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SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  8/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \n  \nAugust 15\, 2023 \n  \nLive righteously and love everyone. \n—tag on a Yogi Tea bag \n  \n  \n#32 Constant Transformation  \n  \n“Impermanence and selflessness are not negative aspects of life\, but the very foundation on   which life is built. Impermanence is the constant transformation of things. Without impermanence\, there can be no life. Selflessness is the interdependent nature of all things. Without interdependence\, nothing could exist.”—from Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \nA couple of things have happened in the last year or so that make this #32 of Constant Transformation jump out at me: \n  \n#1: I have a neighbor who uses people. It’s one thing to ask for favors and then offer some form of thanks or reciprocation—-no problem with that. This neighbor offers nothing\, and often just asks for more. I have been very ticked off about this. Years ago she asked me to ‘just swing by and water my geraniums. You’ll be walking Lolo anyway\, right?’ Okay\, sure. But this meant  watering 40 geraniums\, several times a week—for five months! While she was in Arizona! So I did. In return\, she gave me five lemons from her tree in Scottsdale. I did this for two years\, with no small amount of growing resentment and internal grumbling\, and then I politely but firmly refused\, feeling really taken advantage of. This last year she asked again\, and for some reason I said yes. This time I started admiring the bright red blooms in the pale\, midwinter light. I rubbed the leaves with my fingers and smelled their pungent flavor. It took me back to my dad’s geraniums and gave me sweet memories of him and my mom. It became a welcome task to take care of the geraniums\, and when she returned\, with five more lemons\, I thanked her gratefully for brightening up my wintertime. Because she did! \n  \nSecond transformation: I love to hike. I love burbling streams\, mossy banks\, nodding trilliums\, dark green branches of massive tree trunks.  Oh no! Another bag of dog poop left at the foot of that tree! What is wrong with you people?!?!?! If you’re going to bring your dog\, pick up your damned poop bags on the way out! Honestly\, I know you know it’s there. You just decided it’s no big deal to leave it. Snarl\, snarl\, grumble\, fume. The beauty fades and all I can think is…being pissed off! Well\, what’s the point of that? \n  \nSo one day I picked up the bag of poop and carried it out. I attached it to the rear windshield wiper of my car and took it home where I tossed it in the garbage can. Maybe they just didn’t see it when they were hiking out. You never know. Next time I picked up another bag. Somebody saw me carrying it and thanked me for carrying my dog’s poop bag out of the woods. Oh\, it’s not my dog’s\, it was just left on the trail\, I said. You’re a saint\, they said. Oh no\, I murmured\, modestly.  \n  \nBut aside from sort of feeling like a saint\, I felt good about helping keep my beautiful woods clean. I kept thinking that you don’t know\, maybe people do just forget or can’t find their dog’s poop bag. So I can help out and kind of keep things beautiful for me and for other hikers.  \n  \nThat was a couple of years ago\, and now I do it all the time. I’m a little bit miffed that nobody’s called me a saint again\, but I still get a good feeling when I see the clean and beautiful woods.  \n  \nComplete transformation. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nJude\, you’re a saint!  \n—(from the Editor) \n* \n  \n                   Artificial Light \n  \nBy bulbs and wires\, porch lights insult dusk\, \nstreetlights thieve stars from children\, headlights \nstab haste deep into wounded night. \n  \nBy day\, I squint by the pallor of false explanation\, \nthe sickly glow of lies claiming illumination \nwhile casting artificial darkness everywhere. \n  \nThis light blinds my mind. I seek real dark\, \nno human spark’s denial. I need thin shoes \nfinding my path by feel\, night stars\, grope touch\, \n  \nearth sleep\, nocturnal dreams\, then dawn. \n  \n—Kim Stafford   8-11-2023 \n* \n  \nNot Yet \n  \nA connoisseur of hands \n(because hers are crippled) \nsaid when looking at his \nthat they are the most beautiful \nshe had yet seen. \n  \nThe fact that they will leave \nthis world soon may have had \nsomething to do with this impression. \n  \nA glint of silver flashes as fish \nleap headlong \nout of the river into the sky. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nMidsummer night dreaming \n  \nIt’s heating up—the Sun is beaming up there during the day. But the night sky is also fully alive with shooting stars. I’m sleeping outside to watch the Perseid meteor shower at its peak. It’s a new moon so a black sky\, no clouds or rain to block the view. I know it can sometimes make us feel insignificant looking at the cold stars\, but tonight I feel expansive\, to be alive and witness the amazing cosmos. The cooling breeze makes me feel in tune with the cedar trees and the birch that surround our home. Even though there is only a narrow strip of sky\, I can see the big dipper’s handle and there was one long streak of shooting star that seemed to welcome me to the party. I’m cooling down\, slowing down.  \n  \nI relate to this poem of Wendell Berry’s and am lucky to live where I can go out and lay down in the wild. \n  \nThe Peace of Wild Things \n  \nWhen despair for the world grows in me\nand I wake in the night at the least sound\nin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be\,\nI go and lie down where the wood drake\nrests in his beauty on the water\, and the great heron feeds.\nI come into the peace of wild things\nwho do not tax their lives with forethought\nof grief. I come into the presence of still water.\nAnd I feel above me the day-blind stars\nwaiting with their light. For a time\nI rest in the grace of the world\, and am free. \n  \n—Wendell Berry \n  \nDreaming about and longing for summer’s past\, hiking in the snow-capped mountains\, along fresh creeks we could drink from\, having a young adult body with knees that could easily let me jump from boulder to boulder up McCord Creek in the Gorge. \n  \nImpermanence and desires – Thinking of Hermia and her many changing desires that are befuddling and too rapid. Finally they are debilitating\, all these loves won then lost\, until her legs fail her. This seems like a good Buddhist story. How important it is to not cling and be swept away\, to slow down and enjoy what there is here now. To stop running after things till our legs give out. \n  \nI like the quiet implied in Wendell Berry’s poem. There aren’t sounds after the first one that wakes him. And so I lie down outside when the traffic has stopped and I can hear the soothing wind in the trees and the silent stars that I know are always there. \n  \nI hope you all stay cool somehow and enjoy Midsummer Night dreaming. \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nIn this excerpt from Centuries of Meditations\, Thomas Traherne gives an account of how he experienced the world when he was a child: \n  \nThe corn was orient and immortal wheat\, which never should be reaped\, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates were at first the end of the world. The green trees when I saw them first through one of the gates transported and ravished me\, their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap\, and almost mad with ecstasy\, they were such strange and wonderful things. The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels\, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street\, and playing\, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the Light of the Day\, and something infinite behind everything appeared: which talked with my expectation and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden\, or to be built in Heaven. The streets were mine\, the temple was mine\, the people were mine\, their clothes and gold and silver were mine\, as much as their sparkling eyes\, fair skins and ruddy faces. The skies were mine\, and so were the sun and moon and stars\, and all the World was mine; and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it. I knew no churlish properties\, nor bounds\, nor divisions: but all properties and divisions were mine: all treasures and the possessors of them. So that with much ado I was corrupted\, and made to learn the dirty devices of this world. Which now I unlearn\, and become\, as it were\, a little child again that I may enter into the Kingdom of God. \n  \n—Thomas Traherne\, Centuries of Meditations\, Third Century\, Meditation #3 \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nUnderstanding Makes Compassion Possible (pt. 1) \n  \nUnderstanding is the substance out of which we fabricate compassion. What kind of understanding…? It’s the understanding that the other person suffers too. When we suffer\, we tend to believe we’re the victims of others\, that we are the only ones who suffer. This is not true—the other person also suffers. If we could only see the pain within him\, we would begin to understand him. Once understanding is present\, compassion becomes possible….The other person may be an inmate like us\, or a guard. If we look\, we can see there is a lot of suffering within him. Maybe he doesn’t know how to handle his suffering. Maybe he allows his suffering to grow…and this makes him and other people around him suffer. So with this kind of awareness or mindfulness\, you begin to understand\, and understanding will give rise to your compassion. With compassion in you\, you will suffer much less\, and you will be motivated by a desire to do something—or not do something—so the other person suffers less. Your way of looking or smiling at him may help him suffer less…. \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh  \n(This might be from the book Be Free Where You Are\, which is the record of a talk he gave at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Hagerstown—Ed.) \n  \nSometimes I struggle to want to allow compassion for some to develop. Is it unreasonable to want those who (seem to deliberately) cultivate the means of suffering for others to have even more suffering—because their actions show their mis-managed suffering? I guess the answer is in the question: If they have more\, then they will pass on more—hurt people hurt people. How sad this is\, that our world\, with all the advancements\, can’t evolve (communally) past the concerns of toddler-hood. Such as\, basic safety and hurting others to express our own pain. This was revealed for me in For Your Own Good and some other books Johnny shared with me. Compassion seems to be the path out\, and mindful awareness is the key unlocking the gate thereto. \n  \n—Michel Deforge
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-8-15-23/
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SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  8/13/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nBeloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOur theme for Sunday\, August 13th is:  \n  \nWhat Are Your Top Ten (or Fifteen) Favorite Novels of All Time? \n  \nThe Zoom gathering starts at 3 pm (PDT). Here’s the link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there. \n  \npeace\, love & happiness  \n  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-8-13-23/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230803
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230907
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230804T232913Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T135137Z
UID:4068-1691020800-1694044799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/3/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nAugust 3\, 2023 \n  \nVISIONS OF UTOPIA & PARADISE \n  \nTo create around ourselves the kind of world that we wish to live in–isn’t that the most important project of our lives? \n  \n–from Alchemy of Snowness by the Russian clown\, Slava Polunin \n  \nGONZALO \nHad I plantation of this isle\, my lord— \nANTONIO \nHe’d sow ’t with nettle seed. \nSEBASTIAN  Or docks\, or mallows. \nGONZALO \nAnd were the king on ’t\, what would I do? \nSEBASTIAN  Scape being drunk\, for want of wine. \nGONZALO \nI’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries \nExecute all things\, for no kind of traffic \nWould I admit; no name of magistrate; \nLetters should not be known; riches\, poverty\, \nAnd use of service\, none; contract\, succession\, \nBourn\, bound of land\, tilth\, vineyard\, none; \nNo use of metal\, corn\, or wine\, or oil; \nNo occupation; all men idle\, all\, \nAnd women too\, but innocent and pure; \nNo sovereignty— \nSEBASTIAN  Yet he would be king on ’t. \nANTONIO  The latter end of his commonwealth forgets \nthe beginning. \nGONZALO \nAll things in common nature should produce \nWithout sweat or endeavor; treason\, felony\, \nSword\, pike\, knife\, gun\, or need of any engine \nWould I not have; but nature should bring forth \nOf its own kind all foison\, all abundance\, \nTo feed my innocent people. \nSEBASTIAN  No marrying ’mong his subjects? \nANTONIO  None\, man\, all idle: whores and knaves. \nGONZALO \nI would with such perfection govern\, sir\, \nT’ excel the Golden Age. \nSEBASTIAN  ’Save his Majesty! \nANTONIO \nLong live Gonzalo! \n  \n—from The Tempest by William Shakespeare\, Act 2\, scene 1 \n  \nHere’s an excerpt from Magdalena Cieślak’s interview with Stratis Panourios about a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest\, which he directed at Korydallos prison in Athens: \n  \nMC:  One of the central characters in your production is Gonzalo. Can you explain why this particular character is of such importance for your reading of the play? In what way are his ideas of a utopian state crucial for the social role of the project?  \n  \nSP:  Gonzalo\, as Shakespeare mentions him in the list of characters\, is an honest old advisor from Naples\, and I see him the same way. Although he was appointed to dispose of Prospero and Miranda at sea\, he actually helped them survive\, giving them water\, food\, clothes and books that Prospero considered important….He is a positive thinker\, who believes in the will of Heaven…. \n  \nThe participants are baptized again through the performance. For the duration of the  rehearsals and their presence on stage\, they are reborn. This is particularly visible in the participant who plays Gonzalo\, as he becomes a different person\, even if just for a few months. The inmates call him Gonzalo inside the prison. And during his famous monologue\, when he says “And were the king of it\, what would I do?”\, he becomes a king\, president or prime minister of the country. After this  monologue he cannot be himself. He acquires respect and prestige\, even if this is related to a theatrical monologue. \n  \nHe is also given the opportunity to speak on behalf of all the prisoners—to say that he imagines their own world\, outside the prison. A world that is “upside down” or “opposite” to today’s world. In the monologue\, Gonzalo says: “I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries / Execute all things.” In our rehearsals we pondered on whether this world should be the norm and not the other way around….This verse opened a whole world to us.  \n  \nThrough extensive discussions during rehearsals we achieved a connection between the world of Gonzalo and Platonic ideals. Since the staging of our play not only involved rehearsals but also a lot of research\, one of the participants took the initiative to guide us with a lecture\, making an introduction to Plato’s work Politeia [The Republic]. As a modern Socrates\, a prisoner\, he spoke to us about the importance of justice and how much happier a righteous person is from an unjust one. He spoke to us about the definition of justice\, the structure of society\, property and privacy\, and philosopher-kings; he spoke about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the importance of the truth for different regimes; and about art\, utopias and dystopias. Our room was transformed into the “Gallipoli” of the book and all of us into philosopher-kings. We could talk for hours and hours about the issues in Plato’s Politeia\, so we decided for the time being that maybe one of our future performances would have the theme of Politeia\, where we could all study it thoroughly. \n  \nAs reference books and texts on the ideal state\, we studied Thomas Moore’s Utopia\, written in 1516\, presenting a story taking place on a strange island somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean\, off the coast of South America. We could not help but associate Shakespeare with the reading of this book\, making sure that the decision to link the prison to Prospero’s Island was the right one. This reading was followed by references to the Biblical Garden in Eden\, Sir Philip Sydney’s Arcadia (1580)\, a summary of Michel de Montaigne’s Of Cannibals (1580). We ended our study with texts written by the participants on the subject of their own vision of an ideal state. The adaptation of Gonzalo’s monologue in our show was based on the texts by the participants. \n  \nThe  participant who plays Gonzalo now had the opportunity to talk about his ideal state\, a world without crime and prisons. Until then\, his voice was heard only in his apology in court\, while now his monologue was addressed to the spectators. And the spectators are by no means jurors. On the edge of the stage\, he was free not only to apologize but to share something very important: his own discovery and the thoughts of an ideal utopia. His words are dominated by a big “if.” “If” the world was different\, maybe he would not have to be in prison\, he would have the opportunity to live like other people. He would live a normal life and his childhood would be full of wonder and hope. Because in the conversations we had\, we likened this time to childhood\, which for most prisoners may have existed as an idealized state. In the rehearsals\, of course\, we experienced this through the joy of creation. \n  \n—from Multicultural Shakespeare\, vol. 26 (41) 2022 \n* \n  \nAlas!\, there was no “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding” in July because I was on the open road—traveling to Athens and Beirut\, where I showed Bushra’s film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison.” The conversations following the screenings were great! While in Athens\, I saw a production of “The Persians” by Aeschylus at Korydallos prison\, directed by my friend Stratis Panourios. One thing especially reminded me of our plays done in Oregon prisons. After the performances\, love and happiness were in the air—in prison! A miracle! \n  \nAt the end of the June issue of “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding\,” I invited everyone to share their visions of utopia and paradise. The subject turns out to be so big that all I can manage are a few random thoughts. Here they are: \n  \nThe word “utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More for his novel Utopia. It is often said that it is a translation from Greek\, and that it means “no-place\,” but Thomas More was probably punning on two Greek words outopia\, meaning “no-place\,” and eutopia\, meaning “happy place.” Most creators of literary utopias were imagining societies where life would be better than the societies in which they lived—happy places! \n  \nPlato’s Republic is a grand vision of an ideal society. I wouldn’t want to live there. Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia is more my speed. But of course not everyone wants to live in the hippie version of paradise. \n  \nIn Christianity\, the word “Paradise” refers to the Garden of Eden and to Heaven. In the Garden of Eden a naked man and woman live in innocence\, without sin or death. There is just one rule: they can’t eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Tempted by a talking snake\, they do just that. They get kicked out of the Garden before they are able to eat of the Tree of Life—and gain immortality thereby. They are punished for the sin of disobedience to the God who created them. A number of other punishments ensue\, but the most dramatic one is that they will die. \n  \nProbably the oldest story invented by humans is that when you die you don’t really die. You go somewhere else. In Christianity\, the basic idea is that when you die you go to Heaven if you have been good—and if you believe in Jesus Christ\, who died on the cross to save you from sin and death. If you have been bad—or are an unbeliever—you are damned and must go to Hell\, which is a place of eternal punishment. The idea that the good are rewarded after death and the bad are punished is an idea that is found in many cultures\, and in the writings of Plato. There’s a Tibetan board game called “Rebirth\,” which features a number of hells\, including “The Black Rope and Crushing Hells.” (Incidentally\, most of the squares on the board—on your journey to Nirvana—are states of consciousness above the heavenly realms of the gods.) \n  \nThere are lots and lots of visions of utopias\, dystopias\, paradises\, and hell realms of one kind and another. A fundamental obstacle to achieving utopian societies is that one person’s utopia is another person’s dystopia. Recently the Lincoln Project posted a video on YouTube in which Marjorie Taylor Greene describes the nightmarish Socialist Big Government dystopia that Democrats like Joe Biden represent—addressing education\, medical care\, urban problems\, rural poverty\, transportation\, food stamps\, welfare\, economic opportunity\, labor unions\, and environmental programs. This all sounds pretty good to some folks. \n  \nThere are many dystopian visions these days\, in books and films. Two of the most well-known dystopias of the Twentieth Century are George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Huxley’s utopian novel\, Island\, is less well-known. Dave Eggers has recently given us two novels set in a not-very-distant future\, in which efforts to create a technological utopia give the reader a distinctly dystopian feeling—The Circle and The Every. In The Road\, Cormac McCarthy imagines a future that is so ecologically devastated that human survival is in peril.  \n  \nCinematic dystopias abound. The series of Mad Max films is one example among many. Utopian visions are harder to come by. In Wim Wenders’ film Wings of Desire\, one of the angel protagonists exchanges his immortality for an earthly existence\, where he can enjoy the aroma of coffee and live with a beautiful trapeze artist. It’s like in the fairy tales where at least some of the people live happily ever after. This is also known as the “Hollywood Ending.” We leave the theater feeling good.  \n  \nThere were many utopian experiments in Nineteenth Century America—from the Oneida Community\, which lasted for 33 years\, to the Mormon Church\, which is still going strong. More recently\, lots of people started hippie communes. These days the term for people who get together to live more in accordance with their ideals is “intentional communities.” \n  \nThere’s a dark side to utopian visions\, especially when violence and coercion are used to “improve” the world. The Third Reich is a spectacular example. There are others. \n  \nLast weekend Nancy and I went to the Canterbury Renaissance Faire\, where some of our friends were performing Hamlet. The whole festival was someone’s utopian vision. Thousands of people came who enjoy imagining themselves as fairies\, medieval knights\, and other natural and supernatural characters of one kind and another. A play is a magical world\, whether it is performed at Korydallos prison or the Canterbury Faire. For a little while we are transported to another world. \n  \nIf you think of it in this way\, utopias are everywhere. Sometimes they are very brief. A perfect moment is paradise. \n  \nThe Big World is an endlessly complex system of ever-changing forces. While some people work for peace\, justice and ecology\, there are many countervailing forces in play. We have\, I think\, an obligation to make efforts to make the world a better place for all people—and for elephants and butterflies.  \n  \nIn addition to this extremely challenging undertaking\, we have a duty\, day-by-day\, to become better people—wiser\, kinder\, more happy\, more loving\, more free. Surrounded by dystopias and hells of one kind and another\, we can bless the day\, be thankful for our human life on earth\, be helpful to our fellow mortals\, create for ourselves and others moments when we find ourselves in Paradise. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nMy new friend Spiros in Athens sent this poem: \n  \nAnd people mix and separate and they take nothing from each other. \nBecause love is the most difficult way to get to know one  another. \nBecause people\, my friend\, live in the moment they find a solace in the lives of others. \nAnd then you understand why the desperate become the greatest rebels. \nAnd we are suddenly defenseless\, \nlike a victor in the face of death or a defeated one facing Eternity… \n  \n— Tasos Leivaditis\, translated from the Greek by Spiros Chrisovitsianos \n* \n  \nKim wrote this poem this morning (8/3/23): \n  \n               Borrowed Aura \n  \nIn my dream\, our shop dealt in dazzlings— \neach soul’s essence distilled to mist \nwe could bottle and bestow to restore \nbalance\, a hint of your verve to enliven \nmy calm\, a whiff of my patience to guide \nyour eagerness\, gifts sifted for exchange \nuntil we each became whole. \n  \nWaking\, I walked into the forest of dawn \nwhere the scent of pitch brightened my mind\, \nghostly lichen on a limb re-set my life clock\, \na raven’s raspy shriek startled my pulse\, \ngreen light dazzled my numb soul\, \nas each turn in my pilgrim path \nnudged me toward wisdom. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nWords for Cup and Water \n  \nStepping through the dream-wall President Lincoln \ncradles a cat named Bob. Droplets of rain shine \non the hemlock tree which reached \nthe bedroom window just this year. \n  \nAll beveled mirrors still shimmer no matter \nwhat they reflect\, drugstore\, library\, bookshop \nall carry magazines\, hopes\, and dreams\, \none long loop running down \n  \nstreamlets in the mist. I make a nest with my hands\, \ntry to capture the mood of the mountain. \nthe President says\, “Don’t bother\, we have work to do.” \nInstead\, Bob washes\, framed by evening light. \n  \nWe pause for a moment. \nWatch a female Harrier glide golden\, \nover marshy fields opening before our eyes. \nSleeves rolled up; possibilities begin to appear nearby. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nWhat an Angel Said \nafter Austin T. Holland \n  \nYou better believe it\, \nkid: the arkless sea \nis also a kind of ark. \n  \nMy grief has endless credit \nbut I blew it all on craps \nand now my eyes lack coins. \n  \nI never understood whether heaven-sent \nmeant from or to \nthat bright & high-rent place. \n  \nDivinate me. At the bottom \nof every teacup (in the dregs) \nyou’ll find a death’s-head. \n  \nTomorrow\, you’ll risk laughter \nwhen I ascend the compost pile \nin a huff of regeneration. \n  \nNext century\, I am \ncrowned with a wreath \nof black dove & white raven \n  \nfeathers. \n  \n—Alex Tretbar\, first published in Anti-Heroin Chic \n* \n  \nPerfect Day \n  \nit’s another perfect day on Planet Earth \nI carried a heavy stone from the truck to the back yard \nthe bright flowers shouted at me \nwoke me up \nreminded me \nwhat is true \n  \nfar away\, in Washington D. C.\, they are making plans to kill more people \nin order to get more money \n  \nand maybe oblivious to the blue sky \npeople in this city are charging off to work \npreoccupied with all their problems \n  \nthere are millions of ways to ignore \nand even to try to destroy \nthe beauty that calls to us everywhere \nfrom everyone \nfrom every thing \non this perfect day \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nWe shall study every philosophy\, search through all the scriptures\, consult every teacher and practice all spiritual exercises until our minds are swollen with the whole wisdom of the world. But in the end we shall return to the surprising fact that we walk\, eat\, sleep\, feel and breathe\, that whether we are deep in thought or idly passing the time of day\, we are alive. And when we can know just that to be the supreme experience of religion we shall know the final secret and join in the laughter of the gods. \n  \n—Alan Watts\, quoted in Wandering in Eden by Michael Adam
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-3-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230802T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230802T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230802T202208Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230802T202208Z
UID:4051-1690963200-1690995600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  7/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue   \n\n\n  \nJuly 15\, 2023    \n\n\n     \n\n\nJohnny is traveling and sends his joy and news below.   \n\n\nAnd so dear friends\, thank you for carrying on with your reflections and poems and stories for this edition of the Meditation and Mindfulness newsletter.    \n\n\nThanks to Andy for his gorgeous contribution from his newly finished collected visions of the Hundred Verses of Self Instruction. Here is his commentary on cover image:    \n\n\nVerse 9   \n\n\nThe Atmopadesha Satakam (Hundred Verses of Self Instruction) of Narayana Guru  \n\n\n  \n\n\nGrowing on both sides\, in a blossoming state\,  \n\n\nis the one vine which has come\, spread out and risen to the top of a tree;  \n\n\nremember that hell does not come   \n\n\nto the man dwelling in contemplation beneath it.  \n\n\n  \n\n\nThe image of a contemplative seated beneath a flowering tree is practically universal in world religious art. Narayana Guru’s use of the image contains several details that tie it to the Indian tradition of Advaita Vedanta\, and that would have been familiar to his original Indian audience. The tree is covered by a creeper that is two-sided\, with roots that are concealed from view. The invisible origin of the creeper\, with its attractive flowers hiding the supporting tree\, is actually a metaphor for the structure of human consciousness\, as outlined in greater detail in Vedantic writings such as the Mandukya Upanishad. There\, wakeful experience is explained as a complex interaction of perceived form and conceptual name\, with both name and form springing from a common hidden source of seeded memory. This structural picture is a fundamental understanding that underlies much of the Atmopadesha Satakam.   \n\n\nNarayana Guru was not interested in philosophy for its own sake; he was instead concerned with helping his fellow beings find their own way to lasting happiness. His use of the ideogram of the tree and the meditating being provides profound clues about how the moment-to-moment flow of our experience assembles itself\, how we can be caught by that flow\, and about how a dimension of our innermost Being remains free from bondage.  \n\n\nWe seldom question the validity of the ongoing flow of our experiences\, with their sensory richness\, or their linear organization in time. The birth of a child\, or the death of a loved one can suddenly expose the unconscious nature of our routine forms of understanding. Our experiences can be afflicted in countless ways\, through the thwarting of our exaggerated sense of personal control\, through our habits of desire or aversion or the rigidities of habitual thinking. In the terms of the verse\, the experiential world of names and forms\, and the afflicted states that accompany them\, are nurtured from sources that are invisible to us. Name\, form and memory function collectively to conceal a deeper reality.  \n\n\nThe emphasis of this verse is on noticing. The man dwelling in contemplation beneath the tree has discovered something priceless. He has learned that his own pure awareness permeates the entire field of the germination\, growth and dissolution of phenomenal experience\, and yet stands apart from it.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n-Andy Larkin  \n\n\n  \n\n\n ***  \n\n\nAh\, Summer . . . . . The soft polka dot flowers of Spring have passed. Summer blossoms are exploding. Red dahlias with fiery petals\, huge blue hydrangeas that droop with such languor. They make me as sleepy as Dorothy in the field of poppies. I pick them\, arrange them in bouquets\, give them as gifts. I like to drive with jars of flowers in the coffee cup holders. Their fading nature reminds me that beauty is constantly changing and reemerging in new forms. Life is short. “But here we are again\,” say these same but different flowers that come in summertime.  \n\n\nIn the summer\, I like to get out the book The Immense Journey (from 1957!)\, by Loren Eiseley\, and reread his essay\, “How Flowers Changed the World.” Eiseley describes what he calls “a soundless\, violent explosion” of seed-born plant life millions of years ago\, just as the Dinosaurs started to pass out and mammals arrived. At the heart of the explosion was a new kind of flora with magic seeds.  \n\n\n“Flowers changed the face of the planet. Without them\, the world we know would never have existed. Today we know that the appearance of the flowers contained also the equally mystifying emergence of human life. Borne on the wind or attached to animal hides\, the new plant life spread all over the world.  \n\n\nThe fantastic seeds skipping and hopping and flying about the woods and valleys brought with them an amazing adaptability. . . . If our whole lives had not been spent in the midst of it\, it would astound us. The old\, stiff\, sky-reaching wooden world changed into something that glowed here and there with strange colors\, put out queer\, unheard of fruits and little intricately carved seed cases\, and\, most important of all\, produced concentrated foods in a way that the land had never seen before.  \n\n\nIf it wasn’t for the high energy content of seeds produced by flowers humanity wouldn’t have flourished.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n“If it should turn out that we have mishandled our own lives as several civilizations before us have done\, it seems a pity that we should involve the violet and the tree frog in our departure.”  \n\n\n– from Loren Eiseley\, The Immense Journey  \n\n\n–Katie Radditz  \n\n\n  \n\n\n***  \n\n\nGreetings from Lebanon!    \n\n\nJohnny writes: I’m on the Open Road–visiting with my good friend Zeina Daccache in Lebanon. Some of you will remember when she came to see our production of “Twelve Angry Men” at Two Rivers prison in 2012. She had directed a production of the play at Roumieh prison in Lebanon and made a wonderful documentary about it: “Twelve Angry Lebanese.” We will be showing Bushra Azzouz’s film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison” here on Saturday\, July 15.  \n\n\nI’ve been reading John Moriarty’s amazing book Dreamtime and studying clown philosophy from Slava Polunin. Here’s an excerpt from his book\, The Sixth Door:  \n\n\n  \n\n\nFeelings and Emotions  \n\n\n  \n\n\nThere is one door that ought to be kept shut. Or so we’re told. Even Pushkin taught us\, “You shall be lord and master of your heart.” Behind this door live our FEELINGS and EMOTIONS\, which must never be given free reign\, if we are to believe the poet. There is a life of suppressed emotions\, a rational\, regular life\, led by persons of good breeding\, one that offers the most direct path to one’s goals. But it turns out that what we give up on this path is our own vitality: we become mere cogs in some sort of a giant mechanism. Only emotions can give us life in all its fullness. Just as in a child’s mind\, any little thing can assume tremendous importance and take you on a wild ride at the slightest pretext. Passion\, emotion\, excitement\, obsession with the least trifle—these are the things that make for a full life\, because they demand utmost commitment and openness to the whole world around you. Such emotional perception of reality is fundamental to a human being\, and theatre has the ability to inspire it.  \n\n\nTo be honest\, though\, not every kind of emotion appeals to me in equal measure. I suspect this is true of most people.  \n\n\nI happen to like positive emotions. The more positive\, the better.  \n\n\n  \n\n\nBecause a positive attitude actually makes the world a better place.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n  \n\n\nThere is nothing mystical about this. Simply put\, kindness and joy radiate a kind of energy that goes out into the world and has the ability to change it.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n–from Alchemy of Snowness by Slava Polunin\,   \n\n\npp. 76-77  \n\n\n  \n\n\n-Johnny Stallings  \n\n\n  \n\n\n***  \n\n\nThe Garden    \n\n\n     \n\n\nAll this time I have been standing here    \n\n\nI’ve never seen these trees before.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nAll this time I have been living here    \n\n\nI’ve always thought to go out.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nOut to find love\, beauty\, out to find    \n\n\npassion\, the wisdom of the ages.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nOut to feel\, out to see\, the wide sweep\,    \n\n\nthe hand of God.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nOut to the woods\, to the city\,    \n\n\nmessy\, vibrant\, all the hues\, full of life.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nNow I find standing here    \n\n\nlooking at this garden\,    \n\n\nit has everything.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nEverything I have been longing for\,    \n\n\nunfinished\,    \n\n\nperfect.    \n\n\n  \n\n\n-Elizabeth Domike    \n\n\n  \n\n\n***  \n\n\nThe Hammock    \n\n\n  \n\n\nWhen I lay my head in my mother’s lap    \n\n\nI think how day hides the stars\,    \n\n\nthe way I lay hidden once\, waiting    \n\n\ninside my mother’s singing to herself. And I remember    \n\n\nhow she carried me on her back    \n\n\nbetween home and the kindergarten\,    \n\n\nonce each morning and once each afternoon.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nI don’t know what my mother’s thinking.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nWhen my son lays his head in my lap\, I wonder:    \n\n\nDo his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries    \n\n\nfrom becoming his? I think\, Dear God\, and remember    \n\n\nthere are stars we haven’t heard from yet:    \n\n\nThey have so far to arrive. Amen\,    \n\n\nI think\, and I feel almost comforted.    \n\n\n     \n\n\nI’ve no idea what my child is thinking.    \n\n\nBetween two unknowns\, I live my life.    \n\n\nBetween my mother’s hopes\, older than I am    \n\n\nby coming before me\, and my child’s wishes\, older than I am    \n\n\nby outliving me. And what’s it like?    \n\n\nIs it a door\, and good-bye on either side?    \n\n\nA window\, and eternity on either side?    \n\n\nYes\, and a little singing between two great rests.    \n\n\n   \n\n\n-Li-Young Lee   \n\n\n“The Hammock” from Book of My Nights    \n\n\n  \n\n\n*** \nReverence the highest\, have patience with the lowest. Let this day’s performance of the meanest [most menial] duty be thy religion. Are the stars too distant? Pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet\, and from it learn the all.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n– Margaret Fuller  \n\n\n  \n\n\n***  \n\n\n  \n\n\nFollowing Navajo Songs  \n\n\n   \n\n\nBeauty all around me    \n\n\nBeauty in front    \n\n\nBeauty behind    \n\n\nBeauty above\, wind rustling the leaves    \n\n\nBeauty below\, hard ground    \n\n\nBeauty in the air\, soft\, soft    \n\n\nBeauty in my eyes\, tears    \n\n\nBeauty in my hands    \n\n\nfingers trailing pollen    \n\n\nBeauty in my footsteps    \n\n\nblossoms spring from the earth    \n\n\nBeauty in my heart    \n\n\ndark as thunder    \n\n\nBeauty in my heart    \n\n\nquiet as the last birds    \n\n\nin evening trees\,    \n\n\nBeauty    \n\n\nBeauty    \n\n\nBeauty    \n\n\n-Deborah Buchanan    \n\n\n  \n\n\n***  \n\n\n Yogi tea tag says today: “Uncage your heart\, free your heart\, let it be wild.”    \n\n\n  \n\n\nEast Side Footsteps (Sierra Nevada)  \n\n\n    \n\n\nOn those wild wide sandbars at Walker River\,    \n\n\nwe put toes into warm sand so fine    \n\n\nour feet sank to ankles    \n\n\nat each step. Summer’s end\, September\,    \n\n\ncelebrating birthdays\,    \n\n\nconvening halfway between    \n\n\nmy life in the Bay Area    \n\n\nand yours in Lone Pine.    \n\n\nYour great curly dog loped ahead.    \n\n\nOur toes caught split straws of earlier grasses    \n\n\nuntil they rounded over river rocks    \n\n\nso hot under foot\,    \n\n\nwe scurried and stumbled across them    \n\n\nto keep our feet from burning.    \n\n\nThen reached the cool mud at water’s edge\,    \n\n\nwhere tiny frogs leapt from sedges\,    \n\n\nalarmed by our thudding presence.    \n\n\nRocks in that river were slippery with algae.    \n\n\nIt took determination to find a level spot\,    \n\n\nan eddy\, where stones could not lurch us    \n\n\nto our knees\, nor current upend us.    \n\n\nThe air wafted sagebrush and river. Untamed.    \n\n\nInvigorating and peaceful\, all at once.    \n\n\nTwo friends’ brief pause    \n\n\nbefore ascending Sonora Pass.    \n\n\n    \n\n\n-Gail Lester\, (after William Stafford’s poem “Tamarisk”)  \n\n\n\n\n\nDesert Poem  \n\n\n  \n\n\nDesert paintbrush shows no mercy  \n\n\nravishing\, red smoldering your eyes.   \n\n\nCome to your knees to receive it. See  \n\n\nhow stems peg color to earth\, where  \n\n\nprairie flowers wild in their differences  \n\n\nare loyal in their fit: lupine crazy blue\,   \n\n\nyarrow dusky\, shy pink on scattered   \n\n\nfarewell-to-spring. Each flower whispers   \n\n\nfragrance to court small wings\, tiny tongues.   \n\n\nFrom every twig\, leaves offer gestures   \n\n\nof forgiveness to this wounded world.   \n\n\nPlants gather strands for our basket\,   \n\n\nand prairie hills weave them all together.   \n\n\nIn this place\, each pilgrim’s goal   \n\n\nis to be lost in wonder\, and   \n\n\nwith all flowers softly howl.  \n\n\n  \n\n\n– Kim Stafford  \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\nExtract from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Understanding Our Mind   \n\n\n  \n\n\nMind Consciousness gives rise to actions that lead to ripening.  The mind consciousness plays the role of  gardener\, the one who sows\, waters\, and takes care of the earth.  The store consciousness is often described as the earth—the garden where the seeds that give rise to flowers and fruits are sown. Because mind consciousness can initiate an action that leads to the ripening of seeds in our store consciousness\, it is important that we learn about\, train\, and transform our mind consciousness. We act and speak on the basis of our thinking\, our cognition. Any action of body\, speech\, and mind that we take based on mind consciousness\, waters either positive or negative seeds within us. If we water negative seeds\, the result will be suffering. If we know how to water positive seeds\, there will be more understanding\, love\, and happiness. If mind consciousness learns to see in terms of impermanence\, nonself\, and interbeing\, it will help the seed of enlightenment to grow and bloom like a flower.  \n\n\nOne Hundred Percent Your True Home   -Thich Nhat Hanh  \n\n\n  \n\n\n“Be there truly. Be there with 100% of yourself. In every moment of your daily life. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation. Each of us knows that we can do that\, so let us train to live each moment of our daily life deeply. That is why I like to define mindfulness as the energy that helps us to be there 100 percent. It is the energy of your true presence.”    \n\n\nWell. “…live each moment of our daily life deeply.” “…the energy of our true presence.”    \n\n\nIt is about that time of year again. Every year\, right around the middle of July\, my senses are heightened to an acute level of awareness. Everything tingles. The morning sunlight is slightly different\, its angle more oblique\, its color more amber-toned. The word ‘mellow’ comes to mind. The early mornings cooler and darker. The evening stars winking around 9:07pm\, then 9:04pm…then 8:56pm. Right around Bastille Day\, July 14th\, I send a text to sisters\, daughter and close friends who understand what’s coming\, every year…”Hey! Have you noticed how the sun is slanting differently? The mornings are a little cooler\, and darker? Do you think it feels a little…like…Fall???” Oh\, the roar of negation that follows: “Nooooo!!! No way! Stop it! Be quiet!!!”    \n\n\nI love Fall. l adore Fall. I am thinking and feeling and savoring Fall right now —on July 14th. I am in the moment but not in the moment.    \n\n\nDeep in the moment anticipation\, deep in the moment change. In the mountains\, August brings on the Fireweed and Gentians\, saying goodbye to Lupine and Avalanche lilies. Huckleberry leaves stain the slopes burgundy red. I tingle and savor with love the utter feel of change in all the senses—smell\, sight\, feel/touch\, hearing…taste? Sure! Who hasn’t bit into a warm peach\, apple\, or pear from an orchard and felt Fall in their bones?!    \n\n\nSo right now I’m in the future\, but more deeply in the present than at any other time of the year. Does that count as mindfulness? I hope you’ll say yes!    \n\n\n  \n\n\n-Jude Russel 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-7-15-23/
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UID:4038-1690729200-1690736400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!   7/30/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nBeloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOur theme for Bibliophiles Unanimous! on Sunday\, July 30th is: What’s Going On? What are some books that have given you insight into what’s happening culturally\, politically\, ecologically\, historically\, sociologically\, spiritually\, psychologically? \nThe Zoom gathering commences at 3 pm (PDT). Here’s the link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace\, love & happiness \nJohnny \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-7-30-23/
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LAST-MODIFIED:20230728T014624Z
UID:4030-1690588800-1690761599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Hamlet at Canterbury Renaissance Faire  7/29 & 7/30
DESCRIPTION:  \nPuck’s Rude Mechanicals present Hamlet by William Shakespeare at the Canterbury Renaissance Faire on Saturday & Sunday\, July 29 & 30.  \nPerformances are at 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. both days.  \nThe Canterbury Renaissance Faire is at 6569 Valley View Rd. NE\, Silverton\, OR 97381. For more info\, and to buy tickets\, go to the Canterbury Faire website at: \n  \ncanterburyfaire.com \n  \nRobin Goodfellow (a.k.a. Allen Mills) directs this Rotten In Denmark Production. The stellar cast includes Jeff Kuehner and Josh Underhill. \n  \nDon’t miss this!!! \n  \npeace\, love & happiness \n  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/hamlet-at-canterbury-renaissance-faire-7-29-7-30/
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230815
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230803T003840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230803T011612Z
UID:4054-1689379200-1692057599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  7/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n\n\n  \nJuly 15\, 2023 \n\n\n  \nJohnny is traveling and sends his joy and news below.  \n\n\nAnd so dear friends\, thank you for carrying on with your reflections and poems and stories for this edition of the Meditation and Mindfulness newsletter.   \n\n\nThanks to Andy for his gorgeous contribution from his newly finished collected visions of the Hundred Verses of Self Instruction. Here is his commentary on the cover image:   \n  \n\n\nVerse 9  \n\n\n  \n\n\nGrowing on both sides\, in a blossoming state\, \n\n\nis the one vine which has come\, spread out and risen to the top of a tree; \n\n\nremember that hell does not come  \n\n\nto the man dwelling in contemplation beneath it. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n–from Atmopadesha Śatakam (One Hundred Verses of Self Instruction) of Narayana Guru \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\nThe image of a contemplative seated beneath a flowering tree is practically universal in world religious art. Narayana Guru’s use of the image contains several details that tie it to the Indian tradition of Advaita Vedanta\, and that would have been familiar to his original Indian audience. The tree is covered by a creeper that is two-sided\, with roots that are concealed from view. The invisible origin of the creeper\, with its attractive flowers hiding the supporting tree\, is actually a metaphor for the structure of human consciousness\, as outlined in greater detail in Vedantic writings such as the Mandukya Upanishad. There\, wakeful experience is explained as a complex interaction of perceived form and conceptual name\, with both name and form springing from a common hidden source of seeded memory. This structural picture is a fundamental understanding that underlies much of the Atmopadesha Śatakam.  \n\n\nNarayana Guru was not interested in philosophy for its own sake; he was instead concerned with helping his fellow beings find their own way to lasting happiness. His use of the ideogram of the tree and the meditating being provides profound clues about how the moment-to-moment flow of our experience assembles itself\, how we can be caught by that flow\, and about how a dimension of our innermost Being remains free from bondage. \n\n\nWe seldom question the validity of the ongoing flow of our experiences\, with their sensory richness\, or their linear organization in time. The birth of a child\, or the death of a loved one can suddenly expose the unconscious nature of our routine forms of understanding. Our experiences can be afflicted in countless ways\, through the thwarting of our exaggerated sense of personal control\, through our habits of desire or aversion or the rigidities of habitual thinking. In the terms of the verse\, the experiential world of names and forms\, and the afflicted states that accompany them\, are nurtured from sources that are invisible to us. Name\, form and memory function collectively to conceal a deeper reality. \n\n\nThe emphasis of this verse is on noticing. The man dwelling in contemplation beneath the tree has discovered something priceless. He has learned that his own pure awareness permeates the entire field of the germination\, growth and dissolution of phenomenal experience\, and yet stands apart from it. \n\n\n  \n–Andy Larkin \n\n\n* \n\n\n  \n\n\nAh\, Summer . . . . . The soft polka dot flowers of Spring have passed. Summer blossoms are exploding. Red dahlias with fiery petals\, huge blue hydrangeas that droop with such languor. They make me as sleepy as Dorothy in the field of poppies. I pick them\, arrange them in bouquets\, give them as gifts. I like to drive with jars of flowers in the coffee cup holders. Their fading nature reminds me that beauty is constantly changing and re-emerging in new forms. Life is short. “But here we are again\,” say these same but different flowers that come in summertime. \n\n\nIn the summer\, I like to get out the book The Immense Journey (from 1957!)\, by Loren Eiseley\, and re-read his essay\, “How Flowers Changed the World.” Eiseley describes what he calls “a soundless\, violent explosion” of seed-born plant life millions of years ago\, just as the dinosaurs started to pass out and mammals arrived. At the heart of the explosion was a new kind of flora with magic seeds. \n\n\n“Flowers changed the face of the planet. Without them\, the world we know would never have existed. Today we know that the appearance of the flowers contained also the equally mystifying emergence of human life. Borne on the wind or attached to animal hides\, the new plant life spread all over the world. \n\n\nThe fantastic seeds skipping and hopping and flying about the woods and valleys brought with them an amazing adaptability. . . . If our whole lives had not been spent in the midst of it\, it would astound us. The old\, stiff\, sky-reaching wooden world changed into something that glowed here and there with strange colors\, put out queer\, unheard of fruits and little intricately carved seed cases\, and\, most important of all\, produced concentrated foods in a way that the land had never seen before. \n\n\nIf it wasn’t for the high energy content of seeds produced by flowers humanity wouldn’t have flourished.” \n\n\n  \n\n\n“If it should turn out that we have mishandled our own lives as several civilizations before us have done\, it seems a pity that we should involve the violet and the tree frog in our departure.” \n\n\n  \n— from Loren Eiseley\, The Immense Journey \n\n\n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \n\n\nGreetings from Lebanon! \n\n\nI’m on the Open Road–visiting with my good friend Zeina Daccache in Lebanon. Some of you will remember when she came to see our production of “Twelve Angry Men” at Two Rivers prison in 2012. She had directed a production of the play at Roumieh prison in Lebanon and made a wonderful documentary about it: “Twelve Angry Lebanese.” We will be showing Bushra Azzouz’s film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison” here on Saturday\, July 15. \n\n\nI’ve been reading John Moriarty’s amazing book Dreamtime and studying clown philosophy from Slava Polunin. Here’s an excerpt from his book Alchemy of Snowness: \n  \nThe Sixth Door \n\n\nFeelings and Emotions \n\n\n  \n\n\nThere is one door that ought to be kept shut. Or so we’re told. Even Pushkin taught us\, “You shall be lord and master of your heart.” Behind this door live our FEELINGS and EMOTIONS\, which must never be given free reign\, if we are to believe the poet. There is a life of suppressed emotions\, a rational\, regular life\, led by persons of good breeding\, one that offers the most direct path to one’s goals. But it turns out that what we give up on this path is our own vitality: we become mere cogs in some sort of a giant mechanism. Only emotions can give us life in all its fullness. Just as in a child’s mind\, any little thing can assume tremendous importance and take you on a wild ride at the slightest pretext. Passion\, emotion\, excitement\, obsession with the least trifle—these are the things that make for a full life\, because they demand utmost commitment and openness to the whole world around you. Such emotional perception of reality is fundamental to a human being\, and theatre has the ability to inspire it. \n\n\nTo be honest\, though\, not every kind of emotion appeals to me in equal measure. I suspect this is true of most people. \n\n\nI happen to like positive emotions. The more positive\, the better. \n\n\n  \n\n\nBecause a positive attitude actually makes the world a better place. \n\n\n  \n\n\n  \n\n\nThere is nothing mystical about this. Simply put\, kindness and joy radiate a kind of energy that goes out into the world and has the ability to change it. \n\n\n  \n\n\n—from Alchemy of Snownessby Slava Polunin\, pp. 76-77 \n\n\n  \n\n\n–Johnny Stallings \n* \n\n\n  \n\n\nThe Garden \n\n\n  \nAll this time I have been standing here   \n\n\nI’ve never seen these trees before.   \n\n\n  \nAll this time I have been living here   \n\n\nI’ve always thought to go out.  \n\n\n  \nOut to find love\, beauty\, out to find   \n\n\npassion\, the wisdom of the ages.   \n\n\n  \nOut to feel\, out to see\, the wide sweep\,   \n\n\nthe hand of God.   \n\n\n  \nOut to the woods\, to the city\,   \n\n\nmessy\, vibrant\, all the hues\, full of life.   \n\n\n  \nNow I find standing here   \n\n\nlooking at this garden\,   \n\n\nit has everything.   \n\n\n  \nEverything I have been longing for\,   \n\n\nunfinished\,   \n\n\nperfect.   \n\n\n  \n\n\n-Elizabeth Domike \n* \n\n\n  \n\n\nThe Hammock  \n\n\n  \n\n\nWhen I lay my head in my mother’s lap   \n\n\nI think how day hides the stars\,   \n\n\nthe way I lay hidden once\, waiting   \n\n\ninside my mother’s singing to herself. And I remember   \n\n\nhow she carried me on her back   \n\n\nbetween home and the kindergarten\,   \n\n\nonce each morning and once each afternoon.   \n\n\n  \nI don’t know what my mother’s thinking.   \n\n\n  \nWhen my son lays his head in my lap\, I wonder:   \n\n\nDo his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries   \n\n\nfrom becoming his? I think\, Dear God\, and remember \n\n\nthere are stars we haven’t heard from yet:   \n\n\nThey have so far to arrive. Amen\, \n\n\nI think\, and I feel almost comforted.   \n\n\n  \nI’ve no idea what my child is thinking.   \n\n\nBetween two unknowns\, I live my life.   \n\n\nBetween my mother’s hopes\, older than I am   \n\n\nby coming before me\, and my child’s wishes\, older than I am   \n\n\nby outliving me. And what’s it like?   \n\n\nIs it a door\, and good-bye on either side?   \n\n\nA window\, and eternity on either side?   \n\n\nYes\, and a little singing between two great rests.   \n\n\n  \n–Li-Young Lee\, from Book of My Nights \n* \n\n\nReverence the highest\, have patience with the lowest. Let this day’s performance of the meanest [most menial] duty be thy religion. Are the stars too distant? Pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet\, and from it learn the all. \n\n\n  \n\n\n— Margaret Fuller \n* \n\n\n  \n\n\nFollowing Navajo Songs \n\n\n  \nBeauty all around me   \n\n\nBeauty in front   \n\n\nBeauty behind   \n\n\nBeauty above\, wind rustling the leaves   \n\n\nBeauty below\, hard ground   \n\n\nBeauty in the air\, soft\, soft   \n\n\nBeauty in my eyes\, tears   \n\n\nBeauty in my hands   \n\n\nfingers trailing pollen   \n\n\nBeauty in my footsteps   \n\n\nblossoms spring from the earth   \n\n\nBeauty in my heart   \n\n\ndark as thunder   \n\n\nBeauty in my heart   \n\n\nquiet as the last birds   \n\n\nin evening trees\,   \n\n\nBeauty   \n\n\nBeauty   \n\n\nBeauty   \n\n\n  \n–Deborah Buchanan \n* \n\n\n  \n\n\nYogi tea tag says today: “Uncage your heart\, free your heart\, let it be wild.” \n\n\n  \n\n\nEast Side Footsteps (Sierra Nevada) \n\n\n  \nOn those wild wide sandbars at Walker River\,   \n\n\nwe put toes into warm sand so fine   \n\n\nour feet sank to ankles   \n\n\nat each step. Summer’s end\, September\,   \n\n\ncelebrating birthdays\,   \n\n\nconvening halfway between   \n\n\nmy life in the Bay Area \n\n\nand yours in Lone Pine.   \n\n\nYour great curly dog loped ahead.   \n\n\nOur toes caught split straws of earlier grasses   \n\n\nuntil they rounded over river rocks   \n\n\nso hot under foot\,   \n\n\nwe scurried and stumbled across them   \n\n\nto keep our feet from burning.   \n\n\nThen reached the cool mud at water’s edge\,   \n\n\nwhere tiny frogs leapt from sedges\,   \n\n\nalarmed by our thudding presence.   \n\n\nRocks in that river were slippery with algae.  \n\n\nIt took determination to find a level spot\,   \n\n\nan eddy\, where stones could not lurch us   \n\n\nto our knees\, nor current upend us.   \n\n\nThe air wafted sagebrush and river. Untamed.   \n\n\nInvigorating and peaceful\, all at once.   \n\n\nTwo friends’ brief pause   \n\n\nbefore ascending Sonora Pass.   \n\n\n  \n–Gail Lester\, (after William Stafford’s poem “Tamarisk”) \n* \n\n\n\n\n\n  \nDesert Poem \n\n\n  \n\n\nDesert paintbrush shows no mercy \n\n\nravishing\, red smoldering your eyes.  \n\n\nCome to your knees to receive it. See \n\n\nhow stems peg color to earth\, where \n\n\nprairie flowers wild in their differences \n\n\nare loyal in their fit: lupine crazy blue\,  \n\n\nyarrow dusky\, shy pink on scattered  \n\n\nfarewell-to-spring. Each flower whispers  \n\n\nfragrance to court small wings\, tiny tongues.  \n\n\nFrom every twig\, leaves offer gestures  \n\n\nof forgiveness to this wounded world.  \n\n\nPlants gather strands for our basket\,  \n\n\nand prairie hills weave them all together.  \n\n\nIn this place\, each pilgrim’s goal  \n\n\nis to be lost in wonder\, and  \n\n\nwith all flowers softly howl. \n\n\n  \n— Kim Stafford \n* \n\n\n  \n“Mind Consciousness gives rise to actions that lead to ripening.  The mind consciousness plays the role of  gardener\, the one who sows\, waters\, and takes care of the earth.  The store consciousness is often described as the earth—the garden where the seeds that give rise to flowers and fruits are sown. Because mind consciousness can initiate an action that leads to the ripening of seeds in our store consciousness\, it is important that we learn about\, train\, and transform our mind consciousness. We act and speak on the basis of our thinking\, our cognition. Any action of body\, speech\, and mind that we take based on mind consciousness\, waters either positive or negative seeds within us. If we water negative seeds\, the result will be suffering. If we know how to water positive seeds\, there will be more understanding\, love\, and happiness. If mind consciousness learns to see in terms of impermanence\, nonself\, and interbeing\, it will help the seed of enlightenment to grow and bloom like a flower.” \n\n\n\n  \nfrom Thich Nhat Hanh’s Understanding Our Mind \n\n\n\n* \n\n\n  \n\n\n“Be there truly. Be there with 100% of yourself. In every moment of your daily life. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation. Each of us knows that we can do that\, so let us train to live each moment of our daily life deeply. That is why I like to define mindfulness as the energy that helps us to be there 100 percent. It is the energy of your true presence.” \n–from Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh \n\n\n  \nWell. “…live each moment of our daily life deeply.” “…the energy of our true presence.”   \n\n\nIt is about that time of year again. Every year\, right around the middle of July\, my senses are heightened to an acute level of awareness. Everything tingles. The morning sunlight is slightly different\, its angle more oblique\, its color more amber-toned. The word “mellow” comes to mind. The early mornings cooler and darker. The evening stars winking around 9:07 pm\, then 9:04 pm…then 8:56 pm. Right around Bastille Day\, July 14th\, I send a text to sisters\, daughter and close friends who understand what’s coming\, every year… “Hey! Have you noticed how the sun is slanting differently? The mornings are a little cooler\, and darker? Do you think it feels a little…like…Fall???” Oh\, the roar of negation that follows: “Nooooo!!! No way! Stop it! Be quiet!!!” \n\n\nI love Fall. I adore Fall. I am thinking and feeling and savoring Fall right now —on July 14th. I am in the moment but not in the moment.   \n\n\nDeep in the moment anticipation\, deep in the moment change. In the mountains\, August brings on the Fireweed and Gentians\, saying goodbye to Lupine and Avalanche lilies. Huckleberry leaves stain the slopes burgundy red. I tingle and savor with love the utter feel of change in all the senses—smell\, sight\, feel/touch\, hearing…taste? Sure! Who hasn’t bit into a warm peach\, apple\, or pear from an orchard and felt Fall in their bones?!   \n\n\nSo right now I’m in the future\, but more deeply in the present than at any other time of the year. Does that count as mindfulness? I hope you’ll say yes! \n\n\n  \n\n\n–Jude Russell
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-7-15-23-2/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230618T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230618T210000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230603T155045Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230603T160058Z
UID:3970-1687114800-1687122000@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Illuminated: Myths\, Poems & Music for the Summer Solstice  6/18/23
DESCRIPTION:         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nStoryteller Will Hornyak Presents\n\n  \n\n\n\n         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n   Illuminated \n\n\n\n\n         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\nMyths\, Poems and Music for the Summer Solstice\n         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n From fiery feathers and the longing for light\, to tales of summer days ‘gone fishin\,’ join us for a celebration of the longest\, brightest days of the year.  Special guest musician Jeffrey Sher joins in for a tribute to Father’s Day. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Sunday June 18   7 p.m.\n      Ross Island Grocery and Cafe\n      3502 SW Corbett   Portland\n      Great Food and Drinks Available\n$15.00  Advance Tickets Recommended:\n\n\n\n\n\n         \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminated-myths-poems-and-music-for-the-summer-solstice-tickets-646775501937
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/illuminated-myths-poems-music-for-the-summer-solstice-6-18-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230618T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230618T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230614T171652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230614T173016Z
UID:4000-1687100400-1687107600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  6/18/23
DESCRIPTION:The Golden Age by Lucas Cranach the Elder \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles \n  \nOur theme for Sunday\, June 18th is Visions of Utopia & Paradise. \nThe Zoom gathering commences at 3 pm (PDT). Here’s the link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nSee you there! \n  \npeace\, love & happiness \nJohnny \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-6-18-23/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Goldenes-Zeitalter-1530-2.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230617T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230617T150000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230509T171654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230613T180550Z
UID:3873-1687006800-1687014000@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:the dialogue continues...
DESCRIPTION:the dialogue continues… \n  \nThis monthly gathering in the Artspace room at Taborspace in Portland\, 5441 SE Belmont\, is a continuation of the meaning of life dialogues we had in Oregon prisons–at Two Rivers\, Columbia River & Coffee Creek. These Saturday dialogues are open to everyone.  \nThe first one was on April 15th\, 2023. The next two will be on Saturdays\, at 1 p.m.: June 17th & July 15th. There will be snacks! You are invited!
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/the-dialogue-continues/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230615
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230715
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230620T001103Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250717T162413Z
UID:4009-1686787200-1689379199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  6/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nJune 15\, 2023 \n  \nWe were talking about the love we all could share \nWhen we find it\, to try our best to hold it there with our love \nWith our love\, we could save the world…. \n  \nAnd the time will come when you see we’re all one \nAnd life flows on within you and without you \n  \n—George Harrison \n* \n  \nIn 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: \n  \nBrothers\, 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…. \n  \nMy friends\, ask joy from God. Be joyful as children\, as birds in the air…. \n  \nWhen 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. \n  \n—Fyodor Dostoevsky\, The Brothers Karamazov\, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky\, pp. 338-341) \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nOn 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.  \n  \nUnaware 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.   \n  \nBill 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.  \n  \nMindful 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!” \n  \nBelow is a link to the life-changing story of the Loving’s decision to marry: \n  \nhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/12/loving-day-supreme-court-interracial-marriage-loving-virginia/70313073007/ \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \n#333 Recognizing Negative Energy  \nfrom Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \n“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.” \n  \nLast 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. \n  \nSo 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.  \n  \nSo 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.  \n  \nAnd 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!!  \n  \nAnd 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. \n  \nSo that’s my take on recognizing negative energy. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nFeeling Old \n  \nLeaves begin to curl. Limbs begin \nto sag. The tree begins to lean. Know \nthe feeling? My buds—not so plump. \nMy heartwood—dry. My bark begins \nto wither\, my roots to lose their grip. \n  \nBut hey—the sun shines bright as ever. \nAll that fell to earth has turned to treasure\, \nthe sky’s still calling me to rise in praise\, \nand rain bestows that flavor fine as my \nfirst sip when a sapling with no name. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nThis 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.   \n  \nWe still live in the Garden of Eden. We just don’t take very good care of it.   \n  \nAll water is holy water. And every day is a holy day. \n  \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n  \nMichel 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. \n  \nMay 15\, 2023  You are a Miracle (part 2) \n“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.” \n  \nDo 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! \n  \n—Michel Deforge
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-6-15-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230604T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230604T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230601T150745Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230728T012251Z
UID:3964-1685890800-1685898000@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  6/4/23
DESCRIPTION:  \n \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles \n  \nWe will have Poetry Reading! for Bibliophiles Unanimous! on Sunday\, June 4th. The Featured Poets are Elizabeth Domike & Alex Tretbar. \nThe Zoom gathering commences at 3 pm (PDT). Here’s the link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nBring along a poem or two of your own. \nSee you there! \n  \npeace\, love & poetry \nJohnny \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-6-4-23/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Author-Photo-Alex-Tretbar.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230602T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230602T193000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230528T180744Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230528T182237Z
UID:3948-1685727000-1685734200@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Roadside Attraction at Friday Night Market  6/2/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nRoadside Attraction\, featuring Morgan Faricy\, is playing at Friday Night Market in Milwaukie\, on June 2nd\, from 5:30 to 7:30. \nThe address is: \nMilwaukie Floral \nSE Lake Road \n  \nThis is a benefit of Open Hearts Open Minds. \n  \nBring your friends! \n  \npeace\, love & music \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/roadside-attraction-at-friday-night-market-6-2-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230601
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230803
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230601T142659Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T135046Z
UID:3955-1685577600-1691020799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  6/1/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJune 1\, 2023 \n  \nArt Degraded\, Imagination Denied\, War Governed the Nations. \n—William Blake \n  \nPEACE \n  \nEarly Morning Hours \n  \nFrom the house silence flows \nto the ebony lawn \nglittering like a river. \nA small candle flickers\, \nmirroring the moon \nsliding down night’s curve. \nFir branches stand against the sky\, \nthe hours’ tall sentinels\, \nand the hum inside silence \nfills each shadowed crevice\, \nthe world inundated. \n  \n  \nThe Only Now \n  \nThe stripped body lies burrowed \nin a flower well\, utterly still\, \nand one wonders \nif it has died into the nectar. \nSheltered by night\, \nin the morning the bee resumes \nsipping\, covered in pollen \nbumbling from flower to flower\, \nhis home where he stops\, \nsatiated with sugared gold\, \nhis life and eating and bliss\, \nsleep and journey all one. \n  \n  \nUnexpected \n  \nRampant weeds crowd bee balm and hyssop\, \ndirt clings to roots\, leaves bend \nand in the midst of this fecundity\, \nI am digging\, pulling\, only \nthe sun’s heat on my back. \nMoving through the afternoon quiet \na feathered sound of wings \nis near\, slower and closer\, \nand a light weight comes to rest on my head. \nCould it be? I reach a hand up\, \nthe wings lift\, rise\, and are gone. \n  \n  \nThe Tree in the Universe \n  \nLight glints off cherries in the branches \nswaying slightly in summer breezes. \n  \nI too am swinging\, shimmering\, high \nin the tree\, resting in a dark trunk \n  \nadrift and asleep\, the sky \ndappling the light in the tree\, \n  \nabove the ground air my companion\, birds \nmy companions\, jumping and wondering\, \n  \nall of us in the branches\, in the light\, \ntime a mystery that moves in the tree\, \n  \noff the ground\, as my vision\, \nmy mind unrolls in front of me \n  \ncarrying my heart forward and backward\, \ninward\, time and space a single pulse \n  \nand the cherries shine\, the tree grows \nquietly upward and outward\, carrying me\, \n  \nthe birds\, and all around\, all around\, \nright here in the branches\, in time and in sight\, \n  \nI see that\, yes\, yes\, each particle\, \neach moment turning in the sky\, \n  \nin the tree\, flowing between us\, \nin us\, what I imagined\, what I dreamed \n  \nand dreaded and is now here—all of it divine. \n  \n—Deborah Buchanan \n* \n  \nA couple months ago my friend Ken Margolis was listening to the news. He heard a report on the war in Ukraine. Both sides were said to be running low on ammunition\, because they were both using 1\,ooo artillery shells per day. Two thousand artillery shells per day! More than one per minute. It was insane. He told his friends\, including me. He wondered: Is there is anything we can do to bring this war to an end? That question prompted me to choose the theme “Peace” for this month’s peace\, love\, happiness & understanding. The word “peace” has two main connotations: the absence of war\, and a calm\, quiet state of mind. When I invited people to contribute to this issue\, I said the topic is “peace\,” but didn’t specify which kind of peace. \n  \nFor me\, the “two kinds of peace” are not unrelated. In the early Eighties I wrote a fairly long essay called “The Ecology of Violence\, the Ecology of Peace: A Lived Revolution—Personally\, Locally\, Globally.” In it\, I explored topics like Authority\, Poverty\, Education\, Cruelty\, the Media\, Meditation\, Economics\, Ideology\, Ecology\, Family\, Culture\, Community\, and many more. One of the primary insights of Ecology is that everything is  inter-related to everything else. The Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh spoke of “interbeing.” It seems to me that our “job” is to help to co-create a culture that nurtures all people\, and to learn or re-learn how humans can live on this planet without destroying it—like all the other animals do. \n  \nMy outlook on life has been shaped by the fact that instead of going to Vietnam to kill people\, I went to India and studied with wise yogis. When I think of war\, instead of thinking about brave soldiers fighting to make the world a better place\, I think of that photograph of Vietnamese children who have been bombed with jellied gasoline. Every day the war goes on in Ukraine\, more children die. More mothers and fathers\, sisters and brothers die. It’s insane. \n  \nHere’s a poem I wrote: \n  \nMy Foolproof Plan for World Peace \n  \nI hereby declare today to be International Love Day. \nAnd a General Armistice. \nAll hostilities must cease on International Love Day. \nHenceforward\, every day is International Love Day. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nAlex sent this poem by Tom Clark: \n  \nBolinas \n  \nMy wife’s recipe for a fairy: \nPut buttercup pollen \nAnd a canary feather \nIn a thimble. At midnight\, \nImmersed in my life’s current \nHowever it may flow \nIn the giant life around it \nThat whispers like a tree \nRocked by evening light\, \nA tide of beams \nBears my dreambound boat. \nThe boughs drop peace\, \nA star wanders toward dawn \nOver the dim wet leaves. \n  \n—Tom Clark \n  \n—Alex Tretbar \n* \n  \nTo me lately\, peacefulness is just being a happy person and trying to make others understand happiness in just a few seconds of every moment. If one can achieve this their life will be happy. I found this secret on my journey to the golden path. A friend told me about the golden path years ago. I live there now and the town I live in on the golden path is called simple bliss. \n  \nI also find peace in the sweat of my brow from a job well done. I can’t wait to work hard for the ones I love. Peace is free and it lives inside of us and if you have it in you\, my friends\, give it to those that don’t. \n  \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n  \nSiddhartha’s prayer     \n  \nWhen they asked why he left \nhis people and his palace\,  \nthe response rose like fragrance from summer’s garden. \nThere is peace in every breath\, he said\, \nand every heartbeat \nand every footstep \nthat will no longer be forgotten \nor forsaken. \nI wish every thought to be a prayer \nevery word to be a poem \nevery touch an act of love\, \nand all to be  \nas it already is. \n               – amen \n  \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n  \nSurrounded \nMemorial Day 2023 \n  \nPerhaps there is the sound of water\, \nthe feel of a light breeze\, comfortable \nwarmth\, rustling leaves. \n  \nMaybe the colors make harmonies\, \nsmell of sandalwood\, taste \nof cardamom on the tongue. \n  \nThe temptation of a ladder rung \nto a nest above ruins sharp \nedged with smoke\, mist. \n  \nMissed. We’re here. This list \nof all that’s lost\, endless. Still \nfingers uncurl from a fist. \n  \nIn the end everyone was right. \nAll we wanted was a sense of \nbelonging\, a path\, not a fight. \n  \nInstead\, a respite\, for now. \nForever? The crowd surrounds us\, \nwhether we are aware\, or not. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n                          Peace Tree \n  \nMy calling is to rise. My purpose is to reach. \nWhere buildings fall\, I stand silent in the shouting. \nEven in billowing dust\, I begin the next peace. If  \nyou splinter me\, I will heal. After the battle\, I will  \nsilhouette dawn. I have seen seasons pass\, the rising  \nof anger\, fury of the storm\, return of calm. I’m still \nyearning for the sun\, still delving into dark. Rooted \npatriot of Earth\, I drink the sky to give you breath. \nNeutral in war\, I shade both sides. Send my seeds  \nacross the border\, I will be your diplomat of green. \nIf you plant me beside the graves of soldiers\, I will \nsay to their mothers with my leaves what they  \nmight have said in the wind that stirs. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nPeace Within\, Peace Without \n  \nWho doesn’t want to have peace within him or herself? Who doesn’t want to have world peace? I would say there are very few people in either category—a few\, maybe\, but not many. \n  \nHere is an inside aside: \nCan you have peace without love? \nCan you have peace without joy\, either within yourself or in the ‘world?’ \nIs peace synonymous with love? Is love synonymous with joy? \nAre there other words that define or are requirements for peace? Compassion? Connection? \n  \nWell\, I’m just throwing these out there\, as you can see\, but let’s go back to peace within/peace without. \n  \nHow can you be at peace within yourself and not be concerned about the world? It is overwhelming to think about trying to ‘fix’ the world\, for sure. We all know how that feels. Might as well give up on that and just work on being at peace within yourself\, right? Well\, that is impossible\, my friends. A spirit at peace is one who gnaws away\, tackles\, wrestles with—inch by inch\, foot by foot—-some part of the exterior world that is hurting\, be it other humans\, other creatures\, the world of nature. We do the work often never knowing whether or not we are achieving change\, lessening hurt\, creating love\, creating bond and connection and unity. This is not why we do it; we do the work because the work itself is what grows peace within us. And—-we have to do it.  \n  \nHa ha—but don’t get the idea that it is easy. It can be frightening\, hurtful\, frustrating\, and really hard; but something in us is propelled to keep on. And whatever that ‘something’ is\, brings (paradoxically) an inner peace. \n  \nSo we have to be in the world\, doing our bit\, small as it is; but always\, all of it\, from all of us is growing peace in the world. And just think if each and every one were to do this! World Peace!!! \n  \nWorking on the peace without is essential for the peace within…and vice versa. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nThe trouble with peace seems to be that it isn’t enough for us. Of course\, war is the ultimate step in a power struggle to determine who gets the gold and the throne. So\, in that sense\, battle skills are the most useful of all skills. \n  \nBut there is something more. At the same time we fear war\, we lust after it. We sing of arms and the man. War becomes the context for heroism\, nobility\, and deep companionship. It also destroys the beautiful\, kills the innocent\, and generates hatred in future generations. \n  \nIn spite of Elon Musk and other technological self-deceivers\, most people feel intuitively that life and death form some sort of continuum. To manifest its cycle of renewal\, life needs death. Does peace need war in some mysterious way? \n  \nWhen we think of Heaven\, we think No More War\, green meadows and grandchildren on our knee\, not the whole thing blown to bits by an incoming drone. War has its lobby\, its advocates and advertisers\, its prophets and profiteers. It’s only fair that a few of us take the other\, apparently less popular side\, and advocate for peace. \n  \n—Ken Margolis \n* \n  \n“Peace has been a theme in some of our earlier issues. Take a look at the peace\,love\, happiness & understanding Archive on the Open Road website. Here’s from June 24\, 2021: \n  \nhttps://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-6-24-21/ \n  \nFor July\, send me something about your own vision of Utopia or Paradise. \n  \npeace\,   \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-6-1-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230527T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230527T210000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230516T162833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230516T163203Z
UID:3915-1685215800-1685221200@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Johnny Stallings performs Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"  5/27/23
DESCRIPTION:painting of Walt Whitman by Rick Bartow\n\n\n  \n  \n For Walt’s 204th Birthday\, Johnny Stallings will be performing  \n  \nWalt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” \n  \nat PAUSE  \n  \nPAUSE is a meditation studio — 133 SW 2nd Ave.\, Suite 300\, (door code 54445) \n  \nSaturday\, May 27th\, 7:30 p.m. \n  \na benefit for the Open Road Film Fund  \n(for distributing Bushra Azzouz’s film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison”) \n  \nfor info\, call Johnny: 503-347-6869
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/johnny-stallings-performs-walt-whitmans-song-of-myself-5-27-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230521T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230521T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230517T154102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230517T160931Z
UID:3921-1684681200-1684688400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  5/21/23
DESCRIPTION:Nobel Prize-winning author\, Doris Lessing \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles!\n \nThe theme for our next Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom dialogue is Favorite Women Authors! Please join us at 3 p.m. (PDT)\, Sunday\, May 21st. \n \n\nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n\n\n\n\n\npeace & love\n\n\n \n\n\nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-5-21-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230519T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230519T210000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230419T222910Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240610T231710Z
UID:3821-1684522800-1684530000@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Deck Boys Friday Night!
DESCRIPTION:Music Lovers!\n \nThis Friday\, May 19th\, from 7 to 9 pm\, Deck Boys (https://www.deckboys.com)–featuring the inimitable Jeffrey Sher!–are gonna rock the Ross Island Grocery & Cafe\, 3502 S. Corbett\, Ave\, in Portland.\n \nWanna have a good time?\n \nThis is the place to be.\n \n \npeace\, love & music\n \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/deck-boys-friday-night/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DeckBoys.png.jpg
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230515
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230615
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230515T224532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250717T162120Z
UID:3903-1684108800-1686787199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  5/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nMay 15\, 2023 \n  \nLet your heart speak to others’ hearts. \n—tag on Yogi Tea bag \n  \n                Gandhi Returns \n  \nAs if he had said enough in life\, he uttered  \nnot a word where we stood in the station  \nin my dream\, only a stillness in the bustle  \nall around us. Instead\, he listened\, turning  \nhis bright young face in welcome to every  \ntraveler as they made speeches of their own.  \nA mother told of her son\, and in Gandhi’s eyes  \nthe boy was hero. I told him how Ali in Tehran \nhad written me that poetry is oxygen\, and in  \nMahatma’s eyes\, this was a truth no gun  \ncould injure. One by one he summoned \nwitness from each pilgrim. Then\, smiling\,  \nin his folds of pale cotton he helped us  \nstruggle with our luggage onto the steaming  \ntrain. And when I turned\, I saw he had none. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nAlex Tretbar sent two translations of a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke—showing what a big difference a translator’s choices make. He prefers the Robert Bly version: \n  \nPALM \n  \nInterior of the hand. Sole that has come to walk \nonly on feelings. That faces upward \nand in its mirror \nreceives heavenly roads\, which travel \nalong themselves. \nThat has learned to walk upon water \nwhen it scoops\, \nthat walks upon wells\, \ntransfiguring every path. \nThat steps into other hands\, \nchanges those that are like it \ninto a landscape: \nwanders and arrives within them\, \nfills them with arrival. \n  \n—translated by Stephen Mitchell \n  \nPALM OF THE HAND \n  \nPalm of the hand. Sole that walks now \nonly on feeling. It turns over\, \nbecomes a mirror\, \nshows sky roads\, which \nthemselves are walking. \nIt has learned to walk on water\, \nwhen it dips down\, \nmoves on springs\, \ncauses all roads to fork. \nComes forward into other palms\, \nthose like itself \nturn into a countryside\, \nthrough them it travels and arrives\, \nfills them with having arrived. \n  \n—translated by Robert Bly \n* \n  \nI saw lots of Jet trails in the blue sky gaily criss-crossing \nand wondered how many of us might be able to see them. \nThen this poem\, that our beloved friend and  Zen teacher  \nBob Schaibly liked\, popped into my mind.   \n  \nLove Note \n  \nLet us hire a hundred planes \nStuff them with hot cotton smoke \nAnd write white poetry on the paper of the sky. \nLet the ant people on the hot summer beaches look up squinting \nRead feathery descriptions of your lips\, \nTraced by the sky writers. \n  \nWe’ll pick a calm noontime\, \nSun pressing wrinkles out of the steamy sea \nSky flat\, receptive. \n“Love\,” I’ll write\, and “mouth\,” and silver words. \n“Cling\,” I’ll write\, and “Stars\,” and oh\, don’t worry. \nThe words will all come easily enough. \nIt’s the idea that matters. \n  \nThen I’ll fly up in the highest plane’ \nAnd jump and parachute right through \nThe O in the word “Love” \nAnd land in your backyard\, \nAnd kiss you – home again. \n  \n—Joseph Siebel \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nAnd a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels… \n—Walt Whitman\, Song of Myself \n  \nThe Miraculousness of Everything \n  \nBecause life is short and each day is precious\, I like to begin each day by entering what I call “the Golden World”—a state of quiet joy. To do this\, I often reflect upon the miraculousness of everything. Puffy white clouds floating by in the sky—how do they do that? Where did these coffee beans come from? The trees I see out my window have brand new bright green leaves. How did that happen? Our neighborhood is full of tulips. The irises and the rhododendrons are just starting to bloom. The daphne and the daffodils have had their glorious days. The laptop computer that I’m typing this on was undreamt of when I was a boy. \n  \nMaybe the most impossible and amazing thing of all is that I am alive and aware. My eyes\, brain and nervous system somehow create the illusion of a three-dimensional world in full color. Scientists might say\, “It’s just photons of light hitting the surface of the eye\, sending an electrical current to your brain\, where the synapses in your visual cortex something something something…” Huh? Photons? Synapses? Brain? What the heck are those? Where did they come from? One of my little poems goes like this: \n  \nthere has never been \nis not now \nand will never be \nanything more perfect \nthan this glass of water \n  \nOops! Here I am again…in the Golden World. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \n#186  The First Noble Truth \n“The Buddha told us to recognize the First Noble Truth\, the truth of suffering\, and to look deeply in order to discover the Second Noble Truth\, the cause of suffering.That is the only way the Fourth Noble Truth\, the path to transform suffering into happiness\, can reveal itself. So we have to emphasize the role of suffering. If we are so afraid of suffering\, we have no chance.” \n—from Your True Home  by Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \nWhen I was in the midst of deep suffering\, of course I couldn’t comprehend that this was a good thing\, leading to happiness. Sure didn’t feel like that to me. \n  \nThe suffering was thirteen years of marriage to a raging alcoholic—yes\, “raging” is not an exaggeration. Trying to cover a black eye with makeup\, wearing long-sleeved shirts to cover bruised arms\, making humiliating excuses for his passing out on the floor in the presence of company\, sharp\, cutting words more lasting than any physical pain…on and on. I thought if I left\, I would be seen as a failure in my parents’ eyes\, so I stayed and endured and excused for\, yes\, thirteen years. Believe me\, I was not thinking of these years as those leading to happiness. Upon divorce (thank you\, Al Anon)\, I eventually became a new person—or I became who I had been before marriage\, Jump-up Jude! I felt like a helium balloon released into the sky. Happiness and euphoria beyond belief. However\, I lived periods of time (and still do!)\, infused with what I would now call PTSD: Once I clambered over audience-filled seats in a theater in Ashland to escape sitting through a play by Sam Sheppard about an alcoholic husband who goes to bars and trades his car for bags of green peppers\, which he drunkenly spills on the kitchen table as he lurches home to his wife. I can’t watch the movie Elephant Man\, or The Days of Wine and Roses. Much as I wanted to\, I could not even sit and watch the delicious hunk\, Bradley Cooper\, starring in A Star is Born\, as he devolves into violent and abusive alcoholism. And I just can’t be around drunk people. I feel like I’m suffocating. \n  \nSo where does the happiness component come from that??? The happiness and benefit come from my ability to connect and empathize  with others who have been traumatized by life experiences. The kids I mentored\, the Indian woman whose family I helped for 18 years\, and most especially\, the men in prison I have spent time with for seven years; I have not lived their lives\, nor have they lived mine\, but we all have had deep trauma and all can relate to one another’s deep trauma in a blessedly bonding experience.  \n  \nIt truly is sheer happiness when one understands\, and is understood by another\, in experiences of trauma and suffering. I wouldn’t trade it for the world! \n  \n–Jude Russell \n* \n  \nOut Here \n  \nWe come out here to watch the stars \nfade as Orion heads home towards \nthe horizon. Low lying mist obscures his \nturning as waves curl and crash\, foamy flow \nup on newly deposited rocks\, old wood\, \nyellow toes of bald eagles foraging \namong crows\, pink footed gulls. \n  \nLight comes up slowly burning mist \naway. As we are away at the edge of the \nknown world. Beacons of cable laying ships\, \nbarges full of earth slowly appear \nas tide comes in. Now there is color \nas sky settles into her blue cloak\, hovers \nprotectively around the huge remnant \n  \nRock of sister cape worn down\, left \nstanding alone in calling distance of \nshore. Before us feasting on starlight \nthe sword edge crescent moon glints \nover barrier pine hills\, \nsweeps the way clear\, for us to make \nwhat we can of this fresh new day. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nMichel is using a book by Pema Chödrön\, based on the slogans in her teacher Chögyam Trungpa’s book Training the Mind: And Cultivating Loving-Kindness\, as inspiration for his April meditation and mindfulness journal. Here are some excerpts: \n  \nApril 4\, 2023  #35  Don’t try to be the fastest. Don’t compete with others. \nI might offer a step further along: Don’t compare self to others—don’t get judgy\, of anything. I’m finding this is one of the lasting legacies of Jake Merriman and OHOM in my life: the letting go of judgement words. To do this one has to follow Johnny Stallings’ trait—compassion for everyone. I find that letting go of obsessive need to categorize and judge\, or sort out good/bad\, like/dislike\, etc. I will vie less and less against others\, or even self\, for prizes that do not exist. From this less judging space it becomes easier to understand and have compassion for an other\, and eventually even for self. \n  \nApril 20\, 2023  #48  Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial to do this pervasively and wholeheartedly. \nIT’S IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE EVERYONE AND \nEVERYTHING YOU MEET AS PART OF YOUR PRACTICE. \nTHEY BECOME THE MEANS BY WHICH YOU \nCULTIVATE COMPASSION AND WISDOM. \nWho doesn’t want to cultivate compassion and/or wisdom? I certainly have been striving to do this. There are certain beings (things are also included in this teaching—sigh) with whom I have a very challenged relationship. I don’t like them\, they don’t like me\, and neither is open to changing this. Yet\, I’m certain (from all my readings) these others are here for some greater purpose in my life; shouldn’t waste an opportunity to grow\, I may not get another one—then what? Go about with a malformed (uncorrected) ego\, as I do now? No thanks! I guess I better get busy with my work/training. \n  \nApril 21\, 2023  #49 Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment. \nDO TONGLEN PRACTICE WHENEVER YOU FEEL RESENTMENT. \nDO IT WITH SMALL THINGS ALL THE TIME. THEN YOU’LL BE \nPREPARED TO WORK WITH THE BIG ONES WHEN THEY ARISE. \nIt seems wise to work with resolving one’s resentments\, before they grow into “hates” for people\, beings\, or things. I believe all mindfulness practice is like this; sit now\, in silent reverie\, so amidst a fierce stormy barrage calm may prevail. Everything would simply build from there. Just breathe… \n  \nApril 23\, 2023  #49 Don’t be swayed by external circumstances. \nWHATEVER YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES\, PRACTICE  TONGLEN. \nWHATEVER IS WANTED\, SEND THAT OUT; WHATEVER IS \nUNWANTED\, BREATHE IT IN AND EXPERIENCE IT FOR \nYOURSELF AND ALL OTHERS IN THE SAME BOAT. \nThis speaks to equanimity—not allowing the outside storms of life to sway my little stuff. Currently\, I am bracing for the eventual passing of my father\, whom I’ve come to love very much. Alzheimer’s is taking a toll on his mind and personality. I don’t see it yet\, but my mom has to deal with many of the challenges that are arising. There’s nothing I can do for either of them; letting those concerns frazzle me doesn’t help any. All I can do is keep doing as best as I can. I’m not ready to let him go\, and at the same time he is already gone. My father I knew as a child is long gone—the one with whom I had so many conflicts and struggles—and the one I’ve come to know\, love\, and appreciate from prison\, he\, too\, is now gone. What’s left is the husk of of a man I once knew for his strength and resolve. He’s not dead\, nor has his mind gone completely yet. However\, the inevitable reality of time’s ravaging of mind and body are no longer easily ignored. It is time to embrace each moment\, as it may be the last one I get with him. Whether by phone\, or if I get to see him once more face-to-face\, truth is present that we all proceed apace to the same destiny—each on our own path and in our own time. \n  \n—Michel Deforge \n* \n  \nDear Mindful Meditators \n  \nOur Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue began on September 15\, 2020. It is mailed to 10 people who are in prison and emailed to about 60 people who aren’t—including 9 men who were in prison in September of 2020 who are now out of prison! Hallelujah! \n  \nWe had our first get-together on Saturday\, May 13th\, at Taborspace in Portland. In attendance were: Charles Erickson\, Nicole Rush\, Sam Muller\, Nancy Scharbach\, Katie Radditz & Johnny Stallings. We talked about how our “life journey” and our “spiritual journey” are the same thing. Everyone shared stories from their life. Abe Green visited us from Montana—via FaceTime. We all had a lovely time together.  \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in peace & love. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-5-15-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230513T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230513T160000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230509T183049Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230510T195845Z
UID:3875-1683986400-1683993600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue Gathering  5/13/23
DESCRIPTION: \n \n\n\n\nDear Friends \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nYou are invited to join us for our meditation & mindfulness community’s first live get-together\, this Saturday\, May 13\, from 2 to 4 pm\, in the Artspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont Street\, in Portland.\n \n\nIn September of 2020 we began our Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue–sending it to friends inside and outside of prison walls. Many of the “insiders” have gotten out of prison since then. Currently\, the Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue is mailed to ten men in prison\, and is emailed to about 60 people who aren’t in prison. If you are getting this email\, you are one of the 60 lucky “outsiders.”\n \n\nThis will be a lovely opportunity for everyone to have a dialogue and get to know each other better.\n \nWe hope you can join us!\n \n \npeace\, love & happiness from\n \nJohnny Stallings & Katie Radditz
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-gathering-5-13-23/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Bodhi_Ajanta.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230507T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230507T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230503T210001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230517T154403Z
UID:3843-1683471600-1683478800@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  5/7/23
DESCRIPTION:from Liber Novus (The Red Book) by Carl Jung \n  \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles!\n \nThe theme for our next Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom dialogue is Psychology. Read any books on this subject? Got any insights? Please join us at 3 p.m. (PDT)\, Sunday\, May 7th. \n \n\nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n\n\n\n\n\npeace\, love & psychology\n\n\n \n\n\nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-5-7-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230506T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230506T213000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230418T215016Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230505T151323Z
UID:3812-1683403200-1683408600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Jon Bennett performs Fire in the Meth Lab at ADX
DESCRIPTION:  \nThe Open Road invites you to come and be astonished by Jon Bennett’s brilliant show: Fire In the Meth Lab\, Saturday\, May 6th\, 8 p.m.\, at Art Design Xchange (ADX)\, 417 SE 11th. Doors at 7:30pm. Click here for tickets: \n  \nJon Bennett has crafted a powerful story of addiction and family. When I saw this show\, I laughed and cried as he took me on an unforgettable journey. Not to be missed!!  –Jeffrey Sher \n  \nThis is a benefit for Outside In. Since 1968\, Outside In has transformed thousands of lives by helping to break the cycles of chronic homelessness\, poverty\, and poor health. Our health clinic and young adult programs strive to provide safe\, caring\, affirming spaces for our community to receive judgment-free care and support. MISSION: We help homeless youth and other marginalized people move towards improved health and self-sufficiency. \n  \nThank you to Ronni Lacroute for sponsoring this event.
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/jon-bennett-performs-fire-in-the-meth-lab/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230504T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230504T120000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230419T224924Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230427T001427Z
UID:3827-1683194400-1683201600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:War in Ukraine Dialogue  5/4/23
DESCRIPTION:  \nPLEASE JOIN A DISCUSSION ABOUT U.S. INVOLVEMENT \nIN THE WAR IN UKRAINE \nThe Open Road invites you to take part in a dialogue about the War in Ukraine\, and our country’s role in it.  \nThursday\, May 4th\, at 10 a.m. \nThe Gallery at Lolo Pass\, 1616 East Burnside\, in Portland \nFor questions or information call Ken: (503) 351-5891 \n“In the councils of government\, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence\, whether sought or unsought\, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous use of misplaced power exists and will persist.” \n—President Dwight D. Eisenhower \nFarewell Address to the Nation\, January 17\, 1961 \nFREE ADMISSION
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/war-in-ukraine-slide-presentation-discussion/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230504
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230601
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230504T212150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T133118Z
UID:3850-1683158400-1685577599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  5/4/23
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nBOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WAY YOU SEE THE WORLD \n  \nMay 4\, 2023 \n  \nWhen I first read Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children\, I realized that literature could be even more powerful than I had known. Powerful enough in this novel to make me feel acute embarrassment\, shame\, and humiliation–unsavory\, and unforgettable emotions. It was\, in that sense\, one of the most unpleasant books that I have ever read–but I suffered those ugly emotions because I was in empathic thrall to the characters\, which was thrilling. Christina Stead had such power over me that she could compel me to keep reading even against my own will. Sixty years later\, the book stays with me. \n  \n—Ken Margolis \n* \n  \nThe Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison \n  \nAs the first book in the Inspector Shan series this book gave me a glimpse into the history and current status of the relationship between Tibet and China. It also gave a different perspective on Tibetan Buddhism\, a more human practical one\, and it opened me to a world of beliefs deeply different from those I had learned about in the West. \n  \nThere are ten books in this series. \n  \nWhen I first met Andrew\, he had an “Endlessly Connected” bumper stick on his car that was flanked by two Meander Knots. A simple design\, the endless knot iconography symbolizes samsara—the endless cycle of suffering of birth\, death\, and rebirth within Tibetan Buddhism. The intertwining of wisdom and compassion. Also\, the Interplay and interaction of the opposing forces in the dualistic world of manifestation\, leading to their union\, and ultimately to harmony in the universe. \n  \nThe books have a starkness to them. As mysteries they are dark and sometimes brutal\, but the characters\, particularly the lamas have stuck around in my head since encountering them. Andrew and I read them at approximately the same time\, sharing tidbits and references and when it came time to name our poetry press\, little magazine and open mic\, Meander Knot was the obvious choice. \n  \nWe even got identical tattoos as both a branding exercise but also an expression of perhaps a deeper connection between us and the possible connection over more than one lifetime. \n  \nAnd then\, when I started teaching yoga\, I called the business “Meander Yoga”. The endless knot is not featured specifically in the books\, (although I suspect it is mentioned. I am planning on re-reading them this year and will find out) it symbolizes to me the deep cultural richness in the books and how that richness has enhanced both my spiritual\, but also my artistic life.   \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nHi Johnny! \n  \nThere are so many books that have changed me and/or inspired me but the one that comes to the top of my mind is Hope for the Flowers. I’ve read this book so many times and have shared it with so many people. It’s such a sweet and simple illustration of transformation but also of embracing who you are right now.  \n  \nOn a totally different note\, I remember reading Johnny Got His Gun for the first time and being in awe. It was the first time I really sat and pondered what it means to be human and what makes life worth living.  \n  \nOh\, and of course\, Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth! \n  \nI’ll stop before I start listing 100 books.  \n  \n—Nicole Rush \n* \n  \nThe Mahabharata retold by William Buck \n  \nI first thought Peter Brooke read this. \nI found it falling apart in a free box or a yard sale. \nI found I couldn’t read it. \nIt sat on the bookshelf for a couple of years. I kept an eye on it. \n  \nOne morning in Parkrose neighborhood\, on a north deck\, watching the planes glide in over the trees and rooftops\, following the river west to PDX\, I saw the sun was shining after endless rain. \nA cup of coffee was there\, and the time had come to open the book of wonder. \n  \n—Charles Erickson \n* \n  \nbeautiful morning\, Johnny. good question! \n  \nI immediately thought about how I felt after reading Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. I had never had an English teacher in High School assign anything like it to read. I think I was the only one in the class who liked it or even read it. So for one thing it forged a bond with my fascinating lovely teacher. \n  \nMainly it opened up a world of wonder about the wild\, where savage had the meaning of wild/wyld people in a forest wilderness unmitigated by modern civilization. It is about true freedom compared to that of the birds.   \n  \nHudson writes with a clear style that matches his view of beauty and wonder being the essence of life. It is a love story as well as a tragedy of what would come of nature.  \n  \nNow I’ve pulled it out to read once again. I had forgotten the main character’s name is Abel—my first son’s name! I think this story has stayed with me in my deep consciousness.  \n  \nIn the forward\, John Galsworthy wrote in 1918 that Hudson was the most valuable author of his Age. He says of  Hudson\, who was a naturalist as well as an author: “his nomadic records of communing with men (women)\, birds\, beasts\, and Nature\, has a supreme gift of disclosing not only the thing he sees but the spirit of his vision. Without apparent effort he takes you with him into a rare\, free\, natural world\, and always you are refreshed\, stimulated\, enlarged\, by going there.”  \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nAbout ten years ago a good friend of mine urged me to read Nicholas and Alexandra\, by Robert Massie. I was reluctant\, because\, as I told her\, “I don’t do history.” She said\, “Well\, do!” I said that because up until then the only history I’d read had been high school and college textbooks. I’d read\, study\, take a test and then forget everything (hopefully in that order). I read hundreds and hundreds of novels from junior high school on—Stendhal\, Balzac\, Dickens\, Dostoevsky\, etc.—so it wasn’t for a lack of love of reading\, just no desire or aptitude for history. \n  \nBut I read Nicholas and Alexandra and loved it! It’s the story of the last czarist Romanov dynasty and its fall. I’d never known much about Rasputin\, but he figures in powerfully\, with the strange spell he held over Alexandra and her hemophiliac son\, Alexi. It was probably more biography than accounting of events. It led me to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great\, both of which were also biographical\, with dominion\, control\, conquest\, acquisition and rule over dozens of countries in that region threaded into their stories. \n  \nSo perhaps it’s biography rather than history that has opened up a new world of reading for me.  \n  \nIn that vein\, I also read American Prometheus\, the biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer\, “father of the atomic bomb.” Strange reading material\, eh? But he was such a brilliant polymath and was forever conflicted about how his genius was put to use.  \n  \nRight now\, it’s The Orientalist\, by Tom Reiss\, the life of Lev Nussimbaum\, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best selling author in Nazi Germany. It looks at the early 20th century and the origins of our ideas of race and religious self-definition\, and the beginning of modern fanaticism and terrorism.  \n  \nSo now it’s geography in addition to biography and history\, and I’m sitting with the big World Atlas and a magnifying glass\, scrutinizing Baku\, the capital of Azerbaijan\, the Caspian Sea\, the Caucasus\, Georgia\, Turkey… \n  \nTo wrap this up\, explorations in readings of geography\, biography\, and history have expanded my vision\, experience\, and understanding of the world in these last ten years\, thanks to my friend\, Nikki! (But I still love novels.) \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nAlice Miller’s book For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childhood and the Roots of Violence changed the way I look at individual acts of violence and collective acts of violence—war. The basic thesis is simple: abusing children—physically\, psychologically\, emotionally\, sexually—wounds them. She says that when we grow up\, we unconsciously and compulsively re-enact the violence that was done to us. Randy Newman’s song “I want you to hurt like I do” sums it up. The violence can also be directed against ourselves. There’s more to the story than the idea that we are\, by our nature\, violent apes. We certainly have the potential for violence\, and we also have the potential to be loving and kind. It depends which seeds we water.  \n  \nIt follows from this that to the extent that we can be loving and kind to our children—instead of mean and cruel—the world will be transformed in positive ways. Conscious awareness of what we suffered and how it has affected us can help us to not act out the same things that were done to us. Her book helped me to better understand how “hurt people hurt people.” Instead of judging people for the suffering they’ve caused\, I want to know about the pain they’ve suffered. \n  \nSusan Griffin’s book Woman and Nature brought home to me the relentless way in which men have defined\, dominated and oppressed women over the centuries. Her book is also a visionary call for women’s (and men’s) emancipation from this tyranny. \n  \nAntler’s poem “Factory” changed the way I see the world around me. Having read the poem many years ago\, it still manages to regularly remind me that the paint on the walls\, the windows in the walls\, the lightbulbs\, the refrigerator\, the glasses on my nose\, the computer that I’m typing on—almost everything that surrounds me—was made by men and women working in (ugly\, noisy) factories (which pollute the air\, the water and the soil). \n  \nWalt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” inspires me to see beauty everywhere\, to love everyone\, to be astonished by the miraculousness of everything I touch\, taste\, see\, or imagine. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nFOR YOUR OWN GOOD \nThanks for the reminder\, Johnny\, \nYou introduced me to that book ages ago\, and I carried it around with me for a long time. \nIt says lots about childhood and being treated as a child by adults who are very busy in their own sphere. \nIt has left a lasting impression on me. \nI’ll see if I can come up with another that has been useful as a life reference. \n  \n—Todd Oleson \n* \n  \nIn the recent Open Road letter you asked about life-changing books—or at least life-influencing ones. Many of the titles you sent me fall in this group. However\, due to space limits\, I’ve sent the most helpful ones home and forgotten the titles. Some others include: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl\, Writing My Wrongs: Life\, Death\, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor\, The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose by Chris Wilson. I’m working through My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem—a bit “woke\,” but still has relevance. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child by John Bradshaw. Mmm…I’ll have to come back to this. \n  \nThere’s a small-ish list of books I hope to read this next year—after ordering\, of course. Some may trigger comments and feedback for others I’ll need/want to read\, or even avoid: 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene\, How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes\, something by W.E.B. Du Bois [his two most well-known books are The Souls of Black Folk and Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois—ed.]\, Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance\, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates\, Ordinary Magic: Resilience in Development by Ann S. Masten\, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker\, Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication by Oren Jay Sofer\, and Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. \n  \nOh\, The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk\, on trauma—this was helpful. So many helpful books\, and all the best are at home. This is great for when I get out (15+ years)\, not great for now. Oh\, and I have crossed the halfway on April 9th: 50% done\, 15¾ years left. \n  \n—Michel Deforge \n* \n  \nDear Reader \n  \nNext month (June 1st)\, our theme is Peace. \nSend me something. \n  \npeace & love \nJohnny \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-5-4-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230423T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230423T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230413T150146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230503T210126Z
UID:3792-1682262000-1682269200@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: Shakespeare Birthday Extravaganza!!!  4/23/23
DESCRIPTION:I know a bank where the wild thyme blows\,\nWhere oxlips and the nodding violet grows\,\nQuite over-canopied with luscious woodbine\,\nWith sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:\nThere sleeps Titania sometime of the night\,\nLull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;\nAnd there the snake throws her enamell’d skin\,\nWeed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: \n\n \n\nBeloved Bibliophiles!\n \nThis year is the 400th Anniversary of the “First Folio” of Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARES COMEDIES\, HISTORIES\, & TRAGEDIES. Shakespeare’s Birthday\, April 23rd\, falls on the day we do our next Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering–at 3 p.m. (PDT). To celebrate\, an all-star lineup of actors is going to read scenes and speeches from Shakespeare’s plays.\n\n\n \n\n\n\nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n  \n\n\n\n\n\nDON’T MISS THIS!!! \n\n\n \n\n\n\npeace\, love & poetry  \n\n\n \n\n\nJohnny\n\n  \n\nBottom.  There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe that will never please. First\, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself\, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?\n \nSnout.  By’r lakin\, a parlous fear.\n \nStarveling.  I believe we must leave the killing out\, when all is done.\n \nBottom.  Not a whit. I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue\, and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm with our swords\, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed. And for the more better assurance\, tell them that I\, Pyramus\, am not Pyramus\, but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of fear.\n\n\n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-shakespeare-birthday-extravaganza-4-23-23/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230415
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230515
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230416T194601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250717T160933Z
UID:3800-1681516800-1684108799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  4/15/23
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nApril 15\, 2023 \n  \nDear Mindful Meditators \n  \nOur Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue began on September 15\, 2020. Recipients include people inside and outside prison walls. It is currently mailed to 10 men in prison and emailed to about 60 people who aren’t—including 9 men who were in prison in September of 2020 who are now out of prison! Hallelujah! \n  \nWe are going to have our first get-together on Saturday\, May 13th\, from 2 to 4 p.m.\, at Taborspace in Portland: 5441 SE Belmont. \n  \nThis will be an opportunity for people to get to know each other\, and to have a dialogue about our life journey—what it means\, what we love\, what we do to nurture peace\, happiness\, goodness and understanding in our own life and in the lives of others. \n  \nI hope you can come! Bring a friend\, if you like. \n  \nMy friend Rocky Hutchinson\, who is a member of our meditation & mindfulness community\, called me the other day\, and was excited to tell me about an author he had just discovered—Kahlil Gibran! Back in the day\, The Prophet was an essential book in every hippie’s library. Rocky’s enthusiasm inspired me to re-read it (after 50 years). This quote from The Prophet relates to our upcoming gathering: \n  \nYour friend is your needs answered. \nHe is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving…. \nAnd let your best be for your friend. \nIf he must know the ebb of your tide\, let him know its flood also. \nFor what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? \nSeek him always with hours to live. \nFor it is his to fill your need\, but not your emptiness. \nAnd in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughing\, and sharing of pleasures. \nFor in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. \n  \n—Kahlil Gibran \n  \npeace & love\, y’all \nJohnny \n* \n  \n            Dreaming in Detail \n  \nThe casting director for my dreaming \nI can understand—bringing in my parents \nfrom gone\, grown children as infants again\, \nand a parade of strangers\, each with a bit part \nfraught with obscure purpose. The location scout  \nfound familiar places\, made them mythic\, then \nadded an abundance of tunnels\, caves\, cities  \nin ruin\, and a foggy coast. My costume director \nsurrenders to seasonal change—blues in spring \nyielding to summer gray\, and autumn black. But  \nwhy is the director of photography so obsessed  \nwith effects of light both atmospheric and exact?  \nIn one scene we see fine hairs on my father’s arm  \nglitter in low sun\, then a heap of medieval coins\, \nthen that lost button shining on a stone. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nA Fish Describes Water \n  \nThere are prayers best said \nonly at night\, in depths\, water steps \nrubies in the mouth. \n  \nWind ripples across moon grass \nlonging to be released by washed \nstones. The rowboat \n  \nis empty. What remains \nis a song\, a solitary gold-winged \nwarbler\, the pattern of rain. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nWhat do you do to nurture  peace\, love and happiness in your life? \n  \nRecently I had a chance to sit in on a phone call with Johnny and Rocky Hutchinson. Rocky is one of our inmates in the dialogue group\, and he is one of the dearest human beings I’ve ever known. He has been in prison for a long time\, and has had quite a—well—rocky experience. \n  \nI asked him how he was doing\, and what he was doing\, and he told me he had just finished the Master Gardener program\, and he was also training dogs for use with people with disabilities. He loves it\, both the gardening and the dogs.  \n  \nI said\, “Rocky\, you couldn’t have picked two more valuable activities for the soul than gardens and dogs!” And I realized that that is just how I feel: Gardens and dogs fill my heart and soul like nothing else. \n  \nYou all might have heard that digging in dirt\, the smell of dirt\, of the soil\, stimulates endorphins in the brain\, the happiness endorphins. True!  Of course\, I don’t head to the garden thinking\, uh oh\, I think I need some of them endorphins about now! No\, it’s just an instinct\, a drive\, that takes me there. And planting carrots\, chard\, beans; digging watery moats around the tomato plants (the smell of those tomato leaves!); cutting bouquets of coral colored peonies and lavender irises (the smell of irises!); picking green beans with glints of sunlight beaming through the vines—all of this settles in me and brings focus\, joy\, and  quiet peace to my soul. Gardens\, yes!!! \n  \nAnd dogs! Lolo! My love! Some friends took care of Lolo while we were gone and when I asked how she’d been\, they said\, “She had us with one look into her soulful eyes.” So true. She looks into your heart and understands when you’re sad\, she rejoices when you’re happy\, and every emotion is acknowledged with a loving and energetic lick on the face. Ick! you might say. Not at all—it’s the lick of love. Don’t you remember that Dusty Springfield song\, “The Lick of Love..(is in your eyes…?”)  Oh wait—maybe it was “The Look of Love.” Whatever.  \n  \nAnyway\, she’s a soft and fuzzy and uncharacteristically sweet-smelling dog! What more can you ask for? \n  \nSO: gardens and dogs. Rocky\, you’re so right. But I must add that it’s you\, Rocky\, you and all the other men in our dialogue and theater group who bring peace\, love and sheer happiness into my life\, and I am forever grateful. \n  \nAddendum: But how could I have forgotten hiking??? Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams\, my two sentinels. How could I have omitted family\, and dear friends? Music!!!  Riding my bike! Art! Books and reading!!!  \n  \nWhat a topic! \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nTo nurture peace\, love and happiness I simply do nothing.   \n  \nEach morning I take my coffee out on the porch and watch the daybreak.  I say my little peace prayer.  Then I do Nothing.  I don’t analyze or plan or meditate or cogitate.  I find myself surrounded by the sky.  Maybe the moon is out\, or the sun comes up.  It’s a moment of peace and harmony\, and I did nothing to get here.  I merely stopped distracting myself.   \n  \nI can’t spend the whole day sitting here.  There’s still clutter in my life or my mind or my house that needs some tending to.  But when the morning starts out this peacefully the rest of the day usually follows suit.  Our natural state is peace and love\, unless we sully it up.  How can this not nurture some happiness?   \n  \nThanks\, and love\,   \n  \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n  \nIn the chalice of the heart\, \n Lies love’s sweet essence: \nBorn of the seed of truth; \n Watered by the tears of devotion; \nWarmed by the sun of faith\, \n Through the fruit of days\, \nOn the vine of humankind– \n  One and another\, \nAll One Together… \n  \n—sam muller 14 April ’23 \n* \n  \nMichel is currenlty using a book by Pema Chödrön as the inspiration for his meditation journal. (I’m not sure which one\, but it appears to be inspired by Chögyam Trungpa’s Training the Mind.) \n  \nMarch 9\, 2023  #14  Seeing Confusion as the Four Kayas is Unsurpassable Shunyata Protection \n  \nThrough meditation practice you begin to realize: \n\nThoughts just pop up out of nowhere—dharmakaya\nThoughts are never ceasing—sambhogakaya\nThey appear but are not solid—sambhogakaya\nAll together: no birth\, no cessation\, no dwelling—svabhavikakaya\n\nThis understanding gives unsurpassable protection of \nrealizing called shunyata—“complete openness.” \nNothing solid to react to. \nYou’ve made much ado about nothing! \n  \nI can relate to this one. The fancy names mean little\, but the effort of meditation practice for complete openness is valuable—learning to not react to mental formations. Thoughts of mind are like mists or fog; the warm light of reality will dissipate all obstacles to reveal reality as it is. I’ve driven in misty\, snowy\, fog late at night and my vision played tricks on me\, so I had to drive extra cautiously. During a clear day\, the same road was easy to see and navigate. Mind plays the same tricks on me with reality; I need to slow down and pay careful attention—nothing changed except perception. Or did it? Surprises appear faster through foggy delusions. I can’t see them coming. Definitely: foggy\, misty\, delusions require proceeding cautiously until clearer. \n  \nMarch 13\, 2023  #17  Practice the Four Strengths\, the Condensed Heart Instrucions \n  \n\nStrong determination to train in opening heart and mind\nFamiliarization with practices helping you do this\nPositive seed within\, experienced as yearning to practice and wake up\nReproach\, tricky for Western students\, realizing ego-clinging causes suffering\, delight in self-reflection\, honesty\, seeing where you get stuck\nAspiration to help alleviate suffering in this world\, expressing that intention to yourself\n\n  \nI value each of these principles and judge they can be of benefit to any religious practice. I find\, and imagine it is similar for many\, that working with ego issues can be the most challenging of all\, since our culture is all about cultivating a powerful ego. My experience reveals Western egoism is the central source of all our sufferings. It’s from here that we develop attractions (grasping) and aversions (pushing away)\, and this ego makes us blind to our faults and challenges which\, once corrected\, would release—at least diminish—suffering. Yet\, we focus on and build up ego\, wondering at our suffering. The “escape” is to practice breathing. \n  \n—Michel Deforge \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-4-15-23/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230409T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230409T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230330T231512Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230413T150430Z
UID:3761-1681052400-1681059600@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  4/9/23
DESCRIPTION:Beloved Bibliophiles! \n\n\n  \nFor Sunday\, April 9th\, at 3 p.m. (PDT) our theme is: \n  \n“sweet spring is your  \ntime is my time is our  \ntime for springtime is lovetime  \nand viva sweet love” \n\n\n\n\n  \nBring poems to read or recite about Spring! \n  \nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace & love  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-4-9-23/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/0-3.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230406
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230504
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230406T203104Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T203535Z
UID:3778-1680739200-1683158399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  4/6/23
DESCRIPTION:The Rink \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \n \n  \nApril 6\, 2023 \n  \nI invited some friends to write something about their favorite films… \nWhen we read a great book\, we want all our friends to read it. When we watch a great movie\, we want all our friends to see it.  \nFor the next issue of peace\, love\, happiness & understanding\, which comes out on April 6th\, write something about movies\, films\, or tv shows that you love. \n* \n  \nPrabu’s film “In the Beginning” reminded me of the old\, scratchy\, haunting film “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge\,” based on a civil war story by Ambrose Bierce. Much darker than what Prabu offered us\, but a similar visual narrative of a man trying to negotiate a mysterious world. \nhttps://vimeo.com/15147706 \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nAt the top of my list is “Ted Lasso.” The improbable premise of this tv show is that the central character is nice. He’s generous to everyone. He has a corny sense of humor. He’s a good man. Whoever thought you could make stories about someone like that? The film that first came to mind is “Wings of Desire” by Wim Wenders. It’s about angels\, who are invisible to most people\, who help us to reduce stress and think positive thoughts by their presence. They are immortal\, but they are missing out on many human pleasures\, like the smell of coffee. Nancy and I love the films of Wes Anderson. Our favorite is “Moonrise Kingdom.” Of Coen brothers’ films\, it’s a toss-up for me between “The Big Lebowski” and “Hail\, Caesar!” I love the Australian film “Bliss” (1985)\, based on the novel by Peter Carey. Another classic is Terry Gilliam’s hilarious dystopian vision “Brazil” (also 1985!). I love the early silent films of Georges Méliès. “The Kingdom of the Fairies” (1903) is especially good. For physical comedy\, Charlie Chaplin’s “The Rink” remains unsurpassed. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nA favorite film of mine is\, ‘The count of Monte Cristo’. \nIt embodies the tireless effort for justice\, and a will to not give in to the deeds of those that seek ones demise. \nThe character\, Edmond Dontez (later\, the Count) is someone I could relate to while in captivity (prison). He spent 16 years seeking a way out\, to avenge the wrongdoings of his peers.  \nHe eventually did\, and along the way\, learned many other lessons about life and forgiveness. \nEssentially for me\, the story/film is an inspiration to never give up or give in. And to never forget where I came from\, for it is fuel for my fire.  \n  \n—Brandon Gillespie \n\n\n\n  \nThanks for the invitation Johnny.  A few ideas:   \n     \nAs for happiness\, along with some heartbreak and comic flair\, it’s hard to beat the book This Is Happiness by the Irish writer Niall Williams.  I felt like I was living in a village in county Kerry the whole time I was reading the book. In the end I felt like I had made new friends\, been wrapped in a prayer blanket\, fed a good meal and sent home along a winding green path with a fiddle tune and a song. It made me hopeful\, appreciative and aware of the happiness lurking in my own backyard.  Superb writing!  \n     \nAs for film\, “The Mission” (Robert Dinero) comes to mind not because of peace or happiness but because of understanding and the meaning of redemption and forgiveness.  The music is sublime and the scenery stunningly beautiful.  A sad reminder as well of what  artistic and cultural creations might have been had peace\, love\, understanding and imagination prevailed over avarice and greed.   \n      \nOpening day of baseball season always makes me happy.  Here’s a poem I wrote about it.  Love and Play Ball!!! Will   \n  \nWhy Baseball Matters \n  \nBecause in a world obsessed with time\, baseball is a past-time. \nBecause any game could theoretically last into eternity. \nBecause baseball is played on a diamond.  \nBecause in a world obsessed by success even the best hitters fail two-thirds of the time. \nBecause\, as George Carlin reminded us\, football is about “ground and aerial attacks”\, and “marching down the field” while baseball is about “staying safe and coming home.” \nBecause what other game has characters named “Goose\, the Big Hurt\, the Left Hand of God\, the Splendid Splinter\, The Say Hey Kid\, the Sultan of Swat\, Catfish\, Hammerin’ Hank\, Cool Papa\, the Bird\, Big Papi\, The Man of Steal\, Satchel\, the Big Unit and the Iron Horse?” \nBecause the crowd takes a stretch and sings together at the ballpark. \nBecause despite all efforts to improve the game\, baseball remains blessedly slow\, wonderfully conversational\, deceptively complex and enjoyably simple. \nBecause outside of going to the park\, baseball is best experienced on a radio broadcast where gifted storytellers usher us daily into a theatre of imagination.  \nBecause pitchers deliberately baffle\, confuse and confound with “curves\, sliders\, splitters\, sinkers\, screwballs\, knuckleballs\, fastballs and change-ups.”   \nBecause almost every day from April through October millions of boys and girls\, women and men play a game made in America before the Civil War and now beloved from Japan and Korea to Cuba\, Australia\, Venezuela and beyond. \nBecause as Leo Durocher said: “Baseball is like church. Many attend\, few understand.”  Yet\, I would add: all can be uplifted and enjoy. \nBecause as a Boston fan once said: “Baseball is not about life and death. But\, the Red Sox are!”  \nBecause these days it just feels good to shout: “Play ball!”  \n      \n—Will Hornyak  \n* \n  \nFor me\, THE RULES OF THE GAME\, by Jean Renoir\, is a great humanist document that happens to be a movie rather than a novel or play….It is a luminous farce that depicts a weekend at a country estate. The classes\, represented on the one hand by the owner and his guests\, and on the other by members of the staff\, especially a maid and a gamekeeper\, are assiduously separated: one serves\, the other receives. But at the same time\, they all meet and merge as equals in games of love and deception. Renoir misses nothing\, and forgives everything. \nA more recent movie that moves me is THE RIDER\, by Chloe Zhao\, an almost-documentary that tells the story of some Pine Ridge “Indian cowboys”\, who make brief and destructive livings as rodeo riders. The characters play themselves. I’ve watched this three times\, and will watch it a fourth. \nOh\, and also about RULES OF THE GAME; it’s funny as hell. \n  \n—Ken Margolis \n* \nWhat is it about peace that its story is not enduring? \n  \nWings of Desire\, a 1987 film directed by Wim Wenders \n  \nThe aerial shots of Berlin so long before drones. The use of space both physically and visually. The plants in the library. The stand-up desks in the library. The angels in the library. The soft leather seats in the sports car in the showroom where the angels meet to compare notes. The desire for that car from the people looking in. The miracle of being able to watch this movie again in the kitchen 36 years later. The world of humans is in color. A friend and student expressing aversion to angels when I read a poem to a recent class that had a passing reference to them. The discussion that followed over days and walks about this dislike of angels she didn’t even know she had. The drawing on the wall at the circus behind the elephant. The robe on backwards to protect Marion’s chicken feather wings. Nick Cave on the portable phonograph. Looking for the right hat. The trapeze artist in a tuxedo cat suit with a long white tail. But the story of the grass\, the sun\, the leaping\, and the shouting that is still going on as well. Sometimes beauty is the only thing that matters. Chest armor falling from the sky. The revelation and joy in color in a gray gray city. The mural of a ruined building on an intact one. The pile of sawdust the circus left behind. No one saw the carney go. The shared wine glass filled almost to the brim.    \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nThis is a fun idea\, Johnny.   \nI particularly like movies based on books. Even if I loved the book\, I like watching how it was made into film. From the many Jane Austen’s to “Bridget Jone’s Diary\,” in which Salmon Rushdie plays himself in a tiny part. The renditions of “A Room with a View” to  “Little Dorrit.”  \nMy favorite film\, that stands up over 50 years\, is “Heaven Knows\, Mr. Allison\,” directed by John Huston. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr\, a marine and a nun\, are stranded on a Japanese-invaded island during WWII. \nBill likes old and new foreign films—Iranian\, Japanese\, French\, Irish\, Indian\, the farther flung the better. Our favorite series ever is “Heimat”–that begins at the end of WWI with a family living above their cow in a small village\, up through that family’s  youngest living amongst his creative fellow artists in the city in the 50’s. Rotten tomato reviewer writes about it: “Edgar Reitz’s Heimat is not just a brilliant film about Germany. It is a brilliant film about our time\, anywhere—perhaps about any time anywhere. \nI’m excited to see everyone’s reviews! \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nI want movies to move me.  \nTwo films\, totally opposite from one another on the surface\, would be my faves of all time. The Crying Game and The Lives of Others are both about love\, courage and compassion. \nMy short take on The Crying Game is that Love Conquers all; love remains love\, in spite of its being turned on its head in a very unexpected way.  \nThe Lives of Others\, a German film\, takes place in 1984\, 5 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Stasi\, the German version of the Nazi SS\, is in operation\, and Captain Gerd Wiesler is assigned the job of spying on a couple suspected of national dissident activity. The Captain is dry\, hardened\, methodical and dispassionate in his work (as he has been his whole life). However\, as time goes on\, he begins to care for his subjects (to his own puzzlement and fear). \nUltimately\, love and compassion conquer\, and he does the right thing\, makes the difficult\, moral choice\, to his own great peril. I love this.  \nOthers have different viewpoints of both these movies; this is what makes them both compelling\, and grand. \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nA Smile in Abjection \nnotes on the opening credits of Withnail and I \n  \nMy favorite frame in cinema is this one: Paul McGann as Marwood\, the “I” in Withnail and I\, just one minute into the film. We have drawn closer and closer to him as he smokes a cigarette that clearly brings no pleasure\, his eyes shifting and shifting and finding no solace. And as the saxophone of King Curtis carries us gently through a live cut of “A Whiter Shade of Pale\,” Marwood appears to reach some far limit within himself\, and his torment suddenly eases\, or it pauses to breathe\, or Marwood simply parts it like a blackout curtain. He lifts his eyes\, and we perceive a smile that is almost not even there. Perhaps we have just imagined it. Perhaps Marwood himself has imagined it. \n  \n \n  \nCan you see it? I can. It is the mark of a wild\, mad hope. I am certain it is there\, the smile\, because I have been there\, and I have smiled it. It is an abject smile\, a desolate smile\, a smile with sweat on its forehead. Undramatically\, I tell you that it is no less than the smile you face death with. I have been hunted by forces within me and without\, cornered and shivering in a sweater\, smoking far beyond any desire to continue smoking. And yet I would also\, in those midnights\, hallucinate some star\, some aberration of logic in which I could discern a reason to hope. Marwood is looking upon that star\, smiling upon it\, and I\, too\, have seen it. \n  \n—Alex Tretbar \n* \n  \nAndrei Rublev: \nAndrei Rublev is a biographical film about a medieval Russian iconic painter.  In the movie you can hardly see Rublev touching the brush. It is a movie about the formation of Rublev as an artist\, especially an artist living under an oppressive regime. It effectively shows that an artist is society’s conscience.  \n  \nTree of Life: \nTerrance Malicks poetic masterpiece that attempts to capture all of existence through the lens of a boy growing up in the American midlands.  As per the great film critic Roger Ebert “the only other film with this boldness of vision is Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey\, and it lacked Malick’s fierce evocation of human feeling.” \n  \n—Prabu Muruganantham \n* \n  \nDear Reader \nFor next month (May 4th)\, send me something about books that changed the way you see\, experience\, or understand the world. \n  \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n—Johnny \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-2/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230326T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230326T160000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230323T161446Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230323T161910Z
UID:3746-1679839200-1679846400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:World Premiere of "In the Beginning": a film by Prabu Muruganantham
DESCRIPTION: \n\n“In the Beginning” is a 24 minute narrative short fiction that tells the story of a young man of color–newly released from prison–who returns to society with the hope of beginning a new life. He discovers on his solitary journey that the world sees him only as his crime.\n\n \n\nPremiere Details:\n\n\nWhen: March 26\, 2023 at 2PM\nWhere: The Hollywood Theatre\nTickets and Trailer: Click here\n\n\n\n\n\n \nThe topic of the film is close to our hearts—some of the actors in this film have experienced incarceration in Oregon prisons themselves. The film screening will be followed by an artist-audience panel Q&A on the film and the challenges of post-prison life.\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nProceeds will go to Open Hearts Open Minds\, an Oregon-based non-profit organization that supports individuals serving prison sentences through arts and dialogue.\n\n\n\n \n\nLooking forward to seeing you at the screening!\n\n\n \n\n~Prabu 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/world-premiere-of-in-the-beginning-a-film-by-prabu-muruganantham/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230315
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230416
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230314T174157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230314T174413Z
UID:3727-1678838400-1681603199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  3/15/23
DESCRIPTION:photo by Kim Stafford \n  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nMarch 15\, 2023 \n  \nAny object\, intensely regarded\, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods. \n  \n—from Ulysses by James Joyce\, p. 340 \n* \n  \nAll truths wait in all things. \n  \n—from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman \n* \n  \n#344  To Cherish Your Beloved   \n                                                  \n“When we know that the person we love is impermanent\, we will cherish our beloved all the more. Impermanence teaches us to respect and value every moment and all the precious things around us. When we practice mindfulness of impermanence\, we become fresher and more loving.” \n–from Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh \n  \nIt can be mighty hard to be constantly aware of our beloved’s impermanence—or of our own impermanence\, and to be endlessly fresher and more loving. That can be exhausting\, to be honest. \n  \nAnother way to be reminded of cherishing your loved one is to have someone close to you die swiftly and unexpectedly. This is happening right now\, in this moment. Kim is my dear friend\, and her husband\, who is/was my dear friend\, too\, just died two days ago. He collapsed at home while Kim and I were walking on the waterfront and having coffee in Hood River\, as we do once a week or more. She returned home\, intending to run errands with John and found him on the floor\, unresponsive\, unconscious. 911\, Skyline Hospital\, Emanuel Hospital in Portland\, where doctors found a blood clot which had traveled to his brain from the left ventricle\, causing multiple\, massive strokes. And John is gone. How does one express shock and disbelief and utter grief…  So here it is: Impermanence at work. \n  \nMy heart and soul are with her right now. I love her and want to hold her close. But the one I also really want to hold close is my husband. I am instantly drawn to cherish him and all we have together\, all we have had for 39 years together. He is in Arizona right now\, and I will fly down next week. I call him and tell him I love him dearly\, and thank him for the life we have together. I tell him I miss him and can’t wait to hold him and be held.  \n  \nI am aware that this is how I always want to be with him\, this expressive and caring and loving\, and maybe\, just maybe\, I will be able to cherish my beloved due to the impermanence (and sacrifice) of another.  \n  \n—Jude Russell  \n* \n  \nSmall Offering \n  \nThis evening I would be the emperor of delay \nif I could order the small bird with bluish \nplumage to drop his fish and look up \nto see violet angels weave a tapestry \nof dreams with the four evening elements. \n  \nHere at Sunset Point\, the overlook \nis high enough that mist hovers \nin patches. Sunlight sweeps from above \nhighlighting the solid wall of mountains. \nThe bird dives again\, silver flash in his beak. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nDHARMA \n  \nSix months after I turned seventy I moved into an ashram where I would reside for the next 9 1⁄2 years (2012-2021) of my life. I’d been assisting in the care of my mother for two years\, and when she passed on\, one week after her 96th birthday\, I was in a state of ambivalence as to why I had no feeling of grief\, or even the slightest indication of sadness. How could this be? I was her only son\, and had dutifully been there for Her in these past years– cooking for her\, reading to her\, rubbing her swollen legs\, heavy with edema; escorting her on shopping trips and pleasant drives through the golden wheat fields of her childhood in North Central Oregon. Was I experiencing a kind of release from a period of time that had kept me so preoccupied that my own needs for self-examination and intellectual stimulation were suffocating? \n  \nI had spent two years in England (1983-85) studying the metaphysical philosophy of Rudolf Steiner\, but had not yet arrived at that internal place of a disciplined practice in study and meditation—of simplifying the material circumstances of my daily life; of coming to grasp the ego-transcendent state of the Eternal Self. And so when I was offered a room in the Portland ashram of the Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda order at the behest of the guru\, Robert Kindler\, I decided that a quiet and spiritually dedicated environment might inspire and deepen self-reflection. I might add that I had had the benefit of seven years of coming to know and respect the depth of the guru’s knowledge of the sacred texts of ancient India—the Upanishads\, Bhagavad Gita\, and the Puranas\, as well as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (most recent avatar of West Bengal (b. 1836-’86)—through frequent classes and retreats. And I was further inspired by his remarkable facility in speaking the ancient Sanskrit slokas (passages from scripture)\, as well as his gift of musicianship\, having been a professional orchestral cellist with abilities to compose and perform hymns of praise offered to the deities of the Hindu spiritual tradition. \n  \nI took a small 12’ x 12’ room\, and began an exploration of ashram regimen—sharing a simple and contemplative daily schedule of 6am/10pm meditation\, vegetarian diet\, weekly classes of scriptural study\, and shared maintenance and cooking chores amongst the four of us—two men and two women—co-habitants upon the dharmic path. The intent was to “still” the restless mind to enable a depth of self-perception whereby the ephemerality/impermanence of day-to-day “reality” (regarded as Maya—the veil covering the eternal truths of aparanama (free of change) and ajativada (birthless/deathless))\, could be grasped\, and the elevated state of consciousness attained by the sages\, seers\, siddhis\, yogis and saviors could be glimpsed. \n  \nMy 9 1⁄2 years\, grounded in a consistent daily meditation practice\, and an inquisitive research into the philosophical richness of the sacred texts of India\, as well as the offering of my service/work in maintaining the grounds and shrines\, and serving as “the Abbot of the Ashram\, has deepened my self- perception and brought me to a place of self-trust and contentment at a depth that I have never before experienced. And I am inspired to proffer this brief koan-like offering from my experiential Realizations (aparokshanubhuti) \n  \nTHE YOGI SITS IN THE CAVE OF THE HEART\, \nONE EYE OPEN                                                                           \n  \n—Sam A. Muller \n* \n  \nGod Praying \n  \nSometimes we are discouraged from praying\, \nwe lose faith in the possibility of prayer\, \neverything seems blocked. \nWe have no trust in words\, \nin ourselves\, \nwe feel exiled\, distant. \nThere is no one to awaken compassion for us. \nFrom within our despair \nwe can reveal a new opening\, \na surprising one\, \nand ask God to pray for us\, \nto give words to our inner scream\, \nto have compassion on us in our exile. \n  \n—Rabbi Singer \n  \nThis idea melts my mind. I thought it was to God I’ve been praying\, and now Rabbi Singer (and others) suggest I now ask God to pray for me—to whom\, though? To ask the Self-Existent One to peer into my deepest recesses\, where I’m oft too scared to look\, and express\, for me\, my deepest heart’s desires. It seems both ludicrous and sensible all at the same time. Can I just sit here with my self—all inclusive—and allow those hidden away hopes\, dreams\, feelings\, memories\, etc.\, to just percolate up for Divine consideration or attention. Truth is\, God should already “know” these things—all knowing and all—which means I need only sit with and accept these pesky demons (self-made?) as part of my experience. \n  \n—Michel Deforge\, February 4\, 2023 \n* \n  \nAlex Tretbar sent this poem by Jessica Jacobs: \n  \nGodwrestling \n  \nThe river has tasted the salt of your skin\, has lapped\nat your calves with its current. The river has swallowed \n  \nthe press of your steps. There is no record of your crossing.\nThe river is between you and everything you call your life. \n  \nSo you step into a stranger’s arms. Your shoulder fits\ntheirs like a bone in its socket. Your jaw notches theirs. \n  \nAll around you\, a profusion of oleanders beams\nback the moonlight\, offering a carpet of fallen petals. \n  \nIn your arms\, all the promises you’ve yet to keep\, all\nyou’ve done that shames you. But what is wrestling \n  \nif not an embrace? It’s too dark to know\nyou have the same face and only like this\, cheek to cheek\, \n  \neach looking over the other’s shoulder\, can you see\nthe world whole. Close\, at first\, as a slow dance\, \n  \nyou spin and spin\, your tracks a tight coin; matched\,\nyou step out\, making a spear tip of your bodies; matched\, \n  \nyou step further\, levered like rafters\, needing the other\nto stay aloft—your tracks trace widening circles\, ringing \n  \nout through the fallen blossoms. Names are required\nonly when not alone. This stranger \n  \ndoes not give you a new name\, just dippers up\nthe true one you tender in your chest. The day is breaking \n  \nthe night’s hold. The far bank is calling.\nOn one side\, you. On the other\, your life. Join them.  \n  \n—Jessica Jacobs \n* \n  \nAny object\, intensely regarded\, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods.  \n  \n–from Ulysses by James Joyce\, p. 340 \n  \nHere’s what Joseph Campbell has to say about this passage from Ulysses: \n  \n“I mentioned this basic theme before with respect to the esthetic experience: Any object can open back to the mystery of the universe. You can take any object whatsoever—a stick or stone\, a dog or a child—draw a ring around it so that it is seen as separate from everything else\, and thus contemplate it in its mystery aspect—the aspect of the mystery of its being\, which is the mystery of all being—and it will have there and then become a proper object of worshipful regard. So\, any object can become an adequate base for meditation\, since the whole mystery of man and of nature and of everything else is in any object that you want to regard. This idea\, the anagogical inspiration of Joyce’s art\, is what we are getting in this little moment.” \n  \n—from Mythic Worlds\, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce by Joseph Campbell\, p. 130 \n  \nHere’s one of my small poems that seems à propos: \n  \na bowl of oatmeal \nand a cup of coffee \ndid you think heaven was up in the sky somewhere? \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nMore of my thoughts on LovingKindness meditation: \n  \nBefore beginning Loving Kindness meditation practice each Monday\, I center myself remembering my friend and teacher Bob Schaibly. His teaching mantra was\, “What the World Needs from Us is our Non-Anxious Presence.” Reciting and listening to the Loving Kindness phrases these past couple of years\, I have come to understand that this is what we are training ourselves to do. To find equanimity and to be able in the midst of changes—good or bad—to  find stability in equanimity. This doesn’t mean being passive or uncaring\, but to have courage\, to not let our emotions make us frantic\, to not react immediately with judgement. In this way we can stay present to whatever might arise. We can observe and check our fears and anger and deep sadness without causing harm to ourselves and others\, without blocking our feelings.  \n  \nCompassion in Sanskrit means being present—with yourself or with another. I have two stories that came to my mind about acts of kindness on a small scale that are examples of compassion in action. When I had a bookstore in downtown Portland\, one day two people I hardly knew\, came in and presented me with a rose. Just to say thank you for having the bookstore where they always felt happy to browse and meet up. I was stunned. They said they liked to go places that make them feel happy and take a flower or two. I also heard a story last week about a woman who wished she could do something for her sick uncle who lived far away. She sent him a bouquet of flowers. He called her and said that in his long life\, no one had ever sent him flowers and he was so thankful. \n  \n Thich Nhat Hanh says it takes mindfulness training with loving kindness to bring compassion. He writes: \n  \n“Loving kindness should be practiced every day. Suppose you have a transistor radio. To tune into the radio station you like\, you need a battery. In order to get linked to the power of loving kindness of bodhisattvas\, buddhas\, and other great beings\, you need to tune in to the “station” of loving kindness that is being sent from the ten directions. Then you only need to sit on the grass and practice breathing and enjoying.  \n  \nBut many of us are not capable of doing that because the feeling of loneliness\, of being cut off from the world\, is so severe we cannot reach out. We do not realize that if we are moved by the imminent death of an insect\, if we see an insect suffering and we do something to help\, already this energy of loving kindness is in us. If we take a small stick and help the insect out of the water\, we can also reach out to the cosmos. The energy of loving kindness in us becomes real\, and we derive a lot of joy from it.  \n  \nThe Fourth Precept of the Order of Interbeing tells us to be aware of suffering in the world\, not to close our eyes before suffering. Touching those who suffer is one way to generate the energy of compassion in us\, and compassion will bring joy and peace to ourselves and others. The more we generate the energy of loving kindness in ourselves\, the more we are able to receive the joy\, peace\, and love of the buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout the cosmos.”  \n  \nLast Sunday\, I heard a story about an acrobat flying from one trapeze bar to the next. It was a story about letting go of how things have been in the past in order to break free and into some new engagement. Even though we might not know what that will be. In Buddhism\, the term for this refreshing process is “renunciation.” Rather than giving up things it is about what we practice in LovingKindness: becoming aware of where we might feel an aversion—a fear\, a grudge\, anxiety\, resentment—by recognizing it\, then softening our hearts\, we can let these negative emotions have less power over us. Through that we find more equanimity and ability to act with compassion\, with ourselves and for others. With that  foremost in our minds\, we can become unstuck and as Bob encouraged us\, to participate fully in the midst of life’s difficulties with a non-anxious presence.    \n  \nin love and peace\,    \n  \n—Katie Radditz
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-3-15-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230312T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230312T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T072631
CREATED:20230304T200304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230330T231606Z
UID:3708-1678633200-1678640400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: Memorize a Poem!
DESCRIPTION:Beloved Bibliophiles! \n\n\nFor Sunday\, March 12th\, at 3 p.m. (PST): MEMORIZE A POEM! Do you know any poems by heart? Did you used to know some poems that have gotten rusty? Is there a poem that you would like to learn and be able to recite? This is your chance!  \nBring a poem or poems that you would like to share. (Extra points if you know the poem by heart.) \nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace & love  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/3708/
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