AGAMA YOGA'S JANUARY 2010 NEWSLETTER

We hope you enjoyed your holidays and also look forward, as we do, to a joyous and spiritually fulfilling new year!

We began the new season officially on 3 January, with our Grand Opening Party, unveiling the two Yoga halls at our new Srithanu campus, where we will in the coming season hold our workshops and retreats. The new campus also features a new restaurant, and in the future will be home to additional facilities, such as a retreat house, other new halls, a larger Health and Consultation Center, community space, etc.

Swami Vivekananda gave an opening address welcoming students, thanking all those in the local Thai community for their hospitality, and recognizing the contributions of all those who made this new home for Agama possible:

• PiChumnah, our landlord, from whom we leased this beautiful land for a long term
• Mr. Sin, the tireless and very competent contractor who built the halls
• PiPat, our friend and associate, who helped us with translation, many arrangements, and problem-solving
• Shadow, PiPat's husband, who was our primary architect
• Yogesh, who managed the construction with endless dedication and sharp oversight
• Kirsten, who assisted with the architectural planning and acted as Yogesh's right hand
• Ayla and Mithok, who led the landscaping efforts to transform the bare land surrounding the new halls into beautiful, prana-filled gardens
• Siegi and Holger, who spent a lot of energy outfitting the halls with green audio and lighting systems
• Mr. Chai, whom we thank for all his work on the electric installations
• Rainer, our general manager, who helped out in countless ways to keep the momentum going until the very end
• and the many, many karma yogis who pitched in on Seva Days and in free moments to build this dream into reality! Thank you all from the bottoms of our hearts!

We consider ourselves very fortunate to be adjacent neighbors of the esteemed Srithanu Monastery; we welcomed several monks who came to participate in our opening blessing. In the afternoon, schoolchildren from the monastery's school graciously performed some traditional Thai dances for everyone present.

In other announcements, our 2010 Winter Teacher Training Course began 4 January, with a harmonious group of enthusiastic aspiring Yoga teachers. We are also excited about our new season of workshops and retreats! A sample of winter offerings:

Awakening the Crown Chakra Retreat: 15-24 January
New! Parapsychology 3: Developing Absolute Control of the Subconscious Mind: 25-29 January
Tantra 1: 31 January-4 February
New! The Third Eye Retreat: 5-14 February
Mystical Belly Dance 1: 15-20 February
Invoking Angels Workshop: 22-26 February
Tantra 2: 28 February-4 March
Hridaya Retreat (Revelation of the Spiritual Heart): 5-14 March
Mystical Belly Dance 2: 15-20 March
Tantra 1: 28 March-1 April

We hope you can join us for these rare teachings! Many more workshops and retreats follow monthly throughout the high season of 2010. See Calendar for further details.

We'd like to give an overview of the internal facility improvements that took place during the low season:

At our new Srithanu campus, students are creating fascinating gardens, including a new vegetable garden; a new restaurant will open soon; a new and improved library - with many, many new books - will open soon; new mp3 players will be installed shortly; and we have a projector in planning (earmarked donations happily accepted!).

Ananda Hall got a makeover, with new plaster, fans, and two new toilets located just outside the hall. We also introduced new natural latex Yoga mats and new pillows.

At Bovy campus, mosquito nets and weather sheeting have been repaired or replaced where necessary; new mp3 players will soon be installed; we added new pillows; and natural Yoga mats are on the way!

To expand our student services, we opened our new Welcome and Registration Office, now open nearly all day; and we decided to build an online student database, both to help keep more systematic student and course records and to help inter-center recordkeeping.

TTCers now have a life-sized skeleton of "Walter" for anatomy classes. ☺

We've opened a newer, bigger Agama Shop at our new Srithanu campus, and an expanded Agama line of merchandise is in planning and will be unveiled during the 2010 season.

In addition, we have a few administrative announcements:

Workshop reattendance fees have been lowered to 2,000 Baht for the 2010 season to encourage our students even more to refresh themselves in the workshop material as they wish. We are happy to have the larger halls now to be able to extend this offer!

All students will now need to pass the appropriate sash exam required to enter each new block of curriculum teachings. For example, a student must pass the Red Sash Exam in order to enter Course Level 4. This exam is offered every four weeks on the last Saturday of the course cycle; it will next be held on 30 January at 12:00, Shakti Hall. The Orange Sash Exam, which will be held on the same date at 12:00 in Shiva Hall, must be passed by those seeking to join Course Level 9, and so on. All exams are held on the Saturday just preceding the course for which they form an admission requirement.

Our new Welcome and Registration Office at Ananda Wellness Resort is now open Monday through Saturday from 8:00-14:00 and 15:30-18:00. You may now register here in advance for any event or course at any time it is convenient for you. In addition, new students are encouraged to come directly to this office for orientation and assistance upon arrival.

All students are requested to visit this link for self-registration to our database, where they will be prompted to fill out their student profiles, emergency contact data, and other details. This integration of all students to our new MindBodyOnline database is essential as we try to create a more efficient system for managing attendance, student records, etc. Thank you for your cooperation!

We have discontinued the program of Karma Yoga discounting in favor of supported positions which require a greater time commitment, more longevity in positions, and a larger scope of responsibility. There was too much administration required with too little continuity in the former structure. If you would like to involve yourself more deeply in service for our community, please apply to Rainer, the General Manager, with your resumé and interests; we will contact you further if your talents and interests fit with an open position. In addition, we continue to welcome Karma Yoga contributions to the running of our yogi community! We always need and appreciate your help, no matter how large or small the effort, toward the smooth workings of our nonprofit operations.

The Agama Yoga Health and Consultation Center is again open and welcomes all students, as well as the public, to receive naturopathic, homeopathic, and Yogic consultations, alternative therapies (such as acupuncture, Yogic chiropractic, cranio-sacral therapy, sound therapy, Reiki, etc.), massage, and other treatments on a minimum donation basis. If you are a healer in natural therapies and wish to offer service to others as Karma Yoga or on a minimum donation basis, please contact Center Director Mihaiela Pentiuc: mihaiela@agamayoga.com. For all other questions, please contact Manager Kathleen: kathleen@agamayoga.com.

Alongside all this encouraging news from our island headquarters, we warmly invite you to study with us in Thailand this season. Of course we also welcome you to visit all the ongoing courses and classes led by dedicated Agama teachers around the world! Please visit our teaching centers and studios in UK (Bristol and new classes in London), Amsterdam and new classes in the Hague, Hungary, Mexico, Israel, Vancouver, and of course, Rishikesh, India.

We look forward to seeing you in 2010!

Love and blessings from all of us,
Lori for Agama Yoga