The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yogaon-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We practiced with the theme of inter-being today.  Our very composition is a form of Life expressing itself.  We contemplated how the world sustains us and naturally we turned to gratitude and reverence.

Teacher and poet, Thich Nhat Hanh, has dedicated his life to raising our awareness so that we can walk more lightly on the earth.  He offers many artful ways of bringing mindfulness into every day life.  We explored his “gatha” practice of reciting a verse acknowledging our relationship with whatever we are doing.  If you have time, why not write one of your own to try during the week?

Mary Oliver’s words reminded us of the soft animalness of our being.  Her invitation to allow ourselves to love what we love informed our ways of moving and sitting with more relaxation  and relish.

We drew inspiration from Betsey Crawford’s essay, The Power of Allurement.   Betsey is an environmental activist and photographer whose work centers around her appreciation for the natural world.  Her writing explores our place as humans in the more than human world.  We closed with Linda France’s breath taking poem Murmuration.   If you have time, I highly recommend following the poem’s link to its beautiful animation. Linda stitched together parts of 500 poems submitted in answer to her request for work inspired by love of the natural world.  It is utterly magical.

Seated Contemplation

I am so grateful to be part of this circle of caring and compassion.  I put my hands together at my heart and bow offering my gatha for our practice today:  I gather around the warmth of this circle and feel the light of the sun in my heart.  A gatha is a verse recited in rhythm with the breath as a way of embodying mindfulness in every day life.  Right now we practice arriving, hearing Thich Nhat Hanh’s gatha:

I have arrived
I am home
In the here
And in the now.
I am solid.
I am free.
In the ultimate
I dwell.

Right now we come home to our bodies . . .  tuning into breathing, feeling, sensing – the ordinary miracles of being alive.  Writer Sharon Blackie writes of bodyfulness in her book, The Enchanted Life: Unlocking the Magic of Everyday.  She reminds us that: 

 . . . belonging begins in the body . . .  If we shut ourselves off from the vicissitudes of bodied existence, and hold the world at a safe distance, we seal ourselves away from its joy and wonder.

Right now we bring our minds home to our bodies.  Body is not about a thing we have but an experience we are.  As poet Mary Oliver  says we are “let[ting] the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”  Right now can you invite that soft vulnerable animal being toward the light of your awareness?  The tender awareness that experiences the world intuitively, sensually . . . Asking – right now – what do I love? 

Thich Nhat Hanh writes

We think of our body as our self or belonging to our self. We think of our body as me or mine. But if you look deeply, you see that your body is also the body of your ancestors, of your parents, of your children, and of their children. So it is not a “me”; it is not a “mine.” Your body is full of everything else—limitless non-body elements—except one thing: a separate existence.

Our very being is enlivened by the world around us. We inter-are with the world around us.  We inter-depend on the world around us.  We are expressions of Life in the greatest sense. Right now we can imagine the entire universe, stars and planets . . . the ground upon which we rest . . . our parents . . . our parents’ parents all a part of our being.  Just for a few moments experience life sensing aliveness in this way.  In everything we do – we can recognize all that which sustains us.  Ordinary moments give us the opportunity to pause, to bow in gatha:

When eating:  This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, many living beings, and much hard and loving work . . .

Washing hands:  Water flows over these hands. May I use them skillfully to preserve our precious planet.

Turning on Light: Forgetfulness is the darkness, mindfulness is the light. I bring awareness to shine upon all life

Can we nestle these gatha moments into our day?  We can pause before the next cup of tea, imagine the hands picking leaves from tea plants grown on green teraaces China.  Our reverence naturally fills us with gratitude.  In these small observances we realize how much we are given.  We realize the reciprocity, the mutuality animating our lives.  We realize the gifts of food, flowing waters and light enable us to act to preserve the well being of all human and more than human beings. From Thich Nhat Hanh:

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, a cool wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.

Relaxed Reflection

Settle your Body onto Earth’s body. . . Feeling softness and hardness . . . the many textures . . layers and intertwining branches of form.  . . . Body pulsing with Life . . . a vast constellation of cells . . . inner rivers . . . webs of tissues . . . vital elements . . . Earth elements . . . We are expressions of Life’s beauty and intelligence.   Carl Sagan wondered that “cosmos wanted a way to ponder all the beauty it had created, and so evolved us.”

In her article, The Power of Allurement, author Betsey Crawford explores cosmologist Brian Swimme’s notion of Allurement:  “the great attracting energy of gravity” that swirled new born atoms into stars followed by planets and moons.  Allurement propels creation of forms and relationship between forms.  Earth’s relationship to the sun creates plants.  Plants create chlorophyll in relationship with sunlight . . . the intimacy and complexity continue in a cycle of attraction – of which we are a part.  Betsey writes:

This cycle of attraction — form — creativity — intimacy has given us an earth of inexpressible beauty. Imagine walking through a field of wildflowers. Or peering through a microscope at the structure of a seashell. Or discovering the intricate mathematical language that governs the universe. Our whole being responds to the power of beauty in such moments. Our hearts expand. Our energy rises. We feel alive, connected, excited. We are transported, from the Latin for ‘carried across.’ Lifted over a threshold into a realm beyond the concerns, demands, confusions of daily life.

Our practice asks us to walk in beauty. We are called to walk in beauty even as so much beauty is being lost in this Sixth Extinction.  Betsey writes that “the field of allurement we are born into is fractured by the view of the natural world, including humans, as strictly a resource for plundering.”  She asks:

In the face of this devastation, is there space for contemplating beauty? The power of allurement says yes, we must. This power draws us out of ourselves, brings us to life, again and again. It strengthens us to carry the weight of disappointment, grief, rage and move toward regeneration. . . . The ultimate beauty of flowers doesn’t lie in how pretty they are. . . . 

Their great power lies in what the universe wanted of them, not in what we want. These are cosmic beings, forged out of chaos, molecule by molecule. The soul of the earth emerging from the soil at our feet. Formed for relationships . . . With the air they breathe and the sunlight they turn to nutrition. With the creatures, including us, that they form intimate, mutually beneficial relationships with.

Our practice asks us to love.  We are called to love by beauty, the allurement of the universe.  Right now we can reflect on how we relate to life – do we flow with life or are we pushing up against it?  Our minds go in a thousand directions . . . propelled forward by conditioning and impulse.  Can we walk in peace so that with each step a flower blooms?

In answer here is part of Linda France’s lyric poem, Murmuration:

. . . on any high hilltop, breathing this air,
this precious air, remember those who lost their breath
if you love the flower, don’t pick it
a sudden sweep of daisies in a green field
like counting stars
losing count
starting over again
more shades of green
than words scream Life!

life, damp grass between bare toes
light passing through poppy petals
the slow unfolding of a rose
home for the prickly, those that slither
climb or crawl
for us all
atom by atom
cell by cell
what else matters
we cherish these conversations when the vetchling speaks
the lavish eruption of nasturtiums, weaving ropes of white stems
orange flowers
lush leaves
hearts burnt open
if you love wild things, let them be . . . 

April high tide
hurls driftwood
oarweed
sea-glass
a wreckage of shells
tomorrow comes soon
how much would you pay to hear the sound
of rain
or birdsong
what if couldn’t-care-less cared more
and we let the murmur of change
change our ways
hear the roots of trees
whispering
dark soil’s cavernous memories
tectonic plates shift
sit like a mountain
all weathers
in our hearts
what if our flutterings become feathers
the starlings lend us their wings
till we trust enough
to fly together
synchronised       one vast voice
all different, all the same
to mend our wounded earth
ballads of continents crossed
comrades lost to storm or predator
the shockwave moving through the flock
see how we flit
twist swell
dive
co-mingle       co-exist       co-inhere
belong together . . .
*
what is
is more than the ear can hear
or eye see —
we will never have this time again
can never rewind this moment
all the maybes, all the small things
we touch
gentle, curious
and let pass
like fruit in season
the secret language of earth
underland of coal, uranium, oil
indifference banished by love
power to the parliament of rooks
it’s just this       us
the people
our footsteps
walking into all this wonder
every day through every weather
solidarity
the planet’s rage
making a stand
for a different future
it’s just this
our words
building this home we share
these bridges
nowhere else to go
here we are
turning over
this tainted page
to start again
and healing the earth
the earth heals us
our better place
not a destination
a method
common ground
*
ask
what if words could fly
and this poem rose into the blueness
a whirr of black italic wings
breath by breath
a prayer
to give life back to life
all of us
pieces of the world
what if all the time we were searching
the sky
the birds
were watching for us
what, if not cartwheeling
what, if not care
what, if not a cadence
like love
held lightly