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The light of the asana
On the recent courses, great emphasis has been successfully placed on the āsana practice. On the path of raja-yoga, the practice with the body – usually meaning padmāsana, the sitting posture – forms the third limb of the eight-fold path. The seated position, closed, calm and with good uprightness, displays an ideal posture, sthira-sukham–āsanam, which should enable the greatest possible freedom of the consciousness. For this reason it is described as a happy and joyful posture.
The more a consciousness can become actively and freely animated, without being influenced and forcefully fixed by the body, the more lightly and joyfully the physicality is experienced. It is not only a symbolic light that the exercise can reveal. The most subtle processes of thought and light are at play at the head and at the periphery with their beautiful and beautifying dynamic, so that a natural strengthening of health can take place.
An āsana serves not only to prepare for further practices of concentration and meditation; even in itself it creates that enchanting sphere of more subtle and finely tuned perception and forms a specifically chosen consciousness for life. Meditation and āsana cannot be separated from one another.
The various āsana-exercises form an ideal starting point for developing and advancing the capacities of the soul. If these exercises are entirely missing on the spiritual path of meditation, it is usually much more difficult to establish a synthesis between spiritual content and worldly situations. Although the āsana is not in principle a mandatory requirement for the progress of the spiritual path, nevertheless, like a wholegrain cereal, it forms a superb elixir of life, which enables various force-impulses to be implemented and both makes people more dynamic and stable in life and also heightens and refines the sensitivity in their nervous system.
For this week, the half moon, āñjaneyāsana, is recommended to varying degrees of practice. It is beneficial to expand the position daily, both in the leg dynamic and also in the dynamic strength of the thoracic spine. Basically, the half moon is complemented by all further backward bending exercises.
Let’s therefore overcome the tamas of the body, which does indeed tend towards inertia and becomes so heavy, and let’s create a light that ultimately conquers not only our own body but the entire surroundings with its radiance. The āsana is a best contribution towards peace-work. Let’s see that the āsana can be not just for ourselves, but a creative contribution for the whole world.
Study days 19th– 20th September
The coming study days on 19th and 20th September, for which there are still places, will focus on the breath and also the guiding of the breath, alongside meditation and asanas.
Experiences of holding the breath in pranayama
To a limited extent, some initial steps of prāṇāyāma, the breathing practice of Yoga, have been developed on training courses and study days. Until now these exercises have been quite consistently neglected, without any great protest. Perhaps time constraints have not allowed an exploration of more extensive and different exercises, or perhaps it has also been some of the tortured faces which, being accustomed to the free breath of the soul dimension, are reluctant to bring the breath into a solid guidance and to hold the breath.
For the future it seems to me very important that part of our practice also includes these exercises and – this is addressed to yoga teachers with some emphasis – in particular that the breath retention is developed with and without bandhas. A certain discipline is very beneficial for this breath retention.
On the Yoga Arte website an article is published with several photos showing the sitting position in prāṇāyāma, with and without the so-called bandha: https://yoga-arte.com/correct-posture-for-pranayama-centering-the-spine/
A simple breathing exercise is kapālabhātī. This exercise can be practised with or without bandha. More detailed descriptions of the practice of pranayama with the examples of alternate nostril breathing with and without bandhas are to be found in the book Harmony in Breathing.
Asana training days
The theme of the asana training days on 12th and 13th September was the neuroplasticity.
Overall, the continuing work with asanas should be based on content as much as possible.
According to raja-yoga, an asana, a physical yoga exercise, should be a joyful asana: sukham-āsanam. If the forming of the body happens in the light of the consciousness, and if the expression of content leads to progress as well as to an appropriate dedication to the technique, the body reveals more than a form. The asana demonstrates soul, and light radiance.
Health, aesthetic expression and an appropriate spiritual development come together in the different exercises.
Study days coming up:
In principle, there are always study days at weekends, apart from a few periods when the school is closed.
Next Asana training days
Block 2: Saturday 10th October to Sunday 11th October.
Regeneration days
Wednesday 21th October to Sunday 25th october
Advanced Yoga training
5 th November to 8th November 2026
For bookings and for information regarding the study courses, training days, advanced yoga training, internships and longer stays, please email: info@heinz-grill.de
Spiritual seeing 3rd and 4th October in Naone
The organisers are Gabi und Alfons Weindorf. For information and bookings please contact gabi.weindorf@gmail.com
Activities additional to the advertised study days and seminars
Even at times when no activities are directly planned, it is still possible to stay at the Sun Oasis. Every day there is an asana class for which I give the suggestions even though it is not directly led by me. It is possible to participate in various kinds of creative work according to your interest, for example bread-baking or practical crafts. In various situations, a longer stay is in fact to be recommended, particularly when a form of new orientation in life is necessary.
I can give suggestions for studies with content during these times.
Mahatma Gandhi fought for the independence of India with the gentlest means, with ‘a-hiṃsā’, non-violence. Minor lapses, in which the Indian people were provoked to react against the injustices on the part of the British, violated his concept of non-violent resistance.
Sri Aurobindo was a freedom-fighter in his early life but in later years he dedicated himself entirely to spirituality, and in the second world war he supported the downfall of the German dictatorship with meditation and clear thought-work. While Mahatma Gandhi cultivated the direct implementation of a-hiṃsā, Sri Aurobindo worked in building up an ashram and using the means of dhyāna, meditation.
Photo: The Dolomites, Rosengarten. During the August holiday period a group of climbers set about developing a new route on a face that had not previously been discovered.
In comparison with these magnificent examples from history, how does the peace-work at the Sun Oasis look? The last courses successfully built up thematic content and released new ‘ether-forces’. This kind of activity of meditation, building thoughts and accomplishing practical projects therefore radiates a kind of future perspective not only onto the immediate vicinity but onto the entire, greater surrounding sphere. On the last course, after a week of intensive work, various participants were able to experience a sense of how the heart centre can come to unfold sensitively in the soul. A harmonising activity always radiates out from developed heart forces onto the wide planes of nations.
In spite of this, there is heavy armed conflict in the war torn areas of Ukraine and the Middle East, which show no promise of a favourable resolution. The fronts are hardening and the reactions are becoming ever more extreme and polarising.
In the best sense, mountaineering can be a contribution to culture. The opening of a new route brings many other people into the unknown regions of the rocks. The route “Il Ponte” is intended as bridge between people.
If potential ideas are not implemented by those who have developed knowledge through many years of spiritual study, these people can begin to consume the spiritual content for themselves and become screened off from the important spiritual questions. In general society, it is quite normal to do what is pleasant and serves one’s own contentment and comfort. Why should someone climb a mountain when the sun is shining in the valley and a well-disposed barman is serving a cool drink?
During the first ascent of “Il Ponte”
Peace work needs the utmost resolve, effort and the purposeful realisation of ideals, both personal and beyond the personal. When Thomas Aquinas portrayed human beings as active creatures, who must overcome idleness in order to live up to their potential, then in a more expanded sense, peace work can also be understood as something highly ambitious. It does not make accusations against the negative but focuses on an ideal in the best sense, with an all-encompassing activity that is spiritual, mental and material.
The development of the heart centre should be a task for all people who have a connection to the Sun Oasis or even work in it. The better this work happens in mutual awareness of each other, the more a balancing sun-power develops in world creation, which shines not just to one nation or place but, through the spiritual creativity and activity, radiates out far and wide into the whole of humanity.
Mountaineering is originally an egocentric activity. However, the more routes are developed for the general public, taking other people into account, the more this activity can promote connections and harmonious feelings between people.
The future should see a further development of this ideal of realising and strengthening high human qualities. These have a radiance that opens up future life perspectives,
The up and coming seminars will not focus on revolution or the condemnation of evil, but on strengthening the highest values through working to realise suitable ideals and going beyond material limits to new waves of life full of spiritual wisdom.
These future perspectives are on the one hand individual and yet on the other hand carried by a clear, spiritual lawfulness.
Every time a thought is given an outer form, right to the point of a meaningful, aesthetic picture, world creation is given new impulses and etheric forces. An exercise is beautiful when the consciousness adequately forms and guides it. Peace is certainly not only the result of words but rather it is promoted through harmonious acts that have involved a lot of sacrifice.
Stretching and raising the spine from a precisely chosen point in the standing half moon
The extent of a stretch in an exercise can vary. Simpler and more difficult forms can occur in yoga. Here the sequence towards the standing half moon utthita ardha-candrāsana is shown. It is also known as anuvittāsana, ardha-cakrāsana or hasta-uttānāsana. In this exercise it is important to avoid buckling in the lower back. In the first pictures you can see how the lumbar region remains upright, rising steeply above the hips. In the advanced exercises – chiefly the last four – the highly active tension in the thoracic spine can be recognised.
Lifting the chest up and beyond the abdomen and lumbar region is crucial and at the beginning it deserves precise attention.
The whole cycle requires concentration and a consciousness maintaining of balance. It should not be carried out rashly by beginners. Above all, it is important to observe one’s limits early enough and to establish the lengthways stretch. The steep lifting of the chest is the most important, active part of the exercise.
Peace is certainly shown in the beauty of the exercise, and indirectly through the middle chakras (energy centres), whose development requires many years of practice.
Normally, patients and students enter into an activity because they want to achieve something for their health or for their own progress in terms of their consciousness. The days from the 9th to the 16th August, in which I will oversee two courses side by side, the regeneration week and the study visit, both have in them the same aim: All those present should step beyond the bounds of their personal needs to a certain extent, overcome the body with all its moods and shortcomings, as they say in yoga language, so that they can work at a greater objective and meaning for life. There is nothing more wholesome for health than the development of great aims, which are shaped into ideals and from which ultimately the whole of life receives a sustaining content and is permeated with soul-feelings..
A few clear thoughts can help to prepare for these days in advance. The life’s work to be created should be bigger than the currently existing inclinations and motivations. A work that a person accomplishes in life remains, while after death it is unimportant whether someone has done their life’s work with great enthusiasm or has performed it amidst many hardships and with a great deal of self-conquest. In any case, it is important that achievements enter into world creation in a meaningful way, are carried into social life and stand in relational connection with a greater overall development. These actions and tasks are the best contribution to peace that people at the present time can make.
Two great pioneers of humanity: Plato and Aristotle. They brought the culture of philosophy as a foundation stone into world creation. Giving practical expression to spiritual and philosophical thoughts that have at some time entered into humanity will promote peace..
Photo of Pulsatilla (Pasque Flower): A flower remains peaceful for it has no drive that can be executed. It grows in accordance with the conditions. Human beings, however, through their own existence and their drive, are obliged to realise morality and their character. They cannot return to the selfless stage of a plant.
In summary, it can therefore be stated quite simply:
Many people call for peace. What is significant, however, is the contribution that someone makes towards development and unity in world creation.
REGENERATION DAYS AND STUDY DAYS
The regeneration week takes place from 9th to 16th August. It is important that real future prospects for life with thoughts that are as spiritual as possible are embraced in these days. The greatest healing potential consists in the development of meaningful objectives and the implementation of ideas and ideals. One should not have the expectation of quickly becoming healthy through nutrition, good air and a few exercises but rather one should adjust to embracing real, well-founded questions of meaning, and even life-tasks, in a new and solid way.
General study guests can also come at the same time and work actively during this week on various exercises and particularly on tasks they have chosen and set themselves independently.
Recently, it has been very beneficial and healing to come to an understanding of the constant attacks directed towards all the work in the Sun Oasis and the people responsible for it. Becoming aware of how astral fields of action arise through insults, infiltration, cyberbullying and malicious talk has restored much creative energy that had been paralysed, and people have been better able to find their way into their tasks with joy. These processes of awareness of the astral fields of action, which arise precisely through negatively directed voices, can even be transformed into a positive force.
People actually become more beautiful through the processes of becoming more conscious in the course of their studies, while those who make their task and life-purpose that of polemics, slurs and degradation become visibly more physical and actually uglier. The forecast for the year, that ugliness would fight with beauty, has proven true. Tragically, however, it seems that the war situation, to the extent in which it smoulders on, was not foreseen by me. The work of discerning which forces lie behind these phenomena will continue to accompany the spiritual work. In principle, the seminars and the entire, wider build-up of meditation, which actually always runs in an exemplary way, ought to lead to a better and more peaceful balance. Why this result has not yet been reached still remains to be explained
Photo: Parsva Trikonasana performed by Celina Schramm.
The beauty of an asana speaks for itself. After a three-year training, very beautiful and captivating movements develop. The asanas bring an accomplishment into the world and have the effect of promoting peace.