Where the I sees nothing

Anjali Sarkar over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

I tried my best, perhaps too hard, to draw the eye

inward and focus on the incremental eight

steps that Patanjali claims will leave me awed

and enlightened and in need of nothing else. Our

model was the turbaned guru up front, beneath the ceiling

fan, who Om-ed until hearts sank and curtains soared.

The skies were blue outside and the birds soared

to heights only possible in the enchanted tropics. Aye,

this foreigner sat on the temple floor sealing

the distance between steps one and eight

and hoping to be enlightened within the hour

or at least by this Himalayan scenery, be awed.

After a couple hours’ quiet introspection I found it odd

that the down cushion grazed my bottom like a sword

and the serpentine spine could not be coaxed, like our

guru’s, to stay straight, any more than the wandering eye

could be enticed to be still, or the mind be pinned on the eight

fold path, or the kundalini be cajoled to rise to the ceiling.

In the days that followed the sealing

of the merger, my friends thought it odd

that I drank a gallon of bourbon a day and ate

almost nothing; and when they found the liver sored

and cysted, they categorically insisted that I

take stock of my life and see the shrink for an hour.

I listened to my friends and honored our

pact to see the shrink and stare at the ceiling

lying back on his couch to probe into this I –

that’s crazy and driven but at the same time odd,

to consider that as the markets soared

and dipped, it could overlook what it ate.

I saw the doc, I watched what I ate

and exercised every day for an hour.

I lived every day on the edge of the sword

until the day that I cracked though the ceiling.

After delegating my tasks and assets, it’s odd

that an Indian travel brochure caught my eye.

I read on the eight limbs of yoga and that did the sealing –

within an hour I booked a flight ready to be awed

by the sword of Vedic wisdom and the mystery that is I.

Read more posts like "Where the I sees nothing" at The Showbear Family Circus.