First day of teacher training

The Yoga Teacher Training course has officially begun. We had our orientation yesterday and then a formal initiation ceremony, in front of the whole ashram at satsang. The ceremony involved making an offering of a flower with the priest, and then getting blessed with some coloured powders by the swami. It was a lengthy ordeal. 2 and a half hours of sitting cross legged on the floor and chanting. But it was really a cool experience to be a part of. I took one picture, but I am having difficulty posting photos directly to the blog so you can see it in the photostream.

There are 55 people in my class. Mostly women ages 25-35, with about 10 men. This morning, we had to stand up in front of the whole ashram at satsang and introduce ourselves. We had to say where we were from, what we did, and why we have come to the ashram. I had such a good thing to say. But then I got up there in front of 250 strangers and I freaked out. I was going to talk about my accident and how I sort of see this teacher training program as a last step in my rehabilitation, in order to work on the emotional and psychological side of things, which I really haven't done much of. I want to learn some practical skills for dealing with the emotional challenges of life. But I panicked, so I just said that yoga helped me after my accident and now I want to learn "more". 

We received our uniforms. Mom, I will match your house. Our uniform includes a yellow tshirt and white pants. Yellow represents knowledge and white represents purity. We have two sets, and we have to wear them for satsang and lecture, but not for yoga asana class or free time. Or karma yoga!

Part of the program is to do an hour of service to the ashram each day. This is called karma yoga. My karma yoga is to take the roll call for half of the students in my class at the beginning (and end) of every class, satsang, or lecture. It is a little bit stressful, but its also nice to say hello to 25 people 12 times a day. With a bit of reflection, I can understand why it was my karma to get this job. Crowds and busy situations make me anxious, and I don't like people being mad at me. So it will definitely be good practice.

Today we had our first experience of the schedule that I mentioned. It was rather hectic and exhausting. Its definitely not going to be a chill month of lying on the beach and doing yoga. I didnt even go to the beach today! We had two yoga asana classes (the physical practice of yoga), and two lectures. One of the lectures was on meditation, and the other was about the 4 phases of life that people go through, or at least the ones people went through in India 3000 years ago. They are not really applicable to modern life, but the take home message was that we will not do the same thing our whole life, our lives will change, and change is inevitable. Wow look at that, I just did my homework! For our philosophy class we have to write a 1-page summary of the day's lecture. We will occasionally do that for our other lectures as well.

This course is a lot more sitting than I thought. That is the worst thing so far. I am fine with waking up at 5:30, I am fine with two meals a day. But right now my knees are screaming at me because we sit cross legged for 7-8 hours of the day. I wish I had some powerful painkillers. But that wouldnt be very yogic of me. Maybe there is a black market for that sort of thing... Just kidding.

I hope it doesn't sound like I am whining. But thats how it is with everyone right now, we are all whining. The majority of the class is struggling. With the scheduling, with the discipline, with the lack of food and sleep, the sitting... but I know we will get used to it. One of the first things  they told us in the orientation was that we had to just surrender to the process. So I am making a resolution now to all of the world wide web. I will not whine any more. It is distracting me from really listening and absorbing all the great things that I came here for.