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Sat Naam Dear Teacher Trainers,

• Exploring Conscious Change – As the world around us is transforming so must we continue evolving our current decision making processes to design a truly collaborative world-wide system.  In an effort to move in this direction, instead of having our April TTEC meeting online as originally planned, we will look for a professional third party facilitator to help us design and then run an inclusive and transparent process for setting up a new KRI decision making system. The professional facilitator (or facilitator team) will need to meet the following criteria:
  • Experienced in facilitating large group processes, ideally with a variety of methodologies
  • Demonstrated passion for inclusive and transparent systems, and experience helping organizations find the right processes for them
  • Able to advise and guide communities to an appropriate balance of full inclusivity (slow) and delegated decision-making authority (more efficient)
  • Experienced in helping groups to design decision making processes
  • Experience working with spiritual communities
  • Experience working globally – being sensitive to the challenges of language, time-zones and cultural differences
  • Ideally experienced in planning and facilitating online group processes, not only in-person

Once we find the appropriate professionals to support the process, the next step will be the planning phase. The goal of the first phase will be to attain collective agreement on how we will make decisions going forward, and to clarify the scope of change that needs to happen. From there, we will be able to work on such initiatives as: how to begin finalizing the new edition of The Aquarian Teacher, decide what changes we need to be made to our certification requirements, etc.

The new process we will develop together will be a process to serve us in the long term as a worldwide community.  It is not limited to updating the training manual and training requirements. We are looking to involve stakeholders beyond trainers, such as teachers, in this decision making process. This will be an upgrade to how KRI functions, ensuring that KRI serves its worldwide community, and remains relevant and responsive to our times and able to continue to deliver the teachings in their integrity to future generations.  

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• Tips for more effective online trainings – 
  • Ask the group to keep the focus on the training (i.e., put away cell phone and don’t deviate into doing emails)
  • Ask the group to keep video on and gallery view open so you and everyone can be “seen” during dialogue times
  • Encourage the group to use the “chat” function; encourage them to use chats to ask questions AND pass notes to each other in class by sending private messages. Obviously not to the point of distraction but a small amount helps them keep going with the organic relationships of the in person experience.

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• Updates from the Collaborative Response Team – Zoom Call – Shanti Kaur and Sat Nam Singh from the Collaborative Response Team will join members of the Aquarian Trainer Academy on zoom calls for an informational update on the work of the Collaborative Response Team and a review of the issues regarding allegations of misconduct against Yogi Bhajan. They will be available to answer questions.  The remaining dates/times for these calls are Thursday, April 9 from 9 AM to 10:30 AM New Mexico Time and Thursday, April 9 from 5 PM to 6:30 pm New Mexico Time, and the zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/5254726198.

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• The Aquarian Teacher en español now available digitally – Those of you who are in a Spanish speaking country will be receiving a complimentary copy shortly, with instructions about how you can order them for your future trainings.  If you don’t see anything related to this in your email, please email KRI’s translation coordinator, HariShabad Kaur.  When the next edition of this manual is ready, these digital copies will automatically be updated.

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• North American Level Three Mela will be online this year! – We are working with participants to create an online experience for the Level 3 mela this year in June.  Depending on what happens with the European Yoga Festival, we will either have the mela in person, as planned, or move that one online as well.  If you are in Level Three already, or planning to begin this year, please look for details in your emails!

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• More free resources for Teacher Trainers!
  • 6-part webinar on Pedagogy – how to keep adult learners engaged.  Attend live or watch the recordings.  Practical suggestions on how to make lecturing more in line with the neuroscience of how adults learn, and how this knowledge can be carried into action in Level One Teacher Trainings.
  • Transformational Learning Online with Lorenz & Natasha, Sutra’s creators.  Tools and tips to teach online and engage people in a truly meaningful way!  Join us for this live webinar with Lorenz and Natasha Sell, watch the recording one week later: Tuesday April 7th 10 AM EST (New York City) and 15:00 (GMT+1 London) British Summer Time.  The link to join the live presentation is: https://zoom.us/j/3131045746.

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• Changes to our ongoing Zoom calls – Next week KRI will schedule zoom in different countries or groups of countries for trainers instead of the open zoom calls that we sponsored for the past two weeks.  Hari Charn Kaur will reach out to establish times for the calls.  The calls for South America will be in Spanish or with Spanish translation.  We want to continue to hear all voices and to support each trainer though these challenging times.  

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• New zoom link for the ongoing, global, healing meditation – The Global Ra-Ma-Da-Sa meditation is continuing through May 25^th.  You, and anyone in your community (so please share this link!), can join a zoom call to meditate together at 6:30am Mountain Daylight time here:

https://zoom.us/j/551818097?pwd=VXY1eWZaU1NqV2NHblNNUXZ0OUZOUT09

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• Yoga Alliance’s online training best practices – As it is helpful, check out Yoga Alliance’s online training best practices here.

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• Grants available for US based yoga teachers with income lost due to COVID-19 – More info and to apply can be found at the website for Reclamation Ventures here.

Sat Naam Dear Teacher Trainers,

In this unprecedented time of upheaval and of change, staying safe and staying connected are so important.  Together we can move through these times, strengthen our connection to one another globally and evolve and transform our lives and our collective culture. We believe in the power of these teachings and their importance during these times of challenge.  

Staying safe right now demands that most of us stay home but it does not mean we need to be isolated from our community of trainers, teachers and students.  We can support one another through these times. 

 KRI wants to support this growing interconnection between members of our global community.  To do this we are hosting the healing meditation each day (see info and link below), and we hope that this bulletin can grow as a clearinghouse of links to other free meditations.  Please send any links we could include to Hari Charn Kaur.

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• Keeping all Kundalini Yoga practitioners safe – The office of EPS, led by Guruka Kaur, has been spearheading our institutional efforts to make sure that our communities are safe from unethical behavior by teachers, trainers, and ministers. This multi-year effort has yielded significant results. Among them, structures have been set in place to hear and resolve complaints, procedures have been implemented to process them, and remedies have been defined and administered to reach resolutions. 

This office also recognized that education was a critical part of our collective efforts to prevent unethical behavior, abuse, and bullying. Last year an EPS culture of ethics committee, made up of volunteers from around the world, was formed to develop a Sexual Harassment & Ethics training strategy (prior to recent allegations) that would help teachers, trainers, and ministers prevent and address these behaviors. This work is still in progress, but a concerted effort is being made to have this course ready in a few months.

However, given the recent allegations and the calls from many community members, EPS and KRI recognize that the above measures are just part of the solution. We hear that more needs to be done, and soon.

We believe this work is a priority because we are committed to fostering a culture of trust and safety in our communities, free from bullying, abuse, harassment, and unethical behavior.

EPS, KRI, and a group of volunteers who have experience in this area have begun to work together to improve our collective understanding of these issues, explore how our institutions must change to support this goal, educate our communities about these issues, and improve the way we communicate these efforts to support trust in our institutions.

If you have any suggestions or comments or would like to be part of this effort and lend your expertise in this area, please email Amrit Singh.

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• Webinars to support you – KRI warmly invites all Academy members to participate for free in our Aquarian Development Series: Professional Development for Teacher Trainers. Please know that you will need to log into for Sutra (an ad free platform) where we host our webinars. You can see our entire course catalogue here.  You can join live, or watch the recordings.  Some examples of available courses are:
  •  Cold depression; Finding Hope in Isolation
  • Pedagogy: The Fine Art of Teaching Adult Learners
  • Legacy & Lineage of Kundalini Yoga
  • Best Practices for Teaching Online
  • What do I Say? LGBTQI+ Inclusion in KY Teaching
  • Coronavirus: What to Do!
• Exploring Conscious Change – Collective decision making is important to move forward.  We are asking for volunteers for a small working group to research possible inclusive group processes that can be used for our collective decision making to move forward.  Following the research, options will be presented to the Aquarian Trainer Academy.  This working group will not be making any decisions.  If you have expertise to offer in designing an Aquarian, inclusive, decision making process for us, please fill out this very short Google Form.
• Global Healing Meditation – KRI wants to support this growing interconnection between members of our global community.  Reminder – the global healing meditation is happening live, on zoom, at 6:30am Mountain Daylight Time (e.g., Denver, CO) each day.  You can join in here.  
• Research into the effects of yoga and meditation on anxiety – In these uncertain times, our practice is more important than ever.  Check out this summary article, from a previous KRI monthly newsletter, about the science behind the efficacy of yoga and meditation in dealing with Generalized Anxiety.
• Optimizing Online Trainings – As announced in last week’s trainer update, we are allowing you to hold your scheduled teacher training classroom days between now and June 30, 2020 online.  It is very important that we support one another as we learn together how to do this in the best way possible.  Please share what has worked and what hasn’t for your online teacher trainings in this Sutra circle.
• Important news about the European Yoga Festival – Please check out this announcement about this summer’s European Yoga Festival

Sat Naam Dear Teacher Trainers,

We pray that you and your families are healthy and holding up during these times of great challenge.

• Moving Forward together – Based on your feedback, we hear that the commission we announced was not the best way to start.  Our goal now is to find a way to make this an inclusive process. KRI’s intention is to listen to our collective voices, establish the means to enable prompt and dynamic conversations, open the discussion to what leadership means to us, and establish processes to review the changes that we need to make. We are actively researching options that will allow us to move forward in a more inclusive way. We will keep you updated and informed as this moves forward. 
• Online trainings – Given the unprecedented measures being taken against COVID-19 right now, we need to be flexible in allowing more online training (in both Level One and Level Two programs) than we normally do.  Watch the recording of Dr. Japa Kaur’s webinar with tips to do this most successfully here.

• For scheduled classroom days between now and June 30, 2020, you can teach up to 3 consecutive days online.  Please contact Amrit Singh if you have more than 3 days in a row that you want to do online, as that begins to stretch student’s ability to sit before a computer. 
• We will continue monitoring the COVID-19 situation, and be listening to your feedback, to see if this temporary exception should be extended.

• Kriya against ‘viruses of the future” – Here is a previously unpublished pranayama from 15 Apr 1986 that was said to “burn bacteria and viruses of the future.”
• Additional Immune System Tools – Access an updated and expanded Immune System Toolkit here.  And you can watch the recording of Coronavirus: What to Do! with Dr. Shanti Shanti Kaur.
• 2^nd Webinar on Lineage and Legacy – Tuesday 24 March at 18:00 Mountain Daylight time at this link: Legacy & Lineage of Kundalini Yoga.  This will be recorded and posted for viewing later if you can’t make this time! 
• Today’s Challenging Topics: Best Practices – As Trainers, we’ve held space in the process and allowed for dialogue about tough topics, but none as challenging as now!  More than ever, let’s support each other to help the trainees center themselves in their Kundalini Yoga.  What are the best strategies you’ve used to move forward with trainees? What are other ways you may not have considered or other ideas?   This Sutra circle is to gather best practices, what has worked AND what hasn’t worked! We will also host group dialogue sessions on Zoom / live only / not recorded so that people can speak freely and we can support each other as a community. Time and presenter TBA.
• Updates from the Collaborative Response Team – stay up to date on announcements from the Collaborative Response Team on their website, which has an expanded FAQ section now.

Sat Naam Dear Trainers,

We are dedicated to keeping regular communication coming from KRI to all of you.  Let’s work together to re-imagine our training programs and the Aquarian Trainer Academy to best serve the future.

May Guru Ram Das bless us all,

Nirvair Singh

Amrit Singh

Hari Charn Kaur

• Next Steps Together for ATA – KRI recognizes that changes need to be discussed in many areas, and some decisions are needed about our teacher training programs faster than our normal Forum and TTEC processes would facilitate.  Therefore, the KRI board of directors has set up a commission to gather input and make decisions regarding our course curricula, course requirements, course materials, and ATA structure.  We hope to use this as an opportunity to update how we are delivering the Teachings, so that they are most relevant and impactful for all people around the world in today’s Age.  It will be a delicate balance of remaining open to all voices and to the participation of everyone that wants to while still being able to quickly make some difficult decisions.  We will do our best to hold both of those values simultaneously.  This commission will actively solicit input and suggestions from all members of the Academy.  The members of our ATA community who’ve agreed to serve on this commission are:
  • Gurudev Singh (living in Mexico, serving in Mexico, South America, Canada and the USA)
  • Gurusangat Kaur (living in Brazil, serving in South America)
  • Gurujodha Singh (living in Mexico, serving in Mexico and South America)
  • Taran Kaur (living and serving in Germany)
  • Satwant Kaur (living in the UK, serving in the UK and Europe)
  • Tarn Taran Kaur (living in the USA, serving in Asia)
  • Nirvair Singh (KRI staff – USA)
  • Amrit Singh (KRI staff – Netherlands)
  • Hari Charn Kaur (KRI staff – USA)
  • GuruSahay Singh (KRI board member – USA)
  • Guru Jiwan Kaur (KRI board member – Italy)
  • Vedya Amrita Kaur (KRI board member – USA)

• April TTEC meetings in Espanola – We are moving these meetings ONLINE.  We will also be crafting this meeting to gather input and set direction on the big, important questions that are before us.  Please email Amrit Singh if you want to participate.
• Summer Trainer Forums in New Mexico and France – Either in-person or online (depending on COVID-19 concerns), these events will NOT be business-as-usual forums.  They will be places for you to give input into our future.  If you are interested in participating on the agendas for these forums, please email Hari Charn Kaur.
• Recording of the Webinar “Corona Virus – What to Do” – with Dr. Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa will be available for you to view after Tuesday 17 March using this link: https://sutra.co/circle/76wv4
• Additional Legacy and Lineage Zoom calls scheduled – We will be setting up another Zoom call about the history of our practices, in English and in Spanish.  These will be recorded and made available to you if you cannot make attend the live versions.  
• Ongoing Check-in Zoom Calls – The small group zoom calls that we have been having – to connect with one another, ask questions, and receive support from KRI and from other trainers – have been very helpful.  We will continue them, but on a regular schedule – every Tuesday at 7am New Mexico time (Mountain Daylight Time) beginning on March 24th, and every Thursday at 17:00 New Mexico time beginning on March 26^th.  Use this link to access these calls:  https://zoom.us/j/5254726198.  Please do not share this link so as to keep these call only for teacher trainers.
• Global 40-day meditation for healing – will be live on Zoom for anyone who wants to join.  Every morning at 6:30am New Mexico time, on this zoom link, you and your students can join to meditate with others worldwide.  Each day it will be led by a different trainer from our global ATA.  If you would like to lead one, please contact Hari Charn Kaur.