Spring Part 2 Course with Sri Sri

For those who have been waiting to go on a part 2 course in the presence of Sri Sri, wait no more. Here is the opportunity to attend a Spring Part 2 course with Sri Sri at the nation's capital.

Date: May 8th Thursday evening 7:00PM to May 12th Monday afternoon 3:00PM
Venue: Hyatt Regency, Crystal City VA (minutes from Washington DC National Airport)
Fees: Regular: $660; Seniors & students: $560 ($100 discount for 1st 300 participants by March 28)
Register: Online registration here
Prerequisite: Art of Living Part 1 course

Accommodation is available onsite at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The discounted room rate for Art of Living is $125+tax per room, per night. One room can accommodate up to 4 individuals. You can call 703-418-1234 and give the code "ART OF LIVING" or "YOGA" to get the group discount. You can also book online here.

Part 1 Courses for March and April

We have a daytime Art of Living part 1 course scheduled for March 24-28 in Westlake Hills. This is a unique course for Austin since the sessions will be from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm Monday through Friday. It's the perfect time for stay-at-home moms who have been unable to make it to the regular evenings and weekend schedule. (Details and registration)

The next regularly scheduled (ie. evenings and weekend) Art of Living part 1 course will be April 8th through 13th in Central Austin. (Details and registration)

Did you know? If you have done the Art of Living course once, you can repeat the course for a donation of your choice, anywhere in the world!

Change is in the Air

Thanks to all who responded to our survey two weeks ago and gave us feedback. Here are the biggest take-aways from the survey:

1. Saturday morning works well for long kriya; so does Sunday evening.
2. Thursday evening also works well for many people.
3. We need to watch more videos of Sri Sri’s talks.
4. We need to have community service activities.
5. We need more short refresher courses.

Based on all the responses we got, we are implementing the following changes:

1. We will change the Saturday morning long kriya start time to 8:30 am on an experimental basis. This will free up more time in the morning after the kriya is over. We will do this for six to eight weeks starting on Saturday April 5th.

2. Starting April 3rd, we will have a long kriya session at 7 pm on Thursday evenings at 1810 San Gabriel St, Austin TX 78701. This will again be on an experimental basis for six to eight weeks. You have the choice of attending this kriya session or the one on Saturday or the one on Sunday (need to attend only one per week).

3. Starting April, we will also have knowledge satsangs where we get together to watch Guruji share his wisdom. Watch this space for the schedule.

4. We will have a quarterly community service project starting May. Again, watch this space for the exact schedule.

5. We just had a great refresher course and mini-retreat at the ashram this past weekend. We will plan on having the next one in Austin, but this will be a few months out.

6. We will maintain a blog at http://aolaustin.blogspot.com where we will post events and news. That way you don’t have to wait for the newsletter to check up a course date or find out what’s happening.

Many survey respondents opined that they have too many family and work commitments, hence they may not find time every week for long kriya. If you are stretched thin, that's the best reason to come back to the sudarshan kriya practice and the stress-reliever knowledge in the first place. :) We are hoping that some of these changes will make it more comfortable for you to reinforce your daily and weekly practice.

Free Spring Break Refresher Course and Retreat

We have been busy planning a refresher course for the spring break weekend (March 15-16). We have 22 RSVPs so far, and the total capacity of this course is limited to 30.

Date: March 14-16 2008
Venue: Texas Ashram at Reagan Wells
Fee: None. Please donate to cover the cost of meals.
RSVP: Anoop Iyer (512-786-6871) or anoop@artoflivingaustin.org

Update on March 10: The number of RSVPs we have received is now at 29. We are increasing the course capacity to 35. This is going to be a fun-filled trip!

Presenting - The Art of Living Austin Blog

We are starting this new blog here as the common place for announcing our local events, courses announcements, photos, and other news. Visit us here again in the upcoming weeks as we populate and grow this space.

Our website at www.artoflivingaustin.org is still the first place to go for information about Art of Living's courses and events. This blog is intended to complement that website.

With best wishes from the entire Austin Art of Living family...