ABOUT THE INSTITUTE & YOGA Located in central Canberra, Yoga Mandir was established by Alan Goode in January 2005. Reflecting the growth and development of its programs, Yoga Mandir became an Institute in 2011 with the blessing of BKS Iyengar. The Institute has established learning pathways for students of Yoga who have different levels of experience. The ongoing review and development of Institute programs is supported through teacher access to a well established research library and ongoing research work. The Institute also contributes significantly to the teacher assessment and strategic planning activities of Iyengar Yoga Australia. Alan has trained all of the teachers in the school and has ongoing responsibility for all of the programs and projects undertaken within the Institute. The Institute has evolved through the commitment and dedication of its teachers and students and especially those students who on the journey to becoming teachers also established and held/hold portfolios of responsibility around office management, training administration and research. This continues to be a theme of the Institute where a student’s own growing commitment to the practice of Yoga, and their interest in sharing it with others, leads them to take on one of the paid positions as staff. The Institute has the icon of the Ashok chakra to represent its work. This symbol dates back to Buddhism and was used by Gandhi in his quest for freedom for. For the Institute this icon represents the wheel of life: the hub at the centre stands for practice; the 24 spokes depict time. We learn from practice to understand ourselves ‘at a point in time’ and to let go of definitions of ourselves based on past memories or thoughts of the future. ABOUT YOGA Yoga is a practice that builds one experience upon another – moment by moment. It is a practice which demonstrates that change itself can only occur in the present whilst desires, hopes and fears exist in the past and future. Yoga is a practice intended to change us; the way we think, the way we behave and especially the way we feel and process experience. Yoga works with the body and breath. The body and breath are in continuous relationship with each other to form a dynamic experience in the moment. Body and breath experiences are in the here and now. It is the mind that lags in the past or projects itself to the future. Yoga practice shows us that it is the behaviour of the mind, its habits and tendencies to hold on to the past or to leap into the future that cause much of our suffering. Yoga practice trains the mind to enter the here and now such that it can be formed in the present rather than by the past or in the hopes and fears of the future.