Yoga Week with Ben Rakidzija

Information

Socrates says: “The sun is in everyone, you just have to make it shine”. How can we make this sun shine? A Korean Zen master that Ben heard recently would say: “I don’t know”. Not knowing was his method.

In our week of practice, we also want to try not to know. We want to empty our minds instead of filling them with new thoughts. One method of cultivating our not-knowing is yoga, another method is Zen meditation.

In yoga, we practise a free style of Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga and QiGong, bringing the body into tension and stretching, into calmness and lightness.

In zazen, we enter the conscious silence of Zen meditation and concentrate on a simple, traditional method for clearing the mind.

There is also the opportunity to learn the breathing technique of alternate breathing (Nadi Shodana).

Tips:

• The program is aimed at both experienced and beginners.
• We recommend comfortable clothing.
• Participants should not eat any heavy meals one and a half hours before yoga.

About the teacher

Ben Rakidzija lives as a traveling yoga teacher and writer in various European countries. He holds a master’s degree in philosophy, is certified by the Yoga Alliance (over 500 hours of training) and has practiced with Zen masters such as Shodo Harada Roshi (Japan) and Ryushin Paul Haller (US/IRL). He writes novels, novellas and plays and founded the European Literature Festival Lit.EU. At Hotel Prätschli he offers a movement in stillness, on the one hand through an introduction to Zen meditation, on the other hand through a free style of Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Yin Yoga and QiGong. His classes are open to advanced and beginners of all ages.

Further evening program:

Ben Rakidzija will read from his novella `Defense of the Nap` (Königshausen & Neumann. 2025) during the yoga week. A short poetry of sleep, a philosophical essay on dreaming, embedded in a defense speech from the fictional country of Tasmunia. Anyone who wants to enrich their heart and mind is well advised to attend this entertaining evening. – The book has been beautifully annotated by literary critic Denis Scheck. It is recommended by the German Sleep Foundation, Berlin.