Workshop "Yoga and the Art of Mantra"

My teacher Paul Harvey is running a workshop called "Yoga and the Art of Mantra". Here are some details and interesting reflections in his own words:

Just to let you know that the upcoming weekend will be BWY IST registered and will count for 15 BWY CPD points.

Also the focus of the weekend will not be Sound and Mantra from the Vedic Chanting viewpoint and with it the obvious application limitations within many teaching situations.

Instead the focus of the weekend will be from the viewpoint of Yoga practice and will explore the learning and teaching (if of interest) of sound and mantra within Yoga situations such as group classes, 121’s, workshops, etc.

Thus the weekend will focus on how our Yoga practice and teaching can be given breadth and depth through the appropriate application of Sound and Mantra to existing Yoga situations.

As much as I enjoy Vedic chanting personally I feel trying to include aspects of it within Yoga teaching brings us back to the question raised years ago now by TKV around the mixing of Yoga and Hindu religious practices/hymns. I agree running Vedic chant groups is great and working with the ganam or Upanishad unique, but limited in today's ‘soundbite’ society.

For example I do see, especially in the area I live where the posters now even use the heading ploy – oh no not another sound group/workshop – that there are many sound/singing groups.

This implies that the interest is there but it seems to need to be both eclectic and relatively easy to learn, unlike Vedic Chanting which for a student especially one without sounding experience can be a matter of years of practice and extra study to get to a self confident stage to practice alone.

We already have our hands full getting students to work with Asana let alone Pranayama and then to add Vedic Chanting to the mix in terms of time and learning capacity let alone the cultural ‘overtones‘ that colour the subject.

My wish is to explore how sound and mantra can be applied and incorporated into group and 121 Asana and Pranayama practice without needing to learn or be involved in the usual Vedic chanting processes.

Hence my opening aim with Yoga as the reference within which soundwork sits.

This is why it will qualify as a full IST as it will be a registered BWY training module aimed at equipping you both personally and professionally with extra skills to your Yoga bow.

Details can be found on http://www.yogastudies.org/public_html/downloads/Mantra%20CPD%20July%202009.pdf

Luc