Nurture the Essential

Every transformation begins with the choice of what is planted.

There are things that only grow when they receive attention. A plant needs soil, water, light and time. A new skill needs practice. A body needs movement and rest. A mind needs to learn how to concentrate. A relationship needs presence.

In Yoga, we speak of samskāras and vāsanās — imprints and tendencies that take shape and grow stronger through what we live and repeat. What we do often becomes easier to do again. This can help us grow, but it can also bind us to patterns that no longer serve us.

Some seeds we choose. Others pass through us. Others were planted in us before we even knew how to choose.

In the image, the Gardener kneels close to the earth, attentive to a small plant. He is not contemplating a finished garden. He is caring, with great attention, for something that is only just beginning.

Because transformation does not happen all at once. It begins when we take on the responsibility of caring, day after day, for what we wish to see grow. You do not directly control the outcome. You control the conditions, and the quality of your action.

IV-III nimittam aprayojakaṃ prakṛtīnāṃ varaṇabhedas tu tataḥ kṣetrikavat

The farmer has a field that needs irrigation. He removes the barrier that keeps the water from reaching it. Once the obstacle is cleared, the water follows its own course, and whatever is meant to flourish, flourishes.

The farmer does not make the plant grow. The farmer creates the conditions for what can happen to happen.

Mauna · Deep Silence

We live surrounded by stimuli that continuously compete for our attention. Silence arises as a necessary pause from excess — not as an escape, but as a space of clarity. The Gardener represents intentional cultivation; Mauna represents the silence that lets us recognize what deserves to be cultivated.

Luciano Thomas

Born in Três Corações, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Luciano Thomas arrived in Curitiba at seventeen to study music and philosophy — but it was in the tradition of Yoga that he found the field of knowledge to which he would devote the next fifteen-plus years of his path. A teacher of Yoga and Yoga Therapy, he has deepened his extensive training in Brazil and abroad, seeking to truly understand the traditional teachings of Yoga and how they apply to the needs of our time.

In 2018, after completing his academic training and specialization in Yoga and Yoga Therapy, he began studying in Chennai, India, with Dr. N. Chandrasekaran, a world reference in Yoga Therapy, deepening over six years his study of the Krishnamacharya tradition, with an emphasis on Yoga Cikitsa. Alongside this, he studied with teachers such as Chase Bossart, Nrithya Jagannathan, Tom Myers, Micheline Flak, Sri S. Sridharan, and the science of Yoga with Bernie Clark, with whom he continues his studies to this day.

It was also during this period that he conceived and gradually built Mauna Floresta, with the help of many collaborators — at first meant simply as his own space for practice and study, and later as an extension of his school in Curitiba: a place to deepen and share with his students the knowledge and experience gathered along this path with his teachers. Today, Mauna brings together a school, spaces for practice, gatherings and lodging amid nature, welcoming students, teachers and groups interested in deepening their relationship with Yoga, with health, and with what is essential in life, through different paths.

His artistic path walks alongside this journey. Luciano is the author of the documentary Yoga: A Arte do Florescer (Yoga: The Art of Flourishing) and produced and directed the music video Além de Mim (Beyond Myself), created for Brazil's Yellow September suicide-prevention campaign. As a music producer, he took part in creating three albums with Hoo!, a project devoted to music connected to self-knowledge. He also released LooZ Mantra, featuring mantras from different traditions around the world. In 2026, he released the album O Barco & Oceano (The Boat & The Ocean), his boldest album yet, developed over five years drawing on the study of Yoga and Sāṃkhya, with special guest appearances by Ney Matogrosso on two tracks.

Main Training

International

• Yoga Therapist Training — Yoga Vaidya Sala, Dr. N. Chandrasekaran
  Chennai, India · 2018–2023 · 700h
• Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga Therapy — Dr. N. Chandrasekaran
  Brussels, Belgium · Internship 120h
• TTC Deepen Your Yoga — ViniYoga, Chase Bossart · EUA · 300h
• Science of Yoga & YY Teacher Training — Bernie Clark & Diana Batts
  Vancouver, Canada · 50h
• Certificate Course in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra — Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), Ms. Nrithya Jagannathan · India · 100h
• International Teacher Training — Kundalini Yoga Research Institute (KRI) · EUA · 200h
• ITM International Training — Thai Yoga, Levels I and II · Thailand · 40h
• ITM International Training — Lanna Stretching · Thailand · 15h
• Yoga Nidra Teacher Training — Micheline Flak · France · 20h

National (Brazil)

• Advanced Yoga Teacher Training, with an emphasis on Yoga Therapy · UNIBEM |MEC-Accredited| · 2,000h
• Postgraduate Degree in Physiology and Human Performance — UP · 360h
• Hatha Yoga & Meditation Instructor Training — Instituto Nanak · 200h
• Meditation Instructor Training — CYME · 65h
• Chiropractic Training — SeducIntec · 64h
• 4 Pillars of Ayurveda Training · 80h
• Philosophy of India — Dr. Danillo Costa · 100h
• Advanced Singing Course — EMBAP

Further Studies in Yoga, Philosophy and Tradition

International & Online

• Samkhya Karika Intensive — Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, S. Sridharan
  Chennai, India · 120h
• University of New York — Engineering Health: Introduction to Yoga and Physiology
• Samkhya Darshana Course — Prasad Rangnekar · India · 10h
• The Hatha Pradipika Course — Daniel Simpson · 12h
• Yoga & Functional Approach — Paul Grilley · EUA · 20h
• Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga — Simon Borg-Olivier · Australia · 24h
• The Science of Yoga — Tom Myers · Maine, EUA · 20h
• Physiology of Emotional Release — Tom Myers · Maine, EUA · 10h
• Anatomy for Yoga Teachers and Students — Tom Myers · 20h
• Unfolding Evolution — Levels 1–4 — Tom Myers
• Specialization in Dhrupad Singing — Ricardo Passos · Portugal · 20h
• Spices, Teas and Shots — Luciano Bruno · 20h

Other Achievements

Creator of the documentary Yoga: A Arte do Florescer (Yoga: The Art of Flourishing) and of the music video Além de Mim (Beyond Myself), produced and directed for Brazil's Yellow September suicide-prevention campaign.

Producer of five albums centered on music, meditation and self-knowledge:

• Yoga Nidra — 2013
• Cheio do Nada — 2014
• UNIversal — 2015
• LooZ Mantra — 2017
• O Barco & Oceano (The Boat & The Ocean) — 2026, featuring Ney Matogrosso

Adri Rivera

A graduate in Accounting Sciences from the Federal University of Paraná, with an MBI in Strategic Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence from PUC and an MBA in Financial Controllership from USP Ribeirão Preto, Adri Rivera spent 32 years building her professional career in the financial market.

Twelve of those years were at the former Banestado bank, and twenty at Banco Itaú, where she worked mainly in Credit Auditing, Model Auditing, and Audit Methodology. Along the way, she also took part in projects related to process management and people development.

Despite building a career in an essentially technical field, her interest was never only in the numbers, the controls, or the processes. It was always also in people — in listening, in conversation, in understanding different stories, and in noticing what lies behind the roles each of us plays.

In 2020, she closed this chapter in the financial market and began a new stage of life, opening more space for self-knowledge, spirituality, volunteer work, and other forms of care.

Along this path, she became actively involved in work related to Ayahuasca, contributing to the legal and organizational structuring of an institution, to the preparation of gatherings, and to the conducting of rituals. She completed two trainings focused on mediumship and sensitivity at Céu de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, and continues her studies and practices related to Taoism.

Another important expression of this journey emerged through cooking. Adri takes part in Sushi Vegano, in Curitiba, and finds in food yet another way to create, gather and care for others. At Mauna, she will also be involved in preparing some of the meals served during gatherings and retreats, drawing food, welcome and community closer together.

The same care extends to the land. The garden, the plants, and Mauna's spaces are part of her routine, and of an ever closer relationship with nature and with the small daily tasks that keep a place alive.

At Mauna, Adri takes part in managing and building the projects, but her place goes beyond organization. She loves welcoming those who arrive, hearing their stories, talking, cooking, caring for the space, and creating environments where people can feel welcomed and find time to look more closely at themselves.

This path now widens with the creation of gatherings and experiences involving Art Therapy, Ayahuasca, and other tools for personal and spiritual development, understood as possibilities for experience, reflection, and self-knowledge.

Her story brings together dimensions that for many years seemed to belong to different worlds: the precision of processes, an interest in people, spirituality, cooking, care for nature, and the pleasure of welcoming others.

At Mauna, all of these become part of a single cultivation: caring for people, for food, for the land, and for the conditions that allow something meaningful to flourish.