Guest Yoga Master - Fall 2008 Level 2 Programs

Swami Vivekananda Saraswati

Born in 1962, Swami Vivekananda Saraswati is the brilliant exponent of a unique and modern trend of thinking in Yoga. Educated as an electrical engineer, he is a passionate and dedicated teacher of the true, ancient lines of Indian and Tibetan Yoga, rapidly becoming lost in today's "spiritual marketplace."

Although he does not deviate in spirit from the traditional teachings of ancient masters, he has found the resources to present spirituality not as something dogmatic and dead, but as a living science, based on common sense and joy, which at the same time fulfills the fundamental quest of man.

He first studied spiritual sciences at the age of 16 with his first spiritual mentor and, by the onset of university studies three years later, had begun intense yogic and tantric practice under the guidance of his first guru. During the Communist period of the 1980s, Romanian Yoga teachers suffered severe persecution (arrests, torture, beatings, etc.), and Swami was one of those who shared this fate. In 1990 he moved to Copenhagen where he founded NATHA, now Denmark's largest Yoga school. In 1998, Swami Vivekananda - a gold medalist in the Physics Olympics who was also accepted for membership to Mensa International - took full sannyasa vows at the Kumbha Mela in India, at which time his diksha guru gave him his new and famous name representing discriminating insight. Subsequently, he spent four years in India, where he taught in Rishikesh, and was so well regarded that the Indian government found him best qualified to represent Yoga at its International Yoga Week!

While restrained by a modesty that prevents him from discussing it often, Swami Vivekananda has reached high states of spiritual realization and samadhi, and therefore can offer a proven path to spiritual accomplishment and does so in well-articulated concepts. He is one of the few Western tantric teachers well versed in Kundalini Yoga and Gnostic Christianity, and even specializing in the intensely spiritual Tantra Yoga of Kashmir Shaivism. His genius is in giving a coherent representation of world spirituality in an impeccably practical form.

In the middle of an intense teaching schedule, Swami is calm and tireless. One moment he is healing (he is a practitioner of chiropractic and other healing methods), another moment lecturing on subjects outside the courses or giving direct initiations to a class, sometimes demonstrating asanas or pranayama, other times discussing personal life problems with pupils, possibly in their own language (he speaks five). He inspires with his personal example, with examples from history, quoting uninterruptedly from scores of ancient texts and spiritual masters - and with a great sense of humor.

This exceptional man, who has dedicated his life to guiding others along this pure and true spiritual path, is regarded by his pupils as a highly realized, beloved Yoga master and gifted teacher.

Workshops taught by Swami Vivekananda Saraswati

See Workshop Page for dates & timesTantra 1

The esoteric Tantra 1 teachings are presented in a coherent, step-by-step approach, well adapted to the Western mentality without losing their original mystique and richness. The mysteries and secrets of spiritual eroticism are presented in conjunction with the relevant information from Yoga, Chinese Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, alchemy, and Middle Eastern Imsak. Printed supplemental material is provided, and the workshops are marked by many exemplifications, meditations, and initiations (energy inductions). Videos on relevant topics are presented whenever possible. The course keeps a commitment to a clear and elevated level of communication, but there are no explicit presentations or nudity whatsoever.

Tantra 1 is consecrated mostly to theory, training, and practical issues for the individual. Tantra 2 follows with more in-depth treatments and covering mostly couple-practice issues.

The syllabus for Tantra 1 includes these subjects:

1. modern Sexology
2. the difference and separation between orgasm and ejaculation
3. analysis of the curves of pleasure and methods of retention/control of the sexual energy
4. the different forms of orgasm
5. meditations of transmutation-sublimation of the sexual energy
6. Hatha Yoga relevant to the tantric practice
7. healing
8. medical correlations with Tantra
9. specific forms of training for men and for women
10. study of the tantric sexual union.

The course includes all the necessary knowledge for participants to start mastering tantric sexuality.

HERE ARE SOME PAST PARTICIPANTS' COMMENTS:

"Wow! When something so obvious has been staring you in the face for so long, you can't help feeling a bit stupid for not working it out yourself. The way I relate to my body and my girlfriend's needs and desires has been destroyed and rebuilt. Thankyou so much... I feel like a man, now" - Anonymous

"Lovemaking has always been a difficult issue for me, but I have an understanding of what it really is now, so much more elevated and beautiful - an expression of the divine. This workshop should be taught in schools." - Henrietta Spooner - USA

See Workshop Page for dates & timesTantra 2

The Tantra 2 workshop builds on the foundations established in Tantra 1. This workshop explores the depths of tantric lovemaking, and covers the following issues:

1. teachings from the Kama Sutra (postures, erogenous zones, techniques, principles of pleasure)
2. methods for enhancing virility and removing frigidity
3. reshaping parts of the body (including the genitals)
4. the specific tantric postures of lovemaking
5. birth control, fertility, and maternity in Tantra
6. oral sex and its tantric techniques
7. collective eroticism
8. love vs. possessiveness
9. sexual freedom and social taboos
10. astrology and Tantra
11. transfiguration
12. alchemy.

The intense teachings of Tantra 2 reach a profound spiritual level of sexuality intended for the victory of the couple relationship. To participate in Tantra 2, you must first study Tantra 1.

HERE ARE SOME PAST PARTICIPANTS' COMMENTS:

"I think this can only have a beneficial effect on all people in society, young, old, whatever race, nationality, whether they're spiritual practitioners or not. I think everyone should do a Tantra workshop; it will enhance everyone's lovemaking in some way." - Anthony Gordon, Australia

"I realized things I didn't know before, especially about women and orgasm, and it made sex more exciting. People really have the chance to find a new relationship to their sexuality and their body, and to see that there is much more behind Tantra - most people don't know it." - Julia Koch, Switzerland

See Workshop Page for dates & timesParapsychology 1

This workshop explores two main topics in depth:

1. clairvoyance (seeing beyond the normal);
2. astral projection (travel in the astral body, as well as lucid dreaming).

The term "parapsychology" is generally credited as being the scientific study of the paranormal or of extraordinary phenomena. Here at Agama we are very interested in the powers of the mind and of the subtle energies of nature, so this workshop similarly is a study of what is known and understood scientifically, relying on rational understanding.

We will outline the best methods known in Yoga for practicing and training in these two exceptional fields of study.

See Workshop Page for dates & timesTHE ART OF DYING - Bardo Thodol Rites and Training

An enlightened approach to death and dying. Explore the Tibetan Bardo Thodol rites and training. Lectures, initiations, meditations, practice, Hatha Yoga.

This workshop could be the first in the world to address a very important gap in modern times: the spiritual preparation for death, one of life's greatest passages.

Today, especially with the secularization of daily life, we are witnessing an appalling carelessness about the phenomenon of death, as well as a deep spiritual ignorance about its meaning, which is illustrated most often by the cloud of taboo and embarrassment surrounding the subject. The contrast between our great attention to birth - a new child benefiting from both the assistance of its mother and qualified medical personnel or midwives in an air of celebration - and our cold, medical treatment of the dying is reason enough to highlight the need for this workshop. The Art of Dying intends to change this focus, not only to teach an understanding of the process of death using the Bardo Thodol, the centuries-practiced Tibetan manual of dying, but also to provide training to pass to the other side in a spiritual manner and to help others go through this process.

Yogis consider that dying is a very important process from the standpoint of one's spiritual evolution and future destiny. Therefore, we accept that we will first learn the process of death, and consequently we will train for it so that when it arrives, we are prepared to look it in the eye and make the best of it, spiritually, beneficially. Hence, the first purpose of the course is to train individuals to eliminate fears, to identify and recognize the process of death, to do away with misunderstandings, and to be given yogic training to prepare for death during this lifetime using methods both from Indian and Tibetan Yoga. Aside from this, the course has the ambitious goal to train people not only to deal with their own death - mastering the tools offered, and producing effects energetically to assist in their own deaths - but at the same time to learn to help loved ones die more easily, more happily, more consciously, and with more dignity. It is envisioned that the course may inspire students toward an interest or vocation in a new spiritual era of hospice care. Thus, people who perhaps did not train at all spiritually in life may be helped to a more spiritual fate.

The course will use physical methods from Yoga, breathing technology, mantras, secret tantric meditations, Tibetan techniques, methods from parapsychology, as well as a wide array of other resources, such as shamanic processes.