Early bird price: £230 (until 30 April 2024)
We are so honoured to host first time in our history and first time in the South England’s history internationally renown yoga teachers and educators from Australia, Gregor Maehle and Monica Gauci. Between both of them, they share more than 80 years of yogic teaching, full of knowledge, wisdom and compassion. The themes of this weekend immersion will include yoga philosophy, kriya & pranayama, meditation, chanting, postural alignments and adjustments and, certainly Ashtanga vinyasa yoga.
We are working on the themes, but this is an approximate outline of the event. All the subjects will be covered both theoretically and practically. So expect to engage your intellectual, physical and spiritual muscles! If you know Gregor and Monica, you know that there is always something outstanding to learn, even if our plans below change :-)!
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is the operating manual of yoga. It is only when we understand the why’s and how’s of yoga that we will practise 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 the modern urban life.
In the words of Gregor: “The Yoga Sutra entered my life 40 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.”
Pranayama includes some of the most neglected but yet most powerful methods of yoga. It 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 harmonise 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 or work in large cities. They aid in removing contamination from chemical, environmental, electrical, biological and electromagnetic sources.
How to bring about the pinnacle of yogic practices, the state of samadhi? In this event Gregor will explore the eight classical samadhis, both from the practical view of content and experience, and from the techniques to access them. Gregor will dissolve misconceptions about samadhi, will talk about the importance of both objectless and objective samadhi, and relate to the ways of removing obstacles on our yogic path.
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. The yogic chakras are representations of evolutionary brain circuitry with the lower three chakras representing our reptilian, mammalian and primate ancestry respectively. By understanding the chakras and skillfully meditating on them yoga offers the opportunity to activate higher brain centres and propel the evolution not only of the individual but of society as a whole. Kundalini-raising techniques consist of a combination of all other yogic means to raise the life force (prana) to a level where meditation is easy and spiritual insight becomes spontaneous.
Monica teaches adjusting principles and techniques from her professional education as a Chiropractor combined with over 40 years of personal yoga practice. This makes her corrections, assists and adjustments safe, educational, useful and beneficial. During this weekend we’ll examine the person versus the posture, learn to respect individual variables, explore what makes a quality alignment and adjustment and understand the profound importance of knowing how to listen, feel and communicate with your hands.
All mantras are praise or prayers. They teach us to connect with the Divine within us. Explore the vibrational power of Sanskrit in uplifting our consciousness and healing our mind, heart and spirit.
Together we will learn the Vedic and Vedantic mantras.
Gregor and Monica began their yoga journeys separately in 1978. At that time they both studied and practised Iyengar Yoga, which established their solid foundation of physical alignment within asana practice. They met in 1995, each on their first trip to India to study Ashtanga Yoga. They were both authorised by K Pattabhi Jois in 1996-7. In 1999 they left the Jois community to dedicate their learning and teaching to restore Ashtanga Yoga to its original tradition of a holistic eight-limbed yoga practise.
8 Limbs was born as a Yoga School in Perth in 1996, which Monica and Gregor co-directed for 21 years.
In 2012 they moved interstate to live remotely, on a mountain, surrounded by ancient rainforest and overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Here they created their Chintamani Yoga blog site as a way to share their teachings globally. Their approach is founded on Patanjali Yoga and that of the yoga pioneer, T. Krishnamacharya. The asana component of their teaching accommodates the capability and needs of the individual student.
Gregor is the international author of eight textbooks covering all eight limbs of yoga. He is a mystic and a profuse blog writer covering topics on yoga and beyond. He travels the globe educating with passion, humour, insight and wisdom.
Monica is a dedicated yogi, a compulsive educator, a registered Yoga Therapist and a lover of the Divine. She has dedicated her adult life to studying yoga and the healing arts. Her joy is to teach, share and inspire love.
Gregor’s internationally acclaimed books:
Gregor’s books have sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into seven foreign languages so far. Further volumes are in progress.
The workshop includes a full weekend from 8:00 to ~16:30.
The investment is £230 for the Early Bird (bookings till the 30th of April 2024). If booked from the 1st of May 2024 – £260.
Cancellations and refunds
After paying, kindly go to the Classes page or Momoyoga App, and register for each session separately. Unfortunately, in our booking system payment doesn’t secure your space.
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