Cologne Workshop with Gregor Maehle

Tuesday 12th September 2023
7AM – 9AM Led Ashtanga Asana class
14:30-17:30PM Jnana Yoga, Meditations from the Vijnana Bhairava

Wednesday 13th September 2023
7AM – 9AM Mysore-style Asana class
14:30-17:30PM The Bhakti Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita

Wednesday 14th September 2023
7AM – 9AM Mysore-style Asana class
14:30-17:30PM Karma Yoga, Action in Alignment with the Infinite)

Jnana Yoga, Meditations from the Vijnana Bhairava
In this workshop we will practice meditations from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra that have self-realization as their goal. The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra contains an eclectic mix of 112 meditation techniques but of particular interest are those that deal with realizing ones true nature as consciousness. Consciousness in this context means that what is conscious rather than that what we are conscious of (i.e. the contents of the mind). This leads to great inner peace and stillness. In the tradition of the Indian mystic Shri Aurobindo this state, however, is not the end of one’s spiritual evolution but in some ways the beginning of it intense phase. It makes us receptive and open to download higher forms of spiritual insight through which we become transformed into tools of universal consciousness.

The Bhakti Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita
This workshop focusses on the yoga of devotional love and the harnessing of ones emotions for spiritual growth. For this purposes we will work towards being able to see the Divine in all beings and to serve the Divine through serving all life (including non-human life forms). An important aspect of this is to overcome speciesism, the belief that one species is worth more than all others. For this it is to overcome faulty concepts of the Divine, such as the belief that It is a giant human in the sky, which is nothing but an extrapolation of our own aggrandisement. The Divine will be shown to promote intensity, creativity, novelty and co-creation with all life forms. We will also come to understand that the Divine is not a solid state but an ongoing process.
We will also look at the psychological advantages and obstacles to practising a yoga of love. Finally a non-sectarian, 21^st century approach to bhakti will be presented, including practices designed to improve our quality of life, happiness, contentment and the knowledge that each of us matters to the Divine. An important part of that is to learn to see the Divine in all those we struggle to understand.
The main source for Bhakti is the Bhagavad Gita, the Divine Song. The Gita itself presents a sophisticated mix of Jnana Yoga (yoga of knowledge), Bhakti Yoga (yoga of devotion) and Karma Yoga (yoga of action). We will learn to chant some of the important stanzas and then analyse the practical lessons for life that the Gita imparts.

Karma Yoga, Action in Alignment with the Infinite
Do you remember a time when you knew that your life would be amazing and that you would live to make a meaningful contribution to life on Earth and the life of others? And then what happened? Somehow our education and the process of enculturation cut us off from this sacred knowledge and élan vital. We became cynics and “realists”.
Since time immemorial human societies were organized around the idea that the life of the individual and of society have divine purpose. This workshop traces this knowledge to indigenous cultures, to the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and the Yoga Sutra. Our loss of this knowledge is what has led to our environmental destruction and the 6^th mass extinction of life as well as the current epidemic of mental disorders.
This workshop not only shows how we lost the knowledge that all life is sacred and purposeful, it also introduces layers of technique to lead us back to finding and gradually implementing our life’s divine purpose (svadharma) and that implementing it is to act in alignment with the Infinite (Karma Yoga).
Also covered are:

• The practice & psychology of the yoga of action
• Overcoming obstacles
• How do we know it’s the right voice?
• Daily cleansing regime of the subconscious mind
• Being in the zone and absence of internal dialogue
• Importance of forgiveness, gratitude, acceptance and surrender