It has been a truly lovely February here on Koh Phangan in terms of the weather, the most pleasant in memory. We have not reached the humid spring days yet and cool ocean breezes keep the air fresh and clear.

It is leap day here in Thailand and around the world. We just concluded the first Revelation of the Spiritual Heart Retreat of 2008, and our hearts are really leaping for joy! It was a very beautiful and deep 10 days of silence, profound inner searching, and stilling of the mind. Some participants shared their experiences following the retreat, that they had gone deeper in their meditations than ever before, that they had realized their own timeless connection, their Oneness, with the Spiritual Heart - so close, it is nearer than the breath.... The group energy was very strong and after it all, we gave great thanks for this amazing opportunity with Claudiu, Swami's longtime colleague who joined us as a guest senior teacher in 2007. This retreat will be held beginning on the 18th of each month until July, and we invite you to join - once or often! We truly believe this opportunity for meditative immersion is a rare treasure, a gift to give ourselves in the now....

Agama will begin to introduce progressive discounting for students who wish to attend multiple retreats over the course of the season, and we are looking into all possible ways to support students and teachers in their options for attending retreats with greater frequency. We started by introducing in mid-February an exemption to our attendance standard for those who will attend, reducing our standard of 75% to 62% only for those attending (who, after all, make up their missed attendance in part with their 100 hours of Yoga during the retreat). In this way students will not have to choose between attending a retreat and maintaining their good standing to progress through the curriculum, although missed courses and initiations must still be made up at a later time.

We also registered today more than 100 students for March course levels 2 and up, a record number for Agama (a more than 50% increase over this day last year!). We are excited to welcome so many students to study with us at our humble home by the sea in Thailand. We already added a fourth Yoga hall in February to accommodate the greater number of class groups; we are currently offering 12 levels of the course in addition to the First Month Intensive and our winter Teacher Training Course.

Speaking of TTC, seven spaces remain in our summer course for those who are interested. If this is you, apply soon! Our current class of 2008 TTC participants continues to surprise and impress us. We expect an excellent group of teachers to graduate four weeks from tomorrow! In addition, we happily announce our new status as an RYS-500 registered school with both Yoga Alliance and the International Yoga Federation.

In February, for the first time a large group of students (36) petitioned us to hold a Tantra 1 Workshop, our introduction to essential Tantra studies and practice, focusing on individual energetic and practical issues. Agama met this request with its five-day workshop, followed by a delightful and very fun Tantric Valentines' Party, with a DJ, dancing, and spiritual games into the wee hours at charming Bovy Resort. We will reprise this workshop twice more here during 2008: 1-5 April and 19-23 August. We also hold the companion workshop, Tantra 2, 29 April-3 May. For our full roster of spring workshops, including updates since the January newsletter, see http://www.agamayoga.com/calendar/. Senior Agama teacher Monika officially kicks off the workshop season, bringing a special treat to the shaktis of Koh Phangan 10-15 March, with her Mystical Belly Dance Workshop, a fusion of traditional Middle Eastern fantasy dance and applications from Tantric Yoga.

We will be thinking of all of you on 6 March (23:00-24:00 Thailand time) as we hold our next synchronized meditation in honor of Mahashivaratri. Best wishes to all of you as a new cycle begins under the watchful eyes of Shiva.... May God bless and inspire us.

With love,
Lori for Agama