Meditation - Peace Pod

"There comes a time in the seeker's life when he discovers he is at once the lover and the beloved."
-Sri Chinmoy

I closed my eyes to rest. I began sensing a new surrounding, my bedroom slowly melted away from around me, and from beneath me. I saw my body being set within a pod, like one that might encase giant peas...
There were delicate blossoms on the edges that floated and danced along to a distant rhythm, kept by the spontaneous nature all around me. Vibrant blue and white lights formed within the face of every flower, those that bloomed and flourished, hundreds against the wind.
I was gently pushed out to sea by someone standing on the coast...he watched as the blossoms on the pod began to grow wildly and wrap themselves all around my body, as I lay still, feeling the motion of the gentle water that drew me further into the ocean.
I slowly lost all consciousness, the reality that once claimed my mind. It felt something like the Spirit of Beauty entering through every cell and radiating back outward, shining light onto dark places. I was something new. I received and distributed light from every possible angle. I followed the every movement of the cosmos, and placed intent on everything, anywhere, simultaneously. A harmony revealed from the salty air lifted melodies from the ocean, whisking them into the sky. I orchestrated as I listened.
I folded outward and inward so purely that the rays of the sun melted the pod away, and I was just one single, and giant, waterblossom. I watch from above, as I create from within, a fast growing cluster of magnificent spindly flowers. Petals that reach and caress the water. My center is of a sweet nectar, yet invisible. It is an infinite pool of creation and destruction ... a circle of Oneness and never ending. An unstoppable movement and ultimate stillness.
The air rocks the larger petals of my body, they are speckled with light blue dots that when connected, reveal a map of the window into the cosmos as it is, as it always has been and always will be.
I contemplate text being written in the sky, and listen as someone speaks it forth, across the ocean. "The searchlight has found me and illuminates my world. It births me again and again in endless simple whispers akin to the sisterhood of sea and sun, Love and peace."

PEACE PLACE

It is time to create a place in time
A place of no-time-ness
A place where tomorrow hasn’t come
And it’s not yesterday
Where all ages sing and dance
All happily at play
Where our great-great-grandparents gather
To show they still exist
And our children’s children show with their own
Young ones for a current glimpse

Come now let’s make the choice to meet here
This present dwelling space
Find open-hearted welcome
In this sacred peaceful place
Where visible love and joy manifest
No need of hurry, no need of rest
Where music flows, words glow
As each becomes a friend to know

A place where no one’s ever lost or fallen
And certainly not abandoned
Where hope is nourished
And despair is stranded
Where misunderstandings disappear
When gratitude is near
Where loneliness cannot survive
When bright connections thrive
Where stops the weeping caused by fears
And only laughter causes tears

peaceful slumber

Startled awake from my peaceful slumber,

I bark at the door to see who is there.

Again, there is no one, much to my wonder.

I walk back in and lay down in my chair.

The day passes by with barely a movement.
Contentedly laying here dreaming sweet dreams.
Would getting up prove any improvement?
It's too comfortable here to try it, it seems.

What's that I smell? Someone fixing a meal?
I slide off the couch and follow my nose.
Alas, it's not for me. So, what's the big deal?
Off to find my blanket this time, that's just how it goes.

Snuggled under the covers as I lay in my bed.
The cat barrels in and disrupts my sleep.
I chase him away nothing needs to be said.
Back into bed to start counting some sheep.

I long to nestle myself in afghans, comforters, and throws.
Disappearing into their warmth and peaceful embrace.
Hiding from the commotion and fuss that continuously goes
All around me as I lay silently covering my face.

Occasionally I'll be spotted and lured from my nest.
I will get up to eat and to play now and then.
But nothing compares to what I like best
Warmly cuddled in my favorite blanket once again.

Peaceful Horizons

When I'm stressed and confused, which seems to happen more and more frequently these days, I have a mantra that I chant in my head. It often brings me a sense of peace, but most times it simply refocuses my negative energy in a more productive, orderly, direction. In a word, it stops the insanity!

The mantra comes with a picture of the place where it was born within me. Many years ago I vacationed in the Cayman Islands. The resort where I stayed had a pier which extended far into the ocean. The region was just being developed so the beach was in it's natural state and swimming was prohibited. That meant that except for the occasional docking of a fishing or snorkel tour boat, the beach and the pier were deserted and quiet most of the time.

Every day, just at sunrise, I would take my cup of coffee and pad barefoot to the end of the pier to say good morning to the ocean, the sky and the constant wind. The Caymans remain temperate largely because of a brisk ocean breeze. In the mornings it is so gusty that it dulls ones sense of hearing entirely, making the end of the pier seem even more like a secret hiding place. There I would stand, facing into the wind, gazing across the water to where the ocean met the sky. Some would call it the horizon. I considered it a sacred alter, formed by the two most powerful forces in my universe. For reasons I cannot explain, a prayer formed in my mind. A simple mantra. " Mother ocean give me strength, Father sky give me peace, Brother wind clear my mind, Sister earth keep me grounded. "

If I close my eyes, even at this moment, and chant that mantra, it's as if I am there again. I can smell the salty ocean, feel the wind, and sense the strength and order of these basic elements of life, even amid the daily chaos of my real world.

Peace and Place

To start conversation, we decided to go around the table and tell what our dream job would be. We were in a dimly lit restaurant in Italy, sipping on limoncellos. The debonair sportsman started:
"I'd like to write books on the flora and fauna of the Swiss Alps."
"I'd like to be a mime or a puppet-maker," a teenager offered. Her mom turned her face in embarrassment.
"I'd like to do what I do, which is to help people heal themselves with plants and herbs," said the blond.
Then came the thick, middle-aged woman's turn: "I like money. To touch it when I want to. To know its in the bank, multiplying. I want money and I don't care how I get it. Its not about the job for me, its the result. I want to roll around in benjamins."
I smiled in disbelief at her greedy frankness. I'd never heard anyone speak in this way about money before. My stepdad, the greediest man I'd ever known always tried to hide his ambition under a cloak of philanthropy.
My opinion of this woman changed from friendly lady who liked to cook and eat 88% cocoa mass chocolate to pathetic money grubber with no values.

But to my horror, I recently realized that I am becoming just like her. My husband asked me what I sought in a job. I told him, "I don't care! Just something that makes a lot of money! Money and independence are what I want, nothing else! I don't care about helping people, being of service anymore, I want money!"
And how I was disgusted with myself! Why have I ceased to be satisfied? I used to be so optimistic, essentially happy with myself. Why has money become the only thing that really matters?
My dream of being a yoga teacher has fallen by the wayside. Maybe getting certified in Pilates would bring in more money? Then I spend hours looking up average salary statistics and job demand on-line.
I even attended a seminar on pyramid schemes this week. And I started selling antique glassware on e-bay because someone who is building a three million dollar home in our neighborhood did the same. I'm racing away from minimum wage jobs and on the frantic hunt for fortune.
Thanks to this Ditalini Press topic of peace and of place, I see what's going on. An essential part of my attaining peace will come when I can have a place to call my own. And I see that can only manifest itself with money. The lady in Italy was right. I just wasn't old enough to understand.

Mini-Topic: A Peaceful Place

The mini-topic is: a peaceful place. Write about peace and/or place, choosing past, present or future; choosing fact or fantasy; choosing prose or poetry. My Satsang Circle did this writing exercise for our get-together last August. Have fun with this one! Due January 31!