Wood & Water
WOOD & WATER
SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL YOGA
Now accepting applications for late fall enrollment, and for our winter pilgrimage to the ashram in India.
MAINE · NEPAL · INDIA

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

Maine's only ashram-authorized school of traditional yoga. Affiliated with the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences and Research, Indore, India.

BEGIN YOUR APPLICATION

A registered traditional yoga school. A Paramanand Institute affiliate. Everyone here is a student of yoga, even our instructors.

Yoga as a path to liberation, not a product.

YOGA TEACHER TRAINING · MEDITATION TEACHER TRAINING · STUDY FOR SEEKERS · CLASSES FOR THE COMMUNITY
THE TRAINING
OUR LINEAGE

Dusk on the rooftop of Paramanand Ashram, Indore.

A lineage sustained through study and practice.

Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam, School Director, studied under Dr. Omanand Guruji at the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences & Research in Indore, India, earning her Ph.D. in Yoga Science there. She's still a student herself: ongoing work with Guruji and with Shiv Darshan, plus continued study in India and Nepal.

Wood & Water is a Paramanand Institute affiliate program. Students here can study under Guruji directly and are welcome to visit the ashram in India.

READ OUR PHILOSOPHY

School Director

Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam in meditation seat at a temple in Nepal
Nepal

Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam

Doctorates in psychology (PsyD) and yoga science (PhD). Yoga-based clinician and psychology professor.

WHY THIS SCHOOL

Why Wood & Water began.

Yoga was part of Dr. Satnam's life before she had a name for it. She grew up with it, and her mother taught. Today she practices yoga as seva, selfless service, and teaches free community classes. She started Wood & Water after seeing teacher trainings focus on certification while giving little attention to how the practice changes the teacher. She holds a PsyD in Psychology and a PhD in Yoga Science, and works as a yoga-based clinician and psychology professor. She created the school she had once looked for: a place to train teachers who make change in their communities, and a place where the community can learn real, traditional yoga.

Graduates learn to lead a class, but the work starts with their own practice. The aim is to become steadier, more honest, and prepared to teach as service through karma yoga.

Maine's only ashram-authorized school
Authorized by an Indian ashram lineage, a distinction held by no other yoga teacher training in Maine.
Karma yoga at the core
Selfless service isn't an elective here: it's built into the curriculum and the Community Service Requirement.
MAINE · NEPAL · INDIA

Where we practice

A lakeside dock class, Maine
Lakeside meditation with mountains, Maine
The Rajwada palace, Indore
A puja ceremony, India
300 & 500 Hour
A Registered Yoga School with Yoga Alliance. Graduates may register as RYTs.
450+
Contact hours with a trainer, 200 of them with the lead trainer herself.
Official Affiliate
Of the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences & Research, Indore, India
Seva
Every trainee teaches free community classes as their practicum
AYUSH-aligned
Our curriculum aligns with India's Ministry of AYUSH.

A school, not just a certification

We are all students of yoga here, even our instructors. Some students come to teach, some come to learn, and all of them study the same tradition, under the same lineage, with the same daily practice.

  • Yoga Teacher Training. Our 300- and 500-hour programs, registered with Yoga Alliance, for those who want to teach yoga.
  • Meditation Teacher Training: Being Blissful Meditation. The Paramanand Institute's meditation program, taught here for those who want to guide others in meditation.
  • Study for Seekers. The full path of yoga for its own sake. No prior certification and no teaching required. Seekers study in the same modules, alongside the same cohort.
  • Community Classes. Open to anyone who wants to practice traditional yoga, taught by our instructors and newest graduates. No experience needed, only a wish to practice.
300 & 500 HOUR · TWO PROGRAMS, ONE PATH

The Training

The 300-hour Advanced Training and 500-hour advanced program form one continuous curriculum. The 500-hour program adds a second section to the 300-hour Advanced Training. There is no fixed timeline; teachers work at their own pace, independently or with a cohort (sangha), giving daily sadhana the time it requires.

Yoga Alliance Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 credential
EXPERIENCED REGISTERED YOGA TEACHER
Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider credential
CONTINUING EDUCATION PROVIDER

A note on Yoga Alliance

We are registered with Yoga Alliance, and it is probably the most Western, commercial part of what we do. It is a popular Western standard, and many students value it. Still, we wish as many people knew the Upanishads as know Yoga Alliance. This school is one small way of working toward that.

A women's practice circle, Nepal
450+ hrs
Direct Contact Hours with a trainer
200 hrs
Personally taught by the Lead Trainer: E-RYT®
5 categories
Hours meet or exceed Yoga Alliance requirements.

What do I learn?

Yogic Philosophy
The texts and frameworks the practice stands on
Meditation
Classical technique, held in daily sadhana
Pranayama
Breath as the bridge between body and mind
Elements of Ayurveda
The sister science, applied to a student's real body
Teaching Asana
How to lead a complete, safe asana practice

The curriculum, unit by unit

UNIT I
Foundations of Yoga
Patanjali's definition of yoga, the four historical periods, Sankhya philosophy, the three Gunas, the Panchakosha model.
UNIT II
The Sacred Texts
Direct study of three required source texts in real translation, plus the Yoga Vashishtha for its mind-body model.
UNIT III
Yoga and the Body
Physical and energy anatomy, the major systems, the nadis, and the subtle-body model this program builds on.
UNIT IV
Applied Yoga
Asana, Pranayama, Shatkarma, Mudra and Bandha, anchored in Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
UNIT V
Meditation & the Subtle Body
Antar Mouna, Ajapa Japa, and Yoga Nidra, in the classical ashram-lineage sequence.
UNIT VI
Teaching and Service
Jyoti's nine-part class template and the seva orientation this school teaches from.
UNIT VII
Practicum
Becoming a teacher: practice-teaching, peer evaluation, and rubric-based feedback.
UNIT VIII
Therapeutic & Adaptive Yoga
Applying the curriculum across bodies, conditions, and healing-informed adaptation.
UNIT IX
Yoga in Modern Settings
Special populations and modern teaching contexts, the close of the 300-Hour curriculum.

Units X–XII complete the 500-Hour program only; the 300-Hour program finishes at Unit IX.

Tuition & community service

300-Hour Advanced Training: $2,500. For teachers who already hold a 200-hour certification. Completing it brings your training to 500 hours.

500-Hour Training: $3,500. For people with no prior certification. It includes the foundational 200 hours.

A $500 deposit holds your place and is applied to tuition. The balance is arranged with the school.

Tuition includes a 50-hour Community Service Requirement at an approved organization, and the summer practicum.

Weekends and classes

Seeker or continuing education weekend: $100 for the full weekend, or $50 a day.

Being Blissful Meditation Teacher Training (three-day weekend, with certificate): $180.

Weekly yoga class: $12.

Teaching as part of the path

Every teacher trained here also teaches: leading community classes in Maine and connected with a partner non-profit there to bring yoga to those who couldn't otherwise access it.

A community class in Maine
COMMUNITY CLASS, MAINE

An open invitation

Students may join us at the ashram in India or travel with us to sites in Nepal where this lineage has practiced for generations.

Ready to ask more?

INQUIRE ABOUT THE NEXT COHORT
OUR PHILOSOPHY

Chop wood, carry water.

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." The tasks don't change; the quality of attention does. You are not asked to wait for a more enlightened version of yourself before teaching well.

This is karma yoga: the discipline of service performed for its own sake, without grasping at the reward. A teacher who has completed this training does not graduate out of that work. They keep chopping wood and carrying water, always serving, and always remaining a student themselves.

Where the name comes from

Wood & Water takes its name from a Zen saying, chop wood, carry water, but the image behind it is much older. In the Vedic tradition, a student living with a teacher fetched fuel and water every day for the sacred fire. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad uses the same two substances to say how the Self is found: hidden within us like fire in wood and water in a dry riverbed, and revealed through sustained effort and truthfulness. In the Buddhist canon, a log carried down the Ganges reaches the ocean if nothing snags it, and a traveler builds a raft from sticks and branches to cross a flood, then does not carry it onto the far shore. Wood and water are the student's daily service, the hidden thing the practice reveals, and the current and the crossing. Our logo shows both, a tree whose roots run into a wave: rooted enough for a stable practice, fluid enough to meet every student where they are.

Sources: Apastamba Dharma Sutra, student section (Bühler translation); Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.14–15; Dārukkhandha Sutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya 35.241; Alagaddūpama Sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 22.

A healing-informed approach

When a curriculum focuses only on what might go wrong, pathology becomes its organizing principle. We also teach from the body's capacity to heal, adapt, and grow stronger through practice.

"Every human being has potentials for healing. The healing energy is flowing without any interruption in every human heart." — Swami Rama

With Dr. Omanand GurujiDr. Omanand Guruji of the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences and Research
Dr. Omanand Guruji, Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences and Research, Indore
Following monks along a monastery path, Nepal

Our lineage

This school is an official affiliate of the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences & Research in Indore, India, under Dr. Omanand Guruji, where School Director Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam completed her Ph.D. in Yoga Science. Her first teacher was her mother, Nancy Horning Cote. None of this belongs to us: it was given, and we teach it the way it was given.

Our curriculum aligns closely with the AYUSH Ministry's national syllabus and with India's Yoga Certification Board (YCB), a separate government body whose certificate we cannot ourselves issue.

A stone shrine of the seated Buddha, Nepal
A SEATED BUDDHA, NEPAL
FORMAT & RHYTHM

Schedule

There is no fixed timeframe. Each teacher moves through the modules at their own pace, alone or alongside a cohort, a sangha, so that 500 hours, including daily sadhana, is lived with over time, not condensed into a single immersion.

You can stop at the 300-hour Advanced Training, or arrive as a brand-new student with no prior certification and continue straight through to graduate at the full 500-hour level, the top credential this school offers.

This training is also open to seekers with no interest in teaching, and to current yoga teachers looking to deepen their own practice.

We also hold regular yoga classes at the school itself, open to the community. As each cohort of teacher trainees graduates, a new class schedule is posted, often taught by our newest graduates.

A cohort practicing outdoors, Maine
14 modules
Self-paced intensives, each anchored in one or two curriculum units, alone or with your cohort.
Between modules
Jyoti classes with written reflection, assigned source-text reading, an ongoing sadhana log, and community classes taught alongside our partner non-profit.
Closing
A final intensive for Practicum evaluations and graduation, timed to each teacher's own readiness, whatever that looks like for them.
Community, Maine
COMMUNITY, MAINE

Your pace is set with us directly at enrollment, solo, or alongside a cohort, provided all hour minimums are still met.

ASK ABOUT THE NEXT COHORT
QUESTIONS

FAQ

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JOURNAL

Notes from the path

What the Paramanand Institute taught me about attention
INDIA
What the Paramanand Institute taught me about attention
Notes from study at the source of our lineage.
“The tasks don't change; what changes is the quality of attention brought to them. This is Karma Yoga in its plainest form: action performed fully, without needing the moment to be anything other than what it already is.”
FROM THE STUDENT TEXTBOOK
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Sadhana in the ordinary week
PRACTICE
Sadhana in the ordinary week
What a daily practice looks like between modules.
Roughly twenty-five minutes, logged weekly and reviewed by the Lead Trainer as an ongoing conversation rather than a graded test: an opening invocation, a stretch of seated practice, and a closing invocation that moves the intention outward, toward all beings.
FROM THE STUDENT TEXTBOOK
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Teaching for free, as seva
COMMUNITY
Teaching for free, as seva
Why community teaching is part of the practicum, not extra credit.
Students teach free community classes as seva: this is their practicum, not volunteer work on the side. It's how a teacher's skill is tested: in front of real students, for their own sake, not for a grade.
FROM THE STUDENT TEXTBOOK
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Community Class Schedule

Coming soon

Our community classes are open to anyone who wants to practice traditional yoga. No experience needed. We are finalizing the schedule and will post it here.

Free community classes are taught by trainees as seva. Weekly classes with Dr. Satnam are $12.

To be told when it is posted, write to info@woodandwaterschoolofyoga.com.

SEVA IN ACTION

Free Karma Yoga Classes

Cost should not keep someone from practicing yoga. Ma Jyoti and students of the school teach free community classes as part of their karma yoga practice; some classes also raise funds for causes we support.

Service is part of the training. By graduation, every teacher has experience offering yoga freely in the community as well as teaching it professionally.

A free community class, Maine
Taught by Ma Jyoti
Ongoing free classes led directly by the School Director, open to the whole community.
Taught by our students
Free classes taught by our trainees as seva: this is their practicum, not extra credit.
Fundraiser classes
By-donation classes where proceeds go directly to a cause we support.

Ask about an upcoming class

CONTACT US
SPEAKING & CLINICAL WORK

Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam

Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam, speaker and yoga teacher trainer.Dr. Satnam holds a Ph.D. in Yoga Science and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD), alongside an M.A.Ed. She teaches yogic psychology and mind-body psychology at the college level, along with general psychology courses. She has worked with people in recovery since 2014 and is currently training as a yoga therapist. Her doctoral research examined meditation with people in substance use recovery, and a further study looked at spiritual transformation in yoga teachers.

As a clinician, she specializes in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. She developed and compiled an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) curriculum for recovery that is built around yoga, and it brings yogic practices into clinical care. She was the keynote speaker at the 2026 MHRT/C conference.

Three Lenses
  • Clinical Lens: PsyD, SUD treatment, and a yoga-based IOP curriculum for recovery.
  • Scholarly Lens: Ph.D. in Yoga Science, M.A.Ed., college faculty in yogic psychology, mind-body psychology and psychology, and doctoral research on meditation in recovery.
  • Practitioner's Lens: YACEP®, yoga therapy training, and student of the Paramanand Institute.

This work is offered in gratitude to Dr. Omanand Guruji and the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Science and Research, whose teaching makes this training possible. Wood & Water carries this work forward with humility, not ownership.

For treatment centers
Two IOP curriculums bringing yoga protocols into SUD and mental health treatment.
For clinicians & yoga teachers
Clinical and educator training for therapists and yoga teachers on healing-informed, recovery-oriented practice.
For conferences & events
Speaking on yoga as a framework for recovery, trauma, and post-traumatic growth.
Dr. Jill Jyoti Satnam seated in meditation with hands in anjali mudra.

Inquire about speaking or training

CONTACT US
ADMISSIONS

Begin Your Application

This is a selective program: each cohort admits a small, closely mentored group who apply and are personally reviewed by the School Director. You do not need to want to become a teacher to apply, sincere seekers deepening their own practice are equally welcome. Please complete every section as fully and honestly as you can.

1. Personal Information

2. Preferred Program

If you are unsure which program is right for you, our School Director is happy to talk it through before you apply.

3. Teaching Experience

4. About You & Your Interest in This Program

Wood & Water is a traditional, lineage-based training and an official affiliate school of the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Sciences & Research (Dr. Omanand Guruji, Indore, India), built around daily sadhana.

5. Tuition Path

6. References & Referral (optional)

7. Acknowledgment

Applications are reviewed individually by the School Director and may include a follow-up conversation. If a cohort is full, you may be offered a waitlist spot or a future cohort. Questions welcome anytime at woodandwaterschoolofyoga.com.
GET IN TOUCH

Contact

For general questions, or if you are simply beginning to explore the school and are not ready to apply, write to us directly.

info@woodandwaterschoolofyoga.com
Gardiner / Hallowell / Augusta corridor, Maine

Questions are welcome. There is no need to have your path decided before getting in touch.