What is Yantra Yoga?
Yantra Yoga in practice
Teacher
Introductory workshops
Introductory and more advanced courses
Kunselling Retreat Centre
Weekend Workshops
Course Details for September 2008 at Kunselling
Dzogchen Community UK Home Page

What is Yantra Yoga?
Yantra Yoga is one of the most ancient and dynamic systems of yoga, first brought to the West by the Dzogchen Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in the 1960s. The lineage can be traced back through the Nepalese Mahasiddha Humkara who transmitted it to Guru Padmasambhava, the great master who first introduced the Vajrayana teachings into Tibet in the eighth century.

Humkara was a cowherd who noticed a master meditating in the forest and wondered why he should have to work, when the master apparently did nothing. He asked the master to teach him how to live without eating or feeling the cold in winter. The master refused because the teaching was about something much more important. Humkara was finally accepted and eventually became a great Mahasiddha himself.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu received this transmission primarily from his uncle Ogyen Tenzin, a master who achieved the rainbow body (dissolving his body into light at death) in the 1960s. Although there are other systems of Tibetan Yantra, these remain secret, and this lineage is the only system currently being taught openly in the West.

Yantra Yoga in practice
Yantra yoga has similarities with Hatha Yoga or Ashtanga Vinyasa. However, Yantra Yoga is a Buddhist practice, found within the Dzogchen (Great Perfection tradition), and
its goal is not simply exercise, relaxation or health. Yantra Yoga works with the body, energy and mind (connected with prana, channels and chakras) in order to achieve real knowledge, the understanding of our original primordial state.

Teacher
The workshops are led by John Renshaw, a Qualified Yantra Yoga Instructor, who studied under Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and has been teaching Yantra Yoga for 18 years. John is also trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and runs a London practice.

Introductory workshops
We all know how to breathe, but, because breathing is tied to our emotions and our mind, it is often disordered. The first workshop teaches movements and positions that introduce the different components of breathing, as well as mobilising the joints, stretching the muscles and regulating the flow of prana. This is not only indispensable for meditation and contemplation, but one can truly learn and experience relaxation with presence for the three aspects of our human condition, body, energy, and mind.

We begin the 3 groups of preliminaries, in particular the 8 movements. Only when this is clearly introduced can we proceed slowly and gently to apply and deepen the experience of breathing in the Yantras and eventually in the Pranayamas.

Introductory workshops are suitable for people with no previous experience or for more experienced Yantra Yoga practitioners who wish to refresh their practice.

Introductory and more advanced courses
More in-depth Yantra Yoga classes are available for those who have completed an introductory weekend. Evening classes are held in London and longer retreats in both London and Wales. Please call for current details of evening classes and longer retreats for students who have completed the introductory weekend.

Kunselling Retreat Centre
Kunselling, close to Hay-on-Wye and Brecon in Wales, is a beautiful retreat centre belonging to the Dzogchen Community, under the worldwide direction of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. The Wales weekend workshops take place in our newly converted barn, and accommodation is available for those willing to share a room with one or two other participants.

Yantra Weekend at Kunselling, 6th - 7th September

The Dzogchen Community UK are very happy to announce that John Renshaw will be leading a course of Yantra Yoga as follows:

During this weekend, we will be focusing on integrating practice sessions of yantra yoga and breathing practices (kumbhaka) with guru yoga.

The definitive aim of Yantra Yoga is to capture the karmic prana within the central channel. The principle means to do this is through kumbhaka or breath retention.

In the more advanced practices, there is a moment after completing the holds and visulizations, when we finish and remain with our lungs empty in contemplation beyond concepts. Only when we get close to this level of experience, can we fully appreciate what yantra yoga really is.

Over this weekend we will try to focus our practice towards this point and in the moments after when we are relaxing. In this way, it can be quite easy to have a real experience of integrating the state of presence with our Body, Voice and Mind. Here we comfortably remain and try to be in the state of guru yoga.

John Renshaw is a student of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and has been practising Tibetan Buddhism and Dzogchen for more than twenty four years. He is an authorized instructor with twenty years of experience in teaching yoga and is also a practitioner of Chinese medicine.

To book, please contact Mary Duckett or John Renshaw