Finding my footing
Day 98 of my tree puja.
In which I use Sanskrit words from the 8 limbs of raja yoga. The purpose of raja yoga is to still the mind. The tree puja does this.
Concentration. Puja is also about concentration, dharana. A state of sense withdrawal, pratyahara, spontaneously occurs as I squat by the tree…
The feet, our roots
Day 93 of my tree puja.
Thinking about feet, and roots.
The weather has turned cold, as it always does when the tomatoes start to ripen. I noticed my feet avoiding cold contact with the concrete path…
Then Zoomed Past a Car
Day 38 of my tree puja. Nestled in nature, I am disturbed by a passing car, an industrial invasion clashing with the blossom universe unfolding around me.
The flowers are very relaxed, just hanging there in mid-air, waiting for visitors on the wing...
The Throb of Life
Day 35 of my tree puja. Now the tree is awakening, the festival of colour begins, and I am simply present.
I feel the rain, I hear the birds of dawn, the breeze doing its rounds, I see the lush masses of leaves and flowers all around and I crouch there, part of it, nothing more, nothing less...
I awoke filled with love.
Day 31 of my tree puja. I am becoming elemental.
The ground was very cold, biting, but so strong, and rich, and alive. My feet joined it, becoming part of the soil’s life, just another biota, another bit of matter, with water flowing inside, and air inside that...
I listened, sound by sound
Day 22 of my tree puja. The tree stands within the activity of air.
I heard the sounds of dawn and tried to imagine not hearing them but experiencing their vibrations, as the tree does and as we do too.
Because my head needs sorting out.
Day 20 of my tree puja. I use the tree puja to help me move on from the death of my teacher.
…looked up through its naked arms to the remaining stars, planets, the simmering light of dawn and said, I’m out of here, as the cold ate into my pink skin, and bits of wet stuff stuck to me.
The tree and the rain are old friends
Day 17 of my tree puja. I almost don’t go because of the cold and rain… but the tree and the outside summon me.
I turned my face up, and the softest rain was sprinkling down upon me. I opened my mouth and felt the gift of the sky…
…as tired night lets go and day edges in.
Day 16 of my tree puja. In case you are wondering, the winter of 2009 was one of the wettest on record in Hobart. Stay with me, because eventually Spring bursts upon the scene! We’ve a way to go yet though.
I move from the inside realm, and into the presence of pre-dawn, still and pregnant, as tired night lets go and day edges in…
Curious about the image? Keep reading…
I offer my soft, warm breath
Day 13 of my tree puja. I realise things about the transformation of fire from the furnace of the sun, to the warmth of my breath.
The ground is like a full-soaked sponge, the water very cold. The sounds are of drips and drops and flowings. Everything is touched by rainwater…
Transformation is everywhere. It is the key to life.
Day 12 of my tree puja. It was my daughter’s 20th birthday. She was in London. I was southern Tasmania with the wintery tree.
As I squatted under her limbs, I felt my own limbs – legs holding me upright, strong, and true like the tree’s trunk, my arms free, like her branches…
The tree is never absent, but always silent
Day 10 of my tree puja. It’s the winter solstice, the longest night.
I visited the tree in the pre-dawn of the longest night…
She embodies Mother and silence.
The tree has courage
Day 3 of my tree puja journal. I feel the courage of the tree and draw on that, as I need it today. There is a poem about bare feet.
Come to me with your feet bare,
And I will wash the dust of journeys past and now.