Category: Retreats

Vipassana

Post Vipassana,…

Having done a small number of ten day vipassana sits before I was looking forward to it with some nervousness.  The 4am starts, the commitment to refrain from speaking (apart from in my head), to not  do any form of exercise apart from walking and lastly but not least sitting on my meditation cushion for hours upon hours,…

This was my first Satipatthana sit at the constantly evolving and expanding European Long Course Centre of Dhamma Padana in Hereford.  To my surprise I had a self contained unit, room with attached bathroom.  The meals were to be provided breakfast at 6.30am and lunch 11am and that would be it for the rest of the day.  One of the rules being as an ‘old student’ (some one who has sat at last one ten day course) one abstains from eating after 12 noon.  However, its worth noting that whilst there were 50 students on this past retreat.  There are plans to increase the capacity of the center to 100 with a purpose build pagoda complete with individual cells for each person to meditate in private.  Big plans but for sure they are getting there with the help of volunteers and all through public donations.

Anyhow, back to my sit, the Satipatthana course was only eight days long rather than ten, with the evening discourse focusing on the Maha Satipatthana Sutta.  I guess the reason its shorter is that there are no new students and the assumption being old students would work harder.  Obviously it is questionable whether this is true for me.

So what came up as I sat on that meditation cushion, my instructions from Goenkaji were to observe rather react to the sensations in the body beginning with Anapana, awareness of the breath and its sensations below the nostrils above the upper lip.  Then after day three move on to Vipassana complete bodily awareness and observation.

The intention of this practice is to address the route cause of suffering through what Goenkaji (left) calls our cravings and aversions and this is perpetuated through our old habit patterns of the mind of wanting and not wanting.  By sitting and observing the body, one is in theory able to dismantle these patterns.

So what happened?  At the start of every sit focus breath, sensations,.. within seconds my mind is off wondering through the draws of uncompleted tasks and projects I have left behind in London.  Its either that or my body decides to completely shut down as it assumes as there is nothing to be thinking about apart from observing the body then it might as well fall asleep.  Nodding off is incredibly easy for me to do in meditation, a bit like doing savasana (corpse pose) in hatha yoga, but unlike yoga you are supposed to be sitting upright and I was constantly jolting myself awake from the fear of head butting the floor.

You would assume that sitting and doing nothing but sitting, upright with the straight back would be relatively straight forward.  Well the number of physical discomforts in my body during previous courses are numerous and this most recent was no different.  It was this that most nerved me ‘OK so what pain am I doing to go through this time?’  As predicted it happened.  First it was my shoulders, then ankles and then hips and of course the rounded slumped back and the crocked neck.  Having to observe and not react to these physical discomforts was really challenging.  Goenkaji guided me with his vibrational tones of being equanimous and that all things are changing and it will all pass.  There are several time that I don’t quiet believe him.

By day five or six the physical discomforts of sitting and the perpetual nodding off are subsiding however, the my mind is having a fantastic time roaming from one thought to the next.  I was surprised at the number of mundane things that can come up like cleaning the inside of my car to sorting out my sock drawer to recycling my old clothes,.. the power of the frittering mind is phenomenal.  All in the avoidance of observing the sensations of the body.

Whilst sitting, I realise that what is happening on my meditation cushion is a reflection of what is going on in my outside world.  The inability to focus and the persistent ability to procrastinate.  I have made a decision this has to change.  How I plan to do this is, I guess for another blog entry but mediation is definitely in the picture.  I am grateful to have sat on this course and am now wondering when can I do another?  Oh the wanting continues,…

Satipatthana Sutta Vipassana

Posted 8th December 2010

Am both looking forward and dreading my forthcoming vipassana sit, the aim is to quieten my busy mind and allow me to focus on the more important things in life!  So will update you on my developments post 18th December,…

The Italian Job

Tak One

One big happy family

What an amazing week long holiday with Jaqui and her yoga friends.

Our villa, surrounded by vast swathes of nature – mountains, rivers and the sea, reminded me of my lovely hometown in Japan and with the owners Paul and Paola treating us like family; the whole experience was overtly welcoming. The focus of this holiday was the amazing yoga lessons by Jaqui who is an incredible woman; her stamina and determination are truly inspirational. Although I see her once or twice a week at her regular class, she totally changed my overall thinking on what Yoga is all about both  physically and mentally. I was immensely impressed the way she prepared to the finest details an excellent curriculum on personal body and mind improvements. I can’t thank you enough for making this a truly memorable holiday.

I would also like to thank all the members of the group who both took care of and encouraged me to undertake this – something I never thought I could do alone.

Written by Takako Yoshihara

Our studio

You Can’t Beat a Bit of Bath

A combination of two GPS systems, two printed map routes, one full size map book, four pairs of eyes, words of encouragement to Jaqui’s car and maybe a few too many u-turns got us to the Bath country house for our Bodacious Bonfire Yoga weekend.

The journey from London was fuelled by celery sticks, carrots and peppers (expertly prepared by Roxy’s other half) and yummy cake (thank you Noras) and a lot of girlish excitement.  We were met with warm chai and cake on arrival which left us  suitably refreshed for a gentle evening practice.  But cake was not the order of the evening, but of the weekend! This was a yoga weekend that was defined by good food and a lot of eating.

It was great to stretch out the cramps and aches from the car journey, and get acquainted with the yoga studio – but we only had time for a quick hour and a little bit of flying before getting ready for supper.  After showering and settling in we ate pumpkin soup and freshly baked bread, and ended the evening feeling very content!

Saturday commenced with meditation at 9:00 followed by class at 9.30, a very reasonable start time indeed.  The yoga throughout the day was great; a fast paced start to get warmed up that was later capitalised by by inversions and Acroyoga.  Headstands, handstands and forearm balances were all worked on, as well as inversions balancing on people’s backs and in between their knees!  It sounds strange, but looks great!  And some more flying which I really enjoyed.

We also focused on standing balances and arm balances: for example practicing going from bakasana into tripod headstand.  As usual – it’s all about the core!  Ooouch!

Between morning and afternoon classes we ate (a lot!), dozed (only a little!) and cuddled up with the very fluffy cat Flicker, and enjoyed saunas.  Those who like it hot (Vaclav!) were very happy to be in charge of the water bucket and we soon warmed up our winter bodies for the afternoon session.

Saturday evening was a really nice night – we had intended to go to a Fireworks display,  but it was cold and dark; we were in the middle of nowhere and quite happy to be just there, after all we were full, sleepy and spent. So with little enthusiasm for fireworks we decided to play board games!  We settled on Cranium – a team game involving trivia and word / spelling questions as well as drawing, charades, singing / humming and modelling things in clay.  This is what Saturday nights are made for. Seeing fellow yogis jump around like Michael Flatly (Chris), trying to mime a parrot (Stefane) and humming ABBA’s Dancing Queen or Sister Sledge’s We Are Family (Shahana) caused me to laugh to the point of exhaustion. Without a doubt our evening Craniun frolics warmed us more than a Bonfire ever could.

Sunday started with a massage for me, great relief for a stretched shoulder I had been nursing all week.  I love massages and to have one so easily and as part of the weekend was very welcome!

The rest of the day was spent doing lots of yoga puncutated with eating and sauna.  A bit of crazy impromptu dancing to the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling warmed us up for the penultimate yoga session before we unwound with partner massage, our final workshop. We finished the weekend with another big delicious feast. It was hard to leave; the weekend went so quickly, but felt like were there for days and days, and the thought of returning to work on the Monday was hard to deal with.  The best thing about leaving was looking forward to the returning.

By Natalie Smith

V is for Vaclav

Say Formaggio

Oh, it’s here again. Not really sure why I am changing nice cold and dark weather with hot and sunny weather in Italy. Could it be a previous experience which drove me there also in May; an intensive yoga retreat led by Jaqui Wan?

I don’t think so, I’m not a yoga junkie who wants to do five hours of practice every day.. Really I’m not the sort that wakes up at five a.m. to make an early bird ninety minute session of Bikram yoga, followed up by one hour lunch yoga and then  to gym  for weights and an evening of more yoga. Then tops it off with volleyball practice and cycling. No, that’s not me at all.

Vaclav at 06:30, 13:00 and 18:15

I met Jennifer, Shahana and Tony at the airport. I knew these guys from before; strange people – who want to talk all the time about yoga even when people are already poisoned from too much yoga talk and have volunteered to uncoil from their mortal coil by listening to more: they won’t stop. Do I have to listen to this? I don’t wanna die yet. Maybe later after a big gelato, or two of them, or more. I think, I don’t belong to this group… There were also other people, which we didn’t know yet: Mekella, Cobi, Emily and North.
There was one girl who made the mistake of  sending me a text message but I forgot to tell her I use my mobile only once a day when I need to switch my alarm off before it wakes me up. Anyhow, we found each other at the airport in Trieste. Chi called that there was an accident and she is stuck in the traffic and cannot pick up us. She was definitely stuck in some local gelato shop enjoying her ice cream; I know that was actually the accident: these are the facts and no one can tell me otherwise.
We moved to a bus station waiting for a bloody bus. After a few no, no, no there was yes and we got on the bus. While we were waiting for a bus we had a polite yoga introduction conversation with yoga buddies, what’s your name? where are you from?what’s your weight and age? are you single? how long? do you mind? don’t you mind? So we got to know each other a bit…

Group therapy

Our daily yoga routine was very nice. I enjoyed watching sleep zombies doing yoga in the morning;  who were thinking they do yoga just by watching each other. After the morning class was when sleep zombies transformed to normal people.

We enjoyed very nice food from Paola then chilled out, absorbed local gelato in a copius amounts trying to achieve “Nothing left for locals” target.
We were also by the sea and had very nice time playing bowling. I think every moment we spent all together was very nice, relaxing and unforgettable.
The evening yoga classes were more energetic and we tried to put to our practice as much as we can except one gal, Jaqui Wan. She was just walking around and commanding what to/not to do how to/not to do. Who did she think she is? A teacher or what? Actually, she was, forgot this bit again.

By the city

Not sure how other yoga buddies did but I have to admit I improved in my yoga practice but still some muscles were very loyal and stood solid and there was a very strong resistance to get further. Obviously, how can you bend metal?
Doing over five hours of yoga is not easy for everyone but Jaqui interpreted yoga in a way so everyone enjoyed it; we learnt about yoga from other aspects and had lots of fun.
The atmosphere she created (or maybe she mind manipulated us) meant even when things were challenging there was always time for a smile and laughs.
Well done to everybody. Well done to Jaqui Wan. Finally on our way back at the Trieste airport Jaqui and I did a one hand handstand. The security cameras were pointing at us but with no consequences. Maybe they enjoyed the show! Nameste.

Darling Yoga Buds of May

The invitation came from a fellow classmate to join the spring yoga retreat near Udine, Italy. I had no hesitations in going after following Jacqui’s weekly class for over two years. The chance to experience five days of immersive practice under her guidance in an idyllic location away from the noise and bright lights of London could not be overlooked.

Relationships developed quickly in such an atmosphere as we were absorbed in yoga and Italian lifestyle; gelato, sunshine, meals on the veranda, yoga by the lake – what a wonderful setting! Over five hours of yoga per day gave me a chance to experience new postures and also try out Jaqui’s speciality; Acroyoga.

My body may have ached after the first day, but was re-energised by the fourth nearly feeling renewed and ready to tackle my London life style. I think everyone could do with these experiences in life.

By Roxanne Degarie

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