PORTLAND

oward Boster was named Director of theInstitute last winter and has implementedseveral changes in our ongoing programs.

One significant change in our schedule was therestructured Monday night program. Thatprogram began last fall with Swamiji giv-ing a series of Monday night talks.Howard Boster and Sharon Ward nowlead the program on alternate weeks. Theprogram includes chanting (“Om NamahShivaya”), a short talk on some aspect ofour practice, and guided meditation. Itcontinues to attract as many as 30 newpeople each week and has created awhole new flow for the community.

Right before the 3 Gurus, Swamiji re-turned to Bend for another evening talkat the Spiritual Awareness Community, with a veryenthusiastic crowd. He talked about the processof developing spiritual awareness. Severalstudents from Bend came to the 3 Gurus program,and a number have been coming regularly toPortland.

In Portland this fall, Swamiji has been working in-tensely, spending four nights a week in programswith us and doing many special pujas for individ-uals. He also gave a very inspiring series of talksabout the four pillars of our practice: the wish togrow, the teacher, circulating the energy, andservice. The first installment of these talks is nowavailableon the NityanandaInstitute website at

http://www.nityanandainstitute.org/articles_here_to_grow.php.Swamiji is returning to Tibet House in Manhattanfor four nights of programs in early December: atalk on Dynamic Stillness and three nights of

open-eye class.He’ll return toPortland shortlybefore the yearend retreat.

One of theexciting devel-opments fromthe 3 Gurus isthe beginningof an informale x c h a n g eprogram with

the Shiva Ashram. In the spring, SwamiShankarananda invited Andrew and Becky Bon-ner to spend two weeks in Australia teaching anddemonstrating homeopathy and osteopathy.They received rave reviews from everyone whoparticipated.

In return, Swamiji invited MaDevi Saraswati, assistant toSwami Shankarananda at theShiva Ashram in Melbourne,Australia to Portland to teacha month-long course inthe Shiva Process. ShivaProcess is a technique of self-inquiry developed by Swami

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2006Year EndReport

ONGOING PROGRAMS, THE MOVEMENT CENTER AND RUDRA PRESS

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Shankarananda in collaboration with Ma Devi.The series included three lectures each week andopportunities for participation in small group in-quiry sessions. Ma Devi facilitated a training forstudents to lead other Shiva process groups, andwas available for private sessions with individualstudents who wanted to experience the work. Shewas wonderful company, and we were very sorryto see her return to Australia.

Students at the Institute continued work on prac-tices to support the sick, including a new groupof trainees for the 100 Handprint practice. Thepractice is now done with the Chöd every Fridaynight in the meditation hall beginning at 6:00 pm,and everyone in the community is invited to at-tend. Chöd practitioners are welcome to partici-pate in the Chöd portion of the practice. TheMarchungma sadhana is practiced on Saturdaysbefore class.

We added a new course for beginning students tothe Institute curriculum: a four week programcalled “Elements of Trika Yoga Meditation.” Thecourse is designed to give students a foundation inthe basics of our meditation practice in four seg-ments: breath, chakras, flow and presence. Theformat includes lecture and a period of guidedmeditation. The course was offered for the firsttime in June, and over 30 people enrolled in the

second session of the course that was held inOctober. Feedback from students has been verypositive.

The eight week Introduction to Trika Yoga coursewas offered in the early spring. That program is anoverview of all of the tools of our practice, frommeditation to hatha yoga to chanting and mantra.About 15 students attended, and a number arecoming to practice at the Institute.

We continue to practice the Queen of Great Blisspuja together once a month. We have a number ofmembers who make donations for the offeringsand decorations, so every month we can have abeautiful event. The last puja was on ThanksgivingDay, and it was a fitting way to begin the holiday.Both Swamiji and Ma Devi joined us for the pujaand the traditional holiday feast that followed.

THE MOVEMENT CENTER

Although 2006 was a relatively quiet year for thehatha yoga program, there has been an upsurgeof interest in our classes. Both the quality of ourstudents and our teaching is increasing. We haveexpanded our advertising and marketing efforts tohelp grow our student base. The momentum isbuilding for a great year in 2007.

There were a number of additions to the Move-ment Center curriculum. Ruth Knight introduceda Beginner’s Immersion series in which new stu-dents would attend classes three days a week overa two or three week period to get a foundation fora yoga practice. Ruth also developed a “BreathingWell” workshop designed to provide tools to facil-itate conscious, healthy breathing. Laura Wash-ington introduced a new workshop and classcalled “Perfect Fit Yoga,” which approaches issuesof body weight and body image from a holisticperspective. During the summer months, PamelaRico and Mindy Montague teamed up to offer afamily yoga class on Saturday mornings outdoorsunder the large tulip tree on the south lawn.

There was a week of special yoga and meditationprograms in March, featuring a number ofworkshops and presentations onmeditation, the philoso-phy of Trika yoga andmystical poetry. Be onthe lookout for a re-designed MovementCenter website early nextyear, and a hatha teachertraining program coming inthe fall of 2007.

RUDRA PRESS

Rudra Press products are offered throughAmazon.com as well as the Rudra Press website,and are now distributed through New Leaf. OurPrenatal Yoga: A Complete Home Practice DVDreceived an Editor’s Choice award from Fit Preg-nancy magazine. Sales of the prenatal yoga prod-ucts topped 2,200 units, and overall sales forRudra Press increased by 200 percent this year.

We released the Gitartha-Samgraha, a commen-tary on the Bhagavad Gita by Abhinavagupta,translated by Boris Marjanovich. Work on Spiri-tual Cannibalism, with a new introduction bySwamiji and a return to the format of the original

edition, is nearing completion. A DVD ofthe 3 Gurus 2006 is expected to be re-leased shortly, and Sarah Mocas is veryclose to completing the Art of ChödDVD.

Also in the editorial process are a re-vised version of Kamalakar Mishra’sKashmir Shaivism, Lion of Siddhas,a book about Padampa Sangye’slife and teachings, and atranslation of Abhinavagupta’sTantrasara by Boris Mar-janovich. Boris Marjanovich iscurrently working on a transla-tion of the Stavacintamani ofBhattanaryana, an importantShaiva text that is a compo-sition of verses in praise ofShiva.

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