Windfire Yoga Apprenticeships
Karmayoga is a potent exercise in living by and for giving. It is traditionally regarded as the fast track to freedom. Those who are able to do so will find that there is no more rewarding possibility than to give your time and energy to the welfare of others, despite the derogatory status work has been given in our society. This will be the fulcrum of your apprenticeship, allowing you to learn to be active in the present moment, without being motivated by the need for personal gain or recognition. This can then become the foundation of a momentum to look and live beyond the passing triviality of your personal desires and feelings so that you can see and live more deeply within the infinite whole of which you are but a momentary expression.
Windfireyoga apprenticeships are for serious students ready to experience the power of living without identification with belief, expectation, assumption, prejudice, preference or any other mental projection. This requires a high level of trust in life, self and teacher as vessels of reflection. Please think carefully before commiting yourself to such a process. Amongst other things this means a willingness to commit to activity rather than rest, work rather than leisure, giving rather than taking or receiving. You will surely be called upon, over and again, to test and challenge the roots of your selfindulgence, and the limitations of your assumptions. Our apprenticeships inevitably involve profound, and often uncomfortable, penetration of your psychological conditioning. You must be prepared to commit yourself to an ongoing process of self enquiry, grounded in and facilitated by your practice, and to a willingness to trust the teachers in their functioning. Being on the Windfire site will be taken as an indication of that trust Being on the Windfire site will be taken as an indication of that trust, which must be expressed by attending all classes and meditations that do not conflict with your karmayoga, as well as regular practice feedback sessions with Olivia to refine and develop your praxis.
During your apprenticeship you will be able participate in most of the scheduled retreats as a student. You will live and work as a member of our community, and do no more than 6 days karma yoga for each week of your apprenticeship, with at least one free day each week. Your commitment is not to a specified number of hours, but to providing whatever legitimate service is required of your role as a karma yogin in our community. You will be expected, and required, to undertake any karma yoga that the wellbeing of Windfire requires, provided it does not interfere with your ethical principles or religious beliefs, which must be clarified before or during the first apprentice meeting, though preferably beforehand. Karmayoga varies and can include such things as housekeeping, cooking, clearing and sorting wood, landscape gardening and maintenance, oiling wood, painting walls, polishing floors, childcare: anything that allows you to contribute to the wellbeing of your companions. There are weekly group sessions for apprentices only. Individual sessions are available on request.
The agreed payment for your apprenticeship is a commitment/membership fee. It is not part of an exchange, though it entitles you to attend most Foundation, Intermediate, Pranayama and Meditation Course classes without payment. Your apprenticeship is only guaranteed on receipt of this fee. Apprenticeships normally begin and end one week before and/or after the teaching season, although shorter periods are sometimes possible. Except in exceptional circumstance, our apprentice programme is only available for those having completed a Windfire Foundation Course, or at least three consecutive weeks on retreat with us. This makes it possible for both you and ourselves to be sure that it would be in everyone’s best interest for you to be a windfire apprentice.
contact us
at
info@windfireyoga.com
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