Meditations/Visualizations
Singing Bowl Steps: Inviting the Bell to Sound
WHO Everyone has the right to invite the bell and invite others to stop and practice. WHAT An invitation to sound the bell. Inviting instead of striking is more sacred, more of a nonviolent attention. WHEN Beginning of the day, end of the day, and transitions. Before meals. Whenever someone doesn’t feel grounded or…
Read MoreThe Royal Mind
Hmmm, Our Monkey Mind
Our Mind Monkey~
Is restless, and random,
Rebellious, and junky?
Silly, and scattered
Like a toddler in its movement~
Won’t settle down,
And needs vast improvement?
The mind is a problem,
That we need to control.
It’s random, and restless
And a bit of a troll?
That’s nonsense, we say!
And quite derogatory!
The nature of the mind
Is going for glory!
The mind is evolutionary,
progressive, dynamic.
Always seeking and moving
toward that which is magic.
So, think NOT monkey mind
More like, mind is royalty~
A King to Serve
With Love and Loyalty.
But, how can we Serve,
The Great Intelligence of our minds?
By meditation and mantras
And movement refined.
By exceptional quality
Of the company we keep,
What we see, what we hear,
How well we do sleep.
By lavish feasts of sutras,
Of songs, and of silence,
Of settling, and stillness
And speech for your Highness.
Much of your activity
Will settle in bliss~
Yet portions of Royal Mind
Will continue to hiss.
And that, my dear friend~
Is the Great Intelligence~
It wants more and more
Of higher elegance.
The Discipline of yoga,
Now, you see,
Is in permitting and inviting
This process~ to BE.
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TRUTH is the WORD
Inspired by Yoga Sutra 1.48: ritambhara tatra prajna
Dr. Seuss teaches truth
From his Fountain of Youth
Where wisdom is truthful
And truthful is couth.
“Today you are You,
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
Who is Youer than You.”
Patanjali teaches truthta
In his book full of sutra
Chapter one: forty-eight
ritambhara tatra prajna
We take out the trash
That we’ve stitched and we’ve stashed
That covers our wisdom
And nishes our nash.
Exhale low belly
To move toward that state
Stretch your arms out straight
Inhale, touch thumbs overhead
Exhale, flap to sides straight
Flap like a bird
Truth is the word
Each breath in think truth
Each breath out think word
3 minutes to flap
Let falsities unwrap
Take a full breath inside
Exhale yip or a yap.
Close your eyes to see
{Between eyebrows is key}
What truth is now revealed
That can set you free…
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The Okey Dokey Yogi
inspired by Dr. Seuss’s Sutra: the Zax and Patanjali’s Sutra: yatha abhimata dhyanadva (Chapter 1, v. 39)
One day, making Okeys
In the mountain of Dokey,
Posed a West-Going Yogi
And an East-Going Yogi.
{See, an Okey is approval,
An endorsement as such.
Each yogi seeked okeys
So very much.}
And it happened that both of them posed in a place
Where they bumped. There they stood.
Foot to foot. Face to face.
“Look here, now!” the West-Going Yogi said. “I say!
You are blocking my mind. You are right in my way.
I’m a West-Going Yogi and I always think west.
Get out of my way, now, and let me do best!”
“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the East-Going Yogi.
“I always think east, making east-going okeys.
So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move.
And let me go east in my east-going groove.
Then the West-Going Yogi puffed his chest up with pride.
“I never,” he said, “take a step to one side,
And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways
If I have to keep posing here thirty-nine days!”
“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the West-Going Yogi,
“That I can pose here in the mountain of Dokey
for thirty-nine years! For I live by a mantra
that I learned way back in West-Going Tantra.
“Still the mind! That’s my mantra. Still the mind is the best!
I’ll pose here, quite still! I can and I will
If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still.
Hey… said East-Going Yogi
I learned that as well.
Let’s check yoga sutras
Won’t that be swell?
Chapter1, verse 39
to be quite exact.
Focus on things that
you won’t find distract.
There are numbers of ways
For the mind to become still.
Focus on what you please
To Fulfill!
It is the process of focus
Which makes us a yogi
Not the specific practice
You see, Okey-Dokey?
Patanjali says to practice
Right from the heart
Allow this to deepen,
For that is the art.
Fix the mind!
Any object you choose,
As a focusing prop to
Fully fix and bemuse.
Get absorbed in your focus,
Without distraction.
You can attain stillness
And sweet satisfaction.
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Roadmap to Lucidity
Or
The map to LUCIDITY
Inspired by Yoga Sutra 1.33 which reads:
maitri karuna mudita upeksanam sukha duhkha punya apunya
visayanam bhavanatah cittaprasadanam
The map to LUCIDITY?
YES! Have you heard?
Takes four states to get there~
Not that absurd.
The first is of FRIENDSHIP
toward those who are happy.
Even when you feel distant,
resistance and slappy.
The second is of COMPASSION
toward those in distress.
Tough when annoyed,
imposed on and stressed.
The third is of JOY
toward those who are good
through roadblocks of useless
and misunderstood.
The fourth is of EQUANIMITY
toward those who are foul
who are lacking in virtue,
and react with a growl.
Here in our mapping
Four residents are mentioned.
How we perceive them
Is our fierce contention.
Our attitudes we go for
From composure to kind~
Get us closer to LUCIDITY
Where we STABILIZE our mind.
Memorize these four~
And observe in daily life.
During times of quiet,
Noise, and even strife.
So buckle up~
And prepare for a ride~
To align your attitude,
And try the untried.
Close your eyes~
Feel the state you are in~
Soften your heart~
your throat, and your skin.
Drop your breath
right into your heart~
It’s made up of LOVE~
And that’s where you start.
Inhale with the thought~
May I be friendly~
Exhale with the thought~
May I give friendship.
.
May I be COMPASSIONATE
with your next inhale
May I give COMPASSION
with your next exhale.
Inhale with the thought~
May I have JOY~
Exhale with the thought~
May I give JOY.
May I have EQUANIMITY
with your inhale.
May I give CALMNESS
with your exhale.
When someone comes to mind
Offer these prayers
No matter their issues,
Their stains, or their stares.
May you be LOVING~
May you be LOVED ~
May you be PEACEFUL~
May you give PEACE~
Your states of envy and mean
Get smaller each time~
Intolerance is removed
You get closer to SUBLIME.
Once your mind is CLEAR,
And you’re CENTERED and FREE
Skillfulness in ACTION
Will be … Will be~
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Shames, Shames, Go Away! And Don’t Come Back Another Day!
Inspired by Yoga Sutra 2.16 Heyam dukham anagatam
Avoidable is the suffering
that has not yet to come~
That feeling of shame
That sticks like chewed gum.
How do we get through places
That are stuck deep inside?
Where the holdings, the collections
The patterns reside?
The patterns of feeding
Our suction cupped shames~
With secrets and silence
And judgements and blames.
Attract the energy of movement~
And comfort with movement~
Comfort with change~
Comfort with improvement.
Create space between impulse
And action that binds~
The stuck feelings that resists
Our meetings of minds.
Space is the experience
Of minds open and bright
The Wisdom of Grace
Is filled up with light.
Grace is the knowing
Our mistakes serve an aim~
Instead of allowing
Our mistakes to serve shame.
So to prevent future suffering~
And the feeding of shames~
Create a steady practice
Of breath work and aims.
Here’s a mantra for you
To embody and embed~
Press thumb into each finger
And say in your head~
{I inhale to prepare~
I exhale to share~
I inhale to release blame~
I exhale to transform shame~*}
{Repeat 11 times}~
Keep your sitting bones rooted.
Slowly rotate your core ~
Counterclockwise 3 rounds
Your breath? Don’t ignore!
Inhale going backwards,
Exhale going forward .
Your movements ride on your
breath~
It’s pretty straight forward.
Pause and move clockwise.
Repeat 11 times.
Close eyes and listen.
To your heart beat like chimes.
Find someone you know,
You love and you trust
Show them your shames
And watch your blames turn to dust.
May we have what it takes
To transform all our shames~
To allow our mistakes
To serve our Great Aim~
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