meditating past maya iii

mars from the blackcommentator.com

dr. shimji, my yoga therapist teacher here, said the difference between the two stages of meditation - dharana and dhyana - the two final stages before reaching samadhi – liberation – in the asthanga yoga path - is that dharana is the concentration on something, in the practice of meditation. dhyana is to harmonize with that something, so you become it.

in the yogi, sattvic, real-recognize-real realm, this may mean becoming one with family – past and present – with community, with the earth, the sun, the ocean, with life.

dhyana, from what i've seen, happens daily in the babylon realm, by way of becoming one with the material realm – sneakers, jeans, hats, coffee, cigarettes, club life, alcohol. dhyana in babylon can be a deep meditation on how great you are, how much better you are than others - the ego realm of getting acclaim, getting gassed by your title, your sense of racial/ethnic/national supremacy your exercise of power over others.

poison.

prayers for you.

prayers for me.

deep prayers.

this kind of material/ego/babylon-dhyana - becoming a dkny purse and converse sneakers - could only stem from fear and insecurity.

meditation is happening in babylon, but maybe the kind that maybe killing us softly. is it even possible to exist in such an image based reality and meditate through it?

even many gurus and yogis of india seem to be looking to the white west for recognition, for legitimation. they never seem to come to the hood when they travel. why?

the answer to getting deeper, to finding genuine Guidance may lie in the greatest guru we all have access to – mama earth.

as bruce lee advised, “become water. flow like the water.” afterall, “water don't have no enemies”, fela reminds us.

this past month i've had a chance to bow before the arabian sea, dim the lights and cameras that flash on my ny state of mind, wear shorts and a tanktop and just soak in waves, sunrises n sunsets. the strut i've developed over decades of block to block catwalking, dissipates into a swagger so deep, that only mars could see it.