Silent Retreat: Healing the Body, Freeing the Heart

with Swami Ramananda, Swami Divyananda & Astrud Castillo

Thursday, May 30, 5:00 PM –  Sunday, June 2, 12:30 PM

This year our focus is on healing the body from all the tensions and toxins that may have built up, and freeing the heart from the psychic knots that may be left from painful experiences in our past. Swami Ramananda, Swami Divyananda and Astrud will guide the retreat, sharing their experience and leading us into the silence that opens the door to the deeper Self. We are blessed once again to use the Commonweal Retreat Center in Bolinas. The natural beauty of the ocean side location which is located on sacred Native American grounds, the timeless wisdom and practices of Integral Yoga, and the power of silence will all serve to create a harmonious environment to undertake the inward journey.

The silence, which is observed by all the retreat participants, shields one from external involvement, allowing the mind to go inward and be still. In this stillness, the wisdom of the heart emerges and our natural sense of contentment and joy comes into flower. The days will consist of Yoga classes, workshops, meditations, free time for walks and rest or reading, inspirational evening programs, and delicious vegetarian meals.

$475 Shared room | $575 Single room | $375 Active IYI Teachers

*The shared rooms are almost sold out. To request a shared room, please email mail@integralyogasf.org

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 40 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U. S., Europe and South America. Ramananda trains Yoga teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

Swami Divyananda is one of Integral Yoga’s senior monastics and foremost teachers. Over the years she has served as the director of the Integral Yoga Institutes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Coimbatore, India and as the Ashram Manager of Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville in Virginia. In addition to teaching at these centers, she has taught Yoga and meditation on special retreats, in corporations and universities, at the Commonwealth Cancer Center and for the Dr. Dean Ornish Heart Disease Programs. For many years she was one of the primary Basic Hatha Yoga teacher trainers at Integral Yoga’s International Headquarters in Yogaville, VA. Swami Divyananda served for eleven years at the Integral Yoga Institute in Coimbatore, South India and led tours throughout South India during that time.

Astrud Castillo is inspired by the practice of Nada Yoga, the deep inner listening and exploration of the unstruck sound. From this exploration, the inner and outer vibration and expression of Kirtan arises. Astrud brings with her a host of talented musicians from the Bay Area with whom she is honored to play. The band is a caravan of Bhakti Yogis who love to sing in the key of “We”. They create a safe and playful space in which hearts can begin to unfold like the lotus emerging from the mud. Kirtan is a way to express gratitude and joy, pain and sorrow and celebrate the gods and goddesses in all their forms. It is through the devotional practice of call and response, and repeating their names, that our hearts awaken and our barriers dissolve. Through this, kirtan enables us to experience wholeness and union, Yoga.