The Fires Inside...

Snowfall and cold snaps and long hours of dark silence. Winter's warmth can be found in meditation - or hygge. 'Tis the season for inward journeys. Here are a couple from my book, Dharma Butcher...

KINDLING

Sit up straight in lotus

Or half lotus

Or just cross-legged -

But sit up straight.

Imagine your hips as a brazier

Cradling a small collection of glowing coals.

Now think of your belly as a hearth

and your spine as a sort of chimney.

Your Third Eye is the damper

For the flue.

Open it wide and

Breathe in through that eye,

Gently and deeply.

Draw it all the way down

to the embers.

Watch them pulse with light

Each time

You inhale.

When you exhale,

Cinders and ash draft upward,

Departing through

the crown of your head

(Sahasrara)

Pulled aloft to

vanish between the stars.

While you think about your breath

Blowing on the coals in your hearth,

Make a list of three things

You’d like to change about yourself today.

Perhaps you choose

procrastination,

impatience and distraction –

or maybe you want to

rid yourself

of comparison,

judgement

or rage.

Whichever ones you choose,

Turn them into three boxes of kindling

And imagine them

Within an arm’s reach.

One by one,

Each time you gently inhale,

Place one of those sticks of kindling

On the coals of your brazier.

Feed the fire

with what you want to release.

Turn what you’re ready to let go

Into energy and warmth –

Into smoke, soot and vapor.

Burn what you can change

to fuel the fire

you need

to move forward,

to learn more,

to take one step closer

to the diamond light

in the heart

of eternity.

LOTUS TRIPTYCH

I.

When I’m in Lotus

She approaches me

Brass bangles and bright chains

Gossamer scarves of light

She presses her cleft to my breath

Musk and sandalwood

Peach

Summer tomatoes

Strawberry

She asks for my hands and places them on

The dunes of her skin

“Open your mouth,” she coos

“You are divine.

Drink from me and avow

Your love.

Sing inside me.

Grow proud

And offer me the head of your heart.

Let it find mine and wash us in

The River of Stars…”

II.

Sit Lotus

Where the Goddess disrobes

And ribbons of sunlight crawl through the temple

She rests her palms on your shoulders

You feel her maternal breasts

On the wings of your back

Her knees nestle on either side

Of your hips and you feel

her fire on your sacrum

The lush garden of her breath whispers:

“In through your nose and your Ajna;

Deep and powerful and gentle.

Below your belly,

Fill yourself with Eternity;

The divine incense of life

Into your deepest self -

The places where your desire swells with hunger…”

The goddess entreats you to sit upright.

Her fingertips roam your form and

From a bowl of blazing stars,

She gathers a handful of light.

Forming it into the shape of God.

She lays it tenderly atop

The place where your mind opens to heaven.

She kisses the top of your spine and sings:

“You are the well from which

whole worlds are drawn.

You make dancing and shouting.

You give birth to vast wings

And to bravery.

The light you now wear will

cascade into the canyon of your spine.

It gathers in your Svadistana.

It sweetens and perfumes

The draft of your well.

It is the light

That makes your deepest pools eternal.

Savor my gift, dear love.

Share it.

Give away just enough

To keep you hungry…”

III.

I sit Lotus

At the edge of a sylvan pond

In a lush grove of poplars

And I take refuge in

The Buddha

And

The Dharma

And

The Sangha

And

I allow whatever happens to simply unfold,

My thoughts

Handfuls of sand

Thrown onto the

Liquid surface

Of

Stillness.

JD Fratzke

Minneapolis, MN

16 April 2023

Original artwork ink on paper by author, March 2023