LONDON WORKSHOP with Gregor & Monica

LONDON WORKSHOP
– with Gregor & Monica

Course Details

STILLPOINT YOGA
West Wing, Guys Campus,
St Thomas St,
London Bridge,
SE1 9TL
United Kingdom

27 July – 2 Aug 2024

Weekend Workshop including Guided Asana, Mantra & Yoga Sutra, Pranayama & Kriya, Tantric Meditation

followed by Mon- Friday morning Mysore-style classes

Course Overview

Saturday

9am – 11.30am: Guided Asana class

Here Gregor will analyse the many intricate anatomical details of the majority of the postures of the Primary Series, while maintaining as much pace as possible. The focus will be on breaking down the various phases of entering and exiting the postures into their constituents. Performing postures safely while understanding which anatomical actions will get us deep into the asanas will prevent unnecessary energy expenditure. Through inducing precision this format also achieves that conditioning and emotions lodged in bodily tissue are released, preparing us for the higher limbs of pranayama and meditation.

1pm – 4pm: Laghunyāsaḥ Mantraḥ & Yoga Sutra

Chanting is a way to connect us to the essence of our being as vibrational sound. Chanting ancient Sanskrit mantras tunes us to the wisdom and potency of this powerful language.

The Laghunyāsaḥ Mantraḥ is a Vedic hymn from the Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa. It is a healing mantra that is chanted to assist anyone suffering from ill health or simply to enhance our own health. It draws on the elements which exist within us and especially inspires nourishment by connecting us to our spiritual heart. It reminds us that infinite consciousness resides within each of our hearts and in this way we are always connected to each other as pure consciousness. We are one eternal heart.

“The Yoga Sutra entered my life 39 years ago and since then it’s been a constant companion. It took me a long time to completely understand it but once this had happened it ended all confusion I had about yoga. Understanding the Sutra gave me complete confidence in how to apply my practices diligently and that I would succeed in due time. The Sutra changed yoga for me from a faith and hope-based system to a science with predictable and repeatable outcomes. It is exactly this confidence and certainty that I would like to pass on to my students. The workshop will be interactive, with ample time for participants to ask questions.” The Yoga Sutra is the operating manual of yoga. It is only when we understand the why’s and how’s of yoga that we will practice with confidence and beyond doubt. In this class we will chant selected stanzas in Sanskrit and a detailed commentary based on Gregor’s four decades of practice and study will be given. The commentary will retain the depth of the ancient treatises but will be fun, relatable and applicable to modern urban life.

Sunday

9am – 11.30am: Pranayama and Kriya

Imagine how great it would be to have a switch that, when operated, would enable you to consciously choose between your right and left brain hemispheres, intuitive and analytical intelligence, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, fight/flight reflex and rest/relaxation, and between the male and female, solar and lunar, aspects of your psyche. How great it would be if, when required, you could switch from being compassionate to doggedly determined. Or from charged with energy to completely relaxed within a few minutes. Or from extrovert (physically present, expressive and outgoing) to introvert (reflective and absorbing) within a short time. This switch does in fact exist and it is not at all hidden. It is the prominently protruding olfactory orifice right in the middle of your face: your nose. Pranayama includes some of the most neglected but yet most powerful methods of yoga. Pranayama is the vital link that connects asana to meditation without which the combined benefit of both cannot be harvested.

Learn how to use pranayama to harmonize the doshas (humors of the body) and thus attain a state of health and balance as well as how to still the mind, enabling spiritual insight. The kriyas are predominantly methods of purification of the body. They support the work of postures and are especially important for people who live in large cities. They aid in removing contamination from chemical, environmental, electrical, biological and electromagnetic sources.

1pm – 4pm: Tantric Meditation

This workshop is based on meditation techniques from an ancient text called the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. This text came down through Kashmir Shaivism and contains 112 dharanas, what we today would call meditation techniques. Many of today’s popular meditation techniques were already introduced in the Vijnana Bhairava. Most of these tantric meditations are much simpler than yogic meditation and require less effort. There are also many different techniques to choose from. Here is a sophisticated approach that offers a great variety in case a particular technique doesn’t work for a student. This makes this system very adaptable to individual needs and preferences. Of particular interest are those techniques that deal with realizing ones true nature as consciousness.

Consciousness in this context is that what is conscious, rather than that what we are conscious of (i.e. the contents of the mind). Realizing this leads to great inner peace and stillness. In the tradition of the Indian mystic Shri Aurobindo, however, this state is not the end of one’s spiritual evolution but the beginning of its most fruitful phase. It makes us receptive and open to download higher forms of spiritual insight through which we become transformed into tools of universal consciousness.

To book weekend workshop please click here

To book morning Mysore-style classes please click here