My only experience so far of Yantra Yoga has been a
2 day beginner’s course and since doing that weekend I have done very little
practice. I am relatively new to Dzogchen and a lot of the practices are things
that I am learning for the first time, so integrating what I am learning to
daily life has posed challenges. I have to admit I went into the Kumbhaka
weekend held last month in London with having done no practice, and very little
knowledge/understanding of what it is and what it would involve - I didn’t
leave the weekend the way I started it. I think it was Leo who said something
along the lines of ‘this is like studying quantum physics without having
studied physics 101’, and it definitely felt like I was learning very advanced
practices.
The weekend was taught by John Renshaw at The Tara
Yoga Centre near Old Street, 30 dzogchen community practitioners crammed into a
very strange yoga space to learn Kumbhaka. John went through stages of
explaining breathing, anatomy, chakras and lot of other things to get us ready
for the actual practice. The first day was broken up with John talking, showing
us slides and getting us to practice the elements that would come together for
the main Kumbhaka. I will put my hands up, a lot of it went over my head but I
don’t learn through intellectual understanding and I trusted that all that was
being imparted would come together. It definitely did the next day, after a
brief overview of what we covered yesterday the rest of the second day was
dedicated to sessions of practice and discussion around our experiences and
opportunities for clarifications.
I left Sunday evening having had an
experience of bliss, clarity and emptiness. I slept Sunday night like
a baby. The weekend was brilliant as a crash course in Kumbhaka; I have the
foundations for personal practice and know my limitations and what I need to
develop in order for me to be able to do kumbhaka more effectively. I went in
with little or no expectations but left with a solid foundation for practice.
Wadud
Wadud
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