Thai Yoga Center

Learning and Retreat Center

Rules, Procedures and Guidelines

For Guests, Apprentice Students, and or Volunteers Residing At TYC

The Thai Yoga Rules Procedures and Guidelines: The Thai Yoga Center is an all volunteer organization. All work, including teaching of classes and programs and house / dorm related activities, is done by volunteers and students. The RPG's represent an effort to help you to understand what your responsibilities are as a student and guest at TYC. Every student is responsible to read and generally to be familiar with what is expected of them for thier training and stay.   Personal responsibility: Attitude and general fitness: You are responsible for your own health, happiness and general welfare at all times. The staff at TYC is here to assist you in having the best educational experience possible. However, they are volunteers themselves and cannot be attentive to your needs on a moment by moment basis. We want to encourage all participants to work at the highest level to co-create and to facilitate a harmonious environment in which to practice. If you are unhappy for some reason, take charge , handle it yourself in a good way or seek counseling or assistance from the staff and or other volunteers. We feel that all work is in essence work on one's self. TYC is dedicated to helping you to learn and make progress in virtually every area of life, but, we need your participation to be effective in this. Additionally, please see our Code of Ethics for Thai Practitioners... Karma Yoga/ Householder: General Areas: 1. Clean up after yourself. Leave all areas clean, or cleaner than you found them. 2. Return all items (books, magazines, drinking cups etc.) in clean condition to where they belong, after use. 3. Keep all personal and study items in your sleeping area when not in use. 4. Smoking is permitted outside of buildings only. 5. When possible, leave shoes outside on the porches. Dorm or Sleeping Area: 1. Keep your area neat and orderly. 2. Make bed, put away clothing, remove trash before class each day. 3. Sweep your room when needed. 4. Extra clean towels and sheets are in dressers in each room. Remove soiled linens to laundry room. 5. No open food containers or eating is permitted in dorm areas. Use dining room or porches for snacking. Bathroom: 1. Do not leave personal items and towels in bathroom. 2. Leave Clean! Rinse sink and tub/ shower after use. Spray tub and surround with ScrubFree after use. 3. In consideration of others, keep bathroom time to a minimum and showers as short as possible, no more than 3 min. if possible. We are currently in a severe drought condition and have been requested by our town authorities to limit all excess water usage to conserve water. 4. You may hang wet items on outside clotheline when helpful. Kitchen and Meals: 1. All TYC guests are expected to help with meal preparation and cleanup. 2. Mealtime is considered complete when dinning area and kitchen are clean and restored to proper order. 3. Each guest/ student should wash, rinse, dry and put away their own dinner ware, then help wash & put away cooking and serving ware, wipe up counters, etc. 4. Dishes are to be washed in sink of hot soapy water; do not squeeze soap on individual dishes to wash them. 5. Trash: All food scraps go into the compost bucket. All empty containers must be washed and placed in the recycle area. Only burnable items are to be placed in trash receptacles. 6. Personal items may not be stored in the TYC refrigerator without special prior arrangement due to dietary restrictions. Quiet Time: 1. Quiet Time is normally at 11:00pm. Assume that people are sleeping in dorm areas, all other activities should be removed to another area. Lights out at 11pm. 2. No overhead lights during quiet time- use a flashlight. 3. In public areas, TV or radios must be turned to low. 4. Final night of each class and after evening sweats is fellowship night. On these nights, Quiet Time begins at 1:00am. Extra Charges: A) Phone and Internet usage: We agree that it is sometimes necessary to communicate with the outside world while at TYC. TYC is also a professional facility and phone lines are essentially dedicated to this purpose. Please either avoid tying up the phone lines or keep personal calls and internet usage to a minimum. If you must use the facility phones, the following are the base charges for all phone and internet usage. Phone only usage: $ .30 per minute with a $1.00 connect fee , minimum. For example: 1 min. or less = $ .30 + $1.00 = $1.30 5 min. = $1.50 + $1.00 = $2.50 10 min. = $3.00 + $1.00 = $4.00 Internet Usage: $ .50 per minute with a $1.00 connect fee, minimum. For example: 1 min. or less = $ .50 + $1.00 = $1.50 5 min. = $2.50 + $1.00 = $3.50 10 min. = $5.00 + $1.00 = $6.00 If you are using your own laptop etc. there is a minimum usage fee to access local wireless network of $5.00 per week or $30.00 per month payable in advance. There will be a 20 mi. time limit on all personal calls via house phone regardless B) Personal Laundry: The Personal Laundry Charge is $2.00 per load. The student is responsible to and for any damage or loss resulting from using TYC equipment.  There is also a commercial laundry with washing machines and dryers located near the school. General Classroom/ Dorm Annex: Students are responsible for making sure the classroom is ready and ordered before and after each class. If it needs sweeping, then sweep it! Restoring the classroom includes, folding and replacing mats and materials to their storage area. Folding and storing sheets, pillows etc. No shoes in classroom. Leave personal items not immediately used in class in the outside areas or hallway, along with misc. coats, sweaters, shoes etc. No food in classroom. After hours practice is permissible, however, the room must be restored after practice If staying in the classroom as a Dorm Annex: All regular dorm rules apply, also, all personal items must be stored and the classroom ready to go no later than 1/2 hour before scheduled class time for each day. Property Related: No littering whatsoever. TYC believes and enforces Nature Conservancy and we support the process of restoring the land to pristine and natural state. In fact it is recommended that when hiking or walking that you carry a trash bag and collect any waste or trash you may encounter on the way! Please park in designated areas only. Some equipment used here in facilities maintenance and building is potentially quite dangerous... please do not touch or use with out specific guidance and permission. Karma Yoga/ Community Service/ Class Requirements: Our educational programs are both traditionally based and apprentice based. This means that we require a certain minimum of effort in support of the class, facilities , and grounds maintenance as a vital and necessary part of every class i.e. "Chop wood , carry water" is not just a metaphor! The plan for TYC and our various missions requires that everyone participate in "Chopping wood and carrying water," so to speak. The Community Service , Karma Yoga/ Apprentice hours are requirements for completion of all programs, as indicated, for each individual class. They must be completed like any other class assignments and may not be missed or excused without prior permission of the instructor. Karma Yoga is a requirement of every traditional Yoga school. The Thai Yoga Center is no exception. It is not the work that your naturally attracted to, it is all the work and sweat equity necessary to build and make a living community efficient. Our effort is the real investment and acknowledgement for the priviledge of learning and training in anything of real value. The money your pay for classes etc. is for "overhead", your sweat, your effort is the coin of the realm for spirit and energy based exchange. Your litle "uncomfortableness" is a form of voluntary suffering that generates particular forms of energy and emotional states which support real work. Karma Yoga is about balancing the machine, about balancing all of our centers... not just the parts of us who want truth served on a silver platter! The basic requirement is a minimum of 1 hr. of Karma Yoga/service per each full class day, or as indicated in the curriculum for that particular program. There are no exceptions. (Unless arranged in writing previous to participation) There are specific penalties for non completion of these requirements. The penalty for missed or unexcused incompletion is 4 CEU credit Hrs. per missed hour (4/1). Each individual class has a minimum hours necessary for graduation. If due to missed hours, the student falls below this minimum, the hours must be completed before any certificate or partial credit will be given. Karma Yoga on behalf of all participants makes it possible to run, build and maintain a program and facility and at the same time keep the cost of programs and housing reasonable and affordable. Additionally: please note all early registration discounts are subject to the final condition of volunteer Karma Yoga as part of daily class and life at TYC. Anyone failing to meet this requirement in addition to the CEU penalty will be charged the equivilent of any and all advance registration discounts. In simple terms, we are saying if you do not wish to join us in this simple daily practice you are agreeing to pay 100% of the full undiscounted tuition before receiving any certification from TYC. The participant further agrees that no certificates, certification or diploma of any kind will be issued until all requirements including course work, home work, finacial and Karma Yoga are satisfactorily completed. Understanding and acceptence of this policy is a pre-condition to being allowed to participate in any of our programs at TYC. The only exceptions to the above will be for bonafide medical conditions. At our discretion alternative requirements will be assigned. Regarding nudity, partial nudity and sex at TYC. Our Yoga is a Tantric science relating to balanced whole person, mind, body and spirit. We foster an appreciation of the body entirely and of body acceptence in a wholesome and blessed way. All programs are 21 and over and suitable for healthy adults. Some activities and course work involve various levels of dress and undress from partial to complete nudity. If you are in any way find the body and or partial and or complete nudity offensive we recomend highly that you do not enroll or participate in our programs. Additionally, human sexuality in diverse form may be discussed and covered in great details as it relates to Yoga practice, health and wellbeing. Our curriculum may include course work on Chakra, Prana, Kundalini and Pranic energy development ideas and teachniques. Male and female anatomy, intimacy, sexual function and dysfunction may be covered in detail as they relate to Yoga, health and wellness at one time or another. We want to foster an atmosphere of open and safe exploration of all issues relating to intimacy, personal well being, and sexual identity culturally, mentally, emotionally as well as physical. If you are not mentally, emotionally or physically able to receive and or participate in frank, adult only discussions, demonstrations and course work pertaining to the cultivation, management and practice of sexual topics and related, we recomend that you do not enroll and or participate in our programs. Most programs do not have graphic sexual discussion or content but some might. By registering and/ or participating in any of our programs you certify that you are over the age of 21 and agree to receiving education, discussion and information sexual in nature. The student and participant further agrees to hold blameless all staff and school from all injuries either real or imagined resulting from participating in said programs and or related activities whether formally part of the program or not. Better than good behavior is expected at all times. Any violent, abusive or improper behavior may result in immediate dismissal with out recourse or refund. Additionally this is a zero tolerance issue and no warnings will be given. Acceptence of the no violence, abusive behavior policy is a pre-condition to training at the Thai Yoga Center.

Check This schedule frequently for regular additions and updates. We try our best to do this at least once a month or more. If there is a specific location near you which is not represented let us know. We are always looking for new sites and sponsors to host various trainings. Copyright. 2007, This schedule was last updated on 01/01/2007