yoga meditation community inspiration
Autumn leaves
Like you
Scarlet
Brands and scars my heart
In the wood between the worlds
Time holds its breath
Your words fell into silence
A stone into still water
The small tsunami
Of a single life
Earth folds her hands
Then the snow
Gazing meditation
Like butterfly wings
Her lashes softly close and open,
Open onto unknown ancient depths of being.
Have we just met
Or have we been before many times
In the presence of the mystery that is each of us?
The mystery which is expressed through the fact of our existence,
The universe whose consciousness is us.
We wonder at the separateness of a stranger
Even as we find a oneness in our wonder.
©2016 Unjay
गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha *
Gone, gone, completely gone
Gone to the otherside, the farthest shore
Awakening
Alone,alone, completely alone
Sighing waves, blank sands blow
Seagulls wheel in the emptiness of sky
Sadness and sadness, deepest sadness,
Separation, awakening my heart,
Opening in tears
Around, around, all the way round
Salt sea washes, confused and crashing
Against itself, in turbulence, impassable
Oversea sun sets
Somewhere far away a lotus opens to greet her
Exposing the golden jewel,
Sun to sun, hidden treasure,
Earth echo of the star song,
Perfumed light and perfection
From the deepest dark beneath depths
*This is the mantra from the end of the Heart Sutra.
Nobody really knows what it means, but it is said
to be one of the most powerful mantras of all.
The first verse of the poem is a literal translation of it,
or at least as far as one can translate it, because the
Sanskrit grammar is endlessly debatable by the
learned in such things.
The Dalai Lama’s translation says
“go, go, go beyond, go thoroughly beyond, and establish yourself in enlightenment”.
Text and photo ©2016 Unjay
If there were no words
Would life still be a story?
This is what I see:
Still water reflecting sky
Open, fresh, free
Stretching on forever
On the water an ocean of lotus
Wide green leaves giving life
Soaking sunlight and alchemizing that gold
Into perfect out stretching flowers
Expressions And symbols at once
Dredging from the depths
Through deep intertwined roots
From one earth a manyness of being
Showering sight in revelation
the life contained unseen
Unlocked by reaching down, opening arms
And gazing at heaven
© 2015 Unjay
Image:
Soham
“I am that
which is pure and divine”:
not a spark
or a drop,
but the essence.
This body
that sits in meditation by the lake
will return to the earth,
the dust of stars;
so there is a coming and going in God.
The so-hum, hum-sa of breath;
and a universe of one breath,
expanding and contracting,
collapsing to nothing,
a wave of sound,
just one note,
swelling and fading,
all the expanse of space-time
and body-mind
only one note,
one rising, vanishing
moment in the Holy Song
Unjay
© 2014
*so-ham and its reverse ham-so are Sanskrit mantras used in some types of meditation. They mean “I am that” i.e. I am “part of” or “one with” or “connected to” everything that is, on every plane of existence, in every mode and scale, macrocosm and microcosm. It’s a pretty far out concept! Thanks to Madhuriji for introducing this to me.