Meditations of a Mountain Man

When I close my eyes and take a deep breath I often find myself high in a forested mountain with fresh, clean air.  Sometimes it is in an ashram1, meditating in lotus2, senses turned inward to my breath and heartbeat, third eye3 blazing.  Sometimes it standing near a beaver pond, senses turned outward, listening for Bugs Boys4 or Old Ephraim5, with my trigger finger on my Hawken6 ready for the chance to make meat7.

Inside me there is a vegetarian yogi who practices pranayama regularly and is concerned about his meditation, because sometimes it’s too easy to get lost in the Atmamya kosha8 and hard to come back.  He’s often at odds with the big bearded buy who reads and writes westerns, romps around the woods, kayaks and runs and knows way more about guns than he should.

Yesterday I left my weekly advanced yoga class, where I really started getting the hang of handstand and arm balance basics, and walked out to my car9 barefoot and blissful.  When I started up the radio came on and this was the song that was playing:

For once, the two sides got along great.

And now for the footnotes:

1- Forest academy, a place for spiritual or religious contemplation

2- Cross legged seated position

3- Place of focus related to the pineal gland

4- Blackfoot Native American tribe

5- Grizzly bear

6- Muzzle loading rifle favored by fur hunters

7- Hunting for game

8- Inner veil the reveals connectedness to the universe and all living things

9- Subaru Forester, of course