Summertime at Kunsangar North: Yantra Yoga Program With Oni McKinstry

The extensive Yantra Yoga program in Russia with third-level teacher Oni McKinstry from Australia started on July 13 at Kunsangar North, Moscow Region, with the Teachers’ Training Level 1. For 10 days, about 25 people, mostly from Russia, engaged in a deep and thorough study during interactive sessions of six hours per day.

Oni successfully applied a new approach to preparing Yantra Yoga teachers, giving everyone the opportunity to teach the foundations of this profound method of Yantra Yoga in mini-groups of 4–5 people under the gentle supervision of authorized local teachers of the first and second levels, as well as in front of the whole audience.

We went deeply into the practice of the nine purification breathings, all of the Yantra Yoga preliminaries, the first and second pranayamas together with the basic yantras of both groups, and the Vajra Wave. We also had two interesting and profound online lectures specially prepared for our course:

with Yantra Yoga teacher and doctor Stella Rungen, on the anatomy of breathing in relation to pranayama practice;
and with doctor Phuntsog Wangmo, on Yantra Yoga from the perspective of Tibetan medicine.

After one day of rest, we continued with the Teachers’ Training Level 2. Each of the three days was devoted to studying one of the higher pranayamas and the basic yantras of the corresponding group. During these nine days, we no longer did workshops in mini-groups. Instead, we dedicated a lot of time to breathing exercises from the Respira method under Oni’s attentive guidance. This was really helpful for clarifying our experiences with all types of Yantra Yoga holdings!

During one of the last sessions, an experiment was spontaneously organized: we invited a special guest from Shang Shung Institute Russia, who was asked to sit in the center of a circle formed by more experienced practitioners, together with some participants who were not confident in their practice of the fifth pranayama. We then practiced this pranayama for some time, with several people inside the circle. It was a really interesting experience, not only for those who were practicing in the center, but also for those forming the circle.

After both parts of the teachers’ training, a few candidates were recommended for Level 1 supervision, which is planned for 2027. Hopefully, we will all be fortunate enough to continue our path of teaching Yantra Yoga in an egoless way, as Oni has been emphasizing all along, while studying the text precisely and diligently and maintaining our personal practice in a fruitful way.

Straight after this, the next event followed: the four-day-long Supervision for the 2nd Level of Yantra Yoga. Those who were fortunate enough to attend the sessions noted that it was truly something special to practice under the guidance of three experienced teachers at once. It gave us a unique opportunity to highlight different aspects of each practice that had been taught.

Summarizing the event, all three candidates were authorized as second-level Yantra Yoga teachers. We are all happy for Eugenia Lenkevich, Larisa Lisichkina, and Irina Novikova, wishing them fruitful further practice and many, many happy and grateful students!

The last event with Oni McKinstry started after a refreshing weekend in Moscow: a one-week retreat for people with transmission.

Originally, this event was scheduled to be held at Kunsangar South, but the location had to be changed urgently due to the current situation, which seemed far from favorable. Unexpectedly, however, this change created rather unique circumstances: from August 10 to 17, there were several Vajra Dance events taking place at the Gar in parallel. As a result, many Vajra dancers, including long-term teachers, had the opportunity to attend the morning pranayama classes of our retreat, which they greatly appreciated.

We, the participants of the Yantra Yoga retreat, were absolutely happy to have the opportunity to dance on the Mandala together with experienced Vajra dancers as well. It gave many of us a clear feeling of how the different methods transmitted by our precious master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, are interconnected and somehow support each other. An aspiration to combine Yantra Yoga and Vajra Dance in one collective retreat in the near future arose from this collaboration.

The topic of the retreat was taken from a quotation by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in the Yantra Yoga book: “Controlling the Vajra Body So That Our Prana Recovers Its Natural Balance.” It was later adapted to the level of the practitioners taking part: we spent two days each on the first, second, and third groups, exploring the pranayamas, yantra basics and variations, and, of course, clarifying the preliminaries as well.

The retreat was held both onsite and online, with informational support from Kunsangar South. Onsite, there were between 16 and more than 30 people, depending on the time of the session, and about 50 participants joined each session online.

The youngest yogi was a 14-year-old boy who suddenly joined his parents for the retreat—to everybody’s great surprise. And, frankly speaking, he was the most curious student among all of us, and one of the most diligent as well. He inspired all the adults to practice honestly and without hesitation, and was never afraid to ask for clarification whenever something was not quite clear.

On behalf of all the participants of all the events mentioned above, from Russia and abroad, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to Oni McKinstry for finding the time to visit Russia again, for her patience with us, for creating such a friendly atmosphere in our classes, and for communicating the profound and liberating method of Yantra Yoga with precision and clarity, thus continuing the precious lineage of Urgyen Tenzin, Namkhai Norbu, Fabio Andrico, and Laura Evangelisti.

Thank you, dear Oni, for your generosity, immeasurable kindness, and the necessary strictness at the same time! We are looking forward to meeting online in Zoomlingar soon and to getting together onsite next year—wherever that may be.