All in due time.

It's still dark outside and with my sneakers in my hand I prepare for the gym.  But it's sadhana that calls me.
I leave the sneakers outside the door of the Zen Den and trade the treadmill for the meditation cushion. Time passes in an instant.  It's time to start the day.  I want to sit longer  but responsibilities await me.  Service is sadhana.

All day I sit at the my desk.  I do the work that needs to be done but every ounce of my being is longing for sadhana.  Service is sadhana when we offer the fruit of our work to God.  Finally, the work day is over but responsibilities are still plenty.  The meditation cushion must wait.

While grumbling to myself at the grocery store on the way home I remember:  Service is sadhana.  See God in everyone and offer all that you do in service to God.  Ok, I understand....I finish my shopping and head home to prepare dinner.  With this reminder fresh in my mind I prepare dinner with the intention of sadhana.  I am feeding my family as if I'm feeding God.  Seeing God in everyone.

We must fulfill our responsibilities even if it means formal practice of sadhana must wait.  If we were to abandon our responsibilities to our jobs and families in the name of sadhana we would be missing God's message to love and serve.

(Okay, I admit it.... I did abandon the dishes after dinner.) 

Everyone is preparing for bed, finally the pull of the Zen Den is too strong to ignore any longer.  With the chants to Shiva playing and room in a soft glow of the candle light I roll out my mat.  Immediately I feel my breath deepen and the stress of the day melt away.  As my body moves in rhythm to the music and my own breath I feel alive.  This is heaven right here in my own home. 

As I slowly make my way to the meditation cushion in front of the alter I close my eyes.  Still it's the Shiva mantras playing in my mind so I go with it....

OM. Tryambakam yajamahe

Sugandhim pushti-vardhanam

Urvarukamiva bandhanan

Mrityor mukshiya mamritat

Tanslation:  OM. We worship and adore you, O three-eyed one, O Shiva. You are sweet gladness, the fragrance of life, who nourishes us, restores our health, and causes us to thrive. As, in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens, and the gourd is freed from the vine, so free us from attachment and death, and do not withhold immortality.


"As, in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens, and the gourd is freed from the vine"  This sentence seemed to apply to the entire day yesterday.  In due time.....formal sadhana was possible.  Until then I needed to remember to make everything I do an offering to God which makes everything sadhana.