Chakra – In-Depth Retreat at Ask Retreat Centre
The Chakra Course runs over 4 weekends:
1st weekend: 12-14 October 2018 — Introduction to the Chakras and Ajna Chakra
2nd weekend: 23-25 November 2018 — Mooladhara and Swadisthana chakra
3rd weekend: 1-3 February 2019 — Manipura and Anahata chakra
4th weekend: 29-31 March 2019 — Vishuddhi Chakra and Bindu
Read more about the 4 Chakra Weekend Retreats
The Chakra – Esoteric Yoga runs over 4 weekends:
1st weekend: 12-14 October 2018 — Introduction to the Chakras and Ajna Chakra
2nd weekend: 23-25 November 2018 — Mooladhara and Swadisthana chakra
3rd weekend: 1-3 February 2019 — Manipura and Anahata chakra
4th weekend: 29-31 March 2019 — Vishuddhi Chakra and Bindu
Every weekend starts at 5. pm with sauna (for those interested). At 6.30 pm the soup is served and at 8.30 pm the teaching starts. The retreat ends Sunday at 4.30 pm.Read more on the web-page about the daily rhythm and the retreat (Karma yoga, sauna, vegetarian food, silence, etc). This text gives an overview of the different yoga techniques associated with the work with the chakras.
You also get a booklet (after each weekend) with an overview of the weekend’s exercises and a text about the associated chakras.
October 12-14, 2018
– Introduction to the Chakras and Ajna chakra
Introduction to the Chakras: You are introduced to the chakras and their location. After an introduction of the weekend, the actual teaching begins with a short relaxation where the chakras are located and contacted together with the breath. Then you learn Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation) and what chakra you can concentrate on in each of the 12 poses. In addition, we work with other dynamic and static yoga poses which make the back more flexible and get the energy (prana) to flow more freely.
The basis for working with the chakras and Ajna chakra: The body is being prepared for meditation through an easy yoga program of pre-meditation poses. The mind is prepared by working with techniques related to Ajna chakra – the third eye. When the Ajna chakra is more active (awakened), the other chakras can be awakened in turn from the root chakra (Mooladhara) and upward. We will, among other things, make Tratak, a light meditation where you concentrate on the flame of a candle, the Sun Salutation with chakra concentration, various yoga poses that awaken Ajna chakra and not least breathing techniques like Kapalabhati, Moorcha and Nadi Shodana. In addition, you will learn Shambhavi mudra – concentration at the centre of the eyebrows.
You will also learn Neti nose cleansing. It’s not just a yoga technique that’s good when having a cold, pollen allergy and sinusitis – it’s also a powerful technique for awakening Ajna chakra. The state of meditation is introduced through Yoga Nidra, a deep relaxation technique, and you learn the first steps in the Source of Energy meditation (Vishuddhi shuddhi) – an integrated energy and chakra meditation from the tantric yoga tradition. Vishuddhi shuddhi is also an introduction to the longer and deeper going Ajapa japa meditation which we are going to work with the last 3 weekends. The first steps in Antar Mauna – a tantric awareness-based meditation (an advanced version of mindfulness) will be introduced.
Lecture: Pratyahara – Relaxed confrontation – a basic attitude in working with yourself.
November 23-25, 2018
– Mooladhara and Swadisthana chakra
Mooladhara & Swadhistana chakra: You do nose cleansing yourself before the morning class. We repeat some of the techniques from the first weekend, but will mainly work with new yoga programs designed to create more energy flow through the two lower chakras. You will, among other things, work with different hip poses and backstretch variations. Moola Bandha (root lock) and Jalandhara Bandha (neck lock) are introduced as two energy switches attached to the chakras together with the Bhastrika breathing technique. The yoga classes end with Nadi Shodana. The Yoga Nidra deep relaxation is further developed and we start working with Ajapa japa, the advanced chakra meditation.
We also do a smaller version of Shank Prakshalana – a yoga technique for cleansing the entire intestinal system. Gastrointestinal cleansing establishes a fundamental balance in the body’s energy system and is a very basic technique if you want to explore the chakras and the energy system.
Lecture: On the Chakras and how the energy (Prana) is awakened and the hemispheres are synchronised through the use of the Nadi Shodana breathing technique. The evening ends with Chakra Rohana & Avarohana – a song meditation for awakening the chakras.
February 1-3, 2019
– Manipura and Anahata chakra
Manipura & Anahata Chakra: You do nose cleansing before the morning class. Tratak is repeated and you learn a variation of the Sun Salutation called Chandra Namaskara, Moon Greetings. The yoga program in the weekend includes classical poses like the Halasana (the Plough) and Matsyasana (the Fish) in addition to other yoga poses for awakening of Manipura and Anahata chakra. After the morning asana program, you learn Uddiyana Bandha (Abdominal lock) and Agnisara (Kindle the Fire), two powerful techniques for awakening Manipura chakra. The breathing technique Kapalabhati (Cleansing of the forehead) is now repeated together with the Abdominal lock and you learn Bhramari (Humblebee) – a technique for harmonising Anahata chakra.
You will also do 12 rounds of the Surya Namaskara with mantra song. In the Yoga Nidra deep relaxation, we emphasis Chakra visualisation and the Ajapa Japa meditation is extended with new steps.
March 29-31, 2019
– Vishuddhi chakra and Bindu
Most of the weekend is Mauna (Silence). From Saturday morning to Sunday midday you are silent. Being quiet makes it easier to explore the finer states of meditation and is traditionally a condition for learning the last steps of the Ajapa japa meditation.
Just click the image and download a PDF pamphlet about the Chakra retreat
Vishuddhi chakra and Bindu: You do nose cleansing yourself before the morning class. We start with Nada Yoga (concentration on inner sounds) – a technique for awakening Bindu (top of the back of your head). Afterwards, the Sun Salutation with chakra concentration and the whole Classical yoga program – a combination of classical yoga positions for chakra awakening and harmonisation of the energy flow throughout the system. Agnisara is repeated and the morning class ends with Nadi Shodana.
In addition, we do other Integrated chakra programs like the Ladder – a meditative chakra program of Mudras and Bandhas – and Shakti Bandha another asana-based yoga program for awakening the chakras.
The last steps of the awareness-based meditation Antar Mauna is conducted as well as the whole Ajapa Japa meditation.
The last evening: Talk about how to continue at home and a yoga shop where you can buy yoga mats, books, CDs etc.
Hari Om Tat Sat
The Chakra Course has been a popular in-depth course in the Yoga School of Bergen in many years. This retreat is for you who would like to use one year to do something which does you good.
Throughout every weekend and throughout the whole course you are participating in a process which cleanses the body and the mind. Gradually the energy will flow more freely, the awareness and the ability to act will increase and the Stillness will root itself as an inner reality.
Physically seen the Chakras are associated with the nerve system and the endocrine glands in the body. These glands are the main centres of control in the physical/mental organism with vital influences on these. Many yoga techniques do have a powerful and positive influence on one or more of these glands.
By concentrating on the Chakras – either in a yoga asana or as part of a meditation – you will stimulate the flow of energy to or through the chakras. This will awaken the sleeping part of the brain which is associated with the different chakras. It is just like putting light on in a dark room. You don’t go to the lamp to lightened it; you turn on the switch on the wall connecting electricity to the lamp and look; there is light!
Who can participate?
This retreat is for you who would like to use half a year to do something which does you good. Half a year with development of your self through the use of the deep-reaching methods of yoga and meditation. You gradually discover who and what you truly are and establish that more and more as your fundament. You don’t need any knowledge beforehand and you don’t need to be very flexible or in a good shape to participate in the course. The starting point for the course is yourself just as you are.
We encourage yoga teachers, therapist and others in the health sectors to participate. As professionals, your load is different than that of others. In your situation, it is important that you take care of yourself as well and get new replenishment… The methods you are learning are useful tools in your day to day life.
The teaching…
Every weekend focus on two of the 8 chakras: you will work with cleansing exercises, physical yoga asana, breathing exercises, energy awakening exercises, relaxation and meditation related to these specific chakras. In the course of the whole retreat, you will be working your way through all of the eight chakras. In addition, you will do the short version of the Intestinal cleansing (Shankprakshalana) the second weekend. Kirtan, chakra singing, sufi dance, karma yoga and mauna (silence) will be partly practised in some of the weekends. Throughout the course, you will learn the advanced chakra meditation Ajapa japa and the Antar mauna meditation (Inner silence).
Karma Yoga
You learn a lot on the course – but not everything takes place in the yoga hall. Your body must be able to transform the energy you acquire from the practices. An important experience in the process is your participation in the tasks around the Course Centre: in the garden; preparing food; dishwashing and cleaning or perhaps doing repairs on a house or moving some stones.
Socially speaking, Karma Yoga (as these activities are called) implies that you do things for others, together with others and that you don’t expect to be waited on.
After all, you have not come to a holiday resort, but to a retreat with people who want to work with themselves. Naturally, you will want to be better able to deal with the tasks and challenges awaiting you at home. Activity creates stamina and drive.
“When one is active, then one is stable. Stability can only be achieved through action. When happiness is achieved one is active. Someone who cannot find happiness is not active.”
(Chandogya Upanishad).
Many have discovered this secret in our courses.
Without Karma Yoga, it would be impossible to run such comprehensive courses. The course offers many paths to reach deeper states. The expected results, however, would not be achieved in a harmonious way without outwardly directed activities and common tasks. When you let go of something and also give something, then you are more able to receive. The energy is transformed; it becomes available to you. Karma Yoga is an activity that balances the whole course and contributes to the increase in your wellbeing.
Karma Yoga is part of the program for 1-1½ hours a day. In addition, each person helps 2-4 times (depending on the number of students) cleaning and dishwashing after lunch and dinner.
A course day may look like this:
| From | To | Activity | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.00 | – | 6.30 | am | Awakening yourself, toilet, nose cleansing |
| 6.30 | – | 7.00 | am | Concentration techniques |
| 7.00 | – | 9.00 | am | Physical yoga and breathing techniques |
| 9.00 | – | 9.30 | am | Breakfast: Fruit, porridge and tea |
| 9.30 | – | 10.45 | am | Karma Yoga – practical work |
| 10.45 | – | 11.30 | am | Yoga Nidra deep relaxation |
| 11.30 | – | 12.30 | am | Ajapa japa Meditation |
| 12.30 | – | 4.30 | pm | Lunch and free time for taking a walk, canoeing, sauna etc |
| 4.30 | – | 5.30 | pm | Short yoga program, breathing exercises etc. |
| 5.30 | – | 6.00 | pm | Inner Silence Meditation |
| 6.00 | pm | Supper | ||
| 8.30 | – | 10.00 | pm | Chakra singing, lectures, meditation, Sufi dance or Kirtan (mantra-singing) |
| 10.00 | pm | Good night! |
The tearchers
Bjarke Jørgensen and Audhild Naustdal.
Homework
You gain the most out of the course if you make room for 1/2-1 hour a day to work with the methods of the course.
Practical information
Location of the retreat: Ask Retreat Centre, a beautiful setting by the sea on the island of Askøy, 2 miles north of the capital of Bergen. Accommodation in a single or double room in the main Log House, the Log Cabin, the Boathouse, the Alcove or the Sea View Apartment. We will do Yoga and meditation in the Yoga room or in the Pyramide.
Take a look at the images from Ask Retreat Centre in our Gallery >>
Please also read the page regarding Practical Information and how to get here.
Cancelling your course booking: Cancellation must be done in writing either per mail or email. When cancelling later than 1 month before the course you will have to pay 25% of the course fee. Later than 14 days 40% and later than 1 week before 60% of the course fee. If you cancel the booking after the start of the retreat you will have to pay full price. Cancellation due to illness: Attach medical certificate or doctors statement which verifies your illness, and you don’t have to pay for the retreat.
Conditions of Participation
Prepared to accept the following:
You are required to attend all classes / activities at the scheduled times – willingly come 5 minuttesbefore the agreed time!
Do not smoke on the school’s premises. If you must smoke, then take a walk alone.
During a retreat, you take a break from your usual influences and impressions. You retire for a period to gain an overview and get some peace to do what you have come for: to work with yourself.
During a retreat, you will not read newspapers, watch TV, use your cell phone for talking or SMS or receive visits. Leave your mobile telephone, computer and anything similar at home or turn it off during your stay. Inform your family and friends that it is not possible to contact you during the retreat. If an emergency arises in your family they can contact you by phoning the retreat centre at phone +47 56 15 15 00.
Do not persuade others…
…to come with you on the course, not even your partner, unless they themselves are completely motivated to participate. Come for your own sake.
Come because you want to discover and work with yourself.
Welcome to the retreat!
Inspiration and more reading
On yoga Poses
Yoga
Not a word about sweat and effort; with yoga it is a question of well-being built on other principles.
Yoga and the finer Energy
Even though the «small wind and tension releasing exercises» is the first programme you meet on our courses, it is not just for beginners, it has also a deeper effect. Pawanmuktasana, as it is also called, is viewed from a knowledge of the vital energy, known as prana in India and Chi in China.
On breathing exercises
Why hold your breath?
The yogic breathing exercises have a thorough and precise effect.
Plenty of oxygen
The doctor was nervous: Is there a lack of oxygen when I do breathing exercises and hold the breath? So he investigated the matter.
Breathe through your nose!
This provides more oxygen to the blood, strengthens the immune system, and is also beneficial for the heart.
An EEG study of the brain during Nadi Shodana
An improved balance in the brain makes you clear, optimistic and extrovert.
About Neti, Cleansing of the Nose
Read more about Neti Nose Cleansing
On Deep Relaxation
Meditative deep relaxation
A short introduction to Yoga Nidra.
Pictures of the brains’s activity during Yoga Nidra
A new chapter in research on meditation, it was called, when the scientists published pictures of yoga teachers doing Yoga Nidra. The research was done with one of modern medicine’s most advanced instruments – the PET scanner at The State University Hospital in Copenhagen.
Tantra and Yoga Nidra
Swami Janakananda writes for the first time about the knowledge and methods in Tantra which lie behind Tantric rituals and which make Yoga Nidra so uniquely effective and deep – about Nyasa, Chakras, consciousness and the resolution in Yoga Nidra.
What on earth do they use it for
People’s very different experiences with Yoga Nidra…
On meditation and relaxation
The Twilight Hour
Did we have a living meditation tradition in the North? Did grandmother meditate? Maybe, without knowing it was meditation – she called it something else.
On Inner Silence Meditation
Harmony between the experiencer and the experienced
An article about the Tantric meditation Antar Mauna (Inner Silence) – and its ancestors and cousins. A pearl of a meditation – the most basic and advanced at the same time. It opens with methods that make you independent in relation to influences – inner as well as outer.
On the ability to experience
«Say the troll’s name, and it disappears», goes the old fairy tale. The teacher’s foremost task is to awaken the student into being able to experience – perhaps the most releasing and curative ability we possess.
On The Source of Energy Meditation
The Source of Energy Meditation
Using meditation over a longer period of time can have an enduring beneficial effect on your brain activity. One who meditates regularly experiences a lasting relaxing effect in daily life.
Psychic Energy
Energy is more than a discovery in our technical age. «Prana», «Ki», «Mana» – the psycic energy has been known through all times. Now it is being discovered by us.
Chakra Retreat 2018-19
Times: Every weekend start on Friday 6.30 pm and end Sunday at 4.30 pm. The retreat is intensive – but you still have time to enjoy the countryside, go for a walk, reading, etc.
Bring with you: Comfortable loose clothes for yoga, bedclothes, water proof and solid footwear.
Course fee
The retreat fee for one weekend is NOK 3.600 – i.e. NOK 14.400 for the whole course. It is only possible to enroll for the whole course, i.e. all 4 weekends.
Deposit: If you wish to pay a deposit of NOK 3,600 (equivalent to the course fee for the first weekend) use the coupon code “chakra-dep” when you check out! The balance/rest will be billed to be paid latest at the first weekend.
Discount 20% for whole times students and yoga teachers. When enrolling you pay NOK 3.600 as everybody, but the rest – after the discount has been applied – NOK 7.920 is paid at the first weekend.
Single room can be booked at an additional cost. As there is a limited number (and they get booked early) please contact us per email for further information.
The course fee includes teaching, board (vegetarian food) & lodging.
Ask Retreat Centre
The Retreat Centre is situated undisturbed by the sea, with a great view towards Bergen. Fine possibilities for recreation and walking in the surrounding countryside.
Contact:
Ask Retreat Centre
Floridavegen 81
N-5307 Ask, Norway
ask@stillhet.no
+47 56 15 15 00