Breath for Life: The Basics & Beyond

 4-Day Pranayama Immersion

Join Devarshi Steven Hartman and Yogi Amrit Desai for this unique and unforgettable combination of teachings, experiential guidance and knowledge.   These two remarkable teachers, join their skill and lifetime commitments to yoga practice to draw you into the deepest experiences of yoga through an immersion into breath as the doorway to the beyond.  Patanjali, in his eight-limbed path, describes Pranayama as the gateway to the deeper states of concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dhyana) and bliss (Samadhi). During this pranayama immersion you will be supported and guided into extended practice creating profound experiences that shift your awareness with ease to states of presence and contentment.  The keys to states of prolonged quiet, inner obstacles being unlocked and released, new energy and vitality, all lay dormant in our sacred breath.

Devarshi was initiated by Yogi Amrit Desai as a student of yoga, almost four decades ago, and through Yogi Desai’s guidance and longtime residential ashram lifestyle, Devarshi has trained thousands of students to become yoga teachers around the country.  Yogi Amrit Desai holds the place in history of being one of the most influential teachers bringing yoga to the west with his unique understanding, style, depth skill, and illumination.  At 86, Yogi Desai’s life experience and yoga dedication is unparalleled.  He is a masterful teacher who embodies and transmits the energy of his potent loving presence and intuitive wisdom – the true product of yoga.

Together these two outstanding teachers will blend their rare experience and education, humor, story-telling, and extraordinary relationship while creating an unparalleled yoga environment for you to transform in.

You will invigorate, rejuvenate, and energize your cells and consciousness in this five-day immersion program where you will learn and practice ancient purifying pranayama techniques. Come ready to raise the roof on your prana and have your body vibrating with powerful healing energy and oxygen.  Also come ready to release emotional stagnation and reduce the effects of stress and tension, culminating in the deepest meditation experiences you have encountered so far. The clarity gained from these simple, time-proven techniques will shift the way you experience yourself and the world, and will have you break up habitual, indoctrinated, unconscious patterns that may be holding you back.

The practice of pranayama is the heart of all yoga practice.  Pranayama is the doorway to meditation, and the anchor to true presence in your body or asana practice. Through conscious breathing techniques, you form new pathways in the brain that place your Highest Self in charge of your attention able to direct your full energy into the experiences you desire.  The goal of experiencing “ATHA” (NOW) fully, without distortion, is what Patanjali says is the aim of all yoga – union with what is.  Pranayama practice is the safest, quickest way to recover the lifeforce that lies dormant or suppressed.

Yogi Desai and Devarshi will guide you through many experiences that will catapult you to the next level of yoga knowledge and experience, creating more peace, love and wisdom within.

In this training you will:

• Learn and practice the six basic pranayama techniques that yogis have been using for centuries.
• Learn how to combine these pranayama tools to move personal energy towards the desired result; increased energy, release, balance or calm.
• Immerse yourself in experiencing Yoga’s ancient map of The Koshas as the pathway to personal transformation and authenticity.
• Learn new tools for training and directing your attention to experience what you desire
• Experience going beyond the “common” mind and ALL your belief systems to a realm of being “beyond belief”

Recommended text: Prana and Pranayama by Swami Niranjanananda – Bijar School of Yoga