Welcome
to The Yoga Centre
a school of learning
The Yoga Centre, an Iyengar school was founded by Caroline Coggins in 1984. Today it has a home that sits beside these giant granite rocks on the side of a mountain called Yarrahapinni on the mid-north coast of NSW. It is a simple, beautiful space for practice, retreats and contemplative prayer.
​
As a school of learning, the home of the Yoga Centre is also in the very large world of online teaching, retreats, intensives - and in people's hearts. Those who train to become teachers, or train other teachers, and the yoga practitioners who walk the yoga path together.
These rocks were formed under great pressure for a very long time- maybe 300 million years ago. We are much younger, but knowing our world lets us place ourselves within the larger context of time. When you gaze at the stone there is something comforting for us younger ones. It is the on-goingness of life and the part we play in it. It is an exciting and challenging invitation.
​
To study Yoga is to step into a very old science concerned with the evolution of the human being in their own lifetime and beyond. It is a science to culture and form the human to become the human we are designed to be.
a pathway of learning and practice of transformation
I have had a teacher
The evolution of The Yoga Centre began in the 1980s when BKS Iyengar first visited Australia. He was like the fire that formed the granite, creating pressure that stirred the inner fire- Wake up! This was his attraction, a pathway of learning and practice of transformation.
My journey required me to travel to India to study with the Iyengar family for over thirty-five years and to have an ongoing commitment to working with myself through practice and study. That was just the beginning! Later there was involvement in this growing community, training of teachers, and the certification of teachers.
Yoga is a practice done with our bodies, mind and heart.
There are a range of classes available. There is a starting out class, experienced practice classes, a Saturday taught class and a regular Sunday yoga as philosophy. All currently held online.
​
There are a number of retreats held each year. Lennox head, Yarrahapinni, and when possible, Bali. Bookings are currently open for the Nambucca retreat in February.
​
Practice in your own time, or follow the days of an intensive with videos from the library. These can be rented or purchased.
​
Classes and Retreats
This is a path. You may be setting out, learning the asana, learning how to create some discipline into the structure of your days. To find freedom in your order. Or you are more experienced- and still, the path goes on, it does not end when you can do the asana, it begins. A new level of freedom is given. Then with this new freedom, you want to teach, or understand more this extraordinary art- you are drawn to the mentoring program. Yoga is a collaboration between a teacher and a student, between your body and mind, and as you become a teacher within a wider community that supports others too.
Each will help you to focus, to unravel some of the aches and pains of the body and the heart. Each will give you joy, understanding and perhaps frustration. Each will reward you with time, space and a quieter heart. Each will call forth the deeper listening -and a heart that can be itself.
It is to read widely and look closely
Teacher Training
A Working Group
The 'learn to teach' training program is to learn how to become a yogi. How to practice and how to work with oneself. To become familiar with the Iyengar methodology, thoroughly and through your own experience.
It is to read widely and look closely, to attend classes with Caroline and practice regularly
The year is an immersion, beginning 4th February 2023. Included components are a weekly teachers class, and at the start of each month a Saturday teachers' day.
March 26th - April 2nd retreat at Nambucca Heads for this group.
Applications close December 20th or when the quota is filled.
We sew the disparate parts of ourselves together. The biggest thing we offer is to be open, sensitive and available -ready to take our place beside the granite. A member of this family of our world. Now the school has a different life. It is mobile, responding to the needs of the time and the extended community. It is a school, a center, a community of seekers on the road, learning together.