5 DAY MEDITATION TEACHER TRAINING WITH DAVID MAGONE | DUBAI, UAE
JUNE 2-6, 2017
‘We are a society of energy addicts, who expect quick fixes on demand. We fight our natural rhythms and then expect to switch off at will, but we could use our SLEEP to connect more deeply with ourselves.’ – Fiona Buckland
Stress is a major inducer of hypertension. As with anxiety, stress-related hypertension comes and goes – and is fairly normal. By including meditation into your daily life, you can prevent stress from developing into a chronic, daily condition.
Just 10 minutes of resting with your eyes closed can transform a problem, calm shattered nerves, and relieve sensations of fatigue.
Perfect for serious students of yoga and teachers alike, this five-day meditation teacher training designed by David Magone from Boston, will help you deepen your own meditation practice with a combination of restorative yoga, short lectures and setup excellent guided meditation practices.
David is the director of www.pranavayu.com and has received a number of accolades in the press with features in Travel + Leisure’s “25 Top Yoga Studios Around the World”, Vogue Magazine UK, the Wall Street Journal, NPR and many other publications, David also serves as a Dharma teacher and is one of the first non-Tibetan teachers authorized to teach Mangalam Yantra Yoga, a Buddhist Yoga practice originating in the 10th century A.D. David regularly contributes to the Huffington Post Healthy Living section, and is a featured teacher on Gaia TV and the Comcast Cable TV Network.
In addition to deepening your own practice across this 5 day intensive, you’ll learn to guide others to a happier, healthier and more peaceful mental perspective with 3 different types of meditation:
Yoga Nidra state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, like the “going-to-sleep” stage. It is a state in which the body is completely relaxed, and the practitioner becomes systematically and increasingly aware of the inner world by following a set of instructions. It’s very useful for insomnia, anxiety and whole host of other ailments
Shamatha Meditation is the practice (bhāvanā) of the calming of the mind (citta) and its ‘formations’ (saṅkhāra). This is done by practicing single-pointed meditation most commonly through mindfulness of breathing. It calms emotions and strengthens concentration.
Guided Walking Meditation an excellent way to ground your body which involves very deliberating thinking about and doing a series of actions that you normally do automatically. It’s a wonderful complement to a seated meditation practice.
After taking this training you be able to:
- Effectively structure your own daily meditation practices
- Help yourself and others overcome stress and anxiety by inducing the relaxation response
- Identify and overcome common obstacles to meditation practice
- Evaluate signs of progress
- Guide three different types of meditation in private lesson settings and group class environment
Since the meditation workshops are designed to be as calming as possible, the morning yoga sessions will include Restorative Yoga such as a slow, floor-based class that incorporates back-bending and twisting poses that encourage heart opening as well as liberation for the hip flexors, chest, and spine. The late afternoon sessions will focus on Yoga Nidra, Shamatha and Guided Walking Meditation to support the training anD introduce prospective teachers and students to the major tools and techniques to begin offering meditation classes.
Hi! My name is David Magone. I grew up in the Rocky Mountains, just outside of a small town in Montana called Livingston. I’ve been a full time yoga teacher for the last fourteen years, and when not teaching yoga, I spend most of my time cooking, traipsing through the woods, or hanging out on the Maine Coast with my partner Alexandra.
My yogic journey began in 1995 with a monk, a can of coca-cola and a packet of coffee creamer.
At that time, I was traveling as a percussionist on a high-school band tour through parts of China. During the trip, I had the good fortune to be seated next to a young Buddhist monk during a flight from Shanghai to Beijing. About an hour into the flight, the flight attendant brought around beverages and the monk asked for a can of coca cola. I’m not certain why, but when she gave him the can she also handed him a packet of creamer to go along with it.
The monk didn’t understand that the creamer was meant for coffee, so he proceeded to pour it into his soda, and it fizzed everywhere. Rather than being annoyed, he laughed so hard that he almost started to cry! At first, I was surprised by his reaction but then I started to laugh too. Neither one of us spoke the same language so we didn’t talk at all, but I really remember thinking,“Man! I really want to be be like that guy!”
At the time, I had no idea what that monk had done to become so light-hearted, but I assumed that it must have something to do with meditation. And so, when I returned home to Montana a few weeks later, I bought a book on meditation and started practicing on my own. I can’t say that I had any mind-blowing experiences that first time out, but practicing made me feel calm and happy. This small success served to give me the confidence that I was indeed on the right track, so I decided to keep on practicing from that point on in the hopes of deepening my experience.
Motivated by that initial experience with meditation, I eventually decided to pursue the possibility of greater health and happiness by dedicating myself more fully to traditional yoga and meditation practices. I began by studying philosophy at Portland State University and continued on to complete a three year yoga teaching apprenticeship with master yoga teacher Holiday Johnson while studying vinyasa yoga with “Yogi Bill” Counter in Portland Oregon. In 2001, under the kindly mentorship of Holiday, I began to synthesize many of my discoveries in philosophy, yoga and meditation into a unique style of vinyasa yoga called PranaVayu.
In 2003, I relocated to Boston MA and after teaching there for a number of years I began formal meditation studies with the Tibetan meditation master Khenpo Migmar Tseten Rinpoche [featured with David above] at the Harvard University Buddhist Chaplaincy. Before coming to the U.S., Khenpo Migmar had served as the main Abbot of the Sakya Monastary in Puruwalla India. Due to his academic achievements, Khenpo Migar was allowed to train directly with His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, one of the greatest meditation masters of the last century and the private Tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama himself.
After studying with Khenpo Migmar for a number of years, I became one of the first non-Tibetan teachers authorized to teach Mangalam Yantra Yoga, a secret Buddhist Yoga practice dating from the 10th century A.D. Today, in addition to teaching PranaVayu Yoga and Mangalam Yantra Yoga, I teach Dharma courses on a variety of sutra topics under Khenpo Migmar’s guidance and continue to attend ongoing classes in Vajrayana Buddhism (Highest Yoga Tantra) at the Sakya Center in Harvard Square.
In 2014, the circle came full round when I was asked to join the Prajna Upadesa Foundation, a small non profit organization responsible for organizing a public teaching for the His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Boston. I happily accepted, and served in a number of roles in the lead up to the event. Our small team put in a lot of hard work and were rewarded with a sold out event with over 2,000 people in attendance. Over the course of the day, monks and nuns from a variety of traditions and lay people from all across the U.S. gathered together to hear His Holiness give commentary on “the Eight Verses of Mind Training”. It was a truly memorable experience, and one that I’ll not forget.
In the hopes of sharing some of what I’ve learned with others, I regularly teach PranaVayu yoga classes and workshops all around the world. I also contribute content to the world’s leading Yoga website Gaia.com (Formerly Gaiam TV) and a number of other mind/body and fitness publications. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I owe it all to that monk and his can of soda! If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know if I ever would have found my way to yoga. I’ll never have the chance to thank him personally, so instead, I’ve decided to do my best to pay it forward by introducing as many people as possible to the transformational effects of yoga and meditation.
Practice full length videos with David on Gaia TV
https://www.gaia.com/person/david-magone
5 DAY SCHEDULE
9AM – 5PM
Day 1
Intro to the relaxation response
Meditation practices for insomnia
Guiding Yoga Nidra
Practicum: Student guided Yoga Nidra
Day 2
Retrain your brain – Intro to meditation
Walking meditation practices
Preliminaries and prerequisites
The basics of seated posture
What to focus on when meditating
Group assimilation exercises
Day 3
Additional techniques to aid concentration
How to overcome major obstacles to meditation practice
Understanding the five moods of meditation
Group assimilation exercises
Day 4
Understanding the elephant, monkey and the monk: 9 stages of meditation
Silent meditation retreat
Day 5
Review, silent meditation retreat and student guided meditation practices
REGISTRATION STEPS:
1) Application Form:
Please complete the attached application form in this email and submit it back to me at yogalatesdxb@gmail.com
to proceed with securing your place and payment as the next step.
2) Tuition Fee: 4,200 AED
Rate includes your comprehensive manual, certificate of completion of 40 hours (Counts as CEC for Yoga Alliance Registered Teachers)
3) Prerequisite Readings:
- 10% Happier by Dan Harris
- Just One Thing by Dr. Rick Hanson
Express interest and register while spaces are still available by completing the form below or via: Email: yogalatesdxb@gmail.com
Visit: www.yogalatesblissindubai.com
Yogalates Bliss in Dubai Blog 