Article from Bindu no 7
Håå Course Center
- for the art of living
- holiday and initiation in Tantric meditation
The setting for the holiday courses in yoga and meditation at Håå Course Center is a little village with red painted wooden houses, situated in the beautiful countryside of southern Sweden. There are activities tending the horses, the ecological farming, maybe some people feel like canoeing, swimming or skating on the lake, others go for walks in the woods, go skiing or horseback riding, the children are looked after and play together. But parallel to this idyllic holiday scene something else is going on, something people come here to experience from many parts of the world.
Today it is commonly known and scientifically documented that yoga works. But the yoga tradition can take us further than health and relaxation. Whatever this implies, however, is up to the individual to experience. I don't say this to be secretive, as this science is about human beings and is open to all.
The Tantric tradition might be the only esoteric or mystical science that is still unbroken today.
Thousands of years of experience has not been diluted into empty words or ideals far from everyday life. The tradition is passed on directly from teacher to pupil and in that way it is secret. When you learn the more deepreaching meditations it will always be during a period of silence, which enhances your receptivity and awareness. Nothing is incidental during the process of such a course, everything contributes to ensure that the initiation takes place.
A dream about initiation
"The year before I learned yoga and meditation, I took my General Certificate of Education and got a job as a postman for six months to make enough money to go travelling.
One day during the journey I take a nap and dream, as I have done many times before, that I am in a big house with my family, friends, animals and many dream symbols.
But this time I'm looking out of the window and I see that a fire is burning outside. I go out to the fire (in the same instant I am conscious and wide awake in the dream), and I'm thinking about children, how in some societies they learn in their dreams to confront monsters, animals or the like and not be afraid of dying - and then I choose to go into the fire!
Everything turns into white light and I'm flying or falling while a blissful feeling flows through me.
I awaken and sit up, the dream or whatever it was is gone, but I am left with an intense experience of being present.
A few months later I am in Håå attending the 3-Months Course. My inspiration, creativity and joy of living grow as the course proceeds, and I begin to realise why it says 'for the art of living' on the course brochure. And when Swami Janakananda, who leads the course, tells us that fire is an old symbol for a process of liberation, I remember my dream and understand that I was being prepared for what was later to happen in Håå" (Omkarananda)
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