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.
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