Greetings of the season! We hope you are enjoying abundant sunshine and a happy summer wherever you are.

Our 2008 Teacher Training Course summer class graduated two weeks ago – this was a group with high aspiration, exceptional initiative, and community spirit. We are very proud of them, their efforts and accomplishments, and hope this class will serve as a model to future groups! (Speaking of future groups, only three spaces remain for our Winter 2009 TTC; if you are considering it, we recommend you apply now!)

The TTC students spearheaded and stewarded a vegetable garden alongside free seminars in vegan cooking. They also taught belly dance and NIA dance to their fellow students, and took the initiative to replay Swami Vivekananda’s very inspiring 2004 weekly lecture series – a commentary on the Book of Matthew that forms the basis of his soon-to-be-published Jesus in the Eyes of Yoga. Meanwhile, other students, as trained specialists, taught workshops and classes in NLP, nonviolent communications, and Ashtanga Yoga this summer. In the next season, we will cultivate a more extensive “school of life” within our community, bringing out the teachers among us all in order to broaden the context of education within Agama. We hope that our students will share a wide variety of expertise and experience that contributes to our community, expanding what we are creating together and how we can help each other learn and grow.

The biggest news right now: we are at the doorstep of Swami’s third North American tour, which begins this week! See the tour schedule to synchronize with this year’s lectures and workshops in Toronto and Picton, Ontario, as well as Ottawa, Vancouver, and Monterrey, Mexico. Be sure to greet Mihaiela as well on her maiden voyage across the Big Pond! She will be presenting her widely acclaimed Complete Femininity Workshop at Wendy and Darin’s Shanti Yoga Retreat in Picton, Ontario.

And more great news for Europeans! Lilian will reopen her Agama center in Amsterdam in mid-September, and two new Agama teaching centers will open this autumn in Berlin and Budapest. With Swami teaching in North America this year, senior Agama teacher Moses will bring Tantra 1 and 2 workshops to these new centers, as well as to two locations in Switzerland in November/December. Manu will additionally teach a Tantra workshop in Madrid 4-5 October. See our European tour page for calendar and details, and tell your friends!

In more news from around the world, Monika will be presenting Tantra teachings and a Mystical Belly Dance Workshop with the help of Vered (“Rosie”) 11-20 September in Israel; Thomas and Ronela are teaching in Northern BC, Canada, while also building an ashram and Yoga hall (karma yogis are welcome to join the effort and greatly appreciated!); Khushru and Justine will reopen the Agama Rishikesh center (Trika Yoga) 29 September; Rafale and Yoav continue to offer Yoga courses in Vancouver and will also host Monika for Mystical Belly Dance 18-21 October; and Maureen is currently teaching First Month Intensive classes in Ottawa. Regrettably, Chiang Mai may close 14 September for a short hiatus, while we do some internal restructuring of the courses and center there; our apologies for any inconvenience and we will announce the new schedule to our website as soon as it becomes available.

You are of course welcome to join us for the low season on Koh Phangan! We remain open daily with monthly silent meditation retreats. Senior teacher Udi will lead 10-day Awakening the Crown Chakra Retreats in September and October (beginning the 18th of each month). In addition, we would like to announce to those who do not yet know that our yogi-friendly host resort, Ananda, has since early 2007 offered fully supported (and very widely praised – they are superb!) detox cleanses using Arise and Shine products. Contact resort owner and Agama student Vangelis to reserve your place on your next visit to the island.

We will shortly announce our workshop schedule for 2009 as well as hopefully provide a final announcement about our 2009 Guest Presenter Series.

Best of all possible worlds to you! We wish you days and lives filled with love and aspiration.

With love, Lori for Swami, Claudiu, and all of us here at Agama