Kum Nye yoga and meditation sessions via zoom, through Bodhicharya UK, on Thursday afternoons. All welcome, join anytime.
Thursdays 4 - 5.30pm UK time
Winter 2025:
HEALING: RESTORING, RESOURCING & REPLENISHING OURSELVES
3 weeks: Dec 4, 11, 18
£50 for course of 3 sessions (or £18 per individual session)
All sessions can also be attended by recording, to repeat or practise in your own time
** no one turned away for lack of funds **
The following previously-offered courses are available to follow in your own time, by recording, with full notes, quotations, poems and other inspirations provided.
Please get in touch if you'd like access (unlimited over time).
"FREEDOM & EASE: SYNCHRONISING BODY & MIND"
“In order to rediscover nowness, you have to look back, back to where you came from, back to your original state. In this case, looking back is not looking back in time, going back several thousand years. It is looking back into your own mind, to before history began, before thinking began, before thought ever occurred. When you are in contact with this original ground, then you are never confused by the illusions of past and future. You are able to rest continuously in nowness…" from 'Shambhala, Sacred Path of the Warrior' by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
3 blocks of 3 sessions each given over April, July and Sept 2025
With a focus on the essential practice of yoga, bringing mind and body into harmonious inter-relating, for healing, freedom and ease.
We drew on teachings by Ringu Tulku about relaxing and Chogyam Trungpa from his book Shambhala above, amongst others.
"SILENCE - LISTENING TO THE WISDOM OF THE BODY"
"Don’t just be silent in meditation, listen to the silence." Tarthang Tulku
These sessions aim to provide the time and space and support to dip into the world of embodiment and the wisdom it is holding for us, at all times - but which we rarely access, except in brief moments of intuition. The practices of Kum Nye direct us into this very space which can open out and deepen into places of deep knowing: peace, stillness and connection. 6 week course covering sessions on:
Vibrant abundant silence
Walking silently
Earth holding silence
Body of knowing
Expanding silent awareness
Silently flowing, within and without
"EMBODYING COMPASSION"
5-week course of kum nye sessions covering the following topics. Each session includes discussion, notes, quotations from a number of teachers, question and answer and accompanying kum nye practice to explore these topics in our own embodiment. There is also one extra follow-up / recap session included at the end of the course. Each can be accessed / followed many times and notes are provided to give the practitioner access to short sections to do in your own time:
Kindness towards the body
Limitless qualities of an open heart
Ultimate and Relative Bodhicitta
Clarity and Confidence
Offering Compassion
"INNATE PURITY"
A 5-week course of Kum Nye sessions focussing on the following themes. All instruction is given and the exercises are suitable for all. The session titles were:
Our True Nature
Un-poisoning Ourselves
Pure Intention
Purity of Bodhicitta
Heart Essence
Sessions covered some quotes to inspire us from the Kum Nye teachings as well as Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. We considered the importance of intention, Bodhicitta and dedication. And reminded ourselves of the teachings on Buddhanature, our pure true nature, applying it to Kum Nye and how to work with all that pollutes, poisons and obscures our innate purity.
Each recording is around 1hr 20 and outlines are provided so they can be done in 2 or 3 chunks for shorter practice sessions. If you would like access to the recordings, please get in touch.
"EMPTINESS & STILLNESS"
5 week course given in Jan / Feb 2025
The pith essence of kum nye
The foundation of balance, within the integration of body and mind, is relaxation.
Often, we think of relaxation as a state of dreaminess, lacking in awareness and vitality; or a process of escaping from life; or a filling or a marking out of time.
But true relaxation is actually balance.
~ Tarthang Tulku, Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga
Kum Nye
Kum nye comes from the Tibetan traditions of both healing and Buddhist meditation. While it is like yoga in that we use our body to make movements and mobilise areas which get little attention, mindfully, it also offers something a little bit different. Meditation is woven into the very fabric of the movements and elaborated in pauses between exercises. It can be deeply relaxing and help restore us to our natural balance, ease and clarity.
The basic premise of kum nye is that our natural spontaneous nature is open and free, joyful and flowing.
Life and our habitual reactions to it, tend to clog up this flow and block our clarity and ease.
Rather than analytically unpicking these habitual patterns that then take up residence in our being, in kum nye we directly tackle them through simply feeling directly and freeing up our energies and so our way of being.
Through physical postures and movement, we open up the flow of our body’s energy.
Through mindfulness throughout the movements, we bring the mind into harmonious connection with the body.
Through meditation practice, interspersed through a session, we allow the inherent clarity and creativity of the mind to come forward.
In this way, kum nye is a holistic practice for mind and body, tuning our senses and bringing us into harmony
with the natural flow of life and the seasons.
The ancient teachings, as true today as ever, are that if we live in accordance with nature we will be in good health and experience vitality and joy, as well as bringing out our innate potentials.
All welcome to come and join us to explore this in practice, and deepen your own understanding and experience of well being.
Meditation instructions given by Milarepa, one of Tibet’s most famous yogis of the past, an inspiration we often use in classes:
"Meditate like the sky, without centre or limit.
Meditate like the sea, without bottom.
Meditate like the mountain, with stability."
© Mary Heneghan
BA(Hons), MA, MSc, Lic Ac, MBAcC
Member of the British Acupuncture Council