Departing the Borderland

I tried to drown my sorrows yesterday up and down 2nd and 3rd Aves, but I found the powers of the spirits insufficient for my needs.  About 2/3rds of the way down Leinies bottle 8 or 9 I realized what I needed to do to break out of my mourning for Dan.  The answer lay right in front of me: a mat. I lurched off the stool, snatched the mat, and made for my favorite spot on Rainy Lake.  I needed spiritual power, but not the bottled kind.

I began in tadasana.  Simple, calm.  Me and a mat, alone; the human world a distant place.  One of the central ideas of classical yoga is to break away from the world of emotions and thoughts and get in touch with your immortal self.  I rudely discovered that less than a dozen beers can do more to erode the human mountain than a network of rivers given millions of years a geological one.  So I lowered myself into easy pose, not entirely voluntarily.

I began with eyes closed and unsteady hands against my knees.  As lake air replaced sooty bar air I grew steadier.  I moved my hands into namaste, thumbs against breastbone.  I concentrated on that point of contact and observed as it rose and fell.  With each cycle of breath I entered deeper into a meditative trance.

Did you ever have dreams of flying as a kid?  Do you remember the liberating sense of floating?  That's what deep meditation is like.  Your body seems to evaporate, leaving unbounded immortal self.  Laws of physics and time dissipate.  You feel like Luke did when he first felt the force.  It's like the veil of perception lifts, revealing the pure creative power behind everything.  When that happens, you just naturally smile--not unlike Mona Lisa.

As the elation of samadhi washed over me, I heard the words of my first yoga teacher, "Drop your head to your chest, place your hands against your knees, open your eyes and look up."  Floating there in the air before me was the smiling spirit of Dan.  His right hand was in abbaya mudra, and I understood this to mean that death is not to be feared.  But as it turned out, his hand was raised because he had a question.  "Dallas," he said, "if this is heaven, why does your mat say 'Welcome to Lu's'?"


Namaste, Dallas