Tell me about ashtanga yoga



"I came to the Burren Yoga and Meditation not really knowing what to expect, and what I found far exceeded any expectations that I could have had. The beauty and serenity of the area was breathtaking, and the centre itself was instantly a home from home. As soon as I walked through the front door I felt a sense of peace and calm. Dave has obviously devoted so much of himself into the design and construction of the centre; he explained he wanted to create a place where guests could just ‘be’. I slept beautifully every night of the week, catching up on well-needed rest, and each day recharged my batteries with Paddy’s fantastic vegetarian cooking. The yoga classes (it was an Ashtanga course) were really rewarding, and I enjoyed noticeable improvement by the end of the week. Our group was varied in experience and ability, and each of us were instructed, and developed, at our own pace. I also started practising meditation during the week, and my continued practice is making an enormous difference to my peace of mind : ) . Dave has a great library of books to encourage the mind in the philosophy of yoga and meditation. I enjoyed peaceful hours stretched out on the sofa, book in hand. I had no idea of all the activities that were possible during the week - each day in my diary started with comments like, ‘a spectacular day…’, ‘another cracking day…’. We walked in the forest, went sailing in Galway Bay, went hill climbing in the Burren (and what an incredible area it is!), went to a blues concert in Galway City, walked on the beach, went dolphin watching, ate oysters and seafood chowder, visited the Cliffs of More… the list goes on!. All of these (and more) activities are entirely optional, so you can really create the kind of experience that you want. You could just chill out in the centre, reading books from Dave’s library or simply watching the world; or you could fill your days with all sorts of activities – bike rides, climbing, photography, swimming etc. I cannot explain how much I enjoyed the week at The Burren centre. I have about 4 rolls of film from the week, I made new friends, and I will most definitely be coming back! "

Jules from London



A familiar sight of paddi preparing a vegetarian feast for dinner this evening.







Individually skewered vegetables and cheese. Yum.

Hmmmm. I wonder what type of sauce Paddi will have with these? And what the rest of the dish will be ?

Desert ?

I guess all those years prepraing the food in the restuarant are being put into good use this week as usual. ;-)



While Paddi is working away back in the centre, Dave takes our small group of 10 people for a walk through the woods which are about 4 miles from the centre.

These woods stretch for miles and miles and are interspersed by a wandering lake.



Somewhere connected to this wood is Coole Park which was frequenced by W.B. Yeats.



But there are no sign posts on the walk and many turns and paths dividing.



Now where did the 5 girls go to. Which path did they take.



Oh I guess they will be ok. Maybe we'll catch up with them and maybe they have taken the same path as us.



The green light in here is weird, and some of the trees are spectacular.



To cut a long story short, we lost the girls.... or did they lose us?

We were all reunited later and heard that the girls took a few different turnings to us, and had ended up meeting a friendly farmer who took them in his car to Coole park.

As usual, the friendly locals have lended a helping hand.



Some of these old sites are not clearly marked on the maps. And sometimes its difficult to determine how old they are, and also what their original purpose was.



There is a small spring well in front of this cross.



And back walking up one of the roads through the Burren. Not much traffic out here ;-)



Hey, Father Ted's house.

This Burren is becoming pretty surreal!



The next day it was Richard's astanga vinyasa class as usual.



They say that with dedicated practice a realized yogi acquires powers to be in more places than one at the same time.



Hey Richard seems to be everywhere.



Everyone was helped and encouraged ina gentle supportive way.



Sometimes we had a chance to just mainatin the ujjay breathing while Richard took each of us a little further into one or two of the postures.

The class was at quite different levels. One or two were new to astanga while a couple of participants were Yoga teachers themselves.





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Once Richard saw that each person was working ok themselves, no help was given.

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For a report on Richard's 2002 course Astanga Richard Spahn Report

For a report which mentions some of the other activities on other courses Outdoors in the Burren, swimming, walking, horse riding, sailing