Maitrivira has been participating in Dhanakosa retreats for 20 years. He brings a wealth of experience with him.

Manjunaga has been exploring the insights and practices of meditation, yoga and Buddhism for over 30 years and draws from his in-depth training in Buddhist meditation practices and yoga to create an embodied practice that addresses the body, heart and mind.

Manjunaga has taught at the Manchester Buddhist Centre for many years as well as on regular yoga & meditation retreats. He was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005 where he was given the name Manjunaga which means ‘kind wisdom’. He has taught as a fully accredited yoga teacher in Manchester since completing his yoga training with Simon Low and the Yoga Academy in 2008.

Manjunaga has studied and explored a wide variety of physical, energetic and spiritual practices including Hatha yoga, Yoga Nidra, Psychosynthesis therapy, Focusing and Chinese Medicine, effectively bringing together some of the essential elements from these sources of wisdom and healing into his teaching today.

His style of yoga teaching combines dynamic, flowing movement with stilling, calming restorative postures to experience yoga as a deepening awareness of the breath, cultivating peace of mind. Manjunaga feels that yoga is an awareness practice which offers people an opportunity to become more fully embodied in their experience; it allows for a greater sensitivity to emotional and physical well-being as well as allowing a natural state of open, relaxed awareness to emerge. This practice over time can support a happier, more balanced and meaningful life.

www.manjunaga.com

Clare Stephen - I first encountered yoga while backpacking around Sri Lanka and India aged 19 and instantly fell in love with this most profound and beautiful practice. Yoga has been a constant refuge throughout my life since.

I trained to become a yoga teacher within the Iyengar tradition and qualified at introductory level in 1989. In 1991, after visiting  the Iyengar Yoga Ashram in Pune India, I went on to do further training with senior Iyengar teachers and gained my junior intermediate level 3 certificate in 2005. This allowed me to specialise in teaching antenatal yoga which, being a practising midwife , was an area of particular interest.

In 1986 on a year’s trip to Asia, I visited McLeod Ganj, a Tibetan refugee village in the foothills of the Himalayas and the residence of the Dalai Lama in exile. Whilst on retreat there, we were lucky to have an audience  with His Holiness on two occasions. This experience and indeed the whole journey round Asia, affected me profoundly and deepened my faith in the Three Jewels: the Buddha , Dharma and Sangha. I subsequently took refuge as a Buddhist.

I started coming to Dhanakosa in 2000 and have been teaching on yoga retreats here since 2008. I find the practice of yoga and meditation mutually supportive. Both nurture ease and deep embodiment and create the conditions for insight, wisdom and compassion to arise.

An ideal first regulars retreat. These retreats take themes from our introductory programme and introduce a stronger Buddhist context through meditation, teachings, up to 3 days of silence, ritual and chanting.

Open to anyone who has done an introductory retreat or has been attending a local Buddhist centre, is familiar with Buddhist practice and is looking to take it a bit deeper.