A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart

To set the ghosts of longing free

Into the flow and figure of dream

That went to harvest from the dark

Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer

But do at last what I came here for

And waste my heart on fear no more.

                        - John O’Donohue


the quiet loyalty of breath..
each morning that we do awake..
a blessed gift..
the astonishment of being alive
for yet another day..

to risk being disturbed and changed..
because there simply is not one thing
that will not change..
be it bones,
matters of the heart..
churnings & yearnings of soul play..

the bodhisattva in each of us says..
bring it on!
i live in fearlessness and cheer ~
now and here !


statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small
that you'd think the mere fact of existing
would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.
                    ~ lewis thomas

miracle fair - Wislawa Szymborska

wislawa was born in poland.
she is a poet.
wislawa was a witness to the horrors
of world war II.
she is called the mozart of poetry.


Commonplace miracle: 
that so many commonplace miracles take place. 

An ordinary miracle: 
in the dead of night 
the barking of invisible dogs. 

One miracle out of many: 
a small, airy cloud 
is able to upstage a large and heavy moon. 

Several miracles in one: 
an alder tree reflected in the water, 
and that it's reversed left to right 
and that it grows there, crown down 
and never reaches the bottom, 
even though the water is shallow. 

An everyday miracle: 
winds weak to moderate 
turning gusty in storms. 

First among equal miracles: 
cows are cows. 

Second to none: 
just this cherry orchard 
from just this cherry seed. 

A miracle without a cape and top hat: 
fluttering white doves.

A miracle, (for what else could you call it): 
the sun rose at three-fourteen a.m.
and will set at eight-o-one.

A miracle, less surprising than it should be: 
the hand actually has fewer than six fingers, 
but it still has more than four. 

A miracle,  just take a look around: 
the inescapable earth. 

An extra miracle, extra and ordinary: 
the unthinkable 
can be thought. 


it is said ..
when the buddha awoke,
the inescapable earth trembled
& the high holies in the heavenly realms
celebrated mightily..
expressing joy at the miracle of enlightenment!

a miracle because in a wisp of shift
of the thinking to the unthinkable
free from any limitations
a snap! of any of the five fingers
we / they / she / he / it
witness a new reality..
momentary, to be sure..
because..well -
isn't it all momentary..?
free of any condition of past, future..
free, even,  of the great spaciousness of the present ~

a slip of the wrist, a turn of a gaze..
and whoop-dee-dee..
we are awake..
not a far away goal to glean and grasp..
just a breath away ..
just a kiss away ~
(gimme shelter.. the stones croon..
from our inner waging/raging war
of misery, fear, hope, defense..
gimme shelter..
from that clinging claw of enlightenment)

miracle of clarity..
miracle of unfettered joy..
miracle of devotion, trust, bliss..
miracle of invisible love dogs barking
in the neighborhood night of our open hearts ~

just a breath away
just a kiss away

read emily dickinson lately? meditation on generosity

recently,
i heard one of my favorite poems of emily’s
offered at the end of a dharma talk..
moving me as it always does to quivers up my spine
and melting glaciers in my eye pockets..

if i could stop one heart from breaking,
i shall not live in vain;
if i can ease one life the aching,
or cool one pain,
or help one fainting robin 
unto his nest again,
i shall not live in vain.

it brought to mind straightaway
words from santideva’s treatise -
a guide to the bodhisattva’s way of life..

may i be the doctor and the medicine
and may i be the nurse
for all sick beings in the world
until everyone is healed..

may i be a protector for those without one,
a guide for all travelers on the way;
may i be a bridge, a boat and a ship
for all who wish to cross the water.

then...
i rascally remembered a poem of billy collins :

TAKING OFF EMILY DICKINSON’S CLOTHES

first, her tippet made of tulle, 
easily lifted off her shoulders and laid 
on the back of a wooden chair. 

and her bonnet, 
the bow undone with a light forward pull. 

then the long white dress, a more 
complicated matter with mother-of-pearl 
buttons down the back, 
so tiny and numerous that it takes forever 
before my hands can part the fabric, 
like a swimmer's dividing water, 
and slip inside. 

you will want to know 
that she was standing 
by an open window in an upstairs bedroom, 
motionless, a little wide-eyed, 
looking out at the orchard below, 
the white dress puddled at her feet 
on the wide-board, hardwood floor. 

the complexity of women's undergarments 
in nineteenth-century america 
is not to be waved off, 
and i proceeded like a polar explorer 
through clips, clasps, and moorings, 
catches, straps, and whalebone stays, 
sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness. 

later, i wrote in a notebook 
it was like riding a swan into the night, 
but, of course, i cannot tell you everything - 
the way she closed her eyes to the orchard, 
how her hair tumbled free of its pins, 
how there were sudden dashes 
whenever we spoke. 

what i can tell you is 
it was terribly quiet in amherst 
that sabbath afternoon, 
nothing but a carriage passing the house, 
a fly buzzing in a windowpane. 

so i could plainly hear her inhale 
when i undid the very top 
hook-and-eye fastener of her corset 

and i could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosed, 
the way some readers sigh when they realize 
that hope has feathers, 
that reason is a plank, 
that life is a loaded gun 
that looks right at you with a yellow eye.


& emily once more ...

because i could not stop for death – 
he kindly stopped for me – 
the carriage held but just ourselves – 
and immortality. 


all this the mind unwinds, unfolds....
a search engine ruffled up
for coupling the variances of being human..
to sculpt a life in poetry - the poetic life -
& construct a bodhisattva’s practice
of the six perfections ..

it is the great sun that finally removes
the misty ignorance of the world,
it is the quintessential butter
from the churning milk of dharma.

the perfection of generosity ~
dānapāramitā

we each have the opportunity to give
the lightest, most refined offering..
the gift of recognition, appreciation..
by our words, a gesture, a deed..
of acknowledgment .. of presence..
to the presence of another..
we exist..we are alive..although it be brief..
we share and bear witness to humankind..

all generated by this rich butter of compassion..
karunā

if i could stop one heart from breaking,
i shall not live in vain;
if i can ease one life the aching,
or cool one pain,
or help one fainting robin 
unto his nest again,
i shall not live in vain.

POP-UP yoga practice!

our thoughts begin where words end.

refining dark-enigma depths,

we gaze quiet mystery into each other and smile,

sharing the mind that's forgotten mind.

                                        ~  po chü-i

dearest dharma friends,

yogis and yoginis,

sangha sisters and brothers...

the community of practice is growing, growing, growing..

i have left the fertile ground of the central coast &

a devoted tribe of skilled and intentional practitioners ~

returning to the GNW to create afresh an opportunity

for the wholehearted practice of yoga here ..

with the crackerjack clan of northwest svadyaya!!

imagine this!

back up all those stairs for a stretch & a breath..

back to our honeycomb floor..

619 commercial avenue  #34 anacortes

we have the grace-filled opportunity to share the space

with kristen rosenbusch, the photographer for mama's and babes!

here is the schedule i have conjured up..

THURSDAY AM - 8:30 -10

FRIDAY AM - 9:30 - 11

SUNDAY AM - 10:00 - 11:30

MONDAY PM - 5:30 - 7

there is a new fare for the classes ~

the drop-in price for a single class is $18 ~

the series is still $108 with a change of 7 classes instead of 8 ~

as always - NO EXPIRY on the series..

if this causes distress for self or pocketbook, 

please..

let's have a conversation..

NOTE: for those of you who have classes left from last year or beyond..

they will be honored, of course!

may i always share the practice in such a way as to be worthy of your support ~

there is a possibility of more classes

hither and thither but for now..this is it!

private sessions are always available..

the classes will begin on thursday, july 6th, 8:30 AM

please come ~

please bring your props ~

shall we practice the practice that is in our medicine chest ~

the heart of radiance, rapture, repose?

practicing, practicing for the boundless..

practicing, practicing for the one ~

always om ~

dunja

queries? 360 770 7891

if you knew

what if you knew you'd be the last
to touch someone?
if you were taking tickets, for example,
at the theatre, tearing them,
giving back the ragged stubs,
you might take care to touch that palm,
brush your fingertips
along the life line's crease.

when a man pulls his wheeled suitcase
too slowly through the airport, when
the car in front of me doesn't signal,
when the clerk at the pharmacy 
won't say thank you, i don't remember
they're going to die.

a friend told me she'd been with her aunt.
they'd just had lunch and the waiter,
a young gay man with plum black eyes,
joked as he served the coffee, kissed
her aunt's powdered cheek when they left.
then they walked half a block and her aunt
dropped dead on the sidewalk.

how close does the dragon's spume
have to come?  how wide does the crack
in heaven have to split?
what would people look like
if we could see them as they are,
soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
reckless, pinned against time?
                ~ ellen bass

do we remember - as sogyal rinpoche asks us -
that we are dying, and everyone and everything else is,
and so treat all beings at all times with compassion?
it is a most generous way to be ..
to be in the present..and presence..

as it is said:
our lives are not precious because they are so valuable..
our lives are precious because they are so fleeting ~

alaska!...2...

ever since returning from alaska!
i have been feeling very small..
and
small is too big a word to speak of
my place in the scheme of things..

the sky - the heavenly night planets
& the stars - farther  and farther
yet very near and holy huge..
trees are toweringly taller..
shrubs, too! for that matter ..

my legs.. are they really shorter than they were
before the trek into the wilderness..?

air itself, the pranic winds ..
pressing in on the top of my head ~
commanding..
you are no taller than this!

proportions, perspectives, relationships..
a most intimate unknowing of the big picture..

how vast it all is..
how wee, we all are..

making up the mosiac of the great divine..

ALASKA!

my first visit to alaska..

out of all the darkness 
and glacier crushing and grinding
comes this warm abounding beauty and life
to teach us 
what we in our ignorance and fear 
call destruction 
is creation - 
finer and finer..
               ~ john muir

this is so ..
the wilderness of glacier bay..
the sounds and dialects of raven..
the coo and woo of the eagles..
whales tales and fish scales
crumdudgeon elders -
first nation carvers..
wild flowers and whiskey -
bush-whacking and trail blazing..
yoga tucked into small corners..
boats and ferry boats
ginormas cruise boats in the distance..
waterfalls
salmon ..
halibut cheeks ..
my own rosies!

now, as a junior ranger for the national parks..
taking my vow in sitka
with a badge to prove my intention..
to appreciate, respect and protect all
national parks and wildlife.
to continue to learn about landscape,
plants, animals & history of these special places
while sharing what i learn with my family and friends.

the last frontier