photograph by Jez Hughes

Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue

June 15, 2023

We were talking about the love we all could share

When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love

With our love, we could save the world….

And the time will come when you see we’re all one

And life flows on within you and without you

—George Harrison

*

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s great novel The Brothers Karamazov there is a monk named Father Zossima. When I first read the novel, almost fifty years ago, I was impressed with the Father Zossima’s (Fyodor Dostoevsky’s) words. I still am:

Brothers, do not be afraid of men’s sin, love man also in his sin, for this likeness of God’s love is the height of love on earth. Love all of God’s creation, both the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love animals, love plants, love each thing. If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love….

My friends, ask joy from God. Be joyful as children, as birds in the air….

When you are alone, pray. Love to throw yourself down on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it, tirelessly, insatiably, love all men, love all things, seek this rapture and ecstasy. Water the earth with the tears of your joy, and love those tears. Do not be ashamed of this ecstasy, treasure it, for it is a gift from God, a great gift, and it is not given to many, but to those who are chosen.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, pp. 338-341)

—Johnny Stallings

*

On June 12, I sat down to write a note on mindfulness; my computer said it was National Loving Day, which celebrates the right to marry or not marry the person we love. It led me to be most mindful today and this week about the person I have been married to for almost 50 years. To begin anew, with fresh eyes for the things about him I most cherish. Not just as a father of my children. 

Unaware It was a week early, we celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday with our children and grandchildren by going to a baseball game. My husband, Bill, was happy all day, enjoying a day off from work and gardening, being in an element of his youth that he could share with the younger generation. It was so good to see him totally engaged.  

Bill is an introvert, 98% according to the test, and so he can be easily satisfied living in a solitary way with little social involvement, enjoying his tea and crossword and books and garden and a movie online. But getting out of that can also easily give him a burst of energy. 

Mindful of my extroverted side that includes many friends and adventures, I am accompanying him this week on his trip to the post office, or to the deli, or to the hardware/feed store. Then taking a few minutes aside for a picnic or a walk before sunset, or even to sit together in the garden and watch the teenage chicks practice flying. I’m aware of how grateful I am to have the freedom to have a loving relationship, and that we can share such simple joys. It’s so easy to take this for granted. Being mindful adds an extra spot of honey to our tea. And it makes others glad to be around us. As Thich Nhat Hanh liked to say, “Happiness is not an individual matter!”

Below is a link to the life-changing story of the Loving’s decision to marry:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/12/loving-day-supreme-court-interracial-marriage-loving-virginia/70313073007/

—Katie Radditz

*

#333 Recognizing Negative Energy 

from Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Negative habit energy always tries to emerge, but if you’re mindful, you recognize it. Mindfulness helps us to recognize the habits transmitted by our ancestors and parents, or learned during our childhood. Often, just recognizing these habits will make them lose their hold on you.”

Last year I found a great children’s book called Fortunately, Unfortunately. It was a story about a little boy on his way to a birthday party. UNFORTUNATELY, a bear started chasing him and he dropped his present. FORTUNATELY, an eagle-eyed eagle swooped down and hooked the present’s bow in his beak and dropped it at the feet of the little boy. Gratefully, the boy scooped it up and continued on his way. UNFORTUNATELY, a gang of rascals…etc. etc. Finally, of course, FORTUNATELY, he ends up at the party and gives his present to the little girl.

So I read this story to my grandkids in Bozeman, and they loved it. Then I said, “Let’s make up our own story and draw a book and send it to your cousins in Arizona.” Which we did, and spent 3-4 hours writing, making art, and thinking up funny stuff. 

So I thought, This is how I think, automatically! If something is wrong, or sad, or difficult, I say, “Yes, but just think of what ____ is going through everyday.” Or: “Yeah, it really is pouring rain today, but doesn’t everything smell so sweet now?” I have always done this; I’d never really thought about it until I read this story. 

And then I thought—What a great topic for prison group dialogue! So I asked: “How do you react or respond in these cases?” Discussion discussion!! 

And then the really fun part: We went around the circle and traded Fortunately/Unfortunately sentences, the crazier the better. There were giraffes involved, and badgers, and 100 foot deep wells, and 10,000 foot high mountains, and blonde wigs, and zits, and… Well, it was crazy and hilarious and so much fun, and it all told us a lot about all of us, almost all positive.

So that’s my take on recognizing negative energy.

—Jude Russell

*

Feeling Old

Leaves begin to curl. Limbs begin

to sag. The tree begins to lean. Know

the feeling? My buds—not so plump.

My heartwood—dry. My bark begins

to wither, my roots to lose their grip.

But hey—the sun shines bright as ever.

All that fell to earth has turned to treasure,

the sky’s still calling me to rise in praise,

and rain bestows that flavor fine as my

first sip when a sapling with no name.

—Kim Stafford

*

This amazing planet we live on is already Paradise. We can eat the grasses and the grains. Fruit fills the trees. There are fellow creatures to love and laugh with. This beautiful world is a gift.  

We still live in the Garden of Eden. We just don’t take very good care of it.  

All water is holy water. And every day is a holy day.

—Bill Faricy

*

Michel finished reading The Compassion Book by Pema Chödrön in early May, and for the rest of the month used Be Free Where You Are as the basis for the meditations in his journal. Be Free Where You Are is the record of a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh at the Maryland Correctional Institute, which was published in May of 2002.

May 15, 2023  You are a Miracle (part 2)

“Dear Friends, you are nothing less than a miracle. There may be times when you feel that you are worthless. But you are nothing less than a miracle. The fact that you are here—alive and capable of breathing in and out—is simple proof that you are a miracle. One string bean contains the whole cosmos in it: sunshine, rain, the whole earth, time, space and consciousness. You also contain the whole cosmos.”

Do you “feel” like a miracle? Seriously! Do you feel the wonder and amazement of “be”ing alive, being able to breathe, move, exist? Each of us is valuable, even when we believe the lies that we are not. I know it is hard to drown out the noise of self-doubt and hate, wherever it arises from and for whatever cause; whatever the noise, it’s a LIE! You, me, all of us—we are a miraculous creation, here on Earth for some purpose. Fundamentally: to “be”—nothing more. Though many struggle to achieve even merely “be”ing, it’s what we are: “be”ings. We can add to that by breathing, walking eating…all our “do”ings too. Then, there’s passing on genes, knowledge, wisdom to the next generation. Yet, somehow, with all the noise of “do”ing, we forget “be”ing and how miraculous “be”ing is. I also believe we have one other purpose as we toddle along to our mouldering, and that is LOVE. Love as appreciation of the miracle that is life, appreciation for other “be”ings participating in the wonderful, miraculous, cacophony that is our life. (Certainly we’re averse to certain experiences, thus memories linger and trepidation arises about past and future. None of that is real any longer, nor will be.) Breathe, smile, “be” aware; there’s a special miracle in this world and it’s you. I know, sounds trite and contrived. And it is…if you and I refuse to see the miracle of the cosmos that each of us is; breathe (deliberately), smile (knowing this cosmological secret), and be aware (of what it takes for you or I to continue to exist…) “You are a miracle!” Me too!

—Michel Deforge