Brett Porzio - ashtanga yoga teacher in zurich_edited.jpg

ashtanga yoga teacher | zurich | switzerland

I am an Ashtanga Yoga teacher and practitioner. I began my studies over twenty years ago in New York City with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, R. Sharath Jois and Eddie Stern. After many years of close study and apprenticeship with my teachers, including long periods of study over many years in Mysore, South India, I began teaching internationally, throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.

Yoga has profound effects on our physical bodies; it purifies our internal organs and brings health, strength and vitality. Even deeper and more meaningful can be the wisdom gleaned through practise about what this very life is, who we are, what we are doing here and where we are going. It is indeed essential to approach yoga with a sense of adventure. Yoga is about raising consciousness and living with greater awareness and sensitivity towards oneself and with the environment around us.

Yoga is the greatest teacher because our knowledge and understanding is a consequence of our practise and rests on our very own direct experience. Yoga is radical because it will invite us out of the shadows; it will show us the masks we wear and the ways worldly delusion impedes our true path, purpose and contentment in life. Yoga teaches us about our own patterns of psychology.

Yoga challenges the very bedrock of our attitudes, assumptions and compulsions so that we can see ourselves and ultimately come to understand how to live with greater skill and cooperation in our lives. Yoga teaches us whatever is uniquely required by us as individuals. Yoga is the diamond hiding in the rough of this life. The lotus flower that is born of the dross and muck. The elixir. The fountain. That is why I love it and can’t imagine life without it.

about me

ashtanga yoga

Practiced in its correct sequential order, gradually leads the practitioner to rediscover his or her fullest potential on all levels of human consciousness – physical, psychological and spiritual. Through this practice of correct breathing (Ujjayi Pranayama), postures (asanas), and gazing point (dristi), we gain control of the senses and a deep awareness of ourselves. By maintaining this discipline with regularity and devotion, one acquires steadiness of body and mind.

"Ashtanga" literally means eight limbs. They are described by Patanjali as: Yama (abstinences), Niyama (Observances), Asana (Postures), Pranayama (Breath Control), Pratyahara (Sense withdrawal), Dharana (Concentration), Dhyana (Meditation), and Samadhi (Contemplation).

These branches support each other. Asana practice must be established for proper practice of pranayama, and is a key to the development of the yamas and niyamas. Once these four externally oriented limbs are firmly rooted, the last four internally oriented limbs will spontaneously evolve over time

Click here to read more about Ashtanga yoga method.

Text's source: K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Shala

Click here and visit Sharath Yoga Centre to learn more about studying in Mysore and his international workshops.

ashtanga yoga