Return to sitting.
Within a loose sense of the body,
let the mind move with a long sweep
up the spine, or, more deliberately, with soft paws
clawing upwards, vertebrae by vertebrae,
register movement with the in-breath;
rest, with the out-breath. Then, simply abiding,
without inward movement or outward projection,
let the mind settle fully here in a place, in a body
Recognize when the mind wanders,
then return through the openness of place
to embodiment,
not just as a marker of the mind’s presence,
but with intelligent awareness,
a malleable shape-shifting presence
(perceiving outwardly, sensing inwardly)
clued to the movement of mind
Within this alert ease, this placing and return,
as mind steadies itself, sensate awareness awakens
Not by staking out a place of vantage,
Not tactically, but tactfully present,
with an ongoing openness to experience, a willingness
to move with whatever arises
Dwell within the body, fully there and aware
Having gained ease with the outer body,
with the in-breath sense movement from the extremities
inwards, through the arms legs and spine
and with the out-breath rest in turn at the throat and heart,
at the gut and sex, and at the head
Then with the whole body, let go, surrender to the current
or to the untold stillness, still unfathomable
in its total surround.
As sensate presence deepens,
occasionally, with a resounding, out of nowhere
gut-born shout
shatter the nascent bliss as it arises
or the dullness that sets in from unclear presence
Nothing held back, nothing to let go of,
at ease with the day, at one with the night,
abide in openness, move with presence,
assured, in intention, that all beings awaken within
to a world transformed as it is. No moment indifferent
to the dawn’s first rays.
Return to sitting
like the drowned breaking free from the sunken ark of this poem,
this fleeting drift of awareness,
this persistent mahamudra of recollection,
this upended non-abiding, this phurba lifted in dance,
as my footsteps resound through the earth’s core,
through the heart of the demon
vanquished on seeing,
by this unvoiced
fully-felt
AH!
Amazed!