Sensory Meditation

November 7, 2011

We spent the night in the Airstream at Indian Springs Hot Springs in Colorado.  On this brisk, wintery morning we woke up refreshed and eager to move our bodies in the hills.  Our friends, First Ascent athletes Lysney Dyer and Chris Coulter joined Mati and I set off on foot into the rolling forest.  The sky swirled gray in the distance, but for the time being we were underneath blue.  When we reached the top of the ridgeline we had set our sights on, we decided to sit for a while. 

It had been a chattery, high-energy walk to the top and I wasn’t sure if I’d really be able to just slow down and meditate.  Then again, I thought, there’s nothing wrong with seeing what would happen. 

My first observation was that I didn’t want to close my eyes, so I kept them wide open.  As I took in the sights surrounding me I quickly fell into a sort of sensory meditation.  I saw the gray sky creeping over the peaks closer to us.  The golden grasses dancing in the breeze.  Naked trees stripped of their crispy leaves.  Suddenly I tuned into the soft breeze on my face and was immediately pulled from sight to touch.  Closing my eyes, I felt the cool, hard earth beneath me. I was transformed into a vehicle through which sound was heightened.  What a commotion at first!  The distant gunshots of hunters.  A jet plane flying hundreds of humans off to some exotic place. It quieted down to the echoing call of a vulture through the valley, a woodpecker in a nearby tree behind me, and a cluster of small birds singing to each other.  I felt myself being able to pinpoint exactly where these sounds were coming from.  Then silence.  The quiet of it all prompted me to inhale deeply.  So deeply that my lungs and the insides of my nostrils froze, filling me up with energy and vitality.  I could smell the all-familiar decay of leaves and the inherent snow that swelled in the clouds above.  It smelled in a way that I could taste the seasons changing. 

Everything I experience through each sense permeated through me to my very core. Once again I was reminded that you never really know what your experience with any branch of yoga will bring-and to trust that your senses will always guide you to peace and rejuvenation.

Photos by Mathew Gershater