Deconstructing Yoga: Liberating Consciousness

Retreat hosted by Baba Rampuri at his dhuni in Goa, India

December 18-24, 2015

Baba Rampuri

Our December retreat, “Deconstructing Yoga: Liberating Consciousness,” will take place at my dhuni in Goa from December 18-24, 2015. After the retreat, I will take a small group on a pilgrimage to Mookambika Shakti Pith in Karnataka.

I put the focus on the syllables, “liberating consciousness,” because this is the only reason to deconstruct yoga. We will examine our own narratives about yoga, spirituality, mysticism, & self-knowledge, and we will use that, as well as our own innate structures and conditioning, to understand ourselves and the world around us with much greater clarity. I will encourage you to bring any texts you wish examined, deconstructed as it were. We will also look at sadhanas and practices.

Twice daily, we will perform arati and puja in our small Temple next to the dhuni, with explanation and instruction for participants to do this later in their own homes. On Dattatreya Jayanti, Dec 24, we will have a Homa performed by Brahmin purohits, invoking Guru Dattatreya. I will teach the “protocols of knowledge” as a basis for tradition and sadhana.

I prefer the term “liberating” to “higher” when referring to consciousness, because 1) consciousness doesn’t change, it’s not really higher or lower, it is our awareness that changes, and so 2) the retreat speaks for “process” which in this case is liberating, a process of removing distorting lenses revealing a less obscured identity with consciousness itself.

Some of the topics to be covered in our workshops:

We will deconstruct our modern text (idea of, discourse) on yoga, exploring consciousness freed from our limiting cognitive conditioning.
Post Enlightenment Assumptions
Tradition vs. Modernity
“Yoga Sutra” as revelation of Speech (the determinant of cognition)
Tantra as “The Text” – “The Book of the World”
The application of awareness
The “biological” organism and the “social” organism

The look and feel…

To have an idea of what the retreats look and feel like, you may reference the videos and slideshows from our February 2015 Mahashivaratri Retreat, HERE, our Diwali 2014 Retreat, HERE, and a recent (2015) HOMA.

Testimonials of Past Participants

Read the COMMENTS.

Our fees:

7 day retreat (no hotel accommodation/meals) $1251

7 day retreat with hotel/meals/transportation $2501 (sharing room)

7 day retreat with hotel/meals/transportation $2751 (single occupancy)

Pilgrimage to Mookambika Maa Shakti Pith

As an “add-on” – I will take a small group on a pilgrimage to Mookambika Devi Temple in Karnataka, where I have a long relationship with the high priests, and where we will perform all the appropriate rites to the Mother Goddess. The pilgrimage requires an approximately 7 hour drive down the fabulous Karnataka coastline. This is tentatively scheduled for Dec 25-27, 2015. The fees of $501 will include everything during the pilgrimage.