My 9-Day Spiritual Vacation!

Originally Published 7/28/11

Hello health enthusiasts!  I just got back from an amazing experience I wanted to share with you all!

I spent a glorious 9 days at the Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga ashram in Bovina, NY.

Starting three years ago, Master Pranic Healing instructors Master Glenn and Master Marilag have conducted a 9-day Spiritual Vacation for Arhatic Yoga practitioners each summer.  They have created a program for deep healing, deep relaxation, spiritual growth, and for personal goal fulfillment.

To start with, some may be asking what an ashram is.  Ashrams are most common in India.  They are spiritual centers focused on a particular spiritual practice or religion.  The focus is usually meditation and other spiritual practices.  From my understanding, they usually involve overnight accommodations but can probably be visited for shorter periods as well.

I was thrilled to learn two years ago that Pranic Healers had created such a center for spiritual awakening for Pranic Healers and Arhatic Yoga practitioners!  I first took the class Arhatic Yoga preporatory level two years ago and couldn’t wait to come back for a class or for the long retreat.

The second quesiton is, what is Arhatic Yoga?  When I first heard of it, I thought it was a physical practice similar to the yoga classes you take at a yoga studio or the gym.  What I later learned is that the word yoga means “union.”  The union we are striving for is, naturally, with our higher souls and with God.  An arhat is a spiritually advanced or awakened person.  Arhatic Yoga is a system designed by the founder of Pranic Healing, Master Choa Kok Sui, to rapidly advance the practitioner on their spiritual journey.

Imagine a person who knew all the ancient and traditional spiritual, energy, and meditation practices and precisely how they worked.  Imagine if you could also understand all the old pitfalls of some of the ancient systemsand then avoid them or completely solve them if they came up.  Imagine understanding how to take a spiritual practice that normally took several decades to reach a certain spiritual level and alter it perfectly so you could safely reach the same place in just a few years.  This is  what Master Choa has done, and Arhatic Yoga is the result.

I firmly believe that all of us are spirtual.  We all have a soul (or, more accurately, are a soul), we all have energy bodies, and we are all here for a Divine purpose or reason.  I feel that Pranic Healing is for everyone.  Arhatic Yoga, however, is for the more spiritually motivated.  It will change your life very rapidly, and this may not be for everyone.  If and when you are ready, though…. now you know where to go 🙂

The theme of our retreat was Spirituality Balanced with Prosperity.  What I love about Master Choa’s spiritual teachings are that they are balanced.  We are not taught to throw out one aspect of our lives in favor of another.  Going to live in a cave or at the top of the Himalayas alone is not only not required but not even recommended.  We are placed in these down-to-earth lives and situations for a reason.  These day-to-day activities develop our spiritual muscles even better than meditation can, in certain respects.  Going to work, paying the bills, and having a family is not only not mundane, but is sacred.

What did we do for 9 whole days??  We did deep healing on psychological and emotional issues as well as negative programs from the past that keep us from becoming successful and prosperous.  It was very powerful and SO very useful.  We did deep emotional cleansing on anything holding us back or slowing us down such as fear or anger.  We also did a thorough forgiveness meditation to break those unnecessary ties with the past.

We also did hatha yoga in the mornings and ballroom dance lessons at night!  On our last night there, we had a talent show for anyone who wanted to perform their talent.  There was lots of laughing and joking.  And yes, here and there a little crying!  We all made lots of new friends and got to re-connect with old ones.

We did many other special meditations and learned special healing techniques only taught at retreats, the benefits of which I still have not fully comprehended!

All in all, it was special, sacred, and lots of FUN.

Photos coming soon of the beautiful ashram and 70-acre property in the hills of New York state.  See you next year, Bovina!!