Who ?
My name is Emmanuel Mougenot or Manu Akshobhia
Born in Belgium in 1973. I got introduced to Yoga by my mother at a very early age, she became a yoga teacher when I was a kid. I studied Western Philosophy in ULB, trained to become a philosophy and ethics teacher. That is also when I started to read more about spirituality, attending various regular yoga classes, Tai Chi and starting daily meditation practice. After my study, I got involved in University researches on Sustainable development and communication.
My first stronger spiritual opening was my first trip to India in 1995. It was such a beautiful and intense process to discover 'Mama India', especially Rishikesh, Varanasi and the Holy Ganga River, a feeling of coming Home and opening to some profound experiences of spiritual awakening. After this, I got the deep calling to immerse myself more profoundly in the spiritual path and explore the Eastern approach of Philosophy and its various practices. I spent most of my time from 2000 to 2017 in India and Thailand to deepen this quest. I have been practicing various forms of Yoga (Sivananda, Hatha, Kundalini, Nada, Bhakti, Karma, Raja, Tantra, etc.) and different meditative approaches from the Shivaite tradition, the Advaita tradition, the Buddhist tradition (Tibetan Buddhism, Goenka Vipassana).
From 2000 to 2015, I have attended the complete curriculum and taught numerous years in the school of Agama Yoga based in Thailand. For various reasons, I am now completely detached from it, but I am never the less really grateful for all that I have learned and what I have received there.
Since 2006, intensive trainings and sadhanas in the right hand tantric ritual practices with the direct guidance of Guruji Rajkumar Baswar (a tantric Master from Maharashtra, at the center of India), a deep and long immersion in the core of the Indian tantric tradition. I was the first Western disciple to meet him along with Monika Nataraj and to introduce him to a Western audience. For 12 years, we organized many important Pujas (spiritual pilgrimages) together, sometimes with more than 100 people coming from all over the world to participate. These pujas were intense transformational processes. They included visits to various important spiritual places in India (Amernath, Kamakya, Tarapith, Puri, Rameshwaram). They included intensive practice of mantras, powerful fire ceremonies (yagnas), various purification rituals using various medicinal herbs to cover the body (samskars), the use of yantras (symbolic figures), the use of the power of sacred sites in India to amplify the effects, the energy of the group, etc. For more information about Rajkumar Baswar, his path and practices click here.
From 2007 to 2014, seasonally, for 3, 4 months a year, we had our own yoga school, in India, in Bhagsu, Dharamsala, with Monika Nataraj, teaching month intensives, retreats and workshops.
Since 2007, attending teachings and receiving initiations in Tibetan Buddhist practices from various teachers mostly in Dharamsala, India, from the Dalai Lama, Karmapa, Chomtrul Rimpoche.
Since 2007, I have participated to numerous silent meditation retreats under the guidance of Sahajananda and the Hridaya Yoga school. Sahaja was the first to introduce me to the teaching of Ramana Maharishi for which I am extremely grateful. For more info about Hridaya yoga, click here.
Ramana Maharishi's influence has continued to permeate my spiritual path through the teachings of Mooji (since 2009) and Gangaji (more recently), both of which are directly in the tradition of Ramana Maharishi and Papaji. For more information on Mooji: www.mooji.org and on Gangaji: www.Gangaji.org
Since 2009, I dedicate myself to follow eagerly the teaching of the Saccha lineage of Maharaji and the Path of the Heart of Prem baba (direct disciple of Maharaji from Brazil). The approach of the path of the Heart and the Prem Baba academy explores the connection between spirituality and psychology. It works on awakening the Heart, the healing power of love, by recognising our false identifications, embracing the shadow sides of ourselves and progressively healing from our sense of separation. For more info about Prem Baba, click here.
These are some of the main step stones on my path. I also have been deeply touched by the teachings of Claude Laurent (Belgian Zen Buddhist master), Amma, Dolano, Gangaji, Daniel Odier, Bettina Baumer, Orush Baba (Turkish Sufi master), Rupert Spira, André Riehl and many others. I'm always eager to open and tune in with new expressions of Truth. I'm eternally grateful of the chance I had to have met so many genuine teachers and teachings from various traditions.
The common thread that has guided me in this quest is the recognition of the Spiritual Heart and the stabilization of this recognition in everyday life, which also includes the purification of the ego and the harmonization of the personality. How to open ourselves to the deepest spiritual dimension within us and at the same time become a better human being.
I have been teaching intensive yoga and meditation programs: 3 months Yoga Teacher training courses, various types of intensive workshops (2-7 days), meditation silent retreats (3-10 days) in various countries: India, Thailand, Holland, Belgium, France, Swizterland, Spain, Turkey, Canada, (for more info about the various workshops, retreats click here.)
From 2018 to to 2023, we established with my partner Ruth Zueblin in France, in Isère, close to the Lac of Paladru, a beautiful green hilly region and have established the centre Amata. For various reasons, we decided to stop our activity there.
Since 2023, we choose to move location, we are still in France but in Haute-Garonne, in the Cathares country, close to Saint Felix-de-Lauragais. More information will be available soon on our future activities there.