Emil Wendel at Oasis Holistic

Emil was born in Switzerland and has been living in Asia since the mid-seventies, studying Sanskrit and Indian Dharma on the Subcontinent, as well as Chinese Philosophy and Taoism in East Asia.

Emil advocates and teaches Hatha-Kundalini Yoga, a method of merging asanas, pranayama and dhyana to develop and deepen a yoga practice beyond the mere physical experience.

The many years of residency in Nepal and India have allowed him an exceptional insight into the depth of Indian civilization and its underlying philosophical current. Apart from being fluent in some of the modern Asian languages, he has been involved with Sanskrit studies for more than 15 years. One of his main teachers was the late Professor Saraswati Prasad Ghimire. The affiliation with him and other pandits covered research in Hindu and Buddhist literature, philosophy and ritual, in their original context.

His pranayama technique and the instructions in kriya-yoga are essentially following the tradition and methodology of the Bihar School of Yoga, amplified through the teachings and the tantric wisdom of his teacher and spiritual guide Clive Sheridan.

Through years of contacts with sadhus and living Buddhist masters, as well as various ashram traditions, Emil has developed a special affinity and awareness for the yogic subjects of mantras and mudras, as well as the techniques of pratyahara (sense-withdrawal) and dharana (concentration), resulting in true dhyana (meditation).

He is a long-time practitioner in all these disciplines mentioned above. Asanas were developing along the way: his first teachers were Live Arts (Iyengar), Danny Paradise and Rolf Naujokat (Ashtanga), Clive Sheridan (Hatha-Kundalini), and Louisa Sear (Vinyasas).

He is presently conducting courses for teacher training programs of Yoga Arts in pranayama, guided meditation and yoga philosophy, the latter a series of lectures encompassing the known history, the different disciplines and traditions, and the personalities and masters of Yoga.

When not in Nepal and India teaching, practicing and researching, Emil is conducting workshops and retreats in Europe, as well as in Bali, Australia and Japan.

For more information about Emil, please visit his website!

A Short Outline of the Principles behind Emil’s teaching:

All true yoga goes for transformation. The methods may differ, yet these ancient techniques - born from the genius of India - have the potential to lead us from fragmentation toward wholeness, from mere existence toward being, or in a plain word: towards freedom.

This is at times forgotten when yoga is practiced on a mere physical level. The therapeutic effectiveness of a yoga session is, of course, recognized today, and highly valuable, but is never the only goal of yoga.

Emil teaches yoga sessions which make use of medium-to-strong Asana postures, and then merges the effects into pranayama and meditation, in order to deepen a practice beyond the physical experience.

Using this approach, the goal of an Asana session is not necessarily the ultimate visual correctness of the pose, but their usefulness as towards the next step in Râja Yoga: effective breath (Prânâyâma) in a still pose.

Again, the Pranayama section of the class is not an end by itself, but assists the practitioner towards internal stillness, stated in all texts and traditions as the very aim of a true yoga session. Emil is using a variety of techniques to bring about such stillness - depending on the need of the participants and the conditions and situation at hand: they are traditionally called Pratyahara, Kriya-Yoga, and Dharana (s. below for a short introduction to these Sanskrit terms). The result leads us, eventually, to Dhyana, or true meditation.

This approach towards yoga will sound familiar to those who have studied the Yoga Sutras or practice Raja-Yoga. While the roadmap of Patanjali’s text is maintained, the techniques used in our course are extracted from the tradition called Hatha-Kundalinî, or Laya-Yoga. It contains the possibility of psycho-spiritual awakening, also known as the Rising of Kundalinî.

This is, however, not the first objective of our short seminar. We understand that there is no shortcut to freedom in the yogic sense. True meditation can hardly be attained within the confinements of a short workshop.

The delight of stillness is gained through total awareness and sustained daily self-practice.

Emil’s courses offer time-tested methods and tools towards reaching the aim of yoga. They may afford us a glimpse of such precious stillness, as an encouragement to continue, or take up, a home practice and walk the delightful path of yoga.

OM TAT SAT

The Sanskrit terms briefly explained:

Asana in its original meaning is a ‘sitting posture’; later the term was expanded to include postural exercises leading towards a steady sitting pose. In Emil’s classes, like in all modern postural yoga systems, the Asanas are chosen from the vast reservoir of postures found in the Gheranda Samhita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and other founding scriptures of Hatha-Yoga.

Pranayama are breathing practices aiming at the expansion of our breath capacity and the control over our instinctual breathing habits.

Pratyahara are methods to deal with distracting sensory influences.

Kriya–Yoga is a discipline of yoga that, through movement of awareness, brings an unusually busy mind towards focus.

Dharana techniques are methods to hold the mind steady. Steadiness of mind is the prerequisite for true meditation.