Forest Dweller Retreat: Navigating the Vānaprastha Stage of Life

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Forest Dweller Retreat: Navigating the Vānaprastha Stage of Life

December 1, 2022 - December 5, 2022

USD650 – USD1900

NOTE: This event was originally scheduled for October, 2021 but has been postponed due to the uncertainty related to Covid19 around travel in these times. If you had registered for the original dates, kindly contact vaidyagrama to make new arrangements.

Vānaprastha is the third of the four stages (āśrama) of life, ideally occurring at roughly 50 years of age but often commencing later. It is the age and stage where one ideally begins to withdraw increasingly more attention from the worldly arena and its consuming affairs, and begins to prioritize inner realities over external ones. In the modern world much attention is given to the second āśrama– gṛhastha or, “householder,” wherein we tend to focus on gathering houses, spouses, professional attainments and material goods. Though this emphasis on outer things can make it challenging to navigate vānaprastha āśrama consciously and gracefully, this third stage can be a rich and deeply meaningful and fulfilling time of life. In this retreat, we plan to explore the complexities, challenges, unrealized potential and richness of this stage, our intention being to support and inspire younger people to consider and possibly modify their life trajectories, and to assist those who are later in life to enjoy this valuable phase of their lives. We also intend to, through yoga and other remedial measures, support the health of the sense organs, which tend to do well with a bit of support in any, but especially this, stage of life.

Included in the cost of this retreat are two abhyaṅga sessions (warm oil massage treatments) for each participant over the course of five days, to support soothing and calming the nervous system after travel, because it is such a remedial practice for any, but again especially this stage of life, and to help us all acclimate to our new environment.

Facilitators:

Dr. Robert Svoboda & Dr. Claudia Welch plan to have a morning discourse and, together, with Dr. Ramkumar and Rose Baudin, facilitate group sessions in the afternoons.

The experienced doctors and staff of vaidyagrāma plan to support participants daily with remedies and practices for sense organ support.

Yoga: Rose Baudin has studied and practiced yoga for 43 years and has taught for 25 years. She met her mentor, Swami Gauribala Giri, in Sri Lanka in 1971 and was initiated into the Parampara 1984. During the 16 years she lived in India, she was instructed by master teachers in various schools of yoga: Hatha (Clive Sheridan), Iyengar (Clé Souren, Shandor Remete) Viniyoga (Gary Kraftsow) and Ashtanga (Dena Kingsburg). She has had extensive meditation experience under the guidance of S.N. Goenka (Vipassana), Zen Master Hogen-san Yamahata (Soto Sect) and Sayadaw U Janaka (Satipatthana Insight Meditation). She was introduced to Ayurveda by Dr. Robert Svoboda as well as the ritual of Agni Hotra in the way of his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. Since 1986, Rose has been based in Australia teaching yoga classes and leading meditation retreats. She is a senior teacher of yoga philosophy, pranayama and meditation for Yoga Arts – an Internationally accredited school for yoga teacher trainings. Rose has been conducting yoga intensives, residential retreats and seminars internationally for the past 23 years.

We plan to enjoy yoga and sensory support in daily morning sessions with Rose.

Note: participants should plan to arrive at vaidyagrāma no later than 30 November, 2022 and depart no earlier than 06 December, 2022. We recommend arriving earlier if possible, to recover from travel fatigue before the start of the program. It may also be desirable to plan to receive pañcakarma for some time before or following the retreat. To do so, you would contact the same people organizing the retreat.

Contact:  Please contact Ms. Geetha Mohandas at Geetha@AyurvedaConference.com or go to the event website for registration and additional information.

This is a first come, first serve retreat and we expect it to fill. There are a minimal number of single and triple room accommodations. Otherwise participants will be in double-occupancy rooms.

Organized by Punarnva Ayurveda

Venue

Vaidyagrama, an Ayurveda Healing Village
15(1) Rottikaranur Road, Thirumalayampalayam Post,
Madukkarai via Coimbatore, Tamilnadu 641105 India
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Organizer

Vaidyagrama, an Ayurveda Healing Village
Email
geetha@ayurvedaconference.com
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