The Yoga Course or the Tantra Course?

In the following article, we will address the age old question: What the heck is the difference between the yoga course and the tantra course?

The tantra course offers an in-depth study of the chakra system in the first year. We go from the root all the way up to the crown, spending seven weeks on each chakra.

In the yoga course, we learn about the chakras as well, just not in such a systematic fashion. As much as both courses insist on a good basic study and practice of hatha yoga – asanas and pranayamas – the yoga course goes into greater depth with that; you learn more variety of techniques and more complex techniques to awaken your body and balance your system. In the tantra course, there is a more basic approach that is oriented towards a systematic awakening of the chakras.

The tantra course offered in our school explores spirituality in day-to-day life, as tantra is a spiritual practice that allows us to commune with the universe as we are doing our daily jobs. When we go to the metro or to the office, tantra will give us the tools that will help us to center into the heart and to discover the Godly within the mundane. There is a lot of emphasis on this in the esoteric tantra course, and it offers practical ways to practice spirituality in day-to-day life.

People Come for Tantra and Stay for Yoga

The overall lineage in our spiritual school is tantric; no matter what course you choose, you will implicitly study tantra because all these techniques and viewpoints are tantric viewpoints. The yoga course is not completely grounded in day-to-day life, so it allows you to just fly high; it is your “Hogwarts experience”. If you want to learn to levitate, and to become invisible, and all kinds of advanced techniques, then the yoga course is for you. The yoga course contains a larger bandwidth of techniques that are all over the map and that all aim for enlightenment. The techniques aim to create a perfect inner and outer balance with the universe, a state of unity, and integration of all our parts into the Whole. The guiding light of the yoga course is always going for all these different methodologies of how to reach enlightenment.

Therefore, we say that people often come for tantra and stay for yoga because the yoga course is so wild and offers so many new dimensions.

The Tantra Course is For You if You Want to Deepen Intimacy

The Tantra course gives practical tools on how to engage in intimacy and how to live an erotic life. How to live life in a couple relationship, how to be together, how to polarize each other. There are many classes specifically oriented towards that. Orienting the relationship towards the higher tantric principles and orienting the erotic life in order to be extremely fulfilling for both lovers. The tantra course gives many practical tools to bring everlasting happiness into our day-to-day couple relationship.

The Curriculum of Both Courses are Fixed

We are teaching with a fixed curriculum that we share with many sister schools across the globe. You can study all across the globe. If you study now in Thailand or online and later settle in Barcelona, you can continue there.

In both courses, you will learn the basics of the Yoga Sutras, written by Patanjali, who put together the core principles of the yoga system. You will learn about morality – the Yamas and Niyamas. There are some purification methods that are in both courses – the morning kriyas – cleansing of our sense organs, and some of the major purification techniques for our digestive tract you will find in both courses.  

The Yoga Course is Oriented Towards Enlightenment

The yoga course offers additionally to this a lot of information on the yogic lifestyle. This includes a variety of pointers for a yogic diet, how to eat in a way that sustains not only our body but also our energies. This course comes with a lot more background pointers for the attitude of elevating ourselves towards enlightenment. There is study on how attention works, how awareness works, and how to become a proper practitioner.

So, the yoga course in the first year is much more technique-oriented and attitude-oriented.

Some fundamental differences and similarities between the 2 courses:

This article was transcribed and edited by Zita from the following video: