Living the Yoga Sūtra
8th May – 12th May 2024. Bergengel, Reichenbach, Switzerland.
1008CHF full board and tuition.
This immersion with James Boag and Clare Nicholls is an opportunity for you to deepen your practice of Yoga through asana, enquiry, movement practices, meditation practices, recitation, kirtan.
Clare and James are uplifting and fun teachers who both work from the basic principle that for Yoga to be effective it has to be embodied. We all are, after all, in a body and working with that body and mind are our only options for gaining greater understanding of who, what and why we are.
The retreat begins on the evening of Wednesday May 8th with a light meal following your arrival, an opening Satsang and kirtan where the themes we are exploring will be introduced. Over the three full days we have together we will take three different themes from Patanjali’s yoga sutras, on the final morning we will reflect and consolidate.
On day one we consider how we know what we know, looking at the concept of pramāṇa
Day two we move to īshvāra, what this means to us as we live in the world, also looking at ideas in the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas.
Day three we dive into Patanjali’s prescription for practice encoded in chapter 1 sutra 33 and in the opening section and aṣṭāṅga section of chapter 2.
Day four overview of the three themes and reflection on the practices we have discovered.
Basic daily rhythm – subject to adjustments depending on the invitations of the weather and the unfolding of our inquiry.
Arrival Wednesday from 16.00, dinner at 18.00, welcome satsang at 19.30.
Fruit, teas, coffee, nuts are available for morning nourishment.
08.00 – 11am Morning Jivamukti asana practice. Led by Clare, beginning with meditation and ending with chanting.
11.15 – 13.00 Brunch
13.15 – 17.00 Two afternoon sessions led by James. The first session is likely to include movement practices ie meditative hiking, enquiry, group work, the second session will be more grounding, meditative, exploring different, practical meditation techniques.
18.00 Dinner.
19.30 – 21.30 Satsang with Clare and James. This will be more discursive, returning to the text, chanting the sutras (and other relevant shastra) opening a conversation about how we work with these ideas in the world.
Departure on Sunday afternoon following morning asana practice and final kirtan.
About James…
The yoga I practice is timeless yoga, rooted in perennial, ancestral wisdom, the yoga that was time-tested, thoroughly peer-reviewed and empirically proven over many, many generations before it was set down into the miracle, mirror texts that encode its practical teachings in so many complementary ways. The yoga I share is of story and song, of movement and dance, of inquiry and commitment. The yoga of Kashmir Shaivism, as it has come to me, is a yoga that embraces all of life.
Everything is divine.
Everything is the means.
There is nowhere God is not.
This is a yoga of rhythm and reconciliation, of inclusion and harmonisation.
This is a yoga of acknowledgement and recognition, of healing and recovery.
About Clare…
Clare’s interest in yoga was ignited as a child when she was introduced to the Mahabharata; she fell in love with the stories and the philosophies woven throughout. Since 2001 Clare has practiced asana and views the physical process as a way of undoing the habits we hold in our bodies and releasing the past to create space for the future.
Clare began teaching in 2005 with a British Wheel of Yoga Diploma, in 2011 she qualified to teach Jivamukti Yoga, becoming advanced certified in 2017.
In 2014 and 2015 Clare travelled around India, experiencing many sites of pilgrimage and integrating an understanding of the philosophies into her life, practice and teaching.
In 2016-2017 she spent 10 months in Mysore chanting the yoga sutras under guidance of the wonderful Dr M.A Jayashree and appreciating the detail of their philosophical themes through studying with Professor Narasimhan. She continues to study with them and is currently undertaking a translation of the Devi Mahatmaya. She has the blessing of her teachers Dr Jayashree and Professor Narasimhan to share her love of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the philosophy they contain.
About the retreat…
All rooms and bathrooms are shared. Accommodation is beautiful, traditional, basic.
Cost for full program 1008CHF (accommodation, vegan brunch and dinner, tuition included) Limited to 16 places.
There is no availability in the retreat house for single rooms or ensuite rooms– if you need a single room, we can direct you to alternative accommodation.
Cost for tuition only 508 CHF. (if for example you live locally and would rather stay at home there are 8 parking spaces at the retreat house or if you would prefer private accommodation) – meals can be included as an additional cost if requested with a minimum 2-week advance notice.
Drop in price for days 150CHF – meals can be included as an additional cost if requested with a minimum 2-week advance notice.
For enquiries and to book please email thecolourthechaos@gmail.com
Living the Yoga Sutras
CHF 1,008.00
or to pay by bank transfer please email thecolourthechaos@gmail.com