爱情美食与祈祷 《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 37 (80):唱起赞歌

《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 37 (80):唱起赞歌  

This is the hymn I call "The Amazing Grace of Sanskrit
" filled with devotional longing. It is the one devotional song I have memorized
not so much from effort as from love. I begin to sing the familiar words in Sanskrit
from the simple introduction about the sacred teachings of Yoga to the rising tones of worship ("I adore the cause of the universe . . . I adore the one whose eyes are the sun
the moon and fire . . . you are everything to me
O god of gods . . .") to the last gemlike summation of all faith ("This is perfect
that is perfect
if you take the perfect from the perfect
the perfect remains").
The women finish singing. They bow in silence
then move out a side door across a dark courtyard and into a smaller temple
barely lit by one oil lamp and perfumed with incense. I follow them. The room is filled with devotees—Indian and Western—wrapped in woolen shawls against the predawn cold. Everyone is seated in meditation
roosted there
you might say
and I slip in beside them
the new bird in the flock
pletely unnoticed. I sit crosslegged
place my hands on my knees
close my eyes.
I have not meditated in four months. I have not even thought about meditating in four months. I sit there. My breath quiets. I say the mantra to myself once very slowly and deliberately
syllable by syllable.
我已有四个月的时间未曾打坐。这四个月内我想都没想过打坐的事。我坐在那儿。呼吸静下来。我对自己念一次咒语，缓慢从容，逐字逐句。
Om. Na. Mah. Shi. Va. Ya. Om Namah Shivaya.
I honor the divinity that resides within me.
Then I repeat it again. Again. And again. It's not so much that I'm meditating as unpacking the mantra carefully
the way you would unpack your grandmother's best china if it had been stored in a box for a long time
unused. I don't know if I fall asleep or if I drop into some kind of spell or even how much time passes. But when the sun finally es up that morning in India and everyone opens their eyes and looks around
Italy feels ten thousand miles away from me now
and it is as if I have been here in this flock
Pray
Love