Visual Haiku

Visual haiku:

I've been increasingly drawn to short form video, using the YouTube platform to share what I now think of as a visual haiku. It's just a short clip of what nature reveals on my daily walks and runs, seldom edited, so at once showing my lack of camera skills as well as the beauty of the day. Perhaps as my interest grows I'll take the time to further my skills behind the scene, but it's doubtful, as I think than that I would become too involved in the process, wishing to perfect each clip instead of simply leaving the moment itself to show through - that my true and only involvement was in the instant that's being shown.

mistakes and all. 

so for me, the visual haiku is the entire moment, including the scan through surrounding brush and branches to finally pinpoint the object of my search, a shakiness revealing my barely contained excitement, the abrupt and reluctant departure as I tear my lens away. They're not really mistakes, really, they're simply part of the entirety of nature, a moment captured that include my enthusiasm as well as lack of skill. I'm absolutely fine with that, I have zero interest in highlighting my ability with a camera, the haiku is the moment itself and my awkwardness belongs fully to the scene.

and I feel fortunate to share it. 

mistakes and all. 

of course this is only my perspective, and that's what I most truly love about this newly discovered art-form, that in the entirety of the universe there is only the uniqueness of this instant and I am blessed to be included here. There will be better, higher skilled clips of nature nature shown, and I will love being able to watch them, knowing that whoever filmed them was caught up within their own unique and universal perspective. 

it's an awesome privilege. 

and I am blessed to have my own. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Well Balanced 

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Well Balanced

Well balanced:

an insight occurred to me this morning doing my asana yoga session, one that might not surprise too many of my close friends, but none the less struck me as important - that I'm not well balanced, never have been and it's doubtful that I'll ever be. Yet I'll keep trying. And truly I mean this as much emotionally as I do physically, how every aspect of my life is in a process of adjustment, always shifting to maintain any sense of equilibrium. 

I am not well balanced, 

however....

there's always a state motion, balancing, fluid, and with this I find that there's always a return to center, it's how I navigate through life. The balancing asanas really reflect this so perfectly, with my first tentative approach to entering a certain pose, an attempt to hold myself steady in the sway of body as well as the unsteadiness of thoughts. Yet I stay with it, adjusting with an intuitive trust of where I need to be, sometimes moving just a fraction of a direction to find a point of poise. 

balancing.

what I find is that no, I'm not well balanced, but I am perfectly equipped to make these fractional adjustments, being able to return repeatedly to center as often as it's needed. To be poised doesn't mean the absence of motion, life is far too dynamic for this to ever occur. What happens is that I finally come to trust the swaying of both my mind and body, that there is an innate wisdom present that only calls for my surrender, to have faith, not in a fictional state of balance - but in the motion itself, knowing that there is grace within every fall. 

even more so in my return. 

balancing.

and with this...I find a certain poise.

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Spring Arrives 

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Spring Arrives

Spring arrives: 

this is when spring truly begins for me, this stretch of time in earliest April and days in a row of heavy rain. It's raw outside, the touch of winter barely kept at bay, and yet tomorrow the sky will clear and the sun will offer warming rays - this is the exactly when spring arrives, as life responds to this moment, and everything becomes alive within the air, offering its best bloom and finest shade of early green. 

spring has arrived.

and life bursts open.

displaying the grace of what's been occurring through days of heavy rain.

this always gives me faith in the power of unseen things, that even as winter has a deep hold across the landscape there's still the slightest stir of life beneath the surface, the potentiality of a blossom even now in motion. Nothing is ever really dormant, that's just a state of slowed energy that's biding for the right conditions of its glorious display. 

I have faith in the unseen things of springs arrival, knowing that every present event is a mask of preparation, necessary for what's eventually to be shown. With this in mind I no longer wish a rush through winter, even as it seems to linger past its given season. Nature has a wisdom to its agenda and my story of time and schedules doesn't always fit within its plan. 

I'm learning to keep pace with the unseen things of nature. 

trusting in the heavy rains that life sometimes offers.

and with that...

it seems that spring has now arrived. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Hours of God 

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Hours of God

Hours of God: 

and so arrives the hours of God, Brahma Muhurta, a period of existing as a window of time just before dawn and then briefly after the sun first appears. It's from here that the mysteries of the cosmos calls to us, daring us to awaken and experience our true potentiality. This is where our greatest ideas happen, inspiration appears unbidden, and we are gifted with a deep silence in which we hear the whispered voice of God and secrets of creation are revealed. 

I wouldn't miss it for the world. 

and in fact I wake early to prepare for its arrival, giving some time for cleansing breathwork, meditation, and several rounds of sun salutation as a fully body stretch of prayer. I want to be ready for the very first whisper heard, at be at my desk when inspiration comes with a gift of words. As well, I wish to experience this time in nature, finishing my writing and heading out the door no matter what the weather might offer. It's all sacred during this period, in these hours of God, everything feels so truly gifted and I'm eager to show my appreciation by experiencing it all. 

these are the hours of God,

but only for those who wake early for their arrival.

and surrender to their mystery. 

~

Peace, Eric  

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Intuitive Sense of Flow 

Also, please visit to buy: The Upanishads 

Intuitive Sense of Flow

Intuitive sense of flow: 

lately my asana sessions have taken on a more flowing quality, having a lightness and ease that seems to have arrived completely on its own. My original practice was self taught from a book when I was fairly young and later supplemented by attending yoga classes, mostly based on the Sivananda style of holding postures for specific periods of time with relaxation poses interspersed throughout. As well there was a long streak of Bikram yoga, again with the asanas held for a certain length and allowing the heat to cleanse the mind and body. 

and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

every means of practice.

mostly though, I enjoy my solo time of yoga, first thing in early morning and having the asanas open up my body, feeling expansive, awakening. I've based these sessions on all I've learned through the years, recent teacher training, and an intuitive sense of flow. I'm learning to listen to my body more now, but even deeper, there's an energy present that's really leading the way though my practice. This is prana, the energetic foundation of life, and it's my true instructor, calling for my surrender and for me to abandon any sense of being in control. This yoga is being expressed through me, my body an instrument of its bidding. thoughts becoming calm and then falling still completely.

it's a beautiful practice. 

as if a grace has been gifted.

unearned.

but I give myself fully to this intuitive sense of flow...

and simply continue with my practice.

~

Peace, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: April 

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April

April: 

it's April, with spring fully it set it seems, a trend of weather that's warmer, yet still not quite at my personal point of comfort. I'm not complaining though, I have walked my way through winter, each morning before dawn and putting in the miles no matter what conditions. April is a welcome month for me, a celebration of the warmth of spring's arrival, marking the occasion of my birth, and most important of all - this month explodes in signs of color, from first hint of green to its darkening shade of vedancy, with such wide variety of flowering hues splashed throughout the landscape. 

I feel as if I come alive again each April.

an internal spring reflected by the colors of the world.

of course March leads the way for this, and even February contributes in it's way. I used to remind myself that there would be no spring without the harshness of winter. But no longer now, a season doesn't have to be justified for the sake of my opinion, what's offered it the fullness of its expression, a winter's day being exactly and only what it can be...and there doesn't need to be an explanation to suit me. 

I'm finally accepting the seasons of my life.

no matter what they bring me. 

but still...

there's my love of April.

with its warmth and green and flowering hues. 

and even this doesn't need an explanation. 

everything's accepted as it is.

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: A Beautiful Forgiveness

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A Beautiful Forgiveness

A beautiful Forgiveness: 

my formative years were steeped in Christian values, attending Catholic school from first grade up to my freshman year of high school before leaving for a public institution in my remaining three years. My family wasn't overly religious, only occasionally going to mass, but none the less I felt a strong connection to the church - or more truly said, to the deep mystery that it offered. 

and Easter was my favorite holiday.

resurrection. 

that Jesus rose from the dead and that my sins were to be forgiven. 

it's a beautiful message, and I felt deeply the suffering that was involved, Jesus being forced to carry his own cross, whipped and mocked before nailed and left to slowly perish in the heat of the sun. Except Jesus didn't wither, he forgave from the cross and bestowed the ultimate act of empathy, whispering to his father that his torturers did not know the true extend of their actions, they were ignorant of their most basic behavior. 

a beautiful forgiveness. 

years later and I discovered this same psychological truth in yoga, avidya, the root foundation of the kleshas that explains all of our suffering in life. Avidya is translated from Sanskrit to mean ignorance, explaining that we are unaware of being the cause of our own suffering. We know not what we do, quite literally so, blind to our aversions and attachments, colliding through life a deep fear of death driving our behavior, and oblivious of mistaken belief in an ego based reality. 

we're in need of a resurrection. 

a beautiful forgiveness. 

and that's what yoga offers us, a path for our salvation, not for the sake of souls and eternity in heaven, but for this life now, recognizing that we are reborn within each instant. An Easter for every moment we're alive. That's the lesson from the cross, we're ignorant of our action, and forgiving ourselves of this ignorance gives us an opportunity of rebirth to a new insight of going forward now into a greater light of true awareness. 

Jesus, from the cross, offers us this vision of a reality.

a clear seeing of our awareness. 

a beautiful forgiveness. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, Please visit: Just Talking to Myself 

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Thank you.