matt gluck

A relaxing and invigorating Yoga Weekend in a rustic old country house, deep in the south Oxfordshire countryside.

The retreat includes: six fun, informal and refreshing Hatha Yoga classes, Yoga Nidra and Meditation, TaiJi (Tai Chi) and Qi Gong and fabulous Country Walks. Thai, Ayurvedic and Indian Head Massage are available as optional extras, plus a great bonfire on Saturday night! Food is excellent veggie or non-veggie.

I currently work with the classical postures of Hatha Yoga, using Vinyasa Krama (Sequencing – placing the body in a special way, step by step). I love to create Hatha Yoga Asana Mala- a prayer like thread of postures which produce a dynamic flowing practice, based on the pholosophy of the sages (Advaita Vedanta in particular).

I place an emphasis on FEEL - Flowing Effortless Energetics of Life, derived from my background training in the Shaolin Arts of China. I sometimes teach pranayamas (breath / energy lengthening) and enjoy watching people relax, let go, become Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep), contemplate, chant, sing and meditate. I have been inspired by the teachings of Astanga and Iyengar Yoga and in particular by Jean Hall and John Scott. My current teacher is Sasha Markovic, who mentored me when I studied with the Life Centre in Notting Hill Gate. Sasha revolutionised my practice and thus made my life so much easier. I am eternally grateful.

All of these wonderful people remind me in their own way, that I am the way. They remind me that 'self practice' cannot be practiced. It is a view of and alignment with the soul; that which is real and unchanging. In my darkest hour of loss and isolation, this divinity within me was already in perfect union or Yoga. Such divinity does not ‘practice’ to ‘do’ anything, or arrive anywhere. It is, everywhere and always.

I incorporate 'methods' from Taoist and Buddhist practices as well as Kundalini, Bhakti, Raja and Jnana Yoga. For me, truly, these are all again just names and forms. There is only one Yoga; the YOGA OF LOVE’. This is the sole/soul reason that I continue to practice this dance;

I am in love.

I promote safe and simple practice with the view to a stilling of the mind through a calming of the senses and ego. Some days I teach ‘leg bent’ and others ‘leg straight’, some days I eat only veggies and sometimes I eat fish. Flexibility in posture, technique, mind and word.

Some teachers taught me ‘this is the right way’ and others said, ‘this is the wrong way’. I always enjoyed watching them adopt their own methods or bend their rules when it suited them and this helped me to learn to be adaptable and use whatever works safely and effectively, tested over time via personal experience. The bodymind intelligence always tells the truth. Teachers and students are for inspiring eachother, Shiva and Shakti dance.

I have been taught to ‘love all and serve all’, especially those that have helped me on my path; some I have met personally, some are a picture on a wall in a town without a name, or the recollection of watching the gait of a Sadhu walking barefoot up to Gangotri in the freezing winter. Many have been the students that have come to my classes over the years. People keep teaching me that we are all unique and so I make little attempt to offer advice or change anyone anymore. The truth is seeing our reflection in the appearances that surround us. We realise that yoga emanates from within and that there is nothing to learn. We all remember yoga, as it reveals itself to us from the centre. Yoga is the art of letting go, relaxation, listening and undoing.

Life is a wonderful cosmic jigsaw, from which I take many pieces and place them in many different ways. Amongst them, my own face changes to mirror the people that come, stay and go from my personal space. I see that as I grow older, all these memories and beings are still a part of me; nothing ever comes or really leaves. My parents although passed, are still here. Past and future scroll out from present moment awareness.

Illusion confusion? Transcending my mind has shown me that in a certain light, I am indeed an illusion. One that breathes, eats, sleeps and enjoys a simple uncomplicated life. I come from consciousness, ‘am that’ and then, return.
Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qi Gong

I also teach Taiji and Qi Gong, derived from my experience in Shaolin (Chinese) Martial Arts. I have studied some Yang and Wu Style forms and chose to devise my own form and methods for the time being, based upon the classical precepts. Inspired from the heart of the Shaolin Temple and by the rogue monk who was expelled from the temple, by the young boy who secretly watched from a treetop the ‘inner teachings’ of the old man practicing by the moon reflecting on the water, like all monkeys, I experiment with what comes and use whatever sticks.

I enjoy both healing and martial aspects of Taiji; the essence of opposites and their play in nature and that truly, there are no secrets. We are, as Castanada put it, unique ‘bundles of energy’, all relating intrinsically to the one.

I am more interested in simple movements that can help one relax and unwind, than sharing complicated patterns that lead one away from the belly and into the head. This is another way of saying that I like to teach the bodymind, watch people learn without effort and see them having fun. Over time, what may have seemed complex, having been broken down, is simplicity itself. Yin and Yang, binary, all quantums leaping from the one, which sprung from the none.