Tag: meditation

Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Sunset Descent, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

Sunset Descent

In a moment between breaths

Clear my lungs
Clear my mind
Clear my heart

In this realm
Of sunset otherness
The heavy sigh of engines
In smooth air
As a world of cares and worries
Slides by far below

Soon enough to be rejoined

I take another breath
Feel the gentle decline
Back to Earth

Take another breath
Close my eyes
Imagine myself
In flight forever
Concerns and attachments
All suffering
Spread across the surface
Of a small globe
Above which I can choose to float

So when I choose again
To walk the Earth
I may appreciate both

Its suffering and joy
Its love and discontent
Its beauty and ugliness
Its hardship and kindness

With another breath
Empty my lungs
Empty my heart
Empty my mind
Of attachment
To one state or another

For it is the attachment
To a state of being
Which creates the suffering
Not the state of being

“Cabin attendants prepare for arrival”

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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The Maw, Palau De Les Arts, Ciutat De Les Arts I Les Ciences, Valencia, Spain

Fear ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #250

The maw which devours me
Consumes my will
My strength
Is naught but the workings
Of my fearful mind 

I breathe
Speaking the words in my mind
Over the chatter of thoughts

Breathing in
Breathing out

Displacing the chatter
My thinking stills
So that the maw closes
Upon the vacuum
That is the peace
Of a quiet mind

Without fear
To sustain it
The maw dies
Revealed as an illusion
Created by fear

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Alcoves, El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, Valencia, Spain

Breathing the Moment

In an alcove of my mind
Tucked away from memories and desires
I find this moment
Of nothing but breath
The sensation of breathing
Awareness of the necessity
Of nothing but breathing

Breathe in this moment
Breathe out the past
Breathe in this moment
Breathe out the future
Breathe in this moment

Every inhaled breath
Overflows the alcove
Expands into every aspect of mind

Every exhaled breath
Empties the mind
Allowing the moment to flow into it

I breathe
Until all that I am
Is this single moment

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Desert Mantra, Death Valley National Park, California, United States of America

Desert Mantra

Desert is my mantra
Distractions few
But for the wind that is breath
Breathing slowly, deeply

Patience is the desert
Eons shaped it
Storms come and go
Then desert returns to itself

Desert surprises
Not always hard sun and heat
Comfortable in the cold grey
Vivid hues follow a spring rain

Lifeless seems the desert
Lively to those who choose to see
Quiet in harmonious balance
Patient, resilient, and supple

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Rocky Coast Wide, Oregon Coast Highway, Oregon, United States of America

Breathing the Sea ~ NaPoWriMo 2020

Sometimes, all I want is the sea

The surf
The gulls
The sand
The wind
The sky

The emptiness of a beyond
Reaching further
Than the distant horizon

But there is no such sea here

So when I want the sea
I draw a slow, very deep
Breath in

Close my eyes
And release
Slowly
The breath
And my presence
Here
Now

Release my presence
Begin to breathe deeply

I listen for the waves
And hear them

In time with my breath

I listen for the gulls
And hear them

My thoughts glide away on their wing

I scrunch my toes in the sand beneath my feet
And feel it between them

Grounded, solid as the Earth

I open my chest to the wind
And it washes over my body

Filling my lungs, my being with life

I raise myself up to the sky
And bask in the warm sunlight

It feeds the light within

I am transported there
To the shore of the sea

I release
All that is not this moment
Let it take wing
Like the gulls

Watch this flock of attachments
Fly beyond the distant horizon
Then disappear behind it

I sit here
With the sea
With the emptiness

In the emptiness
There are only the waves
Which are my breath

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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I Walk in Rainbow Slippers, Window Graphic, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

I Walk on Rainbow Splinters

Some people think they know me
But I know they cannot know me
Can’t see my misfortune
Guess they don’ wanna know me

I am just a pilgrim
Saffron shows my devotion
Ain’t afraid of no hard road
Fill my heart with passion

Walk thru the fire
Fly thru the fear
See the signs along the path
Though the end remains unclear

Walk in mindful silence
See what breath can do
Walk on rainbow splinters
Leave behind gurus

Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters

‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up, ‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up

I breathe in the light
Exhale the darkness
Pride begins to fade
And I forget the malice

Balance light and dark
Rising from the gutter
Melt my pain like butter
And my heart begins to flutter

Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters
Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters

‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up, ‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up

Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters

Gautama Buddha
Come along on my journey
Bring your Dharmakaya, your Sambhogakaya, your Nirmanakaya
And your 500 lives
The illuminating candle
Apsaras, guiding angels
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Bodhisattva of compassion
Master who taught the light

With you Gautama
With you Gautama

‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up, ‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up

‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up, ‘Til I Wake Up ,’Til I Wake Up

Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters
Seek it, you will find it, seek, seek
Walk on rainbow splinters

Gautama Buddha
Shining on the river of light….

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