Experience Stillness with Hridaya Intensive and teacher Keith McGuinnes

We find out more about the Hridaya Spiritual Heart Mini-Retreat at Agama Yoga from August 14th to the 16th, you can book your place here.

What is your name and where are you from?

Keith McGuinnes, from Boulder CO in the United States

What is the name of your retreat and can you please explain the event for us...

This retreat is called the Hridaya Intensive.  

The Hridaya Spiritual Heart Mini-Retreat is a unique and approachable meditation experience that integrates Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Tantra, and Buddhism. The practice focuses on accessing our essential nature, the divine, supreme Self, through an artful integration of meditation and Hatha Yoga techniques.

Practitioners will be skillfully guided to reach deep states of conscious, cultivate spiritual aspiration, and evoke a mystical experience of the Divine in their hearts. These offerings are designed for beginner and advanced meditators alike, and no previous meditation or Yoga experience is necessary.

What do you think an individual can gain from your workshop?

I invite you to take 3 days out of your busy lives to come experience stillness. If you are new to meditation or already an experienced meditator, this intensive will help you explore your inner world, gaining insight into deeper states of awareness.

And what uniqueness will you personally bring to this event?

I am lay-ordained Buddhist, receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts from my teacher, Zentatsu Baker-Roshi.  

I have lived in a Zen monastery for several years and have over 3,000 hours of meditation practice.

How long have you been practicing Yoga?  

I have been practicing Yoga for over 12 years, and have been teaching yoga full-time since 2013.

What is your area of specialty?

Meditation, Hatha, Kundalini, Tantra and Masculinity

Could you describe this in more detail...

Meditation is my passion. I seek to combine my experiences in Zen, Agama Yoga and Hridaya Yoga in order to create an offering that has the best of all of these already very compelling teachings.

How did you get involved with Agama and how did you end up on Koh Phangan?

Like many before, I heard about Agama while traveling. I completed my level 1 in Rishikesh, India in 2010.

I travelled to Koh Phangan each year to continue my studies with Agama. Over time, I fell more in love with the island and the spiritual community I am part of and decided to live on Koh Phangan full-time in 2015.

And leave us with your personal Yogi Philosophy...

It’s best articulated by Rumi, expressing the fundamental spiritual need:

There is a candle in your heart, 
      ready to be kindled. 
There is a void in your soul, 
      ready to be filled. 
You feel it, don’t you? 
You feel the separation 
      from the Beloved. 
Invite Him to fill you up, 
      embrace the fire. 
Remind those who tell you otherwise, that 
      Love 
      comes to you of its own accord, 
      and the yearning for it 
      cannot be learned in any school.