Day Three: Karmic Seeds

The Life of a Yogi

       We just finished a Yoga Nidra practice with Sri Dharma, and as you may remember (if you read the 800-hour blog), this is an incredibly powerful practice. There are no words for the feeling after Sri Dharma leads you through this practice… I tried to start a sentence saying “I feel ______ after this practice” about four times before finally giving up on filling in the blank, actually.

          Today was not as hard as yesterday, for me at least – though I know a lot of my fellow trainees felt much more stiff today. We started our day with Sri Dharma again, followed by some one-on-one practice teaching/adjusting the Dharma II postures. Then we had the noon master practice, which was very intense but exactly what we all needed… Then again Sri Dharma’s classes always seem to be exactly what you need, even if you do not realize it directly at that moment.

          After lunch we had a discourse with Adam about what it means to live and teach according to yama and niyama. We began with a little chanting, which was just so incredibly uplifting. I had been feeling rather joyful throughout the morning sessions, but chanting with all these wonderful people beside me was just pure ecstasy. I have always been a fan of kirtan, and now I am even more eager for the Satsang/Kirtan scheduled for Thursday evening. Then again, I’m starting to feel like I just never want this training to end, so maybe I should focus on tomorrow first!

          Anyway, we also talked about karmic seeds and manifestations of these seeds… I felt like it all applied directly to the experiences I am having right now, and even more so after we had our first small group practice teaching session after the discussion with Adam.

          I volunteered to teach first out of my group because I am fairly comfortable with the Dharma II sequence. It went well, but of course there is plenty to work on. It’s a long process, figuring out how to convey information to other people in a way that they can receive it (and at the same time staying true to the teachings). My small group was very supportive in giving feedback, although I realized that my ego still gets in the way of my receiving constructive criticism sometimes. In other situations I might have been hard on myself for getting a little defensive, but then I remembered what Adam had said about karmic tendencies, and all the seeds of our actions being planted from the moment we come to existence… This helped me let it go and practice the rest of the evening without dwelling on any of it.

          I won’t go into too much detail about the Yoga Nidra, but all I can really say is: come take that class. If there is any class on the schedule that can positively affect you regardless of your level of practice, it is the Yoga Nidra with Dharma Mittra.

~Danielle

 The last posture during Master Sadhana today

Two trainees prepare for the afternoon in different ways