Article from Bindu no 11
Getting to know the silence...
Meditation and Yoga from the tantric tradition at Haa Course Center in South Sweden
Why is a group of people silent for 21 or 33 days when they learn Kriya Yoga at Haa - and for three days when they participate in the shorter 10-14 days retreats with yoga and meditation?
What kind of silence do you discover when you do not talk, write or read?
“You are the inner silence, the silence on the background of what you experience that which happens in your mind.” (Swami Janakananda)
Do you recognise the situation when, from a detached position, you witness a quarrel between two people? Impartially you experience the confusion without being part of it.
In the same way you can experience thoughts, emotions and attitudes, rather than letting yourself become immersed in them.
To have this experience, however, you need to create a foundation, and that comes about through the interplay between the different things you learn on the courses.
When I meditate I do not try to stop or change the flow of thoughts. I let it be, and little by little I can experience my personality and all that it involves. During meditation I don’t need to defend or fight anything in myself. On the contrary, I discover that I can accept the habitual patterns of my mind.
When I see through the ripples on the surface of my mind, I find a tranquillity, which allows previously unexpressed traits of my nature to unfold.
The teachings at Haa International Course Center
When you come to Haa for 10 or 14 days, or for one or three months, you find a place where the conditions are ideal for exploring yourself through the deep-reaching yoga we teach.
Being here in the country, away from the worries and influences of modern life, and without newspapers, T.V., music players or mobile phones, provides peace in itself. It supports the teaching and helps to sharpen your awareness, see through the habits of your mind and get closer to your own centre.
The courses begin with simple tension releasing exercises and a cleansing process where you flush out the stomach and the intestines, so you become as clean as a new born baby. In order to create a better balance in the brain and strengthen the energy field, we use breathing, concentration and eye exercises. Step by step you become familiar with the yoga exercises and the different meditations.
Apart from yoga we spend about 1½ hours a day on practical tasks, like digging up carrots, looking after the horses, chopping wood, cleaning and cooking. (The food is vegetarian and comes mainly from our organic farm.) It is important that you use the energy that you generate in the yoga room. In this way the process of going deep and the daily activities mutually enrich each other.
The retreats culminate with a period of silence. On the 10 and 14 days courses there are 3 days of silence, where you learn the finer steps of the meditations Antar Mauna (Inner Silence, a seven step Tantric meditation) and Ajapa Japa (a nine-step preliminary practice to Kriya Yoga, in which we use a special breath, discover energy flows and focus on dharana methods).
The Three Months Course is a unique initiation into the tradition. After a thorough preparation of 5 weeks, the unabridged Kriya Yoga is taught - maybe the only place in the world where this advanced version is offered in full - during 33 days of silence. On the 4-week long Kriya Yoga Course, which demands that you have previously taken part in a 10 or 14 days course, there are 21 days of silence. (Visit the the web pages about Haa.)
The free time is also important. You can walk, ski or ride in the surrounding fields and forests. The course center has six horses. Where the brook runs into the lake we have a boat and some canoes. The area has an unusually rich animal and bird life. There are many deer, hares, eagles and hawks and if you are lucky you may see a moose or an otter. In the Spring and Autumn cranes, geese and swans come by, and some stay the summer.
The sauna represents an old Nordic way of cleansing, relaxing and acclimatising yourself. In the Pyramid you float quietly in salt water. The lack of sensory input allows the mind to come to rest and the body to relax - by itself.
Like spokes joined in the hub of a wheel
All that you participate in - yoga, Yoga Nidra, intestinal cleansing, breathing exercises, the meditations, silence, garden work, free time in the Smaland nature, and, in the evenings, lectures or song and dance - is part of a process that paradoxically provides both deep tranquillity and extraordinary energy.
A student once called it a spiritual survival course. You return home with a greater presence, and an ability to do the tasks that are obvious and need to be done. From this, in daily life as well as during your practice of yoga and meditation, grows your discovery of a silence in the midst of this teeming modern life.
Read more about Haa International Course Center >>
