GURDWARA
Sat Nam,
Bowing to my Guru first thing after awakening and bathing
My only prayer is gratitude
Thank you
I am here and you, my Guru are here
Thank you for the safety of my journey
Thank you for guiding me surely through the winds and rain to this place
Where I might bring my head low
Present it to you and pray you might accept it
My first place
At the feet of my Guru
Gurdwara
JAPJI
The air is cold and sweet as it is meant to be
The sky is clear and starry as you have blessed it to be
The space around me is filling with souls like minded and assuredly holy
Dressed warm in many coats and colors against the cold and the early hour
We gather to read a not so ancient prayer
That bespeaks the entire Universe
And yet says to me that only this time
And this space is
Sacred
Sacred
Sacred
Gently repeated until finally
Shunyia
I can listen and hear and remember and understand and perhaps live this truth
Live this dharma
Live this way in which each day is stolen fruitfully from a painful fated future
Simply destined, clear, perhaps courageous, conscious, prayerful,
JapJi
YOGA
Many exercises which I can and cannot do
Due mostly to my age and arm and knee and whatever else may be in my akashic physicality
The Spinal Flex and Sufi Grind I can do quite easily
But Wheel and Cobra are quite beyond my current senseless willingness to a won't-ness
So I am content to struggle good humoredly with my failing body
Hopeful only of incidental success
Gained gently because of the past efforts reaping good karma in lieu of laziness
This is
Yoga
MEDITATION
There is the millisecond before the Word after the breath linked to the Sound inside the Moment
Of Truth
These mantras:
Ek Ong Kar
Wah Yantee
Ek Ong Kar (again)
Sat Siri, Siri Akhaal
Rahkay Raakhaanharee
Wahe Guru, Wahe Jio
Guru, Guru, Wahe Guru
Repeated repetitiously unafraid and unaware of boredom
Like oaths affirmed in both heart and head
A single voice joined to many other voices
Guided through and by the guitar's vibrating strings and air passing through each throat
A musical instrument built of bodies
Alert to sleepy spines and the early hour's call
To sleep
But don't go back to sleep
Stay strong,
Stay straight
Remain in voice
Alert to a moment
We shall only recognize in its passing
Meditate O my mind
Meditation
GURDWARA
Walking down the lighted path
Dollar in hand
Praying for
Healing
Prosperity
Liberation
A safe journey home
Akhaal for the returning soul
For births and birthdays
From all our doubts-deliverance
Praying
Saying
Singing
The Guru's Order of the Day
And finally a warm and oily lump of sweetness
The Amrit Vehla's payback
Prasad
Held firmly but
Shared with my soul
Gurdwara
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