

Although O.S. Yoga has a name, it is not a brand or school of Yoga. It exists to shine a light on the space between the paths – the source of Yoga. It does not exist to serve itself. There is no hierarchy, or need for expansion. There are no licensing or membership fees.

O.S. Yoga seeks to reduce, wherever possible, the negative ecological effects of commerce. With this in mind, O.S. Yoga recognizes the power of yoga practice as a tool to establish community – to get to know each other more deeply on a local level. O.S. Yoga teachers are encouraged to teach from their homes, or walking/cycling distance from their homes. Students are encouraged to walk or cycle to class whenever possible. Smaller class sizes and decreased financial anxiety for the teacher can serve to preserve the integrity of the practice.