3 Days Meditation Naam-Avatar Mindfulness and Yoga Retreat in Northern Ireland

Facilities

Naam-Avatar mindfulness is suitable for anyone new to meditation or for people with more experience. The arrival time that suits you is between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Yoga

According to ancient texts from India, yoga has been practiced since time immemorial. In the early 20th century, a Vedantic scholar and Ayurvedic healer called Krishnamacharya is credited as being a leading figure in the founding of 'modern yoga', which is the general Hatha-style yoga which can found in community halls and gyms all over the planet. On retreats, Lake Isle Retreats has fantastic local yoga teachers, Lucy Lynch, Chrissie Link, Gertie Lynch, Noeleen McMorrow, plus expert visiting teachers such as Padma, Olive MacDonagh, Renata Valguarnera, and Nanda Kumar.

Yoga history and meaning

Yoga is an ancient system of connecting with reality as described in the Vedas. The Veda is a vast body of knowledge which is said to be like a 'manual' to accompany the Universe. The Vedas were written down around 3000 B.C. in the Sanskrit language by sage Vyasadeva, who is described as being an empowered avatar of Vishnu. In general, yoga is a process of focusing the mind and senses for a higher goal.

A yogi is someone who practices yoga. The word itself is often used for a wide spectrum of motivations, for example, a Bhakti yogi (a process aimed towards pure spiritual love, Krishna-Prema) or one could meet someone who might be described as a 'yogi' who knows how to do some visually impressive tricks such that people pay him to see his magic or someone else could be described as a yogi as she has a beautiful body ​and can hold a physical posture which looks spectacularly perfect.

In essence, a yogi is trying to connect with higher consciousness and find love. Vaishnava authorities, sincere gurus, and scholars would teach that a trickster who has learned some system how to manipulate matter in a way that people may see as being fascinating and uses that to make an income, has taken a side-path. In the Srimad Bhagavatam (a Vedic text), it is described that Dhruva Maharaja was the young son of a King.

He practiced severe penance and yoga for six months, fasting and standing on one leg for weeks on end. In the end, he discovered that his motivation had been all imbalanced. He had been doing the Hatha yoga system as he wanted to get a personal - one could say 'selfish' - result. But in the end, by the grace of Vishnu, he found peace, love, and harmony. One might wonder what does the historical narration of Prince Dhruva have to do with ourselves in the modern world?

Essentially, you are all trying to find peace, love, and harmony. Dhruva had some stresses millennia ago. You have your own struggles and stresses now. So, when you approach yoga, ideally you should look into the inner meaning by approaching teachers, listening to lectures, and reading translated ancient texts. A primary book on philosophy is the Bhagavad Gita as it is, which discusses Karma yoga, Hatha yoga, Dhyana yoga (meditation), and Bhakti yoga.

Meditation

'To meditate' is defined as the practice of focusing one's mind for a period of time for spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation (Oxford English dictionary). Lake Isle Retreats meditation class is designed to satisfy these two motivations. ​As long ago as 1500 years before the present, early monks in Ireland established monasteries and silent retreats on several islands of Lough Erne. The feeling of meditation and calmness permeates the Lakeland atmosphere, and they especially recommend you arise early and to experience this for yourself, even if the retreat you attend only begins at 8:30 a.m.

What is a class like?

The facilitator sings some slow deep mantra chants using the beautiful harmonium instrument. Everyone relaxes and centers themselves. You pause in silence. Seated on chairs, everyone takes part in a silent meditation, attempting to expand his or her own consciousness through deep hearing. You focus on being mindful in the moment and listening to the sounds of the world, without your attention wandering - without day-dreaming.

Simply hearing. Simultaneous to this, you silently repeat two simple mantras, representing the divine masculine and the divine feminine. The mantras help the mind to have a specific focus. After your meditation, you discuss your experiences. The facilitator touches on some philosophy behind the practise of meditation. Then you begin the relaxation sequence. Participants choose whether they want to remain seated on chairs or switch to lying on a yoga mat or specifically-tailored flat cushions.

Other options include sitting cross-legged or holding oneself in a yoga pose. Calming relaxation music is played out over the room, with flutes, oriental violins, and sounds of birds singing, and water falling. The participants are taken through a visualization sequence - a guided meditation where we travel to a distant beautiful land with the mind's eye. At the end, as you are all mentally returning to the room, the facilitator sings auspicious mantras along with the harmonium.

Finally, participants open their eyes feeling very refreshed and enlivened. ​Other kinds of meditation experiences at Lake Isle Retreats include:

(1) Japa meditation - the soft chanting and murmuring of the maha-mantra using traditional wooden prayer beads

(2) Mindfulness walks outdoors in nature

(3) Kirtan yoga, which is the singing of mantras accompanied by instruments such as harmonium, karatalas, and drums

(4) Reading and discussing meditation philosophy as based on the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita (Dhyana-yoga)

(5) Mindfulness on specific retreats

Daily schedule

Friday

• 18:30 Dinner
• 19:15 Meditation and introduction with Tim - intro to Naam-Avatar mindfulness (Naam is pronounced as rhyming with 'calm')

Saturday

• 06:35 Depart to visit an island temple to hear morning chant music and hearing from some ancient bhakti-yoga texts written in Sanskrit 5000 years ago
• 08:15 Silent mindfulness walk around the forest tracks on the island
• 08:40 Return to retreat house by boat
• 09:15 Breakfast
• 09:30 Break time
• 11:00 Introduction to Japa mantra walking - retreat guests may either walk in silence or walk slowly and peacefully chanting mantra using traditional wooden counting beads
• 11:45 Relaxation period hearing sacred chant music and a reading of inspirational stories from the Vedas
• 13:00 Lunch
• 14:00 Departure for the beautiful Florencecourt estate for a one-hour-30-minute forest walk, including a period along a river where you do a silent mindfulness walk
• 16:45 Return from the walk
• 17:15 Meditation - silent meditation on a mantra
• 18:30 Dinner and massages available all evening

Sunday

• 08:30 Yoga and meditation with Tim - a simple power yoga exercise class
• 09:45 Breakfast
• 10:50 Meditation and visualization
• 12:10 Option one (relax in the retreat house at your own pace) or option two (visit to Krishna Temple and depart to the retreat house to walk to the jetty for the ferry crossing to Inish Rath Island)
• 12:20 Ferry to island for temple music chant (30 minutes) and relaxing around Inis Rath Island
• 13:00 Talk on Vedic wisdom and philosophy open to the general public and go for a walk around the island during all or part of this period
• 14:00 The Sunday feast in the temple - a unique cultural experience
• 15:00 Ferry departure back to the mainland and end of the retreat

Lake Isle Retreats' retreat center, Mandala House, is 12 kilometers (eight miles) from Belturbet in County Cavan and seven miles from Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh. Lake Isle Retreats is easy to reach from the cities. You stay on the same road N3 (or M3) all the way up from Dublin to within five kilometers of the retreat center (the turn-off is Teemore).

Distances

• Belturbet, 12 kilometers
• Lisnaskea, 11.27 kilometers

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All food is vegetarian and extremely tasty, cooked with love by vegan chef Carmen Padilla Quiel. Meals are prepared fresh on the day. Everything is vegetarian - no meat, fish, or eggs. Most preparations are vegan (dairy-free). The food is a combination of Indian vegetarian (samosas, curries, basmati rice) and Western vegetarian (pizza, salads, pasta, soups). Lake Isle Retreats caters to any special diets for allergies and intolerances.

In case you are a yogi, Vaishnava, or someone familiar with a 'sattvic' diet, they do not use the following ingredients: onions, garlic, mushrooms, vinegar, and alcohol. In Ayurveda, these ingredients may be prescribed for medicinal or other uses, but are not generally consumed by Hatha or Bhakti yogis.

If that sounds 'restrictive', you might find you have a lot to learn about non-European cookery. They have a polytunnel and a vegetable garden for growing their food. During the growing season, they use their own organic potatoes, carrots, courgettes, peppers, corns, tomatoes, beetroots, cucumbers, French beans, and some herbs in preparing the dishes.

Ayurveda, the ancient Vedic health system recommends massage and therapies as being beneficial to one's health. All therapies are available at the competitive rate of 35 EUR or 30 GBP for 50-minute sessions. Therapists are fully-qualified individuals who not only are good at massaging and healing people. You are free to ask the therapist for a variety of therapies in the same session.

Aroma touch

This is a light massage of the back and feet. Aroma touch is where essential oils are applied along energy meridians and visceral contact points of the back and feet to help balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of the body. Aroma touch helps general well-being by reducing physical and emotional stressors and supporting healthy automatic function. Aroma touch is a light massage using specific essential oils. A session is deeply relaxing.

Reflexology

A gentle therapeutic pressure point massage, working on the reflex zones of the feet, which correspond to different parts of the body. Stimulating these reflex points can help with many health problems and boost the body’s healing ability. Restores natural balance and promotes a sense of wellbeing. Wonderfully relaxing.

Sound healing

Sound healing is the use of tuning forks on the body to restore harmony and balance. It helps to restore harmony and balance and reduce stress. Each energy center within the body has its own note, so when one receives sound healing. It is an aid to restore the body's natural vibration.

• 2 nights accommodation
• All classes and workshops
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and complimentary herbal teas every day

• Additional massage therapies (30 GBP or 35 EUR for 50 minutes)
• Option to stay at Sunday night (40 EUR or 35 GBP)

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 50% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid on arrival.