heart of yoga
advanced training with Mark Whitwell
"The only reason we choose to do yoga is for the pleasure — the literal pleasure — of our systems relaxing and filling with energy. It is not some struggle to enjoy a future result." — Mark Whitwell
In a world full of commodified "yoga" and the proliferation of brands and styles, how do we make sure we keep the heart in Yoga? How do we practice and teach in ways that respect and recognise each individual as the unique expression of life that they are? What are the practical tools that can help us feel our own intrinsic joy, freedom, and authority, and share this?
Investigate these questions together with a collective holding decades of experience of practice and of helping people find the right yoga for them. In the exquisite surroundings of the old city of Mainz, we will explore how Yoga is not just a physical workout, a collection of information, or a "spiritual" workout towards a future, better version of ourselves—rather, it is each person's direct participation in the nurturing force of reality, as it is appearing as you and everything else.
This training is not in any particular "style" of Yoga: it is the essential principles of body and breath, quite precise, as brought forth from the Indian tradition by the "teacher of the teachers," Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, and made uniquely relevant to us as modern people. You will therefore be able to apply these principles to any style or level of Yoga you wish to practice or teach, to make all Yoga individualized, effective, enjoyable, and safe. All bodies and backgrounds are welcome. We could call it “Advanced Yoga for Perfect Beginners.”
You can expect to receive yoga instruction that grounds your practice in interoception, feeling the body from the inside out, yoga as whole-body prayer to Life, yoga as spiritual practice, yoga as profound internal reverie. Not yoga as exercise.
This training is valuable for yoga teachers of all styles who seek to deepen their understanding as well as for yoga teachers who have already taken a Heart of Yoga Training. Classes will include Satsang (talk), asana, pranayama and rest and will be in English with optional translation.
Training Hours
Monday May 1st - Friday May 5th 2023
09:00-12:00 h
14:00-17:00 h
Price: 769,00 Euro
Interested? Please send an email to sybille(at)hathavinyasa.de
meet mark
What did Krishnamacharya mean by this? Join Mark Whitwell, who first met Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar in 1973, to explore this in your personal practice and perhaps your teaching. Together we will refine and deepen the pure pleasure of the breath.
Go deep into the precise breath principles from the tradition that transform asana from physical movement alone to profound intimacy with our body, breath and life. "Whole-body prayer to Life." From an external experience to an internal experience — or perhaps more accurately, dissolving any distinction between within and without. Removing the struggle.
Those who have studied before with Mark know that he wears his 50 years of experience lightly, teaching through friendly engaged dialogue and gentle accessible sequences that nonetheless take us powerfully and deeply into the beauty of our own direct experience.