Series & Retreats

Intermediate Inversions

This is a "potted" version of the long-form handstand practice. In this case, the "pot" is a six-week version of the material designed to help the yogi make a noticeable improvement in their ability to perform intermediate inversions as well as equip them with the tools to continue improving their skill.

Due to the necessity for technical breakdowns, interactive demonstration, and partner work, the classes need to be at least 90 minutes in length. And as we have seen, there is enough fun in handstand practice to support a two-hour format, which allows further strength development and the exploration of related asanas.

Content will necessarily vary, depending on the relative skill level of the participants. Each week will comprise:

The content will build, week on week, roughly as follows:

  1. getting comfrotable upside down
  2. developing control, and opening the body
  3. finding balance
  4. overcoming fear
  5. playing with variations

The Rest of Yoga (5 Layers and 8 Limbs)

This is a four part series, making an embodied reality out of some of the basic concepts from Yoga philosophy. In many respects this is a miniaturized, intensive version of the “Go Deeper” class mentioned above. We will use asana to explore and understand the ideas behind the five layers (body, breath, mind, will, and bliss) of the human experience, and the way that the eight limbs of Raja Yoga help us handle our experience as we progress through life.

The four workshops for The Rest of Yoga in their order of progression are:

Koshas: the Layers of Humanity
This workshop will provide yoga's road map to human experience. It has been re-discovered many times in humanity's history, because it is based upon experience that anyone can have. This thorough grounding in experience distinguishes Yoga from every other world philosophy and religion, and lays the foundation for understanding the remainder of the series.
Dharma, Yamas, and Niyamas: Developing the Self
This will cover the basic ethical structure of the yoga practice as passed down from Patanjali & the Rishis. We will also connect the ethical practices to the understanding of our true selves and how we can build a better and more just society. Taken together, these will provide a clear understanding of dharma as it relates to life in modern western civilization today.
Pratyahara, Dharana & Dhyana: The Mind's Toolbox
In order to access the layers of human experience beyond the physical, we must bring discipline to the mind. In this workshop we will explore techniques for experiencing ourselves in ways that go beyond the stream of sensory data, culminating with a yin yoga practice.
Samadhi: The Great Goal
Samadhi is often viewed as some kind of magical, mysterious experience; however, advanced yogis have always understood that it is both a practice and a process. In some respects, samadhi is like the state of “flow” that modern psychologists like to assert is at the root of all fun (as well as all high-performance activity). In yoga, however, one becomes immersed in the constant flow of the Self. And it is in this that we see how samadhi encompasses and integrates all of the other ideas explored in the workshop series.

The Great Dance

Much of the history of yoga asana is not known. However it is hard to deny that there are connections to both Hindu dance and martial arts within asana practice. And most of the legends about the origins of asana look to Shiva, in one way or another, as the first Yogi. In addition to his title as Adiyogi, Shiva is also called Nataraja, or the Lord of the Dance. This workshop unapologetically looks at yoga from the view that we as practitioners are engaged in the same cosmic dance of creation and destruction that earned Shiva these titles.

Specifically, we will be looking at the Pancakritya Shiva, the Five Acts of Shiva

through asana, meditation, and interpersonal practice. The asana practice will be kept accessible to anyone familiar with the language of yoga, as this practice is less focussed on physical practice than on the ideas surrounding our embodiment and interaction in the world. Although there is enough material here for much discussion, the focus is kept on the individual experience to allow students to deepen their own understanding of themselves, and their place in the world we all share.

The Flow of Sound

The major practices of yoga are rather more than asana, for asana is just one set of forms through which which experience our formless consciousness. Mantra forms one of these middle-way practices as it also joins the breath to the action of the body - and then it directs the energy generated in towards the brain and subtle body.

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