bliss like this

meditative poetry

Two months ago I attended a 10 day silent vipassana meditation course.  It truly was one of the most healing ten days I've ever experienced.  During the course, you are not allowed to read or write.  It was not until I returned back to Woodstock that I gave myself an opportunity to contemplate in written or spoken word what exactly happened.  Today as life was trying hard to entrance me, in a very old and held onto pattern of manifesting drama -- I took a deep breath, a long walk and then sat down to breathe.  Just breathe. I meditate EVERY day, but something about today is different.  Remembering the vipassana practice, reconnecting with my spirit.  Awakening to life, choosing life, choosing love.  Then I remembered one of the pieces I wrote...

 

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i've emerged, she disappeared.

our natural human divinity is creativity and love

my mind a brilliant mirror like the moon reflects the sun

poised tribulation, limitless bliss

surrender feels like art

presence, gratitude, humility

all is God's grace

perhaps it is profound, but it might be mundane

as to the insanity of opposites I offer laughter

then restraint

while every moment fades away

the next, it rushes in

truth exists in all directions

above, below, within

sharpen your mind to the reality that is you right now

watch what you are unfold, feel who you are becoming

with each new adaptation
i'll hold peace within both palms

to be a human being breathing cosmic metamorphosis

experience the piercing depth

a single drop of consciousness

arise and pass away

in sensory vibration, pulsation, thought and sound

an eternal circle of change.

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Anywho, after an afternoon with two amazing children & their new hedgehog, I'm about to go teach a Yoga class feeling quite blessed.  As a teacher, still the most important thing I continue to learn is how to be a student.  To humble myself before the teachings.  Knowing that here I am on my path, with a choice and a prayer, that all beings in this great universe share a deep tranquil peace and lasting freedom to explore the brilliance of all that we/they/I-AM.  May it always be so...

 

Om Sadguru Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati ki Jai!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sanctuary.

I attended a New Moon ceremony last week.  A sweet group of souls, from backgrounds gathered together in harmonious reverence to light emerging out of darkness.  (...at least symbolically and spiritually this is what the New Moon is to me).  Like most ceremonies where everyone is standing together in a circle, whether it's formal or informal their usual seems to come a time where everyone goes around and says a word aloud.  Stating intention or wishes or prayer for the upcoming ______ (fill in the blank)...  Being a New Moon celebration the task was to state intention for the new cycle.  I think LOVE predominated.  Originally I thought LOVE, and then instead when it was my turn to speak, the word Sanctuary arose out of me. 

I LOVE moments like that.  Pure spontaneous upheaval.  This delightful randomness gave rise to careful contemplation.  What did this mean?  What exactly was my soul searching for?  And so, I've spent the last week examining this very sacred word. 

Sanctuary: a holy place. (place: a particular position or point in space).

I want every part of the universe,  my internal existence as well as what I create and reflect outward (the "external"), to be a holy place.  I want to live in Sanctuary.  Desire is an integral aspect of the spiritual endeavor, and I've been taught that desire should lead towards freedom.

This begs a reverent word. 

 

bliss like this.

My friend-in-bliss and fellow Yogini, Kristina "Yogafly" Lanuza, encouraged me to start blogging, nearly two years ago.  (Drum roll please...) Here-I-Am.  I'm curious to witness the how's and if's of this little adventure.  A new beginning, no doubt.  As a matter of fact, recently, I began to realize that every moment is basically, a new beginning.  How fascinating it is to have the opportunity as each moment evolves into the next to change everything, while having the wisdom to feel the essence within us and everything around us that never changes at all.  Ahhh, Consciousness.  Gotta love the ever-changing-changeless-beingness from which all of life emanates outward and inward, simultaneously. 

The intention behind this is simple: it is.  Life.  It is Bliss Like This.  You can feel bliss in every moment.  Bliss is the energy that flows through my heart and into my fingers as I type these words.  Bliss is my Yoga & Meditation practice.  Bliss is my friends near and far.  And sometimes bliss is experienced through anger and raw emotion too.  Bliss is everything.  Over the past three years, I learned not to separate myself from anything. 

Today, bliss is especially the SUN -- today is picture perfect, as I sit quietly and reflectively, the sun illuminates my inner most feelings.  As it shines down and reflects light off the trees.  Trees that in just a few weeks will burst into a multi-colored bliss of LOVE & FALL.  I can hear the silent echo of the universe chant Ooommmmm - with a certain magic I search to know more intimately each day - and humbly hold together all that is. 

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih Om.