Whole Life Yoga - Immersive Retreat with James Boag & Dani Benito

What if we remember what our ancestors knew and lived? 

That we are nature: that which is born, which will die, and in between those two great changes will experience constant change. 

And we are consciousness, life itself. 

Life knows how to life. 

And so do you and I. 

That knowing still abides in the heart of our cells, at the core of our being, is still encoded in our DNA.

The earth is our body, the water of life our blood, the sap and juice of life animates our experience. The air and the wind is our very breath. 

Life knows how to live and it wants to live through each of us as a gloriously unique expression of its infinite creative potential.

Life is not a pixelated program. 

It is not a mechanism. And you are not a machine. 

Blessed with the miraculous powers to ‘divine’: to hear, sense, touch, see, taste and smell, to express and communicate, to shape and form, to pick up and put down, to acquire and shed, to move, to digest and assimilate, to excrete and eliminate, to create and recreate, you are a miraculous being. The way the cells of your body cohere, repair, and are held together is the daily living proof. 

You are an intrinsic part of the mystery and majesty of life. 

You belong here on the earth. 

Phrases like ‘how do you earn a living?’ /‘comment tu gagnes la vie?’ – 

where did they come from? Perhaps they are toxic symptoms of a perverted and imbalanced relationship to our very self and to the life that supports and enables all our experience. Symptoms that manifest in languages and sensemaking distorted by ideologies we don’t even realise are obscuring our understanding of ourselves.

Earn the right to live? Gagner la vie?

You already earnt it, c’est déja gagné! You belong, you won, you’re an earthling! And the gods in the heavens envy you. Why? Because here on earth, as a human, a child of the soil, of the humus, with the capacity to ‘man’ – the Saṁskṛta verbal root to think, reflect, you have the capacity for self-reflexive awareness and you experience as an elemental being, part of this dynamic realm of manifest existence. As a human you will know the ‘pairs of opposites’. Joy and sorrow, gain and loss, pain and exultation. You will see and feel beauty, and also tragedy and suffering. Yet this spectrum of experience is not be shied away from. It is not to be denied. Attempts to corral the suffering that flesh is heir to only sever us from the corresponding capacity for beauty.

The richness, vastness and beauty of life is to be celebrated and embraced.

Do you want to drink deep from the cup of life?

I hope so.

Do you want to honour what it means to be human?

There are infinite ways to kneel and kiss the ground, infinite ways to embody a living, pulsating prayer of gratitude.

It’s just that in the modern world we are almost constantly being inundated with perverse and depraved propaganda that veils our capacity to remember, and hacks away at the connectedness to all of life that actually underlies our humanity. 

And yet, this perversion and depravity will not prevail, it is just a cloak. It will burn and be shed in the light and the warmth of inevitable remembering, because we are each a microcosm, a conglomeration of cells, a living cooperative, and in the heart of all our cells the spark of memory and belonging is ever ready to be kindled.

Why live in fear? Why live in misery? This great gift of life is waiting for us to savour and embrace it as best we possibly can.

The teachings and principles of yoga are as vital now as they were millennia ago. They offer us robust, simple, adaptable and resilient means to remember who we really are.

Celebrating the solstices, the equinoxes, the harvest and the spring, the moment in the year when life, light and heat are all towards their peak, the moment when the year begins to wane to winter and incubation of the gifts of the previous year’s expansions, the moment when the light begins to return after the deepest dark of winter, all this celebration and honouring is part of our human heritage, wherever we came out of a womb. And so is a capacity to live in beauty, reverence and gratitude.

Join us for an immersive summer retreat like no other. 

From James:

«I was blessed to teach around thirty retreats at Casa Cuadrau between 2011 and 2019. After the enforced separation from these beloved mountains since 2020, I look forward to returning to the valley of Vió in June 2026. Returning to Casa Cuadrau, the ’square house’ whose very walls and flooring, built and tended with love and devotion, invite us to step outside the boxes of our conditioned habitual ways, where the living land, pulsating with beauty, invites us to remember our capacity to live in rhythm, where the guru-s of nature surround us so generously.»  

Yoga is defined as skilfulness in action, and yoga seeks to integrate all parts of ourselves.

A skilful yoga practice includes, nourishes and harnesses all the different powers and intelligences of our bodies, minds and senses.

James’ approach to yogic movement applies yoga principles to broad spectrum human movement and to techniques that we can work with easily all life long.

The work includes movement that may be a lot quicker and less predictable than in a typical ‘yoga’ class, as well as work that is much slower and subtler.

During the course of a retreat, we will learn robust tools to add to our yoga practice toolkit, including ways to nourish and protect the spine and joints, while also inviting new synaptic connections, cultivating more skilful coordination and celebrating the gifts of embodiment.

Daily morning movement practices to gather energy, tune and recalibrate the system will empower you with embodied understanding to refine and keep building your own daily, lifelong practice.

Workshop sessions will allow us to explore the power of subtle movement, as well as coordinations, organic strength, improvisation and play.

You can expect a rich palette of practice, fostering groundedness and spaciousness, calm and vitality, gratitude and awareness.

James has a truly remarkable capacity for communicating the heart of the living yoga tradition in ways that make the ancient, yet perennially practical teachings so relatable.

With passion, care and devotion, James represents the Indic tradition that his teachers have instructed him to pass on, a tradition that is for all of humanity.

A masterful storyteller, a practitioner of compelling depth and sincerity with more than thirty years teaching experience, people find James’ sessions on yogic philosophy and mythology deeply resonant and of lasting, positive impact.

As people say:

– ‘James is the real deal.’

– ‘Studying with James I have gained access to a living wisdom tradition that I can apprentice myself to. I find the premises of the modern world full of inconsistencies. Yoga is unique because it doesn’t ask you to believe anything but to test everything personally. I wanted a system that was testable. This yoga gives me a toolkit that I can test reality with and it’s extremely empowering.’

– ‘James bridges the gap. He is a fluent translator from the India of ancient times to today.’

– ‘Studying with James has helped me move from being a consumer to a practitioner, from being a pawn in someone else’s game to being the sovereign of my own life.’

Satsang means to come together to explore what is real. When we commit time to be together on retreat we have the opportunity to explore in ways that go beyond what may be possible in regular classes or even in weekend intensives. Satsang is at the heart of the yoga tradition. Ultimately we each have to walk our own path. However, yoga is always practical! Along the way, we can learn from each other and benefit tremendously by bringing our collective intelligence to the space of ongoing inquiry.

Every day we will share satsang time together to help integrate our experience in the mountains and in the sessions.

Meditative walks and longer hikes are an essential part of our retreats. They are easy and accessible to everyone.

Meditative hiking helps us understand, through experience, our deep connection with nature. It makes us realize, with every step and every breath, that the energy within us is equal to the energy outside.

Nature is our greatest teacher. Silence and deep listening help us enrich the experience it offers.

There will be meditative walks in nature to open the senses and develop mindfulness, with activities such as forest bathing and creative pursuits.

Two days will be dedicated to a half-day meditative hike, departing after breakfast and returning for a gentle yoga class. This is a perfect opportunity to enjoy the wonders of Ordesa National Park and the Sobrarbe-Pyrenees UNESCO Global Geopark.

Read more about Meditative Hiking here.

Karma Yoga is Yoga in action = finding skillfulness and integration in any action.

We bring the principles of Yoga in everything we do. We invite you to practice Karma Yoga by helping us with simple tasks of the house as fetching water from the fountain, chopping vegetables, drying dishes, etc.

Basic structure for three days of the retreat*:

6:00 Wake up
6:30 Morning practices including meditation/movement/outdoor time.
8:45 Breakfast and rest
10:30 Morning session (practical yoga philosophy/ meditative walks (if earlier morning practice was inside/ outdoor activities)
13:00 Lunch
15:30/16:00 Afternoon session (workshop classes/ practical yoga philosophy/ inquiry, movement, satsang)
18:00 Meditation
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Satsang
21:30 Quiet & rest

*Two days we will go for longer meditative hiking excursions after a slightly earlier breakfast, taking a picnic lunch and enjoying exploring more of the spectacular surroundings

*One day we may have an extended outdoor morning practice session including a longer walk from the house perhaps coming back for a brunch around 11am and then two afternoon sessions with a break in between with fruit and snacks available.

1. Click «Book now»: select your room and pay the 300 euro reservation deposit to Casa Cuadrau.
2. Once this deposit is paid you will receive an email with the instructions for step two:
   To send your 540 euro deposit to James Boag for his teachings fee.

These two payments will secure your place.

3. The final payment is made at the retreat and you can select basic, sustainable or generous rates according to your capacity and inclination.

Why is there a sliding scale for payment?

The deposit you pay to James goes towards covering his basic costs and honouring the teachings.

The Basic Rate paid to Casa Cuadrau + the initial reservation deposit is calculated to cover the basic costs of providing the retreat house and services we will enjoy at Casa Cuadrau.

The additional funds that come from Sustainable and Generous contributionsgo towards maintenance of the project, to support all involved in providing this type of opportunity, to continue to serve and to help maintain the house in the condition that makes it so supportive for this type of nourishing retreat experience.

Please be sure to book early to secure your place.