General InfoThe Bhagavad Gita and the Middle Path of Love
2a Wrentham Avenue,
London NW10 3HA
(£400 if booked before 6 February 2008)
Downloads
Richard Freeman Booking Form
You are highly encouraged to book all 5 days of this intensive, however a small number of places will be available to be booked for individual morning practice sessions at £45 per session.
Open to yoga teachers, trainee teachers and all experienced yoga students - some experience of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga desirable. Students on The Life Centre Teacher Training Programme who attend all five days may count this as one of their approved intensives.
We are honoured to welcome back one of the west’s pre-eminent teachers of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, and one of our most popular and inspiring visitors.
Colorado based Richard Freeman has been a student of yoga since 1968. He spent nearly nine years in Asia studying various traditions which he now incorporates into the Ashtanga yoga practice. His background includes Zen and Vipassana Buddhist practice, Bhakti and traditional hatha yoga in India, Sufism in Iran and an in-depth study of Iyengar yoga. He is an avid student of Western and Eastern philosophy and Sanskrit. Richard’s sense of humour and ability to juxtapose various viewpoints, without losing the depth and integrity of each, has helped him develop a unique, metaphorical teaching style.
This 5 day intensive will combine an exploration of the subtle internal yoga of the Ashtanga Vinyasa system with a deep look into the nectar of the bhakti, or devotion, taught by Krishna to Arjuna in the famous sacred Indian text, the Bhagavad Gita.
In the morning sessions we will explore in detail the form and alignment of the first half of the Intermediate Ashtanga Series (the Second Series). In the afternoons we will delve into the interwoven philosophies, the paradoxes and the dilemmas which faced Arjuna and which face us today in our practices and our lives. If luck is with us, we will find that subtle and practical path of paths, Bhakti, the catalyst which makes our hatha and tantric yoga practices work and which allows us a broad, compassionate vision of the interdependence of forms.
The morning practices
The Intermediate (or Second) Series of the Ashtanga Vinyasa system builds on the better known Primary (or First) Series. Many of the postures in the first half of the Intermediate Series are regular components of intermediate asana practice, whether or not one follows the Ashtanga Vinyasa system. For that reason, experience of the Second Series is NOT a prerequisite for this intensive. In exploring the early part of the Intermediate Series, we will encounter the familiar backbends salabhasana (locust), dhanurasana (bow) and ustrasana (camel), and the seated twists ardha matsyendrasana and bharadvajasana, as well as some other frequently encountered postures, and we will look in depth at the relationship between the energetic flows of prana and apana within asana practice.
The Bhagavad Gita (the “song of the Lord”) is one of the most popular and revered of all Indian sacred texts. Forming part of the huge epic, the Mahabharata, the Gita tells of the anguished dilemmas of the warrior Arjuna, faced with war against members of his own family, and the profound teachings which he received from Krishna in the face of those dilemmas. In the process of resolving Arjuna’s doubts and dilemmas, Krishna explored the paths of jnana, karma and bhakti yoga and the concept of dharma. One thing which can be guaranteed is that Richard Freeman’s insight into this beautiful text and its continued application to our practices and our lives will be spiced with Richard’s deep knowledge of the yoga tradition and his inimitable humour and joy. Downloads
Richard Freeman Booking Form