On The Path2

The Okey Dokey Yogi

On The Path2

inspired by Dr. Seuss’s Sutra: the Zax and Patanjali’s Sutra: yatha abhimata dhyanadva (Chapter 1, v. 39)

One day, making Okeys
In the mountain of Dokey,
Posed a West-Going Yogi
And an East-Going Yogi.

{See, an Okey is approval,
An endorsement as such.
Each yogi seeked okeys
So very much.}

And it happened that both of them posed in a place
Where they bumped. There they stood.
Foot to foot. Face to face.

“Look here, now!” the West-Going Yogi said. “I say!
You are blocking my mind. You are right in my way.
I’m a West-Going Yogi and I always think west.
Get out of my way, now, and let me do best!”

“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the East-Going Yogi.
“I always think east, making east-going okeys.
So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move.
And let me go east in my east-going groove.

Then the West-Going Yogi puffed his chest up with pride.
“I never,” he said, “take a step to one side,
And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways
If I have to keep posing here thirty-nine days!”

“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the West-Going Yogi,
“That I can pose here in the mountain of Dokey
for thirty-nine years! For I live by a mantra
that I learned way back in West-Going Tantra.
“Still the mind! That’s my mantra. Still the mind is the best!
I’ll pose here, quite still! I can and I will
If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still.

Hey… said East-Going Yogi
I learned that as well.
Let’s check yoga sutras
Won’t that be swell?

Chapter1, verse 39
to be quite exact.
Focus on things that
you won’t find distract.

There are numbers of ways
For the mind to become still.
Focus on what you please
To Fulfill!

It is the process of focus
Which makes us a yogi
Not the specific practice
You see, Okey-Dokey?

Patanjali says to practice
Right from the heart
Allow this to deepen,
For that is the art.

Fix the mind!
Any object you choose,
As a focusing prop to
Fully fix and bemuse.

Get absorbed in your focus,
Without distraction.
You can attain stillness
And sweet satisfaction.

Try with your breath
If this seems a bit hokey.
Breath in Okey
Breath out Dokey.

 

More to Explore

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    There is nothing you dismiss~
    You are full of BLISS bombs.

    You rejoin your family~’
    And what do you hear?
    Shouts of anxieties~
    Blames, Shames, doubts and fears!

    Does loving-kindness deflate
    As you join the contention?
    Or will your blissed state
    Transmit without tension?

    Each time you experience
    The delight of {I AM}
    Your bliss will flow forth~
    Like a hydraulic ram.

    Embody the KNOWING~
    Of your inner LOVE state.
    So you can keep it safe~
    And INTERRELATE.

    YOGA says your relationship
    between you and your SELF~
    can not be diminished,
    or put upon a shelf.

    You take your SELF
    everywhere you GO!
    Then everything is spiritual
    from Grumps to Sloppy Joes!

    Lokanandah Samadhi-Sukham
    Shiva Sutra One.Eighteen~
    PIC-1Your inner bliss continues
    Like you won the slot machines.

    So how do we GROW
    In our capacity for such LOVE?
    Without mermaids and unicorns~
    Blue moons and white doves?

    We create an INNER space
    Direct love toward KNOWERSHIP~
    Call forth our virtues,
    Our patience, our grit.

    We bridge the gap of difference
    SERVE in a profound way~
    Not cold duty or bargain~
    LOVE is the order of each day.

    Become capable with powers
    Of WILL, KNOWING, and ACTING
    By practicing {I AM}
    Without useless distracting.

    Place your hand over your HEART~
    Feel right beneath your palm~
    Towards your back body~
    Where this is endless peace and calm.

    Allow your attention
    To be with your BREATH~
    To flow in and flow out
    Softly in your chest.

    Welcome the BREATH~
    Right into your HEART.
    Feel a soft golden sun
    That is bright, warm and smart.

    With each breath IN~
    make that SUN glow.
    With Each breath OUT~
    Expand the warmth to and fro.

    As you welcome the breath in
    To the vast INNER world~
    Invite the HEART to reveal
    It’s largeness, depth, and swirl.

    Flow in with the thought {I AM}
    The mantra of the inner self~
    (Not I am Sam~
    Or I am a silly elf)

    The heart receives the breath
    With the recognition {I AM}
    The exhalation feels space,
    The experience of BLISS BAM.

    Practice with eyes open
    Practice with eyes closed
    Practice often
    And LOVE will be exposed.

    As you greet those outside~
    Amongst the chaotic and mundane~
    Stay tuned into your heart
    And send LOVE to their pain.

    You’ll get glimpses of KNOWING
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  • Inspired by the Velveteen Rabbit…How Teachers Become Real.

    horse

    The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

    “I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

    But the Skin Horse only smiled

    –  From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  –

  • Little Bo Breath

    Little Bo Breath has lost her depth, And can’t tell where to find it: She closes her eyes, tunes inside And breathes from hips to armpits. When you feel shallow and dull, deeply breath to get more full. Settle your seat and settle your feet. Close your eyes and visualize a cave in each armpit; …

  • OM is a Magic Word

    We chant OM in order to ground our energy in the present moment. When teaching kids who are brand new to yoga, I am determined to invite them into the wondrous world of all that is yoga without pushing them into a place of spooky sounds, weird ways and stuff completely unrelated to anything they’ve ever known. This mantra is a mode of transportation from where we were in our individual lives moments ago to where we are now – together in yoga