The Agama teaching staff has always been a carefully selected group of diligent yogis, all having several years' experience with this style of Yoga as Swami Vivekananda's dedicated pupils.
Our selection process involves a conscientious evaluation of a prospective new teacher on many levels. In addition to his or her technical knowledge of the techniques taught, we are interested in the spiritual level of the teacher:
- his or her degree of accomplishment and surrender to the Absolute
- the capacity to perceive the subtle energies both of Nature and of the students in a class
- the capacity to emit the subtle invisible energies necessary to the process of teaching
- and other abilities found at higher levels of Yoga
Students who advance in the courses according to our standards usually become qualified to teach by the 15th month, although one may spend years in this school learning all the techniques by heart and still lack the "spirit" that distinguishes quality teaching. Therefore, there is no exact formula, and selection is conducted by Swami Vivekananda alone.
We subscribe to this process at all of our teaching centers; however, at the request of many students, we now host Teacher Training Courses! Yoga is most certainly too vast to learn in just 12 weeks (the length of our program), but the fundamentals can be absorbed and a foundation established for a capable teaching practice. These courses serve our larger goals of helping to bring Yoga to as many people as possible.
