I have just now completed the life trans formative Teacher Training program with Corepower Yoga, a bittersweet victory. Bitter in the sense that I will no longer be receiving the superb instruction with some of the greatest teachers (and teacher trainers) that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. A sweet victory in the sense that I am now a certified yoga instructor and feel even more integrated as a limb of corepower yoga.
When Sarah asked me if I'd be interested in doing a "mini-mural" at our downtown studio I was absolutely thrilled and honored with such an opportunity to be able to reach out and give a message to such wonderful people also on the yogic path. I got the inspiration for my first mural in thinking of the rising of Kundalini or serpant power which is raised by method of the breath of fire among other techniques. Thus I drew fire breathing serpents and where their flames cross a lotus is born. I also wanted to use gestalt and leave a seated figure in the emptiness between the serpents.
I had a number of Buddhist, Hindu and Yoga quotes I wanted to use for this specific piece, but Shakespeare stole my heart away. I heard a particularly inspiring quote after I was raking the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center's garden which went along the lines of:
The eye is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire and continued as such for all the senses. Everything is burning which includes our luminous light body, burning imprints and creating the template in a patterned arrangement that makes up all seemingly unrelated events into a grand harmonious orchestra.
The fire is not quenched by pouring oil on it; so desire is not quenched by the satisfaction of desire
Upon Graduating we were all given a Mala, the yoga equivalent of a rosary. The Mala has 108 beads, representing the 108 delusions, lies or desires. The Heart cakra is believed to have 108 energy channels. The Sanskrit alphabet has fifty four letters each with a masculine and feminine counter equating in 108 sounds to the human tongue. There is 1 divine energy 0 resembles an
empty circle or
MU and 8 resembles infinity. There are a number of other reasons for having 108 beads, but they are to be used as a counter for chanting. As
I was fondling my Mala the very night of graduation the string snapped sending beads cascading in every which way. I took each of the 108 beads and chanting "Loka samasta sukhino bhavantu" for every bead, I planted them among the stones of my Zen garden which were collected from various temples and mountaintops of Japan.
Loka samasta sukhino bhavantu means:
May all beings everywhere be happy and be free and may my thoughts words and actions contribute in some way!
Although I may have "graduated" teacher training, the training has only just begun. I've snagged a couple teaching gigs which includes the largest Hindu temple in the United States, the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, Moe Bodyworks and at my little cuzzies elementary school. I wasn't initially intending to teach children yoga but I went into Renee's school to give a didgeridoo performance and decided to show the children flying yoga. All the kids got so excited they got me excited and I spoke with the community organizer, a yogi of five years, and he jumped on the idea! I then found out one of my favorite teachers at Corepower, Ella Chissotti, also taught kids yoga out of our franchised corepower that I cleaned at! Thus I have begun apprenticing under her incredible guidance. I have found working with children to be incredibly rewarding already, they are so open to learning and eager with their beginner minds. Plus they are just all to playful which is great because I was really starting to take my practice to seriously...
Because in the end of all our searching,
we arrive where we started,
to know our place for the very first time.
The present moment.
A goal and a starting point.
I had a number of Buddhist, Hindu and Yoga quotes I wanted to use for this specific piece, but Shakespeare stole my heart away. I heard a particularly inspiring quote after I was raking the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center's garden which went along the lines of: The eye is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire and continued as such for all the senses. Everything is burning which includes our luminous light body, burning imprints and creating the template in a patterned arrangement that makes up all seemingly unrelated events into a grand harmonious orchestra.
