Post-Grad

It's official.  We had our 500-hr graduation ceremony, which consisted of our teacher giving us our certificates of completion and a copy of a chant that she selected for each of us.  She chose a chant that related to our practice or reflected something about our training and where we are at now.

For me, she chose a sloka from the Bhagavad Gita (so not really a chant but it can be chanted).  Here it is:

karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana

Your right is to action alone; never to its fruits at any time.  

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Meanwhile, on a lesser note, there was knitting involved.  In this tradition, we use little stick figures to explain the practice we create for each individual.  Each asana is drawn out with little symbols for inhalation and exhalation so that the person doing the practice at home can follow along until they memorize it.  So I made our teacher a hat with the little stick figure in padmasana on it.

And then, because she managed to have twins in the middle of the training, I made two more hats.

Inhale

Exhale

And then, we had a party at a lovely space in Brooklyn.  Lots of delicious food such as hungry yogini's would want.

And then, those babies test drove their hats.

I think they like them.