{"id":233723,"date":"2023-04-24T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=233723"},"modified":"2023-04-19T04:44:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T03:44:40","slug":"vacanas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/vacanas\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacanas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vacanas are short, informal poems of devotion to Shiva. They originated in South India during the tenth century, a time of social upheaval, and took the side of poor against the rich, of spontaneous free expression against established orthodoxy, of passion against propriety. Our times are similar to those, so they speak to us across the millennium and are now enjoying a revival by contemporary poets.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shiva, Deity of Transcendence – Bangalore<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

Soaring to Shiva <\/strong>– by William T. Hathaway<\/p>\n

10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holding my kite, I run \u2018til I\u2019ve stirred a breeze,
\nthen swing my arm, toss the kite, give it string.
\nIt lofts into the air, catches a gust and soars.
\nI laugh in glee.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 30<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holding the tiller, I steer my boat to open water
\nwhere the wind lives.
\nI rev the motor, shut it off, hoist the sail.
\nThe canvas flaps listlessly \u2018til I swing the boom,
\nthen it catches wind and swells taut.
\nThe boat surges forward, slapping and skimming the waves.
\nI shout exultant.<\/p>\n

\u00a050<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kite and boat no longer needed,
\nI fly by the grace of Guru Dev.
\nHis forcefield flows above me,
\nand I stretch up to reach it \u2013
\nmeditation, asanas, devotion.
\nWith a leap of faith
\nI vault into the flow
\nand don\u2019t fall.
\nHe holds me aloft,
\nfills me with divine prana,
\nand sends me flying exalted through the heavens.
\nLeaving behind gravity, the grave and the crave,
\nhis Zepher Express sails me all the way to Shiva.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Depths – <\/strong>by William T. Hathaway<\/p>\n

Ocean outside
\nOcean inside
\nOutside motion
\nInside stillness
\nDive into both
\nFind at the bottom
\nShiva<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shiva in the Sky – Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019d like to contact Shiva and enrich your life with his presence, this website will show you how, all for free: <\/em>https:\/\/meetshiva985866381.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>William T. Hathaway is a Special Forces combat veteran and an emeritus Fulbright professor of American Studies in Germany. <\/em>His books won him a Rinehart Foundation Award and a Fulbright professorship in creative writing. <\/em>His book<\/em> Radical Peace: People Refusing War<\/a> presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists who are working to change U.S. ‘warrior’ culture. His novel<\/em> Lila, the Revolutionary<\/a><\/strong> is a fable for adults about an eight-year-old girl who sparks a world revolution for social justice.<\/em> Hathaway’s novel of the climate change,<\/em> Wellsprings: A Fable of Consciousness tells of an old woman and a young man healing nature through techniques of higher consciousness. Chapters are posted HERE<\/a>. His peace novel,<\/em> Summer Snow, is the story of a US soldier falling in love with a Sufi Muslim and learning from her that higher consciousness is more effective than violence. Chapters are posted HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacanas are short, informal poems of devotion to Shiva. They originated in South India during the tenth century, a time of social upheaval, and took the side of poor against the rich, of spontaneous free expression against established orthodoxy, of passion against propriety. Our times are similar to those.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":233803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[759,868,3046],"class_list":["post-233723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-india","tag-poetry","tag-shiva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233723"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233807,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233723\/revisions\/233807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}