Highlights of Retreat

·         Guided and Personal Tureya Meditation

·         Diverse Practice of Yoga Asanas

·         Energy Tuning and Refining Pranayama

·         Open Hours for Personal Time, Internal Reflection, and Hiking

·         Concentration in Healing and Restoration

·         Refined Sattvic/Ayurvedic Diet

 

The eloquence of a spiritual life forms from the ballet between the inner and outer worlds of life, what we see outside dancing and moving with what we think and experience on the inside. As the tantric philosophy of spirituality teaches us, both the outer world and the inner world are vital to one's movement into the spiritual life.

The outer world which we see before us is the playground for growth and evolution. From the outer world come challenges to progress in our relationship and understanding of life itself. The inner world is a place of reflection, contemplation, and observation through which growth is created.

Yoga is a system which teaches us how to balance the two dimensions of life with a spiritual intention. When life is filtered through an elevated state of awareness, the cumulative experience of life is peaceful, balanced, and joyous. Life is not a place of pain and suffering nor hate and anger but rather an experiment in the infinite possibilities and beauty of existence.

The main difference between the egoist-centered experience of the world and the divine-centered one is in perspective, but by training awareness and perception to harmonize with a divine-centered perception life in its totality is transformed. Living in awareness of the interconnected state of the universe creates a synchronous relationship with life itself through which the higher faculties and awareness of the human experience blossom.

 

The Spiritual Awakening Retreat Concentrates Upon

·         Remodeling life to align with a spiritual focus

·         Expanding awareness of the spiritual dominion of living

·         Redesigning and harmonizing the relationship between the body, mind, and spirit

·         Awakening subtle perceptions of the mind, body, emotions, and consciousness

·         Developing a lifestyle focused around spiritual living in peace, balance, joy, and love

 

 

Lectures/Discussions

Two topics are covered within the retreat, the Theory of Spiritual Awakening and the Practical Approach to Spiritual Awakening. Each topic is designed to help students evolve into their journey towards spiritual awakening.

The Theory of Spiritual Awakening Class (1 hour each day) is given by Dr. Rudramma, who holds a Ph.D in Indian Philosophy. This class investigates the framework of various systems of Spiritual Awakening in India including both the primarily schools of India spirituality and the other extensions of Indian thinking which have arisen from the history of Indian culture. The theoretical dimension of Spiritual Awakening provides students with a holistic perspective of the spiritual path that is considerate of the many ways through which Spiritual Awakening can be revealed. Topics include Buddhism, Tantric Philosophy, Hinduism, and traditional Indian Philosophical thought. In Indian philosophy the ways towards self-realization are many, but the final state of liberation is almost always a immersion into the universal states of bliss and peace.

The Practical Approach to Spiritual Awakening Class (1 hour each day) is given by Dr. Adam Cohen. This class is formulated with the intent of stimulating an active and experiential approach to Spiritual Awakening. Theory is set aside and emphasis given to creating a life that resonates with the spiritual paradigm of existence. Mental architecture, perceptual training, and spiritual awareness form the heart of this class’s design. Through mental exploration and open discussion this class aims at invoking an understanding of how to practically apply a spiritual practice that leads towards internal revelations in the modern circumstances of human civilization.

 

Yogasanas

The yogasanas are what most people refer to when they say yoga when in fact the more appropriate thing to say is asanas or yogasanas. When people say “I am going to practice yoga” what they are essentially saying is “I am going to practice union.” Most often, however, what they are being trained in are specialized “asanas” which serve specific intentions like building strength, restoration, flexibility, etc.

A healthy body is unquestionably a valuable resource to holistic living. But a healthy body alone does not express the full glory of the physical form of the human being. In Trantra we emphasize the point that the body is a vehicle for the soul through which the universe can be experienced. Life in the human form is unique in several ways, but the most distinguishing feature of the human being from other species is that we are mind centered creatures. The body is designed with the head at the highest point which not only emphasizes the importance of the brain but also points to a more subtle symbolic significance of the human being’s potential to achieve self-actualization through the faculties of human life.

Our relationship with the human body is dependent upon the way in which we view the body itself. Because the human body is the vehicle through which the human mind can interact with and experience the world, the physical body can be either a center for wellness or a tool for self-destructive behaviors. When the mind is healthy the body is cared for with respect and consideration for the long term welfare of the body. But when the mind is polluted or dysfunctional the body degrades through self-destructive living.

The most positive of all relationships between the mind and body is the view of the body as a center for the living soul. The physical body is a living example of the unity of life, a unity which involves the soul inhabiting a material form and a material form which is created entirely from living and non-living things external to the body itself. The human body is an example of the diversity, complexity, and connectivity of the dynamic universe.

The yogasanas taught during this retreat explore the body on a deeper level to reveal a lifestyle which reflects the divine nature of the physical body. Physical wellness, mind/body harmonization, and physical sensitization are all integrated into the design of the yogasanas.

 

Meditation

Although a rising trend in alternative living, meditation is still a widely unexplored dimension of spirituality. Meditation is a tool for transcendental living. Through meditation consciousness is aligned with a divine focus which forms a paradigm shift in our awareness and experience of life.

The applications of meditation are multitudinous; there are meditations for healing and meditations for compassion, meditations for aura expansion and meditations for concentration, meditations for connecting with the divine and meditations for awakening intuition… the list of possibilities is indefinite and can cover every dimension of human life.

The most powerful feature of meditation is the ability to change reality without having direct contact with it. We can, in effect, completely alter any feature of our life through the metaphysical channels of meditation because the practice of meditation brings us in contact with a more interconnected state of awareness with the universe!

The meditations which are applied within the retreat concentrate first and foremost upon an expanded sense of selfhood. The techniques applied within the program will be adjusted to the joining students, and may arise from the following focuses:

·         Chakra and Kundalini Activation and Purification

·         Spiritual Manifestations

·         Mindlessness & Mindfulness

·         Active Intentions & Life Vision Refinement

·         Yoga Nidra

·         Pratyahara (sensory refinement and involution)

Additional forms of meditation may be included depending upon the present needs of the group. Together two distinct forms will be explored: guided meditation which evolves consciousness and concentration, and unguided intentional meditation which is essential for an ‘at home’ practice.

 

Pranayama & Prana Vidya

What connects the mind to the body? This has been one of the greatest philosophical debates in the study of the human experience. Are we just physical mater, body and brain? Or are we a body and a mind? But if we are a body and a mind then how can the two interact. But while this debate fuelled much controversy in the history of western philosophy, many kilometers away the same questions had been answered thousands of years earlier in the prerecorded history of the ancient and far removed past: energy! In a highly condensed explanation, the spirit, with the faculties of the mind, embody a human form through the channel of energy. Even more beautiful, the universe that we see is nothing but energy expressed in different forms.

Prana, or life force, is the bridge between the physical body and causal body (Karanopathi), the spirit. Because prana is the bonding agent for the body, mind, and spirit it stores information that is responsible for conducting life. The complexity of prana is unfathomable, and just as no two snowflakes are alike so too is the uniqueness of the manifestation of prana within each human being. The activity of prana determines such things as our personality, physical health and dispositions to diseases, psychological welfare, connection to others, relationships to the world, and depth of our spirituality. In short prana can cover just about everything because prana is creation!

It comes as no surprise then that control of the life force can produce noticeable effects in our interventional practices for spiritual growth. By learning how to sense and then control prana we can alter the total nature of our life and transform the way we live and interact with the world.

In this retreat we will be exploring Pranayama and Prana Vidya which together will allow for students to connect to the life force and begin training this component of their being towards a spiritual nature.

Pranayama is not just a combination of breathing practices, pranayama is an awakening to the energy fields of the universe which are responsible for creating, preserving, and destroying the cosmic reality.

 

Ayurvedic Dieting

Ayurveda can be considered an offshoot of yoga, but its origins may or may not be considered a direct branch of yoga because the system was first mentioned textually in the Hindu scriptures of the Vedas written as early as 3,000 B.C.E. This ancient medicinal system lives on even to this day because of its advanced capacity to cure disorders and dysfunctions within the human mind and body. Ayurveda approaches health on a holistic level, considering the human being as a unified, interconnected entity. Healing and curing is procured through an analysis of the total human system, starting from the body and ending with the spirit.

According to ayurveda, the human being is a living system created by the same constituents as those found in the universe. The elements that formed the building block of creation can also be found in the human being on a physiological, psychological, and electrophysiological level. Together, ether, wind, water, earth, and fire form 3 major categories of functional composition within the human being: vatta, pitta, kapha. Each of these three sustains its own regulatory functions that together maintain the human body, energy, and mind. When these three are functioning harmoniously, the human body is completely free of physical disease. But if any of these is out of alignment the total system is thrown into chaos which leads to the need for healing intervention in which case ayurveda can be used. Even in optimum health Ayurvedic knowledge is valuable as it provides sustenance to the balanced system.

This retreat includes 3 meals a day, each meal designed around the principles of a balanced ayurvedic diet which restores detoxifies the body and restores physical health to an optimum level. The ayurvedic meals including within in the program work between the 3 doshas to give a general diet that is suitable for most dispositions. Unfortunately, due to limitations is time and availability, individualized dietary regulations will not be included. For those students who would like an individualized dietary program please register for our separate ayurvedic retreat.

 

To download the program's schedule please go to our docs section: http://tureya.com/index.php/documents/doc_download/4-spiritual-awakening-schedule