Wroclaw Workshop with Gregor Maehle

– Saturday 29.06.2024

2) Afternoon: Yoga Sutra and Sanskrit Chanting // 13:00-15:00
„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 the 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. Only when we understand the whys and how’s of yoga will we 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-and-a-half 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 30.06.2024

1) Pranayama and Kriya // 9:00-11:00
Imagine how great it would be to have a switch that, when operated, would enable you to choose between your right consciously 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 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, 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.

2) Yoga Meditation // 13:00-15:00
Different to Vedantic or Buddhist meditation, yogic meditation contains the same structural elements as yogic postures and breathing and was designed to form together with those an
integrated whole. Meditation is the method of bringing your mind into a receptive state so that you can receive higher knowledge that is already there. Yogic meditation is a collection of scientific methods to bring about such awareness. To accelerate spiritual evolution yogic meditation employs many means amongst which the prime ones are mantra, mudra, bandha, chakra-visualization and Kundalini-raising techniques.

– Mysore-style Monday to Friday: 01-05.07.2024 // 8:00-10:00
The Mysore-style format will give students the opportunity to integrate the information learning in the Led class and also for Gregor to give individual attention to student’s needs. Monica will join Gregor in this class from Tuesday onwards.