Hotei

 

Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue

 

  January 15, 2022

 

Live light, travel light, spread the light, be the light.

—tag on Yogi Tea bag

 

Every thing that lives is Holy.

—William Blake

 

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane.

—Thich Nhat Hanh, from Your True Home, #269

 

Ken Margolis sent this poem by our friend Dennis Wiancko:

 

      Our Mother’s Prayer

 

Our Mother, Whose name is Earth,

Hallowed be Your ground

And Your skies

And Your rolling seas

 

Your gardens thrive; Your spirit alive

Through woodlands, streams,

Mountains and plains

Everywhere

 

Grant us this day our needs for tomorrow

And refresh us with Your living waters

 

Forgive us our mistreatment

As we would forgive those who cause you harm

 

Lift us from negligence, and deliver us from greed,

For Yours is the home, and the beauty,

And the life that sustains us,

And we would love, respect, and care for You

Now and ever, ever forward.

 

—R. Dennis Wiancko 2016

*

 

Kim sent a poem and some thoughts from the Dalai Lama. 

 

      Etiquette of Thought

 

When first you wake, you may wonder

without knowing. Dream work still rules.

Then, the coffee, you begin to know

without saying. The mind has a mind

of its own. When others wake, you may

say without asking, caught in your own

little world. But with luck, a little grace,

you may then ask and listen, and by this

blessing, work your way back to wonder.

 

—Kim Stafford

 

Here is what a friend told me she learned from the Dalai Lama when he visited her nonprofit in India:

 

Kindness brings joyfulness

service to others brings joyfulness

we are made for goodness

the gift of suffering makes us appreciate joy 

joy is our work of giving joy to others

happiness is a result of kindness 

well being is a skill 

while you are alive your life should be meaningful 

 

—Dalai Lama

*

 

[There is a] marvelous story in the world of Zen Buddhism where the man is standing on the hill in the distance and a group of people come along and see him standing there and begin to wonder why he’s standing there. So they have quite a full discussion of the possibilities of what caused him to be standing there. When they finally  reach him, they say we’ve been having this discussion about why you’re standing here. Which one of us is right? He says, I have no reason. I’m just standing here.

 

—John Cage, from Musicage: Cage Muses on Words Art Music, p. 129

*

 

Jason Beito shared this from his friend Steve Decker, who recently released to Portland. Steve is a student of Siddha Yoga.

 

To celebrate gratitude is to express gratitude.

 

The origin of the word “sacrifice” is: “to make sacred.”

 

“Love is, first and foremost, sacrifice. More than passion, romantic declarations, or outer expressions of loyalty and faith. Where there is true love, there is a willingness to give one’s essence in its service—whether as a mother who sacrifices for her children, a leader for his country, a seeker to his spiritual practices, or an artist to his art.”—Siddha Yoga

 

“A man who enjoys what is given by the gods

without offering something in return,

he is a thief and lives in vain.”—the Vedas

 

Let’s make our lives Sacred.

 

Thanks for what you give to me

and to so many others.

 

—Jason Beito

*

For me, the beginning of each day is an important time. I like to find my way to what I call “The Golden World.” When I feel that I am “in” the Golden World, everything is beautiful, perfect, miraculous. I silently say “thank you.” Thought and language fall away. Without a care in the world, I feel slightly elated. I have no problems. No ambitions. No fears. No boundary. There is no distinction between “me” and “the world.” This nameless feeling is quite lovely. It’s Paradise. 

 

As the day goes on, and I get busy with various activities, I like to take good care of my feelings of peace and love and happiness. I want to see everyone I meet, including my plant and animal friends, as the beautiful luminous beings we are.

 

I got a new book by Thich Nhat Hanh yesterday: Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. It’s edited from his talks and writings by Sister True Dedication. I like this poem. It reminds me of a poem by Walt Whitman:

 

I have been looking for you, my child,

Since the time when rivers and mountains still lay in obscurity.

I was looking for you when you were still in a deep sleep,

Although the conch had many times

Echoed in the ten directions.

From our ancient mountain I looked at distant lands

And recognized your steps on so many different paths.

Where are you going?

 

In former lifetimes you have often taken my hand

And we have enjoyed walking together.

We have sat for long hours at the foot of old pine trees.

We have stood side by side in silence

Listening to the sound of the wind softly calling us

And looking up at the white clouds floating by.

You have picked up and given to me the first red autumn leaf

And I have taken you through forests deep in snow.

But wherever we go, we always return to our

Ancient mountain to be near to the moon and stars,

To invite the great bell every morning to sound,

And help all beings to wake up.

 

—from “At the Edge of the Forest,” by Thich Nhat Hanh

 

 

      We Two, How Long We Were Fool’d

 

We two, how long we were fool’d,

Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes,

We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return,

We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark,

We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks,

We are oaks, we grow in the openings side by side,

We browse, we are two among the wild herds spontaneous as any,

We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,

We are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings and evenings,

We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals,

We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down,

We are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic and stellar, we are as two comets,

We prowl fang’d and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey,

We are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving overhead,

We are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling over each other and interwetting each other,

We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious,

We are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence of the globe,

We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we two,

We have voided all but freedom and all but our own joy.

 

—Walt Whitman

 

 

—Johnny Stallings

*

 

First, a disclaimer: These monthly musings of mine from Your True Home are appearing to me to be less worldly and philosophical and more self-absorbed than others’ entries. Maybe it’s okay; these ‘everyday wisdoms’ of Thich Nhat Hanh force me to be self-reflective, and I guess its about time—-just a couple weeks away from turning 78, I’m thinking maybe Socrates is right about the unexamined life. So.

 

#111-Taking Care of the Future

“The future is being made out of the present, so the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. This is logical and clear. Spending a lot of time speculating and worrying about the future is totally useless. We can only take care of our future by taking care of the present moment, because the future is made out of only one substance: the present. Only if you are anchored in the present can you prepare well for the future.”

 

Whew,  I’m in luck, because I am not a planner, not an organizer, not a ‘projectionist.’  “Goals” is a foreign word to me. In my late 30s, post divorce, I took a business class for artists, and the instructor asked us to write down our ‘short term goals,’ and our ‘long term goals.’ Huh?!?!? What’s that? Okay- 1. to make enough money for my daughter and me, and 2. to be rich and famous hahaha (groan, yes, I wrote that).  Next question: What is your business plan to accomplish these goals?  Umm, well, like in the card game of Hearts, I’ll shoot the moon! Meaning, I’ll just go all out, risk everything, and just do it!  Fortunately, there was no grading in that class.

 

And my almost-80-year-old husband keeps asking almost-78-year-old me how long, how many years, I think we can stay in this house, with its ever lengthening staircase, menacing throw rugs nipping at our toes, and acre of whining, demanding property to care for. Well, forever! Climbing those stairs twenty time a day keeps us strong; tripping on throw rugs is good practice for balance, and…oh, just look at this peony. 

 

I should be thinking of the future, but I keep forgetting. If I try to think ahead I get sidetracked, distracted by something that’s happening right then: OMG, Lolo’s fur is sooo soft on my cheek. I’ve never had a dog whose fur smelled so sweet. And she’s an old dog. Don’t old dogs smell? Lolo, you’re the sweetest. 

 

Same with anger, resentment, worry. I can be stewing away vigorously about something—that guy in front of me is flipping snow all over me from his snowshoes. I should tell him how to stop doing…OH! Look at this!! It’s snowing tiny flakes and they look like diamonds sparkling with the sun shining behind them. Or fireflies! Yeah, fireflies, blinking on and off…

 

But back to Taking Care of the Future; I trust TNH, but I don’t quite understand how being anchored in the present can prepare you well for the future. Doesn’t ‘anchored’ mean ‘stuck?’ Shouldn’t you replace ‘worrying’ with the more positive word, ‘planning?’ How does noticing dog fur and snowflakes help me prepare for the future? I’m serious. 

 

—Jude Russell

*

 

Here is something I have been meditating on for some time now.

      

Mercy and forgiveness. I used to think that these two kindnesses could only be truly given by those who you had wronged. But if we can’t forgive ourselves first, the forgiveness given can not be truly accepted by us. 

       

There recently came a time when I finally was able to forgive myself. I had hated the person I USED to be, and for years kept doing this ritual of inner self abuse for the pain I had caused others. 

        

I had a good dose of my past life recently and I could not function in that way any longer. I no longer was that person. Confused, I meditated. 

 

This man that I am now would never do the things the old man would do. The very thought is unpalatable to me now in every way. A person that has gone through such a massive life reformation should be allotted a small dose of mercy, a reprieve from sins of a damaged past life—a life that was poisoned from birth by people who were themselves abused. No one is to blame. No one. It is the world and if I have seen the change in myself others must see it too. I feel I have grown into a remorseful man, guilty of what I did, and extremely repentant.

 

—Rocky Hutchinson

*

 

(Rocky’s words remind me of King Lear’s: “None does offend. None, I say. None.”) (JS)

 

Below is a quote from Alan Lightman (who wrote Einstein’s Dreams) that I have saved to my computer. Every so often I open the file and am inspired again by his vast vision.

 

“The individual atoms, cycled through wind and water and soil, cycled through generations and generations of living creatures and minds, will repeat and connect and make a whole out of parts. Although impermanent, they make a permanence. Although scattered they make a totality.”

 

It reminds me that we don’t have to create or forge connections–everything is already in that state of union. It is just necessary to see past fog and illusion to the very interknit whole that we all are. Here are two poems of mine that express the same idea in slightly different ways.

 

 

Dirt’s Revelation

 

Unearthed in Sussex, the now un-favored,

almost forgotten word, smeuse,

describing holes small animals make,

passageways through hedges and forest,

from lawn to lawn, a hidey-hole, smeuse,

the unknown word once familiar,

now waiting to be noticed, little path

in the dark from your heart to mine,

both of us looking askance,

pretending not to see but knowing

all along this hidden world is life saving,

essential, our worlds interwoven

and dependent on the other.

Smeuse, word and passage,

is only an excuse

where we pretend to be alone

needing connection.

Oh, lovely play acting, our face-saving

little charm where we live as separate—

but the tunneling smeuse

betrays us in the dirt, excavating

the truth of our necessary complicity

and consummation.

 

 

Time’s Velocity

 

The water like glass, we look 

and see ourselves transparent, 

then rippled and below

are rounded rocks, small fish. 

Cold eddies form around our hands 

as we reach in trying to touch 

the reflected clouds, ourselves, a shadow.

The flow keeps moving farther and deeper 

while the smell of water, of time, of glass 

all mingle, flaring our nostrils.

We wonder where have those hours gone,

now years, now memories we reach for,

so electric, so evanescent.

 

—Deborah Buchanan

*

 

Happy New Year. So glad to be here together. I’ve been thinking about New year’s resolutions.   

 

I’m living with a Young Thai woman in the household now. My son’s wife. In Thailand and other Buddhist cultures, the New Year is highly celebrated with lights, lanterns, and joy. Of course it isn’t 30 degrees there and snowing.   

 

Rather than resolutions about doing things, they set intentions for how they want to be. Right intention is one of the paths on the eightfold path. Being in loving relationship with ourselves, one another and with all beings on earth is what we are dedicated to on the Open Road. Here is something from the powerful bell hooks to give us a little boost for a new year: 

  

bell hooks died in December and her work is now celebrated in all sorts of arenas. She was an African American author, teacher, academic and social activist. In a career spanning four decades, she has explored and written on a variety of themes including racism, feminism, culture and education. Her work has centered on identifying and challenging systems of oppression and discrimination which are based on race, sex and class. In her last years she was most influenced by the teachings and life of Thich Nhat Hanh. Here is an excerpt from one of her talks where she speaks about her realization about the importance of Love as a practice for transformation.  

 

Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love 

 

BY BELL HOOKS| JUNE 8, 2021 

 

“Fundamentally, the practice of love begins with acceptance—the recognition that wherever we are is the appropriate place to practice, that the present moment is the appropriate time. But for so many of us our longing to love and be loved has always been about a time to come, a space in the future when it will just happen, when our hungry hearts will finally be fed, when we will find love. . . ( She attended a conference that was more like a Love-In than an intellectual gathering about social justice and experienced a great shift). . .  Sacred presence was there, a spirit of love and compassion like spring mist covered us, and loving-kindness embraced me and my words. This is always the measure of mindful practice—whether we can create the conditions for love and peace in circumstances that are difficult, whether we can stop resisting and surrender, working with what we have, where we are.” 

 

The practice of love, says bell hooks, is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination. She traces her thirty-year meditation on love, power, and Buddhism, and concludes it is only love that transforms our personal relationships and heals the wounds of oppression. 

 

Her story makes me think about the shift that has taken place for all of us during performances in prison. When the production comes out of love and tolerance and caring during dialogue group then there is a magical transfer to creating a work of art that has meaning for us all.  

 

This feeling seeps through our meditation and mindfulness conversation, as we read together and reflect on our own practice, alone but also together in a sangha that knows no walls. It is like our interbeing relationship with Thay as a writer and teacher; he is here because we are here, responding with one another. 

 

in gratitude for your ongoing practice and presence everyone,    

 

—Katie Radditz