Kalyan Yoga

14/07/2025

New Offering in Nelson

Hridaya Hatha Yoga with Adam
Mondays, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Koru Studio
Learn More: www.kalyanyoga.com

Hridaya Hatha Yoga

Hatha Yoga helps to purify the physical, energetic and mental layers of our being and thus creates more harmonious conditions for Self-reconnection.

Hridaya Hatha Yoga is a form of classical Hatha Yoga practiced in a contemplative style. We often describe this style as meditation in motion. The practice is performed with the eyes closed and we generally hold the postures for longer than other styles of yoga. This helps us to interiorise and connect with the more subtle aspects of our being.

We practice with a non-pushing attitude, striking a balance between effort and relaxation.

Hridaya Yoga

Hridaya is a Sanskrit word that means Heart or Spiritual Heart. It is really just another word that points towards the heart or centre of our being. When we return to the heart of our being, we return home to our true self. Hridaya Yoga supports practitioners in this reconnection to our true self.

When we reconnect to or open our heart, we reconnect to the intuition of our heart and slowly we can develop the courage to live from the heart. We begin to open more and more to the fullness of life, embracing both joy and sorrow in equal measures.

About Adam

Adam is a Hridaya Yoga teacher. He offers Hridaya Hatha Yoga classes, meditation workshops and Hridaya Silent Meditation retreats.

Adam has followed the teachings of Hridaya Yoga since 2016 and has been sharing the practice since 2019. He has completed the Hridaya Teacher Training Course, which is a 500 hour course and includes two 10 day silent meditation retreats and a solitary retreat in the dark room. He has also completed four additional yoga modules at the school and various other group and solitary retreats across the world.

14/07/2025

Kia ora!

After some weeks of work on our website, we've finally transitioned over from the UK to NZ. And now that we have a functional and up to date website, we're ready to share with you that we will offer yoga classes again, starting small, with just one class a week initially.

Our appreciation for the practice is greater than ever and we're super excited to share the beautiful teachings of Hridaya Yoga, and all that comes with it, with the community of Nelson in New Zealand.

This is a kind of relaunch, more than five years on from launching the website before offering yoga in Totnes, Devon, and we wish to take this opportunity to express gratitude to everyone who we met through these offerings in the UK. It was a very special time in our lives.

May this new chapter bring good fortune, and by sharing these teachings with others, may we have a positive impact on their lives. May we all develop a greater capacity to meet suffering with love and to live with an open heart.

Learn yoga and meditation with experienced teachers from Kalyan Yoga. We offer yoga classes, workshops and retreats in Nelson and across NZ.

03/05/2023

‘Within each of us there once was a fire, and for some of us there seem as if there are only ashes now. But when we dig in the ashes we find one ember. And very gently we fan that ember. Blow on it. It gets brighter. And from that ember we rebuild the fire. The only thing thats important is that ember. Thats what you and I are here to celebrate. All we’re going to do for eternity is sit around the fire.’ — Ram Dass 😍

Jon Hopkins with Ram Dass, East Forest - "Sit Around The Fire", out now on Domino. Taken from the album 'Music For Psychedelic Therapy,' out now (digital / C...

04/04/2023

Here is the secret:

The cross
points to THAT
which cannot be crucified.

It reminds us of Who We Truly Are -
prior to the story of time and space.

In this place of raw presence, the bride and the bridegroom, the father and the son, time and the timeless, emptiness and form, even life and death are merely imaginary mental opposites, swimming in a love and a silence and a wholeness beyond comprehension, which we may refer to as ‘God’.

Or we may simply keep silent.

The wild torture of the cross
sucks the separate self into
its infinitely calm centre.

The crucifixion, understood in its deeper spiritual and mythological sense, points beyond psychology and even theology, to this ultimate invitation to awaken from separation; in other words, to die to all that is false, and in the midst of that devastation, to discover the eternal Life that we are.

Call it ‘God’ or call it ‘awareness’ or call it nothing at all, it really doesn’t matter at all.

We all live our own crucifixion! We all face ruin and ridicule and despair and the loss of the image. Nobody escapes the trials of life. Nobody can divide themselves from the river of humanity, as the Buddha taught.

The only question is, what is our relationship to this existence? Can we “lovingly give ourselves up to the torment”? Can we be “joined forever” to ourselves, with “peace beyond understanding”?

Can we see that death itself is not something to fear, but a dear friend reminding us of the preciousness of our very existence?

Can we begin to find inner acceptance even in the midst of the utterly unacceptable moments?

Can we die and be reborn...
in every Now?

- Jeff Foster

03/04/2023

In meditation,
your only ‘job’
is to be curious about what arises.

Don’t try to get rid of any aspect of your experience.
Your crazy thoughts – just watch them.
Uncomfortable feelings – just breathe with them.
Cry with them. Laugh with them.
The part of you that hates meditation – be interested in it, too!
The child in you who can’t sit still.
Who wants to be somewhere else.
Who feels ashamed or guilty for thinking ‘unspiritual’ thoughts or feeling ‘negative’ feelings and impulses.
Who feels the burning desire to run away and do something else.
Welcome them with open arms.

Breathe them into love
and breathe love into them.

In meditation,
even the unwanted is wanted;
even your resistance is sacred!

- Jeff Foster

03/03/2023

Treat yourself to some time in silence in the heart of Dartmoor National Park 🐎

A silent meditation retreat creates the ideal conditions for revealing and experiencing the peace of the Heart. This is an invitation and opportunity to connect with the joy and simplicity of Being.

Spending time in silence, watering seeds of love and wisdom, is a precious gift for yourself and for all of existence.

‘Your own Self-realisation is the greatest service you can render the world.’ ~ Ramana Maharshi.

The Kalyan Yoga silent meditation retreats are inspired by the Hridaya Yoga format of retreats.

Each meditation practice is shared free from dogma and on the basis of non-dual philosophy or ‘advaita vedanta’ in Sanskrit. Known as the pearl of Indian philosophy, advaita vedanta has influenced virtually all schools of Indian thought. At the core of this philosophy is the understanding that there is no separation between anyone or anything. There is a shared consciousness that lies beyond the realms of the mind and personality and this can be experienced directly through the practice of meditation.

Through consistent practice, we can start to touch deeper and more subtle aspects of our being. Meditation is an experiential exploration of the fundamental questions of life – ‘Who am I?’, ‘What is this Existence?’.

These days dedicated to silence, are a profound journey of self reconnection.

Gentle hatha yoga sessions are provided each day to balance and invigorate the energies of the body.

Every aspect of our retreats are fully dedicated to creating the best conditions for the revelation of our true essence and the awakening of our hearts ❤️

'I just wanted to say again how grateful I am for the incredible space you guys created for us all last week, it was such a beautiful space of opening, heart, inspiration and deep connection.'

'My heart is still glowing and open from the amazing week we shared, and I have been able to grace my challenges and joys with deepened resilience, gratitude and mindfulness.'

A silent meditation retreat creates the ideal conditions for revealing and experiencing the peace of the Heart.

30/01/2023

An inspirational and heart warming sharing from a participant who attended a silent meditation retreat guided by a friend in New Zealand recently 🥰

26/01/2023

I am in love, more than ever, with the sensitive, vulnerable, imperfect, awkward, shy and shaky humans that we all are, underneath the myriad spiritual masks we wear. I am in love with how damn hard we try to get things right sometimes, and how damn sacred it is to fail. I am in love with our vulnerability, the cracks in our armour and defences, the soft fleshy parts that we try so hard to hide. Nonduality is not some abstract philosophy. It's nothing less than a love affair with duality, with our humanity, and it binds the feminine and the masculine principles and renders all our ordinary moments sacred. It is the extraordinary in the ordinary, the divine in the human - and You Are That.

- Jeff Foster

24/01/2023

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.17

drastrdrsyayoh samyogah heyahetuh

The cause of pain is the association or identification of the seer (atma) with the seen (prakrti) and the remedy lies in their dissociation.

22/01/2023

Mauna is a Sanskrit word that means silence. When practicing mauna, we enter into a period of sustained silence which helps to create the ideal conditions for quietening the mind and revealing that which is beyond the mind, beyond words.

Does the thought of spending a period of time in silence cause feelings of unease?

If you’ve ever taken part in a silent meditation retreat or spent some time in a silent solitary retreat, then you’re likely to have contemplated what it might be like to not talk for some days.

The thought of refraining from speech often causes the most anxiety in the lead up to someones first silent meditation retreat. This is very common. However, upon completing a retreat of a few days or more, most agree that the silence was not just ok, but a delight.

Whether it be for a few hours or 10 days or more, committing to a period of silence offers the time and space to simply be. Silence is a beautiful invitation to stop, stop our wanting, stop our not wanting and stop our thoughts. Mauna is about training our minds, not just our mouths, to be silent.

‘Silence is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation.’ — Thomas Keating

Spending time in silence is common across all mystical traditions as a practice to support the revelation of our deepest essence.

As practitioners of yoga, some of us might not have thought about mauna as being part of the practice. The more esoteric practices such as fasting and silence are often overlooked in favour of practices perceived to be more inviting such as the asana part of yoga.

Asana is a minute part of yoga which has helped to popularise yoga all over the world. If going to an asana based yoga class has impacted your life and the people around you in a positive way, thats great. However, this is just a taste of the depth of the practice of yoga.

We invite you to spend some time in silence this year. This could be once a week for a few hours in the morning, from time to time you may wish to eat a meal in silence or you may wish to wake up each morning and maintain silence until after meditation.

Allow everything to relax in these moments of silence, your mind, your body. Be still. Simply witness life as it unfolds, moment to moment. Be present, be alert and aware, be at peace.

If you wish to make a bigger commitment to silence, to Self-exploration and to developing a greater capacity to love, we’re offering two silent meditation retreats this year.

A silent meditation retreat creates the ideal conditions for revealing and experiencing the peace of the Heart.

08/01/2023

If each day falls inside each night,
There exists a well
where clarity
is imprisoned.
We need to sit on the rim
of the well of darkness
and fish for fallen light,
with patience.

Pablo Neruda

08/12/2022

THE NEXT “STEP” AFTER MINDFULNESS

The next step after mindfulness is to ask, “Who am I?”. Who is the one who’s being mindful? Who is the one who pays attention, or not?

If I am aware of thoughts, am I my thoughts?
If I am aware of feelings, am I my feelings?
If I am aware of any form in awareness, can I be that form?

We start to wonder, am I my name? My job? My beliefs about myself? My achievements? My past? My future?

I can be aware of my past, so it’s not me,
I can be aware of my dreams, so they are not me.

In the awareness that I am, the breath rises and falls, sounds come and go, thoughts come and go, even the most spiritual thoughts, even the most violent thoughts, even the most brilliant thoughts about reality, about mindfulness, about awakening, about awareness itself.

What doesn’t come and go in my awareness?
What is always here?
What is my actual nature, my unchanging self, my deepest identity, my true home?

What remains constant throughout all these states, dreams, experiences, travels, insights? Throughout the highs and lows of my life? Throughout the days of deepest despair or highest bliss?

Am I identical with this restful Presence?

Am I the vast Ocean of Consciousness in which each wave - each thought, sensation, feeling, urge, impulse, insight, dream and shattered dream - comes and goes?

Am I actually inseparable from these waves?
Are the waves actually expressions of myself?
Am I the loving, wide open permission for every thought, every image, every wave of joy and sorrow, clarity and doubt, bliss and boredom?

Am I the Home for the homeless, the Light that ceaselessly illuminates each and every form, even the darkest and most painful ones, the formless Love that rejects nothing, accepts all, celebrates itself as each and every moment?

Am I the present moment itself, and all that arises in it?

Am I the unspeakable Mystery of life itself, at once unified with all there is, and a brilliantly unique, unrepeatable, individual expression of all there is?

Am I the sacred arising as the ordinary, the divine taking human form? Are we all that?

Have we forgotten our true, divine, loving, curious, playful nature? Our inner child, our sacred spark?

*

We do not practice meditation. We are meditation.

We do not seek the Light. We are the Light.

We were never broken, even though we sometimes feel broken.

The search ends here. Where it began.

There are no steps, only breaths.

So breathe now, feel your feet on the ground, feel the warmth of the sun on your face, and know you are already saturated, drenched, infused with Mystery, whoever you take yourself to be, whatever you are seeking, however high you’ve climbed and however low you’ve sunk in your innocent quest for love…

… and however “mindful” you are today.

It doesn’t matter. You are loved.

- Jeff Foster