Edward’s Diary Entry 76: Light through the trees…

I am expecting a black bear… Maybe a sow bear and her cub. Because right under my tree, where I sit in the mornings, I saw a strange deposition full of berry seeds, and too big to be from a racoon. So I guess a bear has wandered near my tree, intrigued by a new smell, and had the urge to leave his/her mark next to where I lay my yoga towel and cushion. Since the following day, I have been absent, travelling to the big city to see other things, far from this quiet world, but also valuable, as we met some interesting people: “Anthony the Nose” in Little Italy, who tirelessly encourages people to sit at his restaurant; Samuel from Ghana, who’s been here for 17 years, and will now be vacationing to see his 97-year-old-mother back home in Africa, who has never been to a doctor in all her life; Neil, a security guard at Madison Square Garden, who has my address for a visit to Spain; the French chocolate woman under the Plaza Hotel, who loves Spain; the Israeli taxi driver who loves soccer, and who said we should buy NY State lottery tickets, and if we won, “he would find us”; and the Bangladeshi cab driver who asked us why we knew “Namaste” as a greeting…

Meanwhile, I am back in the mountains, and it has rained, only an inch, but at least that’s something. And if it rains in the morning, my solution is to use the hayshed, where I lay out my towels and cushions and at least I can do my practices in the dry, albeit with a veritable concert on the tin roof. It sounded as if all the heavens were falling, but actually it was just a gentle rain. That’s how tin and wooden rafters amplify sound, like our head-brains amplifying all the noise of our minds until we can find inner peace and stillness. And one afternoon I sat on my log and took this picture of the sunlight through the trees… wishing I could close my eyes and see the light in the mind as well.

This morning I also used the hayshed for fear of rain and had a little visit. There was a scratching sound and something flitted around the window. Then a head popped in at the top of the wooden doors, where there’s a gap. He just looked at me. I could only see the head, so I thought it was a rat in the dim light of morning. I decided he wasn’t invited to the session or for an inspection of the feed bags or alfalfa pellets, so I shooed him away. A few minutes later, there was more scratching and he came in under the tin roof and sat on a ledge up near the rafters. Then I saw it was a chipmunk. He sat there and did his so-called “warning chirps”. I thought he was talking to me. Maybe he was asking for permission to come in and take a look around, but I couldn’t understand him. Pennsylvania chipmunks have probably never seen a meditating man in a hayshed at 6:45 in the morning. So that was quite a surprise for him. Maybe he’ll be back another morning, who can say. Meanwhile, we have yet to see the bear, the possum and the porcupine who stuck those quills into the muzzles of the guard dogs… The deer and the wild turkeys and their families we see almost every day.

Edward’s Diary Entry 75. Sitting on a log…

Well, no, I haven’t done much sitting on a log yet. My mornings are busy with lots of practises and when it comes to just sitting on this log, which appealed to me, and closing my eyes and doing nothing, circumstances have sometimes combined this last week to prevent me from doing it. First it was the timing, as I also wanted to comply with the 8am finishing schedule for my practises. Then on Saturday last, I didn’t even get to my tree in the early dawn, as everything had to be sacrificed for the 2 guard dogs. Coming through the field, they greeted me with wagging tails, but I saw they had white beards. They had met a porcupine that night and their muzzles were covered with quills. That took over two and a half hours of cajoling and tricking them into accepting the pain of pulling them out, and one even had to go to the vet as he caught on and said no, you’re not taking them out, and wrestling with him was no good, as he weights 132 lbs and I had no proper means of restraint in the field.

The other morning I heard church bells, and dismissed them as a hallucination. Then I heard a high pitched “yoo-hoo” repeated twice. That I recognised and bellowed back. Something was wrong down the hill, I thought. But it turned out that it was just the fencing man who had come early and I was being called down for some specific information, which, by the way, was not really necessary. The church bell sound came from the horn on his truck, apparently. But that was the end of my log sitting for the day – not even 5 minutes!

You see, my WAI/WIG practise has been done in the sitting position for some time now. I gave up the original supine position as it was too conducive to sleep. And now that there are so many practises in the cross-legged posture, I think sitting is the best option for concentration. The log is just the right height for me. It looks as if it was uprooted by a major storm, and lies like a huge crocodile west to east, many of its branches strewn about on the ground.

This was Indian country for millennia before the modern county was enacted in 1804. Imagine the youth of this area in comparison to Europe and Asia: a mere 212 years of “modern” civilisation only. Horse-drawn vehicles for the first 100 years, then incipient automobiles and then the big boom of modern US gas guzzlers as from 1940. And gradually every town with any pride has a main street, a McDonald’s, a Burger King, and 6 or 7 more fast-food joints, and every major town has a 24-hr Walmart with everything under one roof. Before that thousands of years of non-history, with Nature calling the shots, and here, with native American Indians of the Five Tribes, as known to the settlers.  Because around 1600, five tribes – the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas – banded together to form a confederacy. By this time one can supposed their cultures had degenerated, as they were now fighting amongst themselves for hunting and fishing rights and were given guns by the Dutch and fought amongst themselves, and then sided either with the French, the English, the colonists or whoever was also fighting with more civilised weapons at that time. What later happened we all know: the natives were intentionally wiped out and Europeans took all the land in the name of civilisation. The native came from an entirely different Asian culture, and they couldn’t imagine anyone really “possessing” land, which is why white and redskin never understood one another. How can you give or take what belongs to the Great Spirit? How can land be possessed? They couldn’t fathom how white people could divide the soil and say this is mine and this is yours. Soil is soil, indivisible, undividable, beyond all linear conceptions, put htere by the Great Spirit. Like air, where is your air and where is my air? But when flying machines were invented, “airspace” was conceived, and maybe “airspace” too can be bought and sold? When everything becomes a commodity, there isn't much wisdom left. So the retreat to Nature for sitting on a log becomes imperative. Or don't you think so?

Edward’s Diary Entry 74. Different time, different place...

I chose this spot after hunting around for the right place to sit. The tree called to me from some distance away, and I obeyed. I made myself comfortable under its canopy, held up by 5 trunks joined together at the bottom. This is where I now do my morning rituals, after hearing the first birds call me at 5 am, walking up to the woods, doing ablutions at the well on the way, and taking up my position on the grass.

I am no longer a city dweller. I don’t sit in front of my home-made altar anymore. Nor on the floor of a fourth-storey flat in a building. I am in the mountains of Pennsylvania: endless mountains, tree-clad hills, somewhat dry pastures turning brown due to lack of rain, although the springs and wells are still holding up. This is where food is made. Free-range hens lay eggs, ewes are still suckling their lambs, heifers are fed until they are sold for market, vegetable gardens provide fresh food, trees and shrubs produce fruit, with nature providing water for all.

Farmers plant soybeans; the deer nip off the fresh shoots in the evening. Gardeners plant seeds; the rabbits invade early in the morning to harvest their own crop. Wasps make a nest too close to a house; humans spray down their holes and cover them with soil and a rock and cut off their queen’s hopes for all time. Such is life. Mice and men all making plans. Some plans work, others don’t.

My plan is working, as it is based on good results from past experience. I am up at crack of dawn, no alarm necessary. I walk 10 minutes up the slope to the nearby upper pasture and forest. On the way, there is a well for watering the animals. I do my ablutions here, and fill my copper water-pot for a ritual. I start by sitting as best I can in the basic cross-legged (Siddhasana) position to do Bhuta Shuddhi for cleansing the five elements. After that I drink the rest of the water in the pot. Then I stand and do Upa Yoga exercises: directional arm movements, neck movements, shoulders and Namaskar, standing then kneeling and then resting in the tortoise pose. After this it is Nadi Shuddi, or cleansing the Pingala and Ida, cross-legged again. Then Nada Yoga chanting A, U, M, seven times each. These three sounds reverberate at the navel, sternum and throat, respectively. Then, after these new incorporations, I go back to doing what I was formerly accustomed to doing: kneeling arms out sideways for 108 breaths, while mentally reciting various things and remembering the 26 virtues; then thanks to dead relatives and living persons; and cross-legged again “I”-placement throughout the different parts of the body; and usually there is no more time to do what all this is just a preparation for, which is Vichara, or mediation on Who Am I / Where is God (WAI/WIG). But I have now found a tree trunk that is suitable for a sitting WAI meditation, which is a more comfortable position than cross-legged after 2 intermittent hours. My body is not that supple yet, after years of chair-sitting. I need some more refinement, and maybe more time, quality time, but for the moment, this is working and I am happy to have the chance to widen my inner perspectives and feel inspired by these new surroundings.