LOAY 800-Hour Immersion, Part 1

The Life of a Yogi:

Day One

Uh-oh...It's only day one, and it already smells like Icy Hot in here!  Actually, compared to my previous trainings, even though there have been two Dharma IV classes and a Dharma IV asana breakdown (pictured below), the poses are not at the forefront of the agenda.  This morning, it was such a wonderful familiar feeling to practice pranayama and meditation early in the morning with Dharma (see some great quotes at the end of this entry).  Starting the day off with two psychic development practices really set the tone for the rest of the day for me.  It was easy to "go inside" right off the bat.  Profound, internal practices are what drew me to Dharma Yoga in the first place, and I can only imagine what the next seven days will bring in terms of deepening one's personal practice.

The group is already starting to come together in that “family” sort of way that everyone adores about the Life of a Yogi Teacher Trainings.  Our teachers and mentors are world-class yogis who exemplify Dharma's teachings on every level.  Kim Jeblick, Adam Frei, Bernadette Duthu, Melissa Capezzuto, Yoshio Hama and Andrew Jones all have a tremendous amount of knowledge AND experience, and they are an absolute honor to have as teachers.

Here are some lovely quotes from Dharma this morning:
"People keep expecting Jesus to come back here...the second coming of Jesus is in here! (points inside, to the spiritual heart in all of us)

"You have to cultivate imagination!"

"You can only go as far as you can imagine."  (When talking about pretending that you are everywhere at once during meditation.)

And my personal favorite..."The power of God is INFINITE." (After explaining one of his many views of creation)

~Olivia Foss

Dharma IV asana breakdown with senior teachers

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Enthusiastic… Grateful…. Nervous… Just a few adjectives that described the feeling that some of the group of 23 teacher trainees expressed in the beginning of day one. 

 

-Grateful for having the opportunity to be in Sri Dharma’s presence and Sri Dharma’s willingness to share again.

-Enthusiastic, which is what Sri Dharma wants his students to be… and of course, we all were!

-Nervous…because we knew the challenge of Dharma IV, and the power of Yoga Nidra and Psychic Development.

It was so great to see familiar faces.  There was one from my 200-hour teacher training and five from my 500-hour teacher training.  The first three hours consisted of pranayama, dhyana, spiritual discourse, and Psychic Development, led by Sri Dharma.  Dharma started his morning practice reminding us that imagination is power…that one goes only as far as one can imagine.  The beautiful (and thorough) manuals and trainee shirts were given, and we had our first asana practice of the day, Dharma IV, guided by Yoshio.  After our lunch break, Kim led the Dharma IV breakdown.  The 23 of us were divided into groups of four, and in between the breakdown each one of us in our small group taught a series of poses from the series.  Melissa then taught Dharma IV to the whole group, and as fatigued I was beginning to feel, her beautiful voice chanting “Om Namah Shivaya” reenergized me.  We ended the evening continuing the breakdown and small group work.  

The first day was a long one, and 7 more to go…It’s 9:30 PM now, and I will  add another adjective to the three above: exhausted! 

~Cindy Ley-Sepe