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SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  2/15/22
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nDear Beloved Community\, \nWith a deep mindful breath\, we announce the passing of our beloved teacher\, Thay Nhat Hanh\, on January 22 (January 21 in USA)\, 2022 at  \nTừ Hiếu Temple in Huế\, Vietnam\, at the age of 95. \n \n  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nFebruary 15\, 2022 \n  \nThay has been the most extraordinary teacher\, whose peace\, tender compassion\, and bright wisdom has touched the lives of millions. Whether we have encountered him on retreats\, at public talks\, or through his books and online teachings–or simply through the story of his incredible life–we can see that Thay has been a true bodhisattva\, an immense force for peace and healing in the world.  Never diluting and always digging deep into the roots of Buddhist teaching\, he brings out its authentic radiance. \n  \nNow is a moment to come back to our mindful breathing and walking\, to generate the energy of peace\, compassion\, and gratitude to offer our beloved Teacher. It is a moment to take refuge in our spiritual friends\, our local  community\, and each other.  \n  \n—From the Monks and Nuns of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing \n  \n  \n“At the moment my front yard is flush with brilliant winter sunshine slanting to earth beneath the clouds and at the same time it is raining gently. This paradox makes me feel that Thay is right here with me\, showing how I can feel grateful for his life as well as deep grief for his passing. We will dearly miss his personal presence\, but we have gained so much from his writings\, stories\, teachings and inclusiveness that we now carry with us. Thay calls his birth and his death day his continuation days.   \n  \nAt a Teacher’s passing in the Buddhist tradition it is honorable to address your teacher by calling his/her name\, and saying a short phrase of appreciation and best wishes.  Please write to us all or say silently to Thay what is on your heart.   \n  \nLet us each resolve to do our best over the coming days to generate the energy of mindfulness\, peace\, and compassion\, to send to our beloved Teacher. \n  \nDear Thay: I am so grateful for the way you and Sister Chan Khong have shared the Buddha’s teachings and how they have touched my life as well as the life of those around me with kindness and clarity. A lotus to you.” \n  \n—Katie Radditz  \n  \n  \n“I think of Thich Nhat Hanh as my friend. He said things that have been very helpful to me in my life. I love his sweetness\, his gentleness\, his friendliness. I know of no one more compassionate\, more peaceful\, more happy\, more free. I love his idea of “interbeing.” I love him. He left an extraordinary legacy of books and YouTube videos that we can revisit again and again\, and share with each other. Thank you thank you thank you.” \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n  \n  \nValentine’s Day wishes to you and all your loved ones. \n  \nMake a True Home of your Love   –   (this is a Valentine from Thay) \n  \nEvery one of us is trying to find our true home. We know that our true home is inside\, and with the energy of mindfulness\, we can go back to our true home in the here and the now. Sangha is our true home. \n  \nIn Vietnamese\, the husband calls the wife “my home.” And the wife calls the husband her home. Nha toi means my house\, my home. When a gentleman is asked “Where is your wife?” he will say\, “My home is now at the post office.” (with a sweet chuckle)  And if a guest said to the wife\, “Your home is beautiful; who decorated it?” she would answer\, “It’s my home who decorated it\,” meaning\, “my husband.” When the husband calls his wife\, he says\, “Nha oi\,” my home. And she says\, “Here I am.” Nha oi. Nha toi. \n  \nWhen you are in such a relationship\, the other person is your true home. And you should be a true home for him or for her. First you need to be your own true home so that you can be the home of your beloved. We should practice so we can be a true home for ourselves and for the one that we love. How? We need the practice of mindfulness. \n  \nIn Plum Village\, every time you hear the bell\, you stop thinking\, you stop talking\, you stop doing things. You pay attention to your in-breath as you breathe in and you say\, “I listen\, I listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.” My true home is inside. My true home is in the here and the now. So practicing going home is what we do all day long\, because we are only comfortable in our true home. Our true home is available\, and we can go home every moment. Our home should be safe\, intimate\, and cozy\, and it is we who make it that way. \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \n  \nRich Land Between \n                   —for Perrin \n  \nIn a forest wilderness many years ago \nyou appeared to me\, and I appeared to you — \ntwo birds in separate trees singing to the sky. \n  \nWe looked down to find the ground between us  \nilluminated by a story we wanted to live. I could \nsee it with your eyes\, and you with mine. \n  \nSince then\, we have explored the land between — \nevery crumb of earth\, every stem golden by day\, \nwithering by season\, sprouting again and again \n  \nuntil it’s hard to tell where your song ends \nand mine begins. The land between\, crisscrossed \nby our devotions\, has revealed how in our life \n  \nthe gifts are many\, and the price is everything. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n  \n  \n#206 An Act of Love   –  A work of ART can help people understand the nature of their suffering\, and have insight into how to transform . . . . Writing\, making a film\, (performing a play)\, creating a work of art can be an act of love. . . . that nourishes you and nourishes others.   Michel sends a deep reflection on the effects of music – years of playing the piano- and a painting that he loved\, gifted to him by a friend who loved to paint.  “There was a time when one of the Group Dialogue member’s father came to play a cello for us. And the Oregon Poet Laureate\, Kim Stafford\, came to share his art. Each time the artist loved his art form. I believe also that each shared love with the audience for that brief session.  Even our Theatre Troupe and directors (all of them) share not only love for this art form but are sharing love through it as well – both for us in prison and for our audience.   . . . . What might our world look and feel like if we were more aware (open to) as both givers and receivers of art forms – of this opportunity to love one another deliberately?   \n  \n#212 The Heart of life – Through accepting – even embracing impermanence I find hope. Hope helps endurance through the distresses of life. So I wish everyone a dose of hope to help bolster you through distress on your journey to luminescence. May you shine brightly as the stars revealing a way for others to find their hope too.   \n  \n#217 Beyond Labels  –  As we move into 2022 I hope for everyone I know\, past and present\, that each learns to accept and release the hold of memories of past events as well as letting go of judgements of “now” going by moment by moment. May we each find love and freedom in our own right. And\, may we share that love through understanding and compassion for our fellow travelers along the way as we learn to see the “other” as part of our own self\, interconnected with the life we live now.   \n  \nWith love\, to all \n  \n—Michel Deforge \n  \n  \n#281 Loving Words — “Every time the other person does something well\, we should congratulate him or her to show our approval. This is especially true with children….” \n  \nFor seven or eight years in the mid-nineties I was a mentor in an at-risk youth program in Portland\, OR. Our kids were each 14 yrs. old\, ready to enter high school\, and in danger of dropping out —doing drugs\, skipping school\, acting out\, being promiscuous\, failing at most everything. We had to work with parents (all of whom were behaving in pretty much the same way as their kids\, except they had dropped out of school long before) as well as our youth. \n  \nMy girl\, let’s call her Amy\, lived with her father. She was very bright; at 14 she did all the accounting for her dad’s used car sales business out on 82nd Av. (I’m sure he handled the side business of drug dealing accounts). She was affectionate and attentive with me. She had all the potential to be a strong and capable young woman. \n  \nHer dad\, let’s call him Gerald\, however\, saw a different picture. When we met\, with Amy sitting there\, Gerald told me ‘the problem.’ \n  \n“She’s a whore\, just like her mother! She’ll never amount to anything\, I guarantee you. She lies and can’t be trusted about anything. She sneaks out at night to be with men—all the time. She’s screwing off in school\, when she goes\, that is. Just like her mom\, she’s dumb and she’ll drop out of school\, I know it. Maybe be able to get a bartender job like her mom\, if she’s lucky\, but…” \n  \nI was so shocked to be hearing this\, needless to say. I told him this was a different Amy than the one I knew. The girl I knew was extremely smart – didn’t she do the accounting for his business???- and she was caring and dependable\, and a lovely girl. He couldn’t even hear me. He’d constantly go back to his well-practiced rant while Amy sat there stoney-faced and silent. \n  \nThis went on for a couple months\, with me politely (and carefully\, given Gerald’s demonstrable anger and burly presence) defending Amy\, until one evening when I stopped to pick up Amy for a meeting. \n  \nShe was in tears\, crying so hard I could hardly understand her. The gist was\, Dad must be right\, and you and I are wrong. I’m just going to give up; he’s so sure he knows me\, so I must be that bad… or words to that effect. \n  \nI was speechless and stunned—but not for long. Gerald had gone out to his favorite biker bar. I knew where it was. Beyond furious\, I sped out and spun my Honda into the lineup of a dozen Harleys with the ape-hanger bars. You know there’s that adrenalin thing where you can pick up a car by its bumper to save a child trapped under the wheel? Lifting a hundred times your weight as if it were a paper placemat? That’s the way I was: I barreled into the bar\, spotted Gerald and charged over to him and his buddies. He looked up and started\, “Hey\, hey\, what are you..?” But I grabbed him by the collar and jerked him backwards and bellowed\, “Gerald\, you are going to get out of here\, and go home\, and talk to your daughter! You are going to tell her that she’s a fine young woman\, and she’s smart and talented and you are proud of her!!! I will be right there listening so you’d better say it really good\, so that she believes you! GOT it?” \n  \nHe started whining a little\, but one of the guys mumbled\, “Hey Jer\, maybe you better go on home like the nice lady says…” I yanked his shirt again and barked\, “Hear that??? Now move!” \n  \nI gave him a shove and out we went. And he went home and I listened to him tell his daughter that she was smart and helpful to his business. I glared at him\, and he added\, “And you’re a fine young woman …and I’m proud of you.” \n  \nAmy should’ve said\, “That’s bull—-\, Daddy and you know it.” But she didn’t; she threw her arms around him and told him she loved him. \n  \nThat’s how easy it is with a child. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n  \n  \n \n  \nVoices in the Forest \n  \nWind sighing in the trees\, boughs rocking and  \nwhispering a story\, the world telling us who we are.  \nThe world a song\, and we sing with the wind  \nand trees\, our voices trembling in the dark.  \nThe sun lies down behind the trees in twilight \n blue\, stars shining\, moonlight rippling rivers.  \nBirds call\, squirrels and rabbits rustle  \ntheir way to bed. We sing to our babies—  \nYou too\, you too\, time to sleep\, the stars will watch\,  \nclose your eyes\, the wind breathes our song—sleep\, baby\, sleep.  \nOwls awaken\, wings whoosh overhead\, feathers  \na blanket\, the sky a bed\, we lie down with the wind \n  \n—Deborah Buchanan\n\n \n  \nCan the New Year really be a New Year?   \n  \nThe beginning of February is a New Year celebration – in Vietnam ( called Tet) as well as China and other east Asian countries.   It is a celebration of the Lunar New Year. \n  \nOften we feel that a “new year” can provide us with a chance to begin anew with ourselves – to put into action our deepest aspirations\, and to better care for ourselves and the world. However\, many of us have also experienced that a new year does not automatically bring us closer to our aspirations. \n  \nThich Nhat Hanh teaches us how to truly begin anew with ourselves. Below is a written excerpt from his talk\, with guiding questions for your reflection: \n  \n  \nDear beloved community\, \n  \n“To begin this year anew\, we should reflect on these simple questions:\n· What have I done during the year?\n· Have I been able to produce feelings of joy and happiness during my days?\n· Have I been able to take care of the painful feelings during the year?\n· Have I been able to handle them\, to calm them down\, so that I will not be a source of suffering for myself and for other people? \nWith mindfulness\, we can produce a feeling of joy whenever we want\, because we are a practitioner. We can produce these feelings for ourselves\, and everyone we love. Have we done that this year? \nWe can learn how to calm down painful feelings\, and even transform them into something better\, like compassion\, friendship and forgiveness. Pain and pleasure are all organic\, like love and hate. If we do not know how to handle love\, it can turn into hate or anger. If we know how to handle hate and anger\, we can turn it back into understanding and love. If we do not know how to handle painful emotions\, we are going to repeat that in the new year\, and the new year will not be very new. \nThe value of the year depends on the value of acting\, of our way of life. With mindfulness\, we can improve the quality of our life\, of our days\, our months\, our years.” \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \n  \nWinter Poem \n  \nonce a snowflake fell \non my brow and I loved \nit so much and I kissed \nit and it was happy and called its cousins \nand brothers and a web \nof snow engulfed me then \nI reached to love them all \nand I squeezed them and they became \na spring rain and I stood perfectly \nstill and was a flower \n  \n—Nikki Giovanni \n  \n  \nOne of Thay’s favorite Meditations  – \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a flower \nBreathing out\, I feel fresh. \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a Mountain \nBreathing out\, I feel solid. \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a Mountain Lake \nBreathing out\, I am calm and reflective. \nBreathing in\, I see myself as the Sky or Space \nBreathing out\, I feel free.  \n  \n  \n  \n Three poems by Heather Cahoon \n  \n1. \nCounter balance \nTo his curiosity \nThe magpie’s tail \n  \n2. \nThe shallow v-shape \nOf conviction opens \nWhere wing becomes body \n  \n3.  \nGetting firewood: \nBlaring chainsaws \nGive way \nTo thurderous crashing \nFrom the fallen trees \nBlack ants pour out \nLike blood \n  \n—From Alex Tretbar \n  \n  \nNo day is ever the same\, and no day stands still; each one moves through a different territory\, awakening new beginnings. A day moves forward in moments\, and once a moment has flickered into life\, it vanishes and is replaced by the next. It is fascinating that this is where we live\, within an emerging lacework that continuously unravels. Often a fleeting moment can hold a whole sequence of the future in distilled form: that unprepared second when you looked in a parent’s eye and saw death already beginning to loom. Or the second you noticed a softening in someone’s voice and you knew that a friendship was beginning. Or catching your partner’s gaze upon you and knowing the love that surrounded you. Each day is seeded with recognitions. \n  \n–John O’Donohue\, from “To Bless the Space Between Us” \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-2-15-22/
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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  3/10/22
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \n  \nMarch 10\, 2022 \n  \nY’know how when you read a really good book\, you want all your friends to read it? That’s the idea here. \n  \nI asked some friends (at the last minute) to write about some of their favorite books—books they read recently\, or a long time ago\, books that changed the way they see or experience or understand the world\, books that they’ve read many times: their favorite books! \n  \nThis can be a conversation between people outside and inside prison walls. Our next issue (March 24th) will feature some of the favorite books of friends who are “on the inside.” If you are an Insider\, please write to me about some of your favorite books. And if you would like to read any of the books that are talked about here\, let me know which books you’d like to read\, and we should be able to send them to you. \n  \nKim was the first to reply to my email. He wrote: \n  \nWhen I was seven years old\, on a second-grade field trip to a local church\, I stole a hand-sized New Testament someone had left on the pew where I sat in the back. The cover was black\, pretend leather. I liked the feel of it in my fingers. The owner’s name was written on pale blue paper on the inside cover. I tore off the blue paper bit by bit until the book was mine. My own book. It fit in my pocket. I couldn’t read it yet\, but I knew it was important. I knew my grandmother would love it. Her minister husband had died\, but she still prayed sometimes. What I didn’t know was how to share it with anyone\, show it to anyone. It had to be my secret until I was old enough to know what was inside. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nHey Johnny; \n  \nFun! \nHere is my top 10. What’s yours? \n  \n10) Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates  \n9) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol  \n8) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion \n7) Spring by Ali Smith \n6) The Lonely City by Olivia Laing \n5) No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July \n4) Townie by Andre Dubus III \n3) Zone One by Colson Whitehead  \n2) The Powerbroker by Robert Caro  \n1) Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigurio \n  \n—Pat (The Dad) Walsh \n* \n  \nA wonderful\, thrillingly great book that is relatively under-read is INDEPENDENT PEOPLE by Haldor Laxness of Iceland. It weaves the development of Icelandic society into a story of hate and love between a daughter and a father. It is an intimate epic\, good enough to hurt your heart\, and then to heal it\, but not without leaving a scar. \n  \n—Ken Margolis \n* \n  \nOh\, so many books. How can I even choose? But of course I will\, and then regret what has been left out. But such is life. \n  \nCurrent faves: \n  \n1. Circe by Madeline Miller \nI just finished Circe\, a retelling of the Greek goddess\, mostly known as someone who captured and loved Ulysses on his way home. This new story of her life is monumental\, mythic and utterly real. Years and aeons merge into one another\, the stories are told from the women’s point of view\, sidelined characters are given full lives and we find ourselves alive in a world of magic and beauty. I can’t even begin to say how much I loved it. When I finished Circe it wasn’t even possible to start a new book…how could I step out of this world of enchantment? Buy it\, borrow it\, read it–you too can participate in this meditation on the meaning of mortality and divinity. \n  \n 2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr  \nAll the Light We Cannot See creates a world deeply immersed in the one we live in and yet somehow it expands and deepens our knowledge of another world. It is the story of two children\, one from Paris and one from Germany\, during WWII. The quiet details in their interwoven stories lead into a world where people are haunted\, as are we\, by both love and violence. Long after finishing the book these characters will live with you\, tell you stories\, unveil secrets. \n  \n 3. An American Sunrise; Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings–both by Joy Harjo \nHarjo is the current Poet Laureate of the United States\, the first Native American woman to hold that position. Her wild\, direct\, illusive poems speak from another world to us\, and they continue to stand firmly on the ground of the country’s original inhabitants. And yet she is utterly modern and relevant\, creating poems you only wish you could write.  \n  \n4. New and Collected Poems by Czeslaw Milosz \nMilosz won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his enormous and profound body of work. From a childhood in rural Lithuania through Nazi occupation\, World War II\, Soviet rule\, and eventual exile and career as a professor in California\, Milosz saw himself as a conduit for all the silenced voices he knew\, and he recreated world upon world\, all the time pondering the reasons behind what he experienced. Monumental and touching\, this is a book you can never finish. \n  \n—xxoxo Deb Buchanan \n* \n  \nPretty short notice! So if I don’t have synopses and astute commentary on any or all of them\, it’s because of…pretty short notice! \n  \nThe numbering is not in any particular order of best to last. \n  \n1. Go\, Went\, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck.  The novel tells the tale of Richard\, a retired classics professor who lives in Berlin. His wife has died\, and he lives a routine existence until one day he spies some African refugees staging a hunger strike in Alexanderplatz. Curiosity turns into compassion and an inner transformation\, as he visits their shelter\, interviews them\, and becomes embroiled in their harrowing fates. Go\, Went\, Gone is a scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis\, but also a touching portrait of a man who finds he has more in common with the Africans than he realizes. \n  \n2. Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous is a nonfiction\, ongoing story of a person who has had relative success in a career but has a difficult family past\, including a mentally ill older brother and a father who cannot disavow his son\, no matter how he hurts other members of the family. The protagonist also experiences a wrenching divorce with child issues\, which lead her/him to seek out community on Twitter. Let’s call her ‘she\,’ although that is never clarified. She finds that her difficult personal life translates unwittingly into a compassionate Twitter figure\, and she develops a following who look to her for solace and advice. Her gentleness\, wit\, and compassion for others draws people from all over\, including Lyle Lovett. This is all true!  MUST READ!!! \n  \n3.  The True American by Anand Giridharadas  (nonfiction).  Days after 9/11\, an avowed “American terrorist” named Mark Stroman\, seeking revenge\, walks into a Dallas mini-mart and shoots Raisuddin Bhuiyan\, a Bangladeshi immigrant\, maiming and nearly killing him. Ten years after the shooting\, Bhuiyan wages a campaign against the State of Texas to have his attacker spared from the death penalty. The True American is a rich\, colorful\, profoundly moving exploration of the American dream in its many dimensions.  \n  \n4.  Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy novel    A Russian nobleman takes advantage of a young woman\, gets her pregnant and then deserts her. He forgets about her until years later when he discovers that she is in court for stealing\, and she has become a vagrant and wastrel of a figure. He has a change of heart\, mind and soul\, and determines to save her by devoting his life to that purpose. His persistence and her resistance take them into uncharted waters.  \n  \n5.  Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle.  An upper middle class Southern California couple encounters a Mexican undocumented man living in the arroyos near their gated house. The story deals with the husband’s run ins with the Mexican while on his (the husband’s) ‘nature walks.’  At first aghast and  uncomfortable\, then curious\, then understanding\, and finally compassionate and a life saver\, the husband finds his world changed. \n  \n6.  A Gentleman in Moscow  by Amor Towles  (fiction) \n  \n7.  Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown  (nonfiction) \n  \n8.  The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan  (nonfiction) \n  \n9.  Nicholas and Alexandra\, Peter the Great\, Catherine the Great all by Robert Massie.  The most readable and fascinating history writing\, from one who has always had difficulty reading history. \n    \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nHere are five books that had high impact on me\, \n  \nThe Sacred Pipe\, Black Elk—One of the first books that showed me how some people live a totally spiritual life without a distinct religion. \n  \nThe Naked Ape by Desmond Morris—This was the first book that helped me understand our animal origins. \n  \nLao Tzu—Still a faithful companion\, one that doesn’t waste words but covers Life pretty completely. \n  \nOn The Road\, by Jack Kerouac—This put into words what a lot of us were starting to sense about life in modern America. \n  \nIshmael\, by Daniel Quinn—A broad perspective on how our human history has developed over the last few millennia\, forging delusions of separateness and mastery and privilege in us.            \n  \nThis brief list perforce needs to omit Mad magazine\, the great Russian novelists\, and many other wonderful writers like Shakespeare and Tolkien who have influenced or entertained me over the years\, but these five are books I find myself still thinking about years after reading them. \n  \nlove and peace\,      \n  \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n  \nGreat question on books.  I decided to list those that\, after several book purges\, are still on my shelves and ones that I come back to over and over:   \n  \nTrickster Makes This World   Lewis Hyde \nMemories\, Dreams\, Reflections   Carl Jung \nThe Water of Life   Michael Meade \nIrish Fairy Tales  James Stephens \nCoyote Was Going There   Jarold Ramsey \nThe Red Haired Girl from the Bog   Patricia Monaghan \nGood Poems    Edited by Garrison Keillor \nThe Woman Warrior  Maxine Hong Kingston \nGo Down Moses      William Faulkner \nIrish Folk Tales   Edited by Henry Glassie \nReturning to Earth    Jim Harrison \nThe Nutmeg’s Curse  Amitav Ghosh (I just read but it\,  but it will be on my shelves a long time.) \n  \nThanks for doing this\, Johnny.   \n  \n—Will Hornyak \n* \n  \nThe two books that I have read/listened to on Audible are both by Isabel Wilkerson: The Warmth of Other Suns\, which travels with the Great Migration from the South and highlights/follows the lives of three people who made the migration. While I intellectually had an understanding of Jim Crow\, Wilkerson provided an emotional understanding in a very moving way. I also valued her later book Caste\, which looks at how caste systems provide a powerful framework for understanding race and other social issues. This work is less personal than the earlier book but the tandem is quite compelling. \n  \nCheers\, \n  \n—Jeffrey Sher \n* \n  \nI’ve recommended Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Somé to lots of my friends. When we think about different cultures\, we have the idea that they do things a little differently than we do\, they speak different languages\, and they have different beliefs. But Malidoma’s Somé’s book gave me the feeling that he lives in an entirely different world than I do. He has seen things that I’ve never seen\, and never will see. Even if I went to his village\, I couldn’t see them. Each one of us lives in our own world—the world as we imagine it\, as we describe it and explain it to ourselves. His book\, more than any other book I know\, shows me that there is not just one “reality”—there are as many realities as there are human beings. (And that doesn’t take into account the realities of moles\, goldfinches\, dogs\, lizards\, elephants\, gnats\, whales\, et cetera.) A different culture is a different way of being in the world. \n  \nWalt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a poem\, not a book. Although it’s long for a poem (56 pages in my Signet edition of Leaves of Grass)\, I’ve memorized most of it. It changed my life\, changed the way I see the world\, changed the way I imagine who I am. It is\, I think\, the strongest expression in the world’s literature of the mystic’s feeling of being one with everything. Because it’s a poem\, and not a lecture or an essay\, it has the power to alter our sensibilities. It has made me a more joyful person\, made me more free\, given me the feeling of limitless love for everyone and every thing. The poem is a corrective to the ascetic and life-denying aspects of much religious literature. What saint or yogi would say?: \n  \n“I believe in the flesh and the appetites\, \nSeeing\, hearing\, feeling\, are miracles\, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.” \n  \nBut he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say: \n  \n“Divine am I inside and out\, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from\, \nThe scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer\, \nThis head more than churches\, bibles\, and all the creeds.” \n  \nWalt abolishes dualities\, like body and soul\, that are characteristic not just of most spirituality\, but of thought and language. It is a giant YES! to Life. And to Death. And everything in between. \n  \nMy two favorite short stories are Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Tenth of December by George Saunders. I read the first one a long time ago\, and realized that the narrator had the same ridiculous dream that I have—the dream that we could all love each other. I’ve performed a version of this story from time to time. Jason Beito recommended the George Saunders story to me. Thank you\, Jason! \n  \nI’m always reading more than one book at a time. At the beginning of each day\, I usually read from certain inspirational texts. These are books that I read again and again. When I get to the end\, I start at the beginning. My current repertoire includes Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics by R. H. Blyth\, A Year With Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky\, The Poetical Works and Centuries of Meditations by Thomas Traherne. Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh and The Only Revolution by J. Krishnamurti. Alan Watts is another stalwart early morning companion. I’m currently reading Eastern Wisdom\, Modern Life: Collected Talks 1960-1969. \n  \nI love to re-read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass from time to time. And Huckleberry Finn. \n  \nI learned a lot from Woman and Nature by Susan Griffin\, and For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childrearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller\, and Magical Child and Evolution’s End by Joseph Chilton Pearce\, and from many books by Ken Wilber. Joseph Campbell is a personal favorite. I like his lectures best\, especially as audio books. \n  \nWilliam Shakespeare is my favorite writer. He’s the greatest poet in the English language\, and the greatest playwright in any language. Endless delight! My favorite companion volume to the works of Shakespeare is Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being by Ted Hughes. \n  \nThree of my favorite novels: The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa\, The Zoo Where You’re Fed to God by Michael Ventura\, and Borgel by Daniel Pinkwater. \n  \nAlthough Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Blake are wondering why I left them out\, that’s enough for now! \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-3-10-22/
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