THE NILGIRIS MEDITATION RETREAT

THE NILGIRIS MEDITATION RETREAT

Embodied Meditations from the

Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra 

A 3-Day Immersive Retreat with

Akanksha Damini Joshi

Small Group · Max 15 Participants

By Invitation Only

8–11 January 2026, Coonoor, Nilgiri Hills
Retreat Check-in 8 Jan 2026 by 2 PM

Retreat Check-out 11 Jan 2026 by 2 PM

There is a way of meditating that doesn’t ask you to withdraw from life. It asks you to enter it more deeply. To listen from within. To sense the body as the first doorway into awareness.

This retreat opens into that way.

Guided by the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, the ancient Kashmiri Shaiva text that reveals 112 doorways into existence, this retreat invites you to rediscover meditation through breath, touch, movement, sound, and the ordinary moments of a day.

Here, the sacred is not something distant. It shows itself quietly in gesture, in rhythm, in the pulse of the body, in the wind across the Nilgiris.

What this retreat offers

This is not a retreat of effort. It is a retreat of softening, of coming home to the senses, to the ground beneath your feet, to the simple intelligence of the body. Over three unhurried days, you’ll explore:

Dhāraṇās from the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra

Selected practices are introduced gently, first understood in essence, then entered directly. They reveal how awareness is woven into breath, movement, relationship, and life itself.

Somatic movement journeys

Quiet, internal movements that awaken sensitivity and settle the nervous system. These sessions help you feel spanda, the subtle pulse where the physical and the subtle meet.

Creative & group explorations

Playful, expressive moments that shift us from isolation to participation. Through mirroring, responsive movement, and shared creativity, we experience awareness as a field we inhabit together.

Celebratory relaxation sessions

Evenings open into humming, soft rhythm, gentle percussion, and heart-opening relaxation. Joy becomes a doorway into presence.

Nature connection

Walks through the Nilgiri hills invite you to sense the living earth as part of your own awareness. In Kashmir Shaivism, the 36 tattvas are not abstractions, they are the world itself, shining.

Evening circles

Simple, unforced spaces to listen, share, and let the day settle into meaning. This is meditation as participation and not escape. Meditation as intimacy with life.

Daily Rhythm

07:30 – 08:30 · Internal-awareness movement

08:30 – 09:30 · Breakfast & silent integration

10:00 – 13:00 · VBT explorations & meditations

13:30 – 15:30 · Lunch & quiet assimilation

15:30 – 17:30 · Creative movement & group practice

19:00 – 20:00 · Satsang · humming & relaxation

20:00 – 21:00 · Dinner

21:15 – 22:00 · Optional integration circle

22:30 · Lights out

Invitation & Participation

This retreat is primarily for those who already have some regular meditation or contemplative practice and feel a genuine pull to explore the embodied methods of the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra.

If you are relatively new to meditation but feel a strong, unexplainable resonance with Kashmir Shaivism or with the idea of meeting life itself as the meditation, please write to us – we welcome sincere beginners who sense they belong here.

We also joyfully invite scholars of Kashmir Shaivism who wish to move from theory into lived practice and, in time, share these teachings with others.

In short: if something in your heart quietly says “this is for me,” trust that feeling and reach out. We will listen and respond with care.

If it calls you, please tell us a bit about yourself through this form (takes 2 minutes) by 12 Dec 2025.

📝TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF IN THIS FORM | Click Here

If you have a reference we might both know, mentioning the name helps a lot.

We will read every application with care and personally confirm the final seats by 15 Dec 2025.

Because of the small group size, we may not be able to accommodate everyone who applies. If that happens, we will let you know, and keep you on a short priority wait-list for future gatherings.

Thank you for understanding.

Your travel to the Nilgiris will be at your own cost. Accommodation and food will be offered by us. All participants will be provided individual rooms.

If you feel moved to support the facilitator’s work, you may offer a guru dakṣiṇā at the end of the retreat. This is voluntary, arising from gratitude and personal resonance.

In all our offerings, we aim to create experiences that are transformative, authentic, aesthetic, unique, and deeply immersive. If you feel we lived up to these intentions, and if you are satisfied with the accommodation, the ambience, and the care with which you were hosted, you may consider offering a contribution of your choice to our not-for-profit trust. Your support helps us create more such retreats.

Looking forward 

Know Your Facilitator

Akanksha Damini Joshi

Meditation Facilitator & Somatic Movement Guide

Akanksha Damini Joshi is a meditation facilitator of 15 years, rooted in a personal contemplative practice spanning over 25 years. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, an internationally certified fitness instructor, and co-founder of the Center for Embodied Knowledge.   Her work sits at the meeting point of art, somatic intelligence, and meditative awareness. Through gentle dhāraṇās, creative movement, sensory exploration, and nature-based practices, she brings the timeless teachings of Kashmir Shaivism into a grounded, contemporary experience.