We feel very happy to welcome James Boag back in Ganesha with his new Workshop:
Whole Life Yoga: Perennial Principles of Practical Yoga Philosophy • Bringing the ancient wisdom of the Bhagavad Gītā and Yoga Sūtra to vivid life • Movement and meditation, practical philosophy and active learning
This immersive weekend offers the rare opportunity to work closely from the original Sanskṛt teachings in an active, pragmatic, accessible and highly inspiring learning environment. Use this unique opportunity to:
Deepen your understanding of the time-proven foundation principles of yoga and how you can work with them to help harmonise the whole of your diverse human experience.
Experience how the core teachings from the Yoga Sūtra and Bhagavad Gītā work together, and how you can work with them in all aspects of daily life and all types of yoga practice technique.
Yoga seeks to bring unity where we may otherwise experience division and fragmentation, to bring clarity and cohesion where there was obscurity and delusion. The foundation teachings of the yoga tradition, distilled in the Sūtra-s and Gītā provide a robust, adaptable structure to help us do this, one that has been proven in the furnace of time.
The core teachings of yoga set forth in the Bhagavad Gītā and the yoga sūtra provide robust support for any type of yoga practice technique or method and a perennially reliable structure to help us cultivate greater harmony and awareness through all the challenges, changes and cycles of life.
Schedule:
Friday 18:30 - 21:00 - Introduction
Saturday 10:00 - 13:00 - Yogic movement exploration. Practising and moving for all layers of our being. 14:30 - 17:00 - Sāṅkhya-Yoga: The Map, Compass and User’s Guide for a Human Life
Sunday 10:00 - 13:00 - Yogic movement: Making the whole field sing 14:30 - 17:00 - Eight Limbs One Body and the Bhagavad Gītā: Making the Whole Field Sing
Costs: 220€ / 55€ per session when spots available!
James Boag has been studying and practising the yoga sūtra and Bhagavad Gītā texts for over twenty years and works direct from the original Sanskṛt. He is renowned for his capacity to bring the ancient scriptural teachings of yoga to vivid life so we can make them our own and work with them skilfully and authentically in our own lives and practices.
For questions: info@ashtanga.at • 0664/4027358
Weekend overview
We will learn and deepen our understanding of:
Foundation principles of the Sāṅkhya and broader Indic perspectives that the yoga texts assume familiarity with
The practical map and compass of Sāṅkhya and Yoga and how we can work with them to navigate the challenges of life.
How the eight limbs - the aṣṭāṅga - relate to the broader teachings of the Yoga Sūtra and Bhagavad Gītā.
How to ground our different yoga practice methods and techniques in time-proven yogic principles for lifelong learning and evolution
The essence of all haṭha and physical/energetic yoga practices as distilled by Patañjali in the aṣṭāṅga section of the Yoga Sūtra
The eight limbs as eight spokes in a ‘wheel of dharma’ we can work with to move through the challenging field of life.
We’ll work, playfully and with a spirit of inquiry, over five sessions, exploring in many different, mutually complementary ways to facilitate integration of our learning.
Friday 18:30 - 21:00 - Introduction
Practical introductory session including simple movement and practical exercises with thorough introduction to the context of the Bhagavad Gītā and Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra working from the original Sanskṛt.
Whether you are new to practical yoga philosophy or have been steeped in it for decades you will leave this opening session with a richer understanding of these classic texts, why they are so perennially helpful and how we can work with them in all aspects of life: when, where and how yoga happens, how it works and why.
Saturday 10:00 - 13:00 - Yogic movement exploration.
Practising and moving for all layers of our being.
Body-based exploration of key yogic principles.
Some people have said that Patañjali says very little about yogāsana. It is true that he only devotes three sūtra-s/twenty-eight syllables to āsana, but in these syllables so much is encoded. We will apply this in a practice exploration to help us understand how we can work skilfully with these time-proven principles to maximise the holistic benefits of āsana, movement and embodied practices.
Expect principle-based yogic movement work that can inform and support all types of physical practice.
Saturday 14:30 - 17:00 - Sāṅkhya-Yoga: The Map, Compass and User’s Guide for a Human Life
Presentation, and active exploration of the Sāṅkhya-Yoga map of existence:
Yoga offers us a user’s guide to a human incarnation, a compass we can use to navigate the challenges of life. In this session we’ll deepen our familiarity with the Sāṅkhya-Yoga map of existence that the yoga texts assume familiarity with as well as foundation teachings from the Gītā that bring this ‘user’s guide’ to vivid life.
Sunday 10:00 - 13:00 - Yogic movement: Making the whole field sing
Harnessing physical practice and exploration for more robust vitality and balance, all life long. Inviting all the members of the gang of our being into practice.
Expect dynamic movement work stimulating reflexes and recruiting multiple intelligences to foster neurogenesis and renewal.
Sunday 14:30 - 17:70 - Eight Limbs One Body and the Bhagavad Gītā: Making the Whole Field Sing
Exploring how the eight limbs provide a structure for us to work with the core teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā and live our dharma for a life of deeper fulfilment and greater freedom. With songs and inquiry exercises along the way.