Programs
Retreats
Yoga Education
Yoga Retreat
Spanda Yoga Music: Experience Yoga Through Vibration, Music and Sound
April 2 - 9, 2011
with Jack Harrison who recorded our Live at Samahita Retreat CD in 2008
About the Retreat
Have you wondered who is playing that enchanting music on our home page. Well read on.
A Spanda Yoga Music Workshop with Jack Harrison is an innovative combination of Yoga, breathwork, music and mythology.
Spanda, a marvelous concept from Tantric Yoga, can be translated as "Shimmering Delight". It is a Sanskrit term for the subtle, creative pulse of the universe and means vibration, movement or motion. Everything in nature consists of Vibration and we are all manifestations of it.
Music is Spanda.
This may be why it works as it does-why it makes us happy or sad or fearful or lonely or calm or ecstatic; why it makes us want to sing or dance. Musical vibrations communicate directly with our bodies and with our inner selves and act to align our emotions and feelings in certain ways.
We could even say that we are all music in apparently solid form. So it's easy to see why music might appeal to our true nature.
Spanda Yoga Music Workshops
In the workshops we use asana, pranayama, music and chanting to contact the "essential self"-the witness beyond the physical and mental layers, which normally dominate our lives.
Music, chants and mythological stories from the Irish and Indian traditions help us to make this contact-techniques from opposite sides of the great Indo-European linguistic area. These ancient stories, chants and melodies which have survived for hundreds if not thousands of years, blend in the workshops into one meditative technique.
This course is open to all levels of students.
About the Teacher
Jack Harrison is a yoga teacher, singer and folklorist. He has worked and studied in all three of these areas for the last 30 years and has recently begun to blend them together in his Spanda Yoga Music Workshops which include yoga, music and Irish mythology.
He is an experienced Anusara Inspired and Ashtanga Yoga teacher, has a Master's degree in Irish Folklore, is a lecturer in Irish Heritage at University College Galway, and is the designer of exhibitions at the top Heritage Attractions in Ireland.
In January 2007 Jack was invited to Samahita Retreat to record a live album based on merging the yoga music tradition with Irish music and song. The result was the album Wind Across the Sea. Since then, this music has gone from strength to strength with Jack playing at concerts and workshops all over the world. He is now working on a second album of yoga music.
"One of my most spiritual moments came one evening while listening to Jack Harrison,
the gorgeous Irish musician who sang and played his guitar for us.
Our group of 25 students sat crossed-legged on a stone floor and chanted the night
away as we breathed in the beautiful, lush green forest. Tears of joy rolled down my
face as I acknowledged that the peace I had longed for was finally mine."
The British Telegraph Well Being section By Myra Butterworth, Monday Sep 6, 2010:
The Daily Schedule
The program begins at 5pm on the first day of the retreat with a group welcome and departure is at 12pm on the last day.
The schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the teacher.
| 7 am | Morning herbal tea. |
| 7:30 am | Intention and Day Opening with Breathwork and Music |
| 8:15 am | Asana Practice: Detailed guidance in the Asanas, develop and grow a self-practice with influence and input from both the ashtanga practice and the anusara approach. There may even be some music to smoothen out the finishing sequence |
| 10 am - 1 pm | Brunch buffet |
| 4 pm | Special workshops with Jack on music, mythology and yoga practice plus the opportunity to answer your questions on all of these topics. |
| 5 pm | Restorative Asana and Breathwork with the addition of Music |
| 6 pm | Dinner buffet |
| 6 - 9 pm | Steam room available |
| 7:30 pm | Evening program - some of the nights there will be a musical concert. |
Based on request and availability, you are welcome to arrive early or extend your stay, our Residential and Wellness Programs details are on http://www.yoga-thailand.com/yoga-holidays.html
