"Life is Wholly Precious"

In this world today, information rules.

Tiny charged atoms push electrons,

race across skies unseen

fill my screen

with data translated to truth.

Eyes, mind + heart consumed

by images and reflections

Who we are today --

Tragic.

10,000 lives lost

to turbulent plates, shifting, gritty --

tectonic plates that send

our brothers and sisters to a rocky grave.

Sorrow.

Cases sent to a justice system,

reminders of more lost lives

runners caught in guerrilla war,

nails in a pressure pot --

we are those nails.

Innocent people, last breath stolen --

murdered by a lost soul

bent on causing holy terror

for no reason but confused insanity.

Was it a movie they watched,

or a movie they played in his mind?

Justice sought, but is it ever found?

My hometown aches with pain,

suffering of three generations plus more

run deep into the blood passed down.

Pain unspoken, no voice

for a people have been muted far too long.

Injustices ignored, yet glorified

by a TV series drama

But no, this is real --

My brothers and sisters

I remember playground love

where songs of innocence

pumped in our hearts.

I remember holding hands

as little black boys

and little brown girls --

when the biggest infraction was

a kiss on the lips.

Today my world is filled

with death and hurt so vast

it echoes in aftershocks

blood on our streets

sting of acrid sweat on our tongues.

The pain haunts us all,

injustice lingers like heavy ash,

after the volcano has long erupted.

Today, my brothers and sisters clean

streets littered with the evidence of suffering

But how do you mop up 

hearts heavy with hatred?

How do you flush out

sewers seeping with malice?

Baltimore proclaims

‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬,

And to those not black or brown of skin,

search within

for that innocent love

to agree that 

Life is wholly precious.

Savasana II

Carl Jung called it the Collective Unconscious; a well-spring of wisdom, unfathomable depths of knowledge and understanding. It is an untapped source of unity and it remains in a realm beyond what we can sense in our waking lives. The dream state has long been seen as a symbolic doorway into the unconscious. The power that dreams have over us can be alarmingly immense. The body can be awoken in shivers, chills, and bated breath. We *experience* physical sensations that respond to something real, and yet upon awakening, we come to realize that it was "just a dream".

In modern physics, the limits of our understanding are currently focused on what little we know of dark matter and dark energy. These are unseen forces that, in tandem, bind the universe together and race to tear it apart. It is understandable for people to question all that cannot be sensed in this world -- we test, verify and strive to make sure our science is thoroughly vetted. Make it material so that we may touch it, see it, comprehend it with this physical body, to which we are so attached.

When I first began my practice of yoga, Savasana was seen as the end of a physical workout. It was after we moved through the daily poses that we then retreated to Corpse Pose. The only way my instructors could describe this final pose was "deep relaxation" -- a way for the body to heal and allow the benefits of the earlier practice to settle in and do their work. It was always a struggle to stay awake during Savasana. To remain suspended in a state of such deep relaxation without entering the default sleep mode seemed nearly impossible. There would be days when some people in class would actually fall asleep, with snoring as evidence. But for me, it was more of a drifting from consciousness to something else. The instructor's voice was heard, clearly spoken, and then... a warm darkness, a vacuum. After I had told my body to sink into the floor, to meld with the hard material beneath me, my new reality was that of sense deprivation. As though my body had truly merged with the earth, there was no longer concern for this physical form. With closed eyes and a focused attention that tuned out my hearing, I was alone in a vastness that stretched out beyond my limited Being.

God, Goddess, Creator & Destroyer, Gaia, Life Force, Emptiness. The words that describe are ultimately meaningless. The rare glimpse and experience of it... now that is a treasure to behold.

Asana Meditation: Savasana (Corpse Pose)

How can we ever prepare for death? The sands of time continue falling at the same pace, whispering their secrets as they go. The world does not cease its machinery with the simple knowledge of one man's impending death. Death is as much a miracle as birth -- with the extinguishing of a flame, his final breath will whisper one more secret, yet unbeknownst to the universe. We are given nine months to "expect" for birth, and generally allow ourselves the luxury of celebration. We allow ourselves the luxury of trepidation. We allow ourselves the luxury of preparation. And in death? What of these things?

I felt the familiar sense of grief and sadness begin to swell. It was a rising tide, threatening to consume me. I felt it most in my feet, the ache of this day's work pulling me down further and further. I simply wanted to collapse. And so I let myself fall. Unrolling the yoga mat, I said in my mind, "I really need this corpse pose." And with that thought, in my dirty work jeans and dusty tee shirt, I lay my weary body to rest. Thoughts of Alan's looming death cradled me immediately into the flat, gentle ground that reassuringly pressed itself against me.

When I was regularly practicing yoga, Savasana was always reserved for the final asana. It not only served as a restful measure, but acted as a deeply purifying and nourishing gift to self. During these moments of silent stillness, my mind would drift off and I inevitably always entered a state of complete forgiveness. With my guilt-ridden mind quieted by the nurturing comfort of momentary death (induced by the magic of Savasana), what is there left to blame? When all is still, like the slowest moving molecules of the densest solid material at absolute zero, then there are no more of my fingers pointing at me, because all the fingers have fused with the earth below me. My body has formed tiny hair-like roots that have anchored all the neurotic trauma-caused self-harm (himsa) and neutralized them into non-existence. In these brief few minutes spent like a corpse, I am bathed in the universe's unbounded capacity for care, forgiveness and compassion. In the face of death, what do I find but an outpouring of genuine love.

Namaskar.

My Every Last

The sounds of rhapsody echoed my past.

You were once a child,
now grown into partial human,
still in touch with primordial beast.
You physicalize e-v-e-r-y breath,
you manifest e-v-e-r-y ache.
You're pulling on them,
extracting them,
persuading and taking them.
You're suckling them,
begging them,
engaging and making them.
You're tugging and plucking,
sapping and trapping,
peeling away the layers

of my every last...

one of them spills over me,
quaking me, shaking me
tears falling like thunder rocking my soul
shattering from your broken hearts,
and those wide-eyed truths
that rumble beneath our feet.
The words tumbling from your lips
into my core,
I am kissed by your innocence gained,
and the angst that sparks

Revolution!

I offer my heart-center-being to you,
poet and poetess,
who bring forth this wild lyricism,
in place of that jaded pessimism
known only by the scarred and prickly.
I offer my deepest,
off the deep end, Dive!
into the greatest lakes of
gratifyingly gracious Gratitude.

Take me, wake me and Slam me
with your miraculous rhythm and verse,
and I shall give to you
my every last...

dew drop
sigh and breath
in- and exhalation
dream of wonder, awe.

Chakra Meditations #2

Heart Plexus. Healing. It is an artform. The lazy tongue can render a thousand lashes in the course of a single conversation, without hesitation, and with brutal force. Like physical entropy, hurtful words and actions are the dissipated cosmic energies whose only result may indeed be the unravelling of the universe. And like entropy, the single most recognizable trait of doing harm is the chaos and disorder that ensues.

It is plainly easy for things to fall apart; one look at my compost heap can testify to that. But to transform such degradation and disarray into something useful, practical, powerful and nourishing -- this is what we do -- this is what it means to Live. Each day we are bombarded with suffering; past hurts; newly formed pains; sorrows of those we love and care about; sorrows of our own. It leaves us de-energized, exhausted and for the most unfortunate of us all, hopeless. So where is there room for healing?

When embittered with rage, it becomes dangerously easy to feed into the cyclic ruptures of harm-full action. The sarcasm flows relentlessly and then thoughtlessness forms into a destructively debilitating habit. Even more dangerous is the ever-present voice of anger and disgust, pointed toward self, considerably magnified, unduly doled.

Compassion is not a unidirectional vector of love. It is not pity. It is being touched by another creature's presence, and at the same time reaching deep within to find that very same presence, that very same core of emotion, of understanding, of acknowledgement. And so it becomes that when I home in on another's pain, and can acknowledge that I intimately know this pain, a process of healing can begin. It is not a limited sort of healing, like taking an antibiotic directed at a target bacterium, but in effect, it's more like a communicable healing. It may begin with the other person, or it may begin with me, but it knows no boundaries and spreads contentment through the Ahimsa (non-harm) actions that ultimately result.

Yam. Namaskar.

Definition: Ahimsa

In Short: "Ahimsa or non-injury, of course, implies non-killing. But, non-injury is not merely non-killing. In its comprehensive meaning, Ahimsa or non-injury means entire abstinence from causing any pain or harm whatsoever to any living creature, either by thought, word, or deed. Non-injury requires a harmless mind, mouth, and hand." -Sri Swami Sivananda

At Length:

• Article from Yoga.com
• Of course, the Wiki

Definition: Namaste, Namaskar

In short: The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another. "Nama" means bow, "as" means I, and "te" means you. Therefore, Namaste literally means "bow me you" or "I bow to you."

At Length:

• One of the best interpretations yet that I've come across.
  
• Of course, the Wiki

Also: "I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One."