Equinox: Days of Awe

The period of weeks before and after the Autumn equinox is very auspicious. Day and night are mostly equal. There is a balance in the earth, also in our bodies and minds which are of the earth. This is a very good time to go deep and fly high, to cop to our foolishness and offer it up, to open up to grace and to set noble intentions for the season and year to come.
Not surprisingly many religions have holy periods at this time. The Hindu tradition honors and worships God as the divine mother for nine days in this period. The Jewish tradition honors the divine father and celebrates its highest holy days during this period known as the Days of Awe. Consider these intentions (kavvanot) for yourself and your life:

* To be effective on this occasion and in these rituals
* To transcend the old worlds you’ve been in
and transport to a new gestalt, world view and realm
* To go beyond the old box reality you’ve been living
and rise up see a new view of life and the universe
and live that in fullness,
* To be a witness to a sacred presence
wherever you are and wherever you go
* To become pure instruments
of God’s love and blessing in the world
* To find your voice, your true voice
and sing your own sweet song
* To let go any fears you have about looking bad or taking risks
and take on who you most love to be
and do what you most love to do
and share that with all

We Swam the Seven Seas

Tuesday Morning July 6, 2010, Assateague Island
On News of the Death of an Old Friend

Breakdown, cry. Stunned and saddened
We go way back, you and I, to 1962, almost 50 years
We went through Navy Frogmen/Seal Team Training together

We swam the seven seas together
The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Pacific

We learned and practiced Yoga together on the beach in Mexico
I introduced you to my cousin and you went and married her
I was Best Man and got you to the ceremony late

Now suddenly you’re gone and I’m crying
A call on my cell from Mataji, the divine mama
He wants you to have a wonderful vacation
Now go jump in the Atlantic
Where you two would often swim side by side

I run into the water this early morning
Chanting Om Tryumbakums as I dive through incoming waves
Before I get one third through the memorial prayer
There you are right before me in our Guru’s arms
Like a little babe held over his heart
But you’re fully grown and smiling with gold light around you both

I swim and dive again and again like a porpoise
As I head back toward shore I see now, my brother
That you’re everywhere –
In these miraculous ocean waves sparkling with light
The sky, the beach
Everywhere, everywhere, no limitation

Assateague Island July 8, 2010
Northeast Wind Blowin’

Went swimming again this hot July morning
The gradient was terribly uneven, Joe
No place to land marines; tell the Command
But the ocean is as ever cold at first, then comforting

We all come here to earth and one day go on
“Gathered to our people,” as it says in the Torah
How and when is our karma
No matter that

Be so joyful, my brother
In the land of no boundaries, borders or limitations
See you again one day -- for sure
Om Shanti

* * *

As I’m getting in my car a family in a truck drive up
Park and begin to unload. I overhear the parents
Teasing two little girls in the backseat
“Mom and Dad are going to the beach, see you kids later …”

“Oh, no,” they scream piling out
All are laughing. “You guys are tough,” I tell the mom.
She laughs again, “Oh, we’re bad.”

The kids haul off for the water carrying between them
A big rubber boat filled with air
Shaped just like the bigger ones we used to roll off of
Strapped to a speed boat

Dropping frogmen every 20 yards

O’ those were the days, Sudharman
I’ll bet you’re swimming in this ocean right here, right now

In Sacred Memory of Sudharman Joe Fenton

Selections from S h o r t T a k e s
The Traveler’s Handy Weekly Torah Gita Calendar

The Eagle – A Call to Return

1. Heaven and earth are called to hear these words
2. That shower down as rain on young growth
3. Ask your ancestors and spiritual elders

to inform you and teach you
4. Is it not God, your father and mother
Who made you and makes you even now
5. Who establishes you and has you endure
6. A rock (solid foundation)
Whose actions are perfection
Whose ways are always just
7. God empowers and hovers above you
Like an eagle rousing its nest
8. If you become coarse and extravagant
You lose sight of God
9. God’s countenance becomes hidden
You are reduced to nothing
10. Leaving not trace of your existence
(Ayin, no-thing, just this!)
11. Your enemy is false perception
12. Thinking: There is no God
I am the one deserving credit
No discernment
13. Now clean the land
(dedicate all your thoughts and actions
To the benefit of all)
14. All nations bear witness.
My arrows are drunk with blood
My sword devours
(Look straight into these power images
This is an entrance)
15. Sweeping misfortune, bloated by famine
Ravaged by plague, deadly pestilence
The attack of fanged beasts let loose
Poisonous serpents creeping
And striking from the dust
The terror within and from without
Death dealt by the blade
To everyone: young men and maidens
The aged and babies
16. The strength of your enemies wanes
Even now (one’s foolishness is disempowered)
17. Who God vindicates is vindicated
God’s portion is those who choose God
18. See, there is none other than I;
I deal death and give life. I wound and heal

And I live forever (I am the I am)

Selections from Deuteronomy 32.1-52

September Song

hey, today I feel like playing hooky
running away

-- with you

to lie down and hang out beside a waterfall
or stretch out on a mountain-top and look at the sky

shall we just slip away ?!?!

A New Year Soon Beginning

According to the Hebrew calendar we are now in the year 5770
The holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Head of the Year
Marks the beginning of a new year

5 7 7 1

5+7+7+1 = 20 Kaf
Each of the 22 Hebrew letters
is a doorway and a pathway
For those who choose to meditate
on the letters

Pathways between infinite depths
on the tree of life
Over the ages the sages
Have drawn lines
from one s'firah (infinite depth) to another

For example, from the South into the Heights
And back again if you choose;
This is the pathway of Kaf
So say quite a number of past and present kabbalists

Others assign Kaf to the pathway
Between two other infinite depths on the tree of life
Which shows us that it doesn't matter all that much
What their maps say
Go on your own jouney and see what you find
Meditate on these letters

A new year just starting in this coming equinox period: 5771
Blessed all year by the number 20, the letter Kaf
Come on through the door