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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/22/20
DESCRIPTION:Photo of sunrise by Abe Green. Abe likes to ski. He took this picture from the top of Big Mountain\, which is right next to the town of Whitefish\, Montana\, where I was born. (JS) \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 22\, 2020 \n  \nMy friend Mark Alter sent me this poem by Nadine Anne Hura. It got a lot of attention\, because it was shared by Jacinda Ardern\, the Prime Minister of New Zealand: \n  \nFor Papatūānuku – Mother Earth \n  \nRest now\, e Papatūānuku \nBreathe easy and settle \nRight here where you are \nWe’ll not move upon you \nFor awhile \n  \nWe’ll stop\, we’ll cease \nWe’ll slow down and stay home \n  \nDraw each other close and be kind \nKinder than we’ve ever been. \nI wish we could say we were doing it for you \nas much as ourselves \n  \nBut hei aha \n  \nWe’re doing it anyway \n  \nIt’s right. It’s time. \nTime to return \nTime to remember \nTime to listen and forgive \nTime to withhold judgment \nTime to cry \nTime to think \n  \nAbout others \n  \nRemove our shoes \nPress hands to soil \nSift grains between fingers  \n  \nGentle palms \n  \nTime to plant \nTime to wait \nTime to notice \nTo whom we belong \n  \nFor now it’s just you \nAnd the wind \nAnd the forests and the oceans and the sky full of rain \n  \nFinally\, it’s raining! \n  \nKa turuturu te wai kamo o Rangi ki runga i a koe \n  \nEmbrace it \n  \nThis sacrifice of solitude we have carved out for you \n  \nHe iti noaiho – a small offering \nPeople always said it wasn’t possible \nTo ground flights and stay home and stop our habits of consumption \n  \nBut it was \nIt always was. \n  \nWe were just afraid of how much it was going to hurt \n—and it IS hurting and it will hurt and continue to hurt— \nBut not as much as you have been hurt. \n  \nSo be still now \n  \nWrap your hills around our absence \nLoosen the concrete belt cinched tight at your waist \n  \nRest. \nBreathe. \nRecover. \nHeal— \n  \nAnd we will do the same. \n  \n—Nadine Anne Hura\, 23 March 2020 \n  \nA note of gratitude from Nadine:  \n  \nThank you for the amazing response to this poem! I never expected it to travel so far and wide. Many people have asked who the author is so I wanted to clarify that I wrote this poem on the train home after the announcement of total lockdown was made here in Aotearoa\, New Zealand. I felt like I could hear Papatūānuku exhaling in relief as we all began our journeys home. In truth\, one month of lockdown is not enough. Even six months would not be enough! We need a total and sustained change of habit\, globally and within our own communities. I hope so much we take our time to reflect on the fact that if we can do it to save ourselves for a month\, we ought to be able to make similar habit changes for Mother Earth for the long term. The most telling thing for me was how empty our veggie plant aisles were after lockdown was announced – in a crisis\, we will turn back to our mother to provide (and of course she will!).Lots of people have asked for translations… \n  \nPapatūānuku – Mother Earth (the addition of the “e” in front signals the words are addressed or spoken directly to her.) \n  \nKa turuturu te wai kamo o Rangi ki runga i a koe – means something like\, “tears from the eyes of Ranginui drip down on you” (Ranginui is our sky father\, it is common to refer to rain as the tears of Rangi for his beloved\, from whom he was separated at the beginning of time in order that there could be light in the world). Not long after the announcement we were moving to level 3\, it poured with rain in Porirua after many months of hot and dry weather. I could feel my garden rejoicing. \n  \nHei aha – This can be translated in many ways\, but I meant it like the English “oh well\, whatever” \n  \nHe iti noaiho – “something small”. Because our sacrifice feels enormous but in reality I think it is not sufficient to truly see Papatūānuku recover. However\, in Māori\, we often talk about the significance of small actions or gestures. We say “ahakoa he iti\, he pounamu.” Although it is small\, it is a treasure. \n  \nThank you so much for the support. \n  \n—Nadine Anne Hura \n* \n  \nHere’s a link\, (also sent by Mark Alter)\, to an essay by Nadine Anne Hura\, “I’m Reclaiming the Name I Lost”: \n  \nhttps://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/nadine-anne-hura-im-reclaiming-the-name-i-lost/ \n  \n(n.b.: As of today\, (10/22/20)\, the United States has 2\,525 cases of COVID-19 per 100\,000 residents. New Zealand has 39 cases per 100\,000 residents. Jacinda Ardern is smart!) \n  \nI’m wondering about learning how to love the Earth more deeply\, more constantly. I think a good place to look for help with this is from poets. \n* \n  \nI…peruse manifold objects\, no two alike and every one good\, \nThe earth good and the stars good\, and their adjuncts all good. \n  \n—Walt Whitman  (1819-1892)\, from “Song of Myself” \n* \n  \nWild Geese \n  \nYou do not have to be good. \nYou do not have to walk on your knees  \nfor a hundred miles through the desert\, repenting. \nYou only have to let the soft animal of your body \n     love what it loves.                          \nTell me about despair\, yours\, and I will tell you mine. \nMeanwhile the world goes on. \nMeanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain \nare moving across the landscapes\, \nover the prairies and the deep trees\, \nthe mountains and the rivers. \nMeanwhile the wild geese\, high in the clean blue air\, \nare heading home again. \nWhoever you are\, no matter how lonely\, \nthe world offers itself to your imagination\, \ncalls to you like the wild geese\, harsh and exciting— \nover and over announcing your place \nin the family of things. \n  \n—Mary Oliver  (1935-2019) \n* \n  \nEarth Dweller \n  \nIt was all the clods at once become  \nprecious; it was the barn\, and the shed\, \nand the windmill\, my hands\, the crack  \nArlie made in the ax handle: oh\, let me stay \nhere humbly\, forgotten\, to rejoice in it all; \nlet the sun casually rise and set. \nIf I have not found the right place\,  \nteach me; for somewhere inside\, the clods are  \nvaulted mansions\, lines through the barn sing  \nfor the saints forever\, the shed and windmill \nrear so glorious the sun shudders like a gong. \n  \nNow I know why people worship\, carry around  \nmagic emblems\, wake up talking dreams  \nthey teach to their children: the world speaks. \nThe world speaks everything to us. \nIt is our only friend. \n  \n—William Stafford  (1914-1993) \n  \nHere’s a link to an audio recording of William Stafford reading the poem: \n  \nhttps://voetica.com/voetica.php?collection=2&poet=827&poem=7251 \n  \n* \n  \nThis poem must be read aloud: \n  \nPied Beauty \n  \nGlory be to God for dappled things – \n   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; \n      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; \nFresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; \n   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold\, fallow\, and plough; \n      And áll trádes\, their gear and tackle and trim. \n  \nAll things counter\, original\, spare\, strange; \n   Whatever is fickle\, freckled (who knows how?) \n      With swift\, slow; sweet\, sour; adazzle\, dim; \nHe fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: \n                                Praise him. \n  \n—Gerard Manley Hopkins  (1844-1889) \n* \n  \nBill Faricy sent this poem: \n  \nWeary of those who come with words\, words but no language \nI make my way to the snow-covered island. \nThe untamed has no words. \nThe unwritten pages spread out on every side! \nI come upon the tracks of deer in the snow. \nLanguage but no words. \n  \n—Tomas Tranströmer  (1931-2015) \n* \n  \nKatie Radditz also thought of Mary Oliver: \n  \nMy Work is Loving the World \n  \nMy work is loving the world. \nHere the sunflowers\, there the hummingbird –  \nequal seekers of sweetness. \nHere the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. \nHere the clam deep in the speckled sand. \n  \nAre my boots old? Is my coat torn? \nAm I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me \nkeep my mind on what matters\, \nwhich is my work\, \n  \nwhich is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. \nThe phoebe\, the delphinium. \nThe sheep in the pasture\, and the pasture. \nWhich is mostly rejoicing\, since all ingredients are here\, \n  \nWhich is gratitude\, to be given a mind and a heart \nand these body-clothes\, \na mouth with which to give shouts of joy \nto the moth and the wren\, to the sleepy dug-up clam\, \ntelling them all\, over and over\, how it is \nthat we live forever. \n  \n–Mary Oliver \n  \nAs the bumper sticker with a picture of our planet says: \n  \nLOVE YOUR MOTHER \n  \n–Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-22-20/
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SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  10/15/20
DESCRIPTION:Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nOctober 15\, 2020 \n  \nWelcome to our second meditation and mindfulness dialogue! The numbers below refer to passages from the book Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh. (JS) \n* \nHello the Open Road! I’m very excited to be part of the mindfulness and meditation group. My experience with Your True Home has provided interesting insight on the riddles I seek to solve\, and is filled with wonderful tools. \nToday my inspiration for writing \, and just inspiration in general\, comes from pages 1\, 2 and 148: Your True Home\, One Hundred Percent and Fearless Bodhisattvas. These three brought thoughts about many things\, but some in particular I explored: The Sam-sara\, Living in the moment. \nA friend once told me\, that in order to escape the Sam-sara we mustn’t sow karma\, good or bad\, and must just be. At the time I thought he was suffering delusions\, but I’m not sure that is the case anymore. Maybe he was right\, maybe if we live in the moment we truly live\, rather than die. I say this because by living in the moment we can escape the constant cycle of dying with each moment as it passes\, and escape being born again as another moment arrives. Instead of surfing each wave\, sail the sea\, move with the wind and tides. Be a piece of driftwood; who cares what happens\, because it doesn’t happen until it does\, and even then be driftwood. \nIn a way my friend was right\, he was a piece of driftwood and I the wave. But that moment has passed and I am truly home now\, fearless\, one hundred percent of the time\, possessing the key to the great escape. \n—Joshua Tyler Barnes \nPS…All the meditation writings I read in your last newsletter Rocked! Thanks. \n* \nThank you for the Finding Deep Calm thing from Kim Stafford. [“peace\, love\, happiness & understanding\,” 8/27/20] I really appreciate it! I’ve shared it with several people and it’s really been an eye opener for perspective…especially right now… \nThe Suffering of Those We Love  #23 \nHow do we cope with the suffering of those we love? I’d surely take their pain away if I could. Makes it a lot easier to keep mindfulness in your heart when those you love are in pain. I can try to hold my anger or sorrow and fear with the energy of mindfulness for them. It’s the least I can do\, right? \n—Jeff Kuehner \n* \n#75  Your True Nature  &  #247 Nirvana Is Now \nIn the legend of the Buddha\, it is said that he sat under a tree and realized nirvana. When we hear this story\, we wonder: “What’s nirvana?” Nirvana is described as something like “perfect freedom\,” or “ultimate reality.” It sounds pretty good. We might think\, “I’d like to get that. How do I do it?” In one version of Buddhism\, it is very hard to get. Only a few rare souls can attain it\, after diligently practicing for many lifetimes. In Thich Nhat Hanh’s version of nirvana\, which he equates with the Christian idea of the Kingdom of God\, we already have it. It’s not far away or hard to get. It’s who we are. I like that. A perfect moment is always available to anyone. Maybe this moment is perfect. \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n#305  Sit With Your Fear \nWhen I was 10 or so my family was eating dinner with our church’s pastor\, I was outside playing with the pastor’s two boys. They had built a treehouse and a zip line from the treehouse to another tree\, and they had wrapped a mattress around the tree to soften the landing when using the zip line. The “landing” was basically crashing into the tree\, so the mattress was helpful. The treehouse was around 20 feet off the ground\, not so high that I had trouble climbing up to it. Oh\, by the way\, I’m afraid of heights\, but using the zip line was a whole different thing. I stepped to the edge\, wrapped my hands around the handle\, and…well\, nothing. I froze. I was yelling in my head to just step off the edge\, I’d be fine\, but my body would not respond. So I did what any logical 10 year old would do: I told my friends to push me off the edge. They were not too keen on the idea and tried to provide verbal assistance\, but their words could not overcome my body’s response. So I again told them to just push me. In fact\, I think I yelled it. So the oldest did! Off I went down the line\, slamming into the mattress. It was so fun! So up I went\, and this time I could step off the edge without assistance. \nThere are always going to be things in this world to be scared of\, sometimes all we need is a willing heart and a friend to give us a push! \nJohnny\, this has been fun writing for the M & M Dialogue. Thank you! I enjoy writing and I need to practice\, but I find it hard to write for myself or for its own sake. Having something to write for is very motivating! \n—Cody Dalton \n* \nToday’s study card encourages me to assess my progress with meditative practices. Quality of life should improve with consistent and genuine practice\, and if that is not true\, I’m probably not doing something correctly. YTH reflects on this at #129. Meditation results in becoming more anchored emotionally/intellectually/spiritually\, and more freedom from emotional ups and downs. \nThe founder of this meditation tradition outlined several benefits of meditation. “Better sleep.” Check. I sleep great\, most of the time. “Wake up feeling refreshed.” That is usually true. “Nightmares will become rare.” Hmmm\, I had a nightmare last week\, but they do seem rare. “Animals and people will feel drawn to you.” Well\, I focus on a mostly solitary existence\, but I don’t think I have “charisma.” I will work on this more. “Mind becomes immediately calm.” I’ll rate this 70-30\, true 70% of the time\, which is a huge improvement over where I was even two years ago. “Complexion brightens.” Seems true. “You’ll die with a clear mind.” Yeah\, I’m not ready to test that theory yet. I’ll take that on faith. \n—Shad Alexander \n* \n#365 \n“The moment of awareness\,” this is something that we as a nation need. First of all\, I am guilty of this. But it is a practice. Something not unattainable. To be aware of what is going on to the left and to the right. To see where we are headed. “We have to wake up!\,” this sleepy nation of ours. So many just going through the steps. Cookie cutter lives\, if only I had the opportunity to live outside these walls. No better\, no worse\, just driven. Driven to enjoy bettering myself and those to my left and right. \nLet’s start the revolution. \nThanks Johnny. \n—Brandon Gillespie \n* \nDear Johnny\, \nAs I think I told you\, I have taken up golf in my old age\, just by accident\, since I live a few blocks from a golf course\, I thought I would try it just to see what it was like. That was last spring. I quickly found that I loved the game. It is a practice of putting mind and body together in a challenging physical ritual\, and at it’s best there is a mystical experience to be had….fleetingly. \nI began with no skill and have worked my way up to having a tiny amount. But lately my eighty-year old body has been having trouble finding the intersection of time and space\, and I have been playing at the level I was playing at six months ago. Yesterday I played 18 holes particularly badly and came home feeling very frustrated. Of course I went out this morning and practiced\, and did a little better\, almost certainly because I wasn’t trying too hard to do well. \nThen I came home\, turned on my computer\, and read Beginner’s Mind. It came like a ray of light that if I can play with beginner’s mind\, I will no longer get frustrated. I will probably play better too\, although that won’t matter any more (yes it will). \nThanks\, Johnny\, this filled my tank. \nLove\, Ken \n—Ken Margolis \n* \n“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others’ views\, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life\, perfect your life\, beautify all things in your life.” \n—quote by an unknown author from Josh Underhill \n* \nYesterday [10/5] I heard that Thich Nhat Hanh has stopped taking food. They expect his “transition” soon. But today I heard that he occasionally stops eating and then starts again. So he is really unchanged. On October 11 he will be 94. \nI have been thinking about a teaching of Thay’s that I try to remember often. He said once\, “Are you enjoying not having a toothache?” This feels like a profound thought to me. Some time ago I had a pain in my side. It went on for a couple of months and I even went to a doctor\, which is rare for me. They didn’t find anything\, but the pain went away. Am I enjoying not having a pain in my side? In my school of Zen\, “appreciate your life” is a central teaching and it is certainly an important practice. The gift of life\, with all its beauty and sorrow\, is what we have. We tend to endlessly wish it was “better” but it’s a good practice to once in a while be grateful for just the amazing fact of it. But this other way\, the way of remembering that we are free of all kinds of suffering that we could be undergoing and/or have undergone is also good. \nThat’s my thought for the day. \n—Howard Thoresen \n* \nDear Johnny\, \nSome time ago you were kind enough to send us a copy of Ashley Lucas’s “Prison Theatre” book\, for which I sent you a brief thank-you note. Since then I have had   \nthe opportunity to read the book in more depth and realized how much of your \nprison work is discussed. Voodoo Doughnut’s contribution is discussed\, as well as that of the Smith Foundation. \nHowever her book is not all about love and roses. Page 146 points out that some of the women inmates [in Eve Ensler’s writing class] had killed people\, taken actual lives\, which makes evident that all life\, particularly including prison life\, is often filled with ambiguities and heartfelt remorse for past actions and a need for new beginnings. \nZen philosophy speaks to this concept: Always be a beginner\, always start with a fresh mind. Few concepts may be as important to success  in prison reform as new beginnings. \nPeace and Love\, \n—Jerry Smith \n* \nMichel Deforge has been meditating deeply on Your True Home\, and keeping an (almost) daily journal. Below are just a few of his meditations. (JS) \nAIMLESSNESS \nWhat an idea! I already contain God\, I am God (in flesh). I have everything I need to fulfill my destiny/purpose in this life—it’s already present here in “me\,” now.  I don’t need to strive to be/become anything or anyone! I am already perfected\, right now. The only “problem”/“challenge” I face is accepting this reality instead of spinning stories from the ego about being “less than” all this. I don’t stop being the flower\, I stop striving\, against “myself”; to become what I already am. Some days this acceptance is easier said than done. I suspect the challenges arise when “I” listen to ego’s stories and to all the nonsense (noise) from the ego of others. The only voice I need to hear\, like a clarion\, is the voice of God within—already complete\, already perfect\, already fully present in this place/time (now). \n* \nI AM HERE FOR YOU \nI started today’s musings early\, got distracted\, listening to my cellie tell his tales\, and now I am back. I like the ideal I see at the core: life’s purpose. I may not fully grasp how or why “I” am here now\, but I can be open to moments as they occur—“you.” (There is a hint of reciprocity\, but I find that too ego-centric a thought to fully allow.) My “you” can be anyone/anything as Thich Nhat Hanh points out—self\, now\, other(s). My thoughts now wander. If I (all of us) approach life from this vantage: “I am here for you\,” what would life\, “this” world be like\, or how different would it be? I see this modeled by Johnny\, Jude\, Dick\, Kristen\, Jake\, Sarah\, Bill\, Deborah—ALL our OHOM friends and volunteers\, each in their own unique and special way. I have tried and failed at this on occasion. I wonder\, is this a deliberate act or a skill to cultivate\, or\, is it a mindset for life\, being open to this moment (now) and what- or whomever is present\, as part of the moment\, for “me” to be present myself to only this now and all it contains? I like the mental openness\, opposed to the striving (grasping?) to do or control; but\, just letting be as is… \n* \nFOUNDATION OF LOVE \nI agree with this day’s sentiment; yet I know that it is also hard to do at times. Maybe if I can learn (remember) that there is no “you” or “me” (duality) and begin to see everything as a part or piece of the One\, All-existent\, then maybe it will seem less challenging to love “self\,” since the One is love and we (I) are all part of (included within) that One. I suspect the delusion of duality\, believing “I” exist separate from “you” and the All-that-is\, leads to selfishness. “I” must protect “me.” Breaking down ego can help [me] see that I and you are part of unity. If I can love you\, then I can love me\, and as I learn to love me better then I can love you better too. I love you! \n* \nEMBRACE THEM WITH GREAT TENDERNESS \n….I also enjoyed/related to Aaron’s ideas about feeling lack of worth\, as a traumatized child\, insecure and uncertain. Are there not times to be tender toward self/other and allow the feeling flow\, while reminding self that\, “Yes\, I am worth the ‘good’ I experience and the ‘bad’ is just suffering over aversions I haven’t yet LET GO. Maybe? I wonder\, what child-hurt left myself\, Aaron\, or others with this scar of doubt? How do we (can we or anyone) heal this harm? Is it preventable? I hope! \n—Michel Deforge \n* \nKatie sent a letter from Thich Nhat Hanh and a poem by Juan Felipe Herrera. (JS) \nTomorrow [10/11/20] is Thich Nhat Hanh’s birthday.  It is a gift to be able to share together around Thay’s words and his own practice.  Below is a copy of what he posted yesterday on the importance of loving our Home\, Mother Earth—for peace\, world peace. \n  \nA LETTER TO THE EARTH \n  \nDear Mother Earth \n  \nEvery time I step upon the Earth\, I will train myself to see that I am walking on you. Every time I place my feet on the Earth\, I have a chance to be in touch with you and with all your wonders. With every step I can touch the fact that you aren’t just beneath me\, dear Mother\, but you are also within me. Each mindful and gentle step can nourish me\, heal me\, and bring me into contact with myself and you in the present moment. \n  \nWalking in this spirit\, I can experience awakening\, I can awaken to the fact that I am alive and that life is a precious miracle. \nI can awaken to the fact that I am never alone and can never die. You are always there within me and around me at every step\, nourishing me\, embracing me\, and carrying me far into the future. \n  \nDear Mother\, I make the promise today to return your love and fulfill this wish by investing every step I take on you with love and tenderness. I am walking not merely on matter\, but on spirit. \n  \nThich Nhat Hanh \n* \n  \nBasho & Mandela  \n  \nAs Basho has said— \nit is a narrow road to the Deep North—as Mandela has said \nthe haphazard segregation later became a well-orchestrated \nsegregation \n—as Basho has said the journey began with an attained \nawareness \nthat at any moment you can become a weather-exposed skeleton \n—think of us in this manner \nthese are notes for your nourishment—hold them \nas bowls of kindness \nfrom journeys of bravery \nthe will to seek & find the sudden turning rivers & the dawn-eyed \n    freedom \n  \n—Juan Felipe Herrera \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \nWithin the Window Frame is an exercise or project that I adapted from a friend who is an artist and who uses it in her Nature Journaling art classes. Here we are going to use it as a focusing and centering process. We can use writing with this activity\, drawing\, singing\, collage\, etc. The methods of “filling the window frame” are not limited to any one mode. \nFirst choose a frame size\, maybe one like a big hardback book\, maybe one like a small paperback—either cut out the frame from paper or cardboard to use or imagine the size. Then choose something to concentrate on that is near at hand—what is right in front of you in your room\, on your table\, even out your window. It can be a person or two\, an object (your sandwich or meal\, a purse\, etc.). \nNext look at it\, in real life or in your imagination\, with fuzzed eyes. Don’t look for specifics. Try and see outlines\, colors\, or emotions. Try this for a few minutes being open to the essence of the situation. \nFinally start filling the frame\, putting into the window what you see\, and that can be either physically or emotionally what you see. \nMaybe start with words—a haiku\, a short poem\, or just the most vivid and necessary words. Then jump to a short story. \nOr try drawing in cartoon images. Then maybe a drawing that is as detailed as you can make it. \nAfter doing one of “filling in the window frame” try another\, maybe do a few each day. See if you can notice a pattern or see a direction revealing itself. Or maybe just a mood or feeling common to one day\, either in your mind or in the situation around you. \nThis project is a process through which we can begin to see our world and ourselves in more focused and attentive ways\, through words or images or both. This is one way of meditating on your world and your outlook—not that they are so very separate!! After awhile you will see threads of connection and understanding. \nMaybe you can keep these windows as a journal of your experiences. Maybe come back to them as small frames of insight into an otherwise busy time. \nEnjoy.  \n—Deborah Buchanan \n* \n“Rather than love\, than money\, than fame\, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance\, an obsequious attendance\, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices.” \n—from Walden by Henry David Thoreau (quote sent by Jake Green) \n* \nI have been thinking about the power of love lately. We are in some unprecedented times with covid\, the wildfires and all the civil unrest. It is a powerful thing to see communities come together and help their neighbors when they are down and feeling lonely and lost. The stories you hear of people who have lost homes due to the fires or loved ones from covid\, there are just as many positive stories of neighbors or strangers stepping up to help ease their pain. It can be just a simple sign that tells the first responders how much they are appreciated and to see their reaction when the street is filled with people holding signs and telling them that they love them. I can tell you first hand\, recently returned from the fire lines\, that after working days on end and feeling tired and burned out\, then having people honk their horn and yell their appreciation—it gives you strength to carry on. \nLove can come from some very unexpected places when you least expect it and you may need it the most. It is an amazing thing that people are out there that care for their fellow humans. Even when the love might not be directed at you personally\, to see others loving others\, like I talk about above\, can have a huge impact on people. Reading all of your words and the newsletters has been great. When I see that type of thing it makes me want to be a better\, more loving and compassionate person. It is infectious. \nI recently lost my father who was killed in a tragic motor vehicle accident. He was my rock and I was so looking forward to spending time with him when I got home. I tried to be strong at first\, but I started to slip into a very lonely dark place within a month. Nothing made sense and I felt fearful. Then I started to get unexpected support from the community where I grew up. A friend from the past reached out to me and we have been speaking ever since. Their love and support has seen me through the worst of it\, and I am feeling excited again about going home and continuing my father’s legacy. Love is a beautiful thing and it knows when you need it most\, how others’ compassion and understanding can bring you through dark times and make you feel hopeful again. Neat! Let’s all keep loving one another for the sake of those that may not know they need it. \n—Aaron Gilbert \n* \n#53   When You Argue with the One You Love \nIn my past\, when I have argued with the ones I love I always felt like I wanted to just be a million miles in any direction away from them. A lot of my childhood was filled with the ones I loved fighting and arguing. It scared me then and it scares me to this day. When it is all said and done I really just want all of us to be happy\, and when I imagine being 300 years away from the one I love\, well…the content of any argument is not worth it. I would rather forgive everyone that ever hurt or wronged me\, and replace the hate with love and joy and kindness—and fill the argument with peace and love. To forgive is to live in love\, to do this is the key to peace\, and to have peace is to allow the seeds of love to grow. \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \nWell\, that’s a wrap for our second Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue. Lovely! \nThe next one will come out on November 15th. It’s a conversation. It goes to just over a dozen people who live in prison and just over two dozen people who don’t. Please write or email me with your contributions. You can respond to what someone else has written\, use a poem or text for inspiration\, share a poem you’ve written\, or your own ruminations. \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in love. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-10-15-20-11-14-20/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Unknown.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201015
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201022
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20201015T165444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T121138Z
UID:1362-1602720000-1603324799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & pollyanna  10/15/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 15\, 2020 \n  \nI WANT TO BE MORE LIKE POLLYANNA \n  \nPollyanna: noun an excessively cheerful or optimistic person. \n  \nIn conversations with people\, I often find myself trying to put a positive spin on things. Is there something wrong with me? Could I somehow be (shudder)…unrealistic?! Afraid to face facts?! A Pollyanna?!!! \n  \nI always got the impression that there was something horribly wrong with being “a Pollyanna.” But I was beginning to suspect that maybe I am one. I decided to investigate. Just who or what is a Pollyanna? I got the book—Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter\, first published in 1913. I read it. I realize that I am no Pollyanna. But now I aspire to be more like her every day. \n  \nAs the story opens\, Pollyanna is eleven years old. She has lived in poverty with her loving father\, a minister. He has just died\, and now the orphaned Pollyanna has become the ward of her unhappy Aunt Polly. She is a cheerful little girl. Maybe even excessively cheerful. And for this sin she has become an object of scorn for hipsters\, cynics\, intellectuals\, and people who suffer from depression and self-pity—(who probably have not deigned to actually read the book). \n  \nPollyanna likes to play the “glad game\,” which her father taught her. Here’s the story of the glad game as she tells it to her aunt’s maid\, Nancy: \n  \n     “But\, say\, we better hurry. I’ve got ter get them dishes done\, ye know.” \n     “I’ll help\,” promised Pollyanna\, promptly. \n     “Oh\, Miss Pollyanna!” demurred Nancy. \n     For a moment there was silence. The sky was darkening fast. Pollyanna took a firmer hold of her friend’s arm. \n     “I reckon I’m glad\, after all\, that you DID get scared—a little\, ’cause then you came after me\,” she shivered. \n     “Poor little lamb! And you must be hungry\, too. I—I’m afraid you’ll have ter have bread and milk in the kitchen with me. Yer aunt didn’t like it—because you didn’t come down ter supper\, ye know.” \n     “But I couldn’t. I was up here.” \n     “Yes; but—she didn’t know that\, you see!” observed Nancy\, dryly\, stifling a chuckle. “I’m sorry about the bread and milk; I am\, I am.” \n     “Oh\, I’m not. I’m glad.” \n     “Glad! Why?” \n     “Why\, I like bread and milk\, and I’d like to eat with you. I don’t see any trouble about being glad about that.” \n     “You don’t seem ter see any trouble bein’ glad about everythin’\,” retorted Nancy\, choking a little over her remembrance of Pollyanna’s brave attempts to like the bare little attic room. \n     Pollyanna laughed softly. \n     “Well\, that’s the game\, you know\, anyway.” \n     “The—GAME?” \n     “Yes; the ‘just being glad’ game.” \n     “Whatever in the world are you talkin’ about?” \n     “Why\, it’s a game. Father told it to me\, and it’s lovely\,” rejoined Pollyanna. “We’ve played it always\, ever since I was a little\, little girl. I told the Ladies’ Aid\, and they played it—some of them.” \n     “What is it? I ain’t much on games\, though.” \n     Pollyanna laughed again\, but she sighed\, too; and in the gathering twilight her face looked thin and wistful. \n     “Why\, we began it on some crutches that came in a missionary barrel.” \n     “CRUTCHES!” \n     “Yes. You see I’d wanted a doll\, and father had written them so; but when the barrel came the lady wrote that there hadn’t any dolls come in\, but the little crutches had. So she sent ’em along as they might come in handy for some child\, sometime. And that’s when we began it.” \n     “Well\, I must say I can’t see any game about that\,” declared Nancy\, almost irritably. \n     “Oh\, yes; the game was to just find something about everything to be glad about—no matter what ’twas\,” rejoined Pollyanna\, earnestly. “And we began right then—on the crutches.” \n     “Well\, goodness me! I can’t see anythin’ ter be glad about—gettin’ a pair of crutches when you wanted a doll!” \n     Pollyanna clapped her hands. \n     “There is—there is\,” she crowed. “But I couldn’t see it\, either\, Nancy\, at first\,” she added\, with quick honesty. “Father had to tell it to me.” \n     “Well\, then\, suppose YOU tell ME\,” almost snapped Nancy. \n     “Goosey! Why\, just be glad because you don’t—NEED—’EM!” exulted Pollyanna\, triumphantly. “You see it’s just as easy—when you know how!” \n     “Well\, of all the queer doin’s!” breathed Nancy\, regarding Pollyanna with almost fearful eyes. \n     “Oh\, but it isn’t queer—it’s lovely\,” maintained Pollyanna enthusiastically. “And we’ve played it ever since. And the harder ’tis\, the more fun ’tis to get ’em out; only—only sometimes it’s almost too hard—like when your father goes to Heaven\, and there isn’t anybody but a Ladies’ Aid left.” \n     “Yes\, or when you’re put in a snippy little room ‘way at the top of the house with nothin’ in it\,” growled Nancy. \n     Pollyanna sighed. \n     “That was a hard one\, at first\,” she admitted\, “specially when I was so kind of lonesome. I just didn’t feel like playing the game\, anyway\, and I HAD been wanting pretty things\, so! Then I happened to think how I hated to see my freckles in the looking-glass\, and I saw that lovely picture out the window\, too; so then I knew I’d found the things to be glad about. You see\, when you’re hunting for the glad things\, you sort of forget the other kind—like the doll you wanted\, you know.” \n     “Humph!” choked Nancy\, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. \n     “Most generally it doesn’t take so long\,” sighed Pollyanna; “and lots of times now I just think of them WITHOUT thinking\, you know. I’ve got so used to playing it. It’s a lovely game. F-father and I used to like it so much\,” she faltered. “I suppose\, though\, it—it’ll be a little harder now\, as long as I haven’t anybody to play it with. Maybe Aunt Polly will play it\, though\,” she added\, as an after-thought. \n     “My stars and stockings!—HER!” breathed Nancy\, behind her teeth. Then\, aloud\, she said doggedly: “See here\, Miss Pollyanna\, I ain’t sayin’ that I’ll play it very well\, and I ain’t sayin’ that I know how\, anyway; but I’ll play it with ye\, after a fashion—I just will\, I will!” \n     “Oh\, Nancy!” exulted Pollyanna\, giving her a rapturous hug. “That’ll be splendid! Won’t we have fun?” \n     “Er—maybe\,” conceded Nancy\, in open doubt. “But you mustn’t count too much on me\, ye know. I never was no case fur games\, but I’m a-goin’ ter make a most awful old try on this one. You’re goin’ ter have some one ter play it with\, anyhow\,” she finished\, as they entered the kitchen together. \n     Pollyanna ate her bread and milk with good appetite; then\, at Nancy’s suggestion\, she went into the sitting room\, where her aunt sat reading. Miss Polly looked up coldly. \n     “Have you had your supper\, Pollyanna?” \n     “Yes\, Aunt Polly.” \n     “I’m very sorry\, Pollyanna\, to have been obliged so soon to send you into the kitchen to eat bread and milk.” \n     “But I was real glad you did it\, Aunt Polly. I like bread and milk\, and Nancy\, too. You mustn’t feel bad about that one bit.” \n     Aunt Polly sat suddenly a little more erect in her chair. \n     “Pollyanna\, it’s quite time you were in bed. You have had a hard day\, and to-morrow we must plan your hours and go over your clothing to see what it is necessary to get for you. Nancy will give you a candle. Be careful how you handle it. Breakfast will be at half-past seven. See that you are down to that. Good-night.” \n     Quite as a matter of course\, Pollyanna came straight to her aunt’s side and gave her an affectionate hug. \n     “I’ve had such a beautiful time\, so far\,” she sighed happily. “I know I’m going to just love living with you but then\, I knew I should before I came. Good-night\,” she called cheerfully\, as she ran from the room. \n     “Well\, upon my soul!” ejaculated Miss Polly\, half aloud. “What a most extraordinary child!” Then she frowned. “She’s ‘glad’ I punished her\, and I ‘mustn’t feel bad one bit\,’ and she’s going to ‘love to live’ with me! Well\, upon my soul!” ejaculated Miss Polly again\, as she took up her book. \n     Fifteen minutes later\, in the attic room\, a lonely little girl sobbed into the tightly-clutched sheet: \n     “I know\, father-among-the-angels\, I’m not playing the game one bit now—not one bit; but I don’t believe even you could find anything to be glad about sleeping all alone ‘way off up here in the dark—like this. If only I was near Nancy or Aunt Polly\, or even a Ladies’ Aider\, it would be easier!” \n     Down-stairs in the kitchen\, Nancy\, hurrying with her belated work\, jabbed her dish-mop into the milk pitcher\, and muttered jerkily: \n     “If playin’ a silly-fool game—about bein’ glad you’ve got crutches when you want dolls—is got ter be—my way—o’ bein’ that rock o’ refuge—why\, I’m a-goin’ ter play it—I am\, I am!” \n  \nMrs. Snow is an “invalid\,” confined to her bed. Twice a week\, as an act of charity\, Aunt Polly has her maid Nancy bring hot food to her. Pollyanna volunteers to do it. She tries to cheer Mrs. Snow up: \n  \n     “They didn’t tell me you were so pretty!” \n     “Me!—pretty!” scoffed the woman\, bitterly. \n     “Why\, yes. Didn’t you know it?” cried Pollyanna. \n     “Well\, no\, I didn’t\,” retorted Mrs. Snow\, dryly. Mrs. Snow had lived forty years\, and for fifteen of those years she had been too busy wishing things were different to find much time to enjoy things as they were…. \n     “Oh\, I love black hair! I should be so glad if I only had it\,” sighed Pollyanna. \n     Mrs. Snow dropped the mirror and turned irritably. \n     “Well\, you wouldn’t!—not if you were me. You wouldn’t be glad for black hair nor anything else—if you had to lie here all day as I do!” \n     Pollyanna bent her brows in a thoughtful frown. \n     “Why\, ‘twould be kind of hard—to do it then\, wouldn’t it?” she mused aloud. \n     “Do what?” \n     “Be glad about things.” \n     “Be glad about things—when you’re sick in bed all your days? Well\, I should say it would\,” retorted Mrs. Snow. “If you don’t think so\, just tell me something to be glad about; that’s all!” \n     To Mrs. Snow’s unbounded amazement\, Pollyanna sprang to her feet and clapped her hands. \n     “Oh\, goody! That’ll be a hard one—won’t it? I’ve got to go\, now\, but I’ll think and think all the way home; and maybe the next time I come I can tell it to you. Good-by. I’ve had a lovely time! Good-by\,” she called again\, as she tripped through the doorway. \n  \nPollyanna returns a couple days later. \n  \n     “I’ve thought it up\, Mrs. Snow—what you can be glad about.” \n     “GLAD about! What do you mean?” \n     “Why\, I told you I would. Don’t you remember? You asked me to tell you something to be glad about—glad\, you know\, even though you did have to lie here abed all day.” \n     “Oh!” scoffed the woman. “THAT? Yes\, I remember that; but I didn’t suppose you were in earnest any more than I was.” \n     “Oh\, yes\, I was\,” nodded Pollyanna\, triumphantly; “and I found it\, too. But ‘TWAS hard. It’s all the more fun\, though\, always\, when ’tis hard. And I will own up\, honest to true\, that I couldn’t think of anything for a while. Then I got it.” \n     “Did you\, really? Well\, what is it?” Mrs. Snow’s voice was sarcastically polite.   \n     Pollyanna drew a long breath. \n     “I thought—how glad you could be—that other folks weren’t like you—all sick in bed like this\, you know\,” she announced impressively. \n* \n  \nCheerful and optimistic people are often considered to be not very bright. For many years now\, depressed chain-smoking intellectuals have been assuring us that existence is absurd\, that life is meaningless and we’re all doomed. As Bertolt Brecht said: “He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.” But if happiness is just for half-wits\, why is the Dalai Lama always chuckling? \n  \nThe novel Pollyanna brings me back to a favorite them of mine: Culture That Nurtures. That’s what culture is supposed to do: make us feel good\, kind\, happy\, safe. Our popular entertainment—movies\, TV\, video games—is a barrage of violence. It marinates us in fear\, anger\, hatred and gloom. Like Charles Dickens\, Eleanor H. Porter wanted to make us kinder. People watch “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” every year to be reminded of our essential goodness. \n  \nSurely there has always been\, is now\, and will always be terrible violence\, tragedy and injustice in our world. It is just for that reason that we need healing stories—stories that remind of our essential goodness\, stories that nurture peace\, love\, happiness and understanding in our hearts and minds. \n  \nLast Sunday\, at our Bibliophiles Unanimous Zoom gathering\, we were talking about Positive Futures and Utopian Visions. Ken Margolis was inspired by reading the book The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner to announce excitedly that This is Utopia! Jeffrey Sher told us that when Stephen J. Gould was asked how he could be optimistic\, he replied: “What’s the alternative?” Dave Duncan told us that David Byrne\, formerly of Talking Heads\, has started a website called Reasons To Be Cheerful. Here’s the link: \n  \nhttps://reasonstobecheerful.world \n  \nI recommended books by David Korten and Charles Eisenstein. There are a lot of their talks on YouTube. Here are a couple links: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRYEHOStmss&t=3211s \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKYqbNzAav4 \n  \nSomeone who helps me to be more Pollyanna-like is Thich Nhat Hanh. A lot of his talks are on YouTube. Here’s a link to an interview Oprah Winfrey did with him: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ9UtuWfs3U \n  \nI was just heading out to print up this newsletter\, but I happened to check my Inbox and found this poem from Kim. It’s perfect for our theme. Here it is: \n  \nOur Next Big Thing  \n  \nThe deal-maker is in denial\, Mr. Kentucky \non a tear\, the zigzag death toll seeks the sky\, \nsomeone gets shot asking for a mask\, a naming \nparty sparks another outbreak\, the news is \nmega fires and hurricanes\, and our fears \ncome true like wishes turned to curses \nthat prey upon our foolishness.  \n  \nSo why does the wren still sing? Why \ndid I see a child skip\, a mail clerk grin \nin that moment she adjusted her mask? \nWhy the uptick in random kindnesses? \nDogs don’t stop wagging\, or flowers \nopening their secrets. We must be \ngetting ready for the next big thing. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nWhen I told Kim that this week’s issue features Pollyanna\, he said: “Oh\, the Glad Game!” (I’m afraid Kim might have some Pollyanna-ish tendencies himself.) He recommended the cartoon by Gary Larson where two devils in Hell are watching a guy whistle while he hauls brimstone in a wheelbarrow. One says to the other: “You know\, we’re just not getting to that guy.” \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in love. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-pollyanna-10-15-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201008
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201015
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20201008T171410Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220718T192249Z
UID:1331-1602115200-1602719999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/8/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 8\, 2020 \n  \nI like to begin each day in what I call “the Golden World.” One day\, some years ago\, I sat down and tried to describe it. It’s not easy to describe\, since\, like everything else\, it’s indescribable. Here’s what I cam up with (slightly revised): \n  \n  \nTHE GOLDEN WORLD \n  \nwhere is the golden world? \nit’s right here \n  \nwhat is it? \nit’s a place of quiet joy \na place where everything is miraculous \n  \ni know i’m in the golden world \nwhen there is nowhere i would rather be \n  \nthe golden world is paradise \nnot the paradise that existed long ago \n  \nor the paradise that is yet to come \n  \nbut this one \n  \nto get to the golden world \none thing that sometimes helps \nis to slow down \n  \nrushing around \ntrying to get somewhere else \nwe fail to appreciate where we are \n  \nwhen this ordinary world is alive for us \nwith beauty\, with joy\, with love\, with peace \nwe are in the golden world \n  \nthis ordinary world is the golden world \ntransformed by a shift in the way we see it \nor feel it \n  \none of the most astonishing things about us \nis our ability to take things for granted \nwe get used to trees\, to the sky\, to birds \nto each other \nto ourselves \nto life as we live it \n  \nwe are just here a little while \nwe better wake up right now \n  \nwe are always in the golden world \nbut when we imagine it is somewhere else \nwe feel that we are in exile \n  \nhoping we will somehow improve \nwishing things were different \nwe miss the blessings we have \nthe blessings of who we are \n  \na goldfinch doesn’t imagine that it can improve \n  \nthere is suffering within us and around us \nthe remedy for the suffering within us is close at hand \n  \nas for the big world \nit is always simultaneously full of great suffering \nand great beauty \n  \nif we do not live in quiet joy \nin beauty\, in truth \nin freedom\, in love— \nwhat i am calling the golden world— \nwe cannot transform the suffering \n  \nof course\, some suffering is built into the world \nwe are mortal creatures \ndisease and death are inevitable \n  \nbut there is gratuitous suffering \nwe create through our ignorance\, \nour hatred\, our anger\, our fear \n  \nif we imagine we have an enemy \nwe are always at war \n  \nour inner conflict is the source of much outer conflict \nwars begin in the minds of men \n  \nthere is a stillness \nin which there is no conflict \nwe can live there \nor here \nin the golden world \n  \nthe peace which passeth understanding \nis our birthright \nmaybe we forgot \ngot lost \n  \nit’s time to remember \nto come home \nto the golden world \n  \nwe are born into the golden world \nwe learn to understand and to speak a language \nit’s an astonishing thing! \nwe create an identity\, a story about who we are \nwe create a mythos\, a story about the world in which we live \nthese are fantastic achievements! \n  \nbut\, alas!\, these stories become the prisons in which we live \nwe take everything new and turn it into something old \n  \nwe don’t live in the world \nwe live inside our descriptions of the world \n  \nwe are fictional characters \nliving in fictional worlds \n  \nthe golden world is this ordinary world \nnot mediated by thought or language \n  \nwe touch it all the time \nwhenever we take a sip of tea \nand are not doing anything but taking a sip of tea \nwe are in the golden world \n  \na quiet setting makes it easier for us to experience the golden world \nbut when the stillness is strong within us \nthe whole noisy world is golden \n  \nwhen thought and language are our tools \nrather than our masters \nthey are a blessing \nnot a curse \n  \nwhen meditation is not just something we do for half-an-hour in the morning \nwhen we live in meditation \nwe live in the golden world \n  \nwe are always in the golden world \nwhether we know it or not \nthe place we’ve always wanted to get to \nis where we are \n  \nthat which is not born \nand does not die \nis who we are \n  \nin the golden world \nthere is nothing to strive for \n  \nno regret \n  \nall our sins are washed away \n  \nthe golden world is not an imaginary place \nthe world described in the newspaper is an imaginary place \n  \nthe golden world is never somewhere else \nit is always right now where we are \nor not at all \n  \nwhen you are in it \nyou are not \n  \nwhen you can’t see it \nyou are blind \n  \nwhen the poet said \n“each moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy” \nhe was in it \nand when he said \n“Divine am I inside and out\, \nand I make holy whatever I touch \nor am touch’d from” \n  \nwhen another poet felt that he “was blessed \nand could bless” \nhe was in it \n  \nanother poet clarified the matter when she said: \n“The Infinite a sudden Guest \nHas been assumed to be– \nBut how can that stupendous come \nWhich never went away?” \n  \nyou can’t get to the golden world by trying to go there \nwhen you are not trying to go somewhere \nnot trying to do something \nnot trying to be someone \nyou might find that you are in the golden world \n  \nwhen i’m in it\, i think \n“this is my home \ni must never allow myself to lose this \neven for a moment” \n  \nthen\, later\, it’s gone \ndid i leave the golden world? \nor did it leave me? \n  \ni find myself in exile \nand want to return \n  \ni know that that wanting condemns me to exile \nand so i seek to find my way home by a kind of indirection \ninstead of doing something \ni do nothing \n  \nwhen the mind is quiet and alert \nit doesn’t matter whether “i” am in the golden world or not \nthe question doesn’t arise \nor if it does \nit is seen for what it is \n  \nthe squirrel outside\, sitting on a branch \nhas no ideas about a golden world \nand so it lives in the golden world \n  \n“the golden world” is a name i give to something \nthat has no name \n  \nto have an identity is to be in exile \n  \nam i in the golden world? \nor is the golden world in me? \n  \nbehind each person’s mask \nshines a radiant\, glorious\, perfect being \n  \nbeneath who we pretend to be \nis who we are \n  \nat those moments when we see through everyone’s mask \nwe are in the golden world \n  \nwhen we see through someone’s mask \nit is impossible not to love them \n  \nfor this to be paradise \nwe have to love everyone \nwithout love\, it isn’t paradise \n  \nwhen where we are \nand where we want to be \nare the same place \nwe are in the golden world \n  \nthe seer sees the golden world \nthe seeker seeks the golden world \nthe seeker asks: where is it? \nthe seer replies: where isn’t it? \n  \nthis is it \n  \nyou want a miracle? \nthe poet said: \n“a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels” \nif that is so \nwhere can you find something that is not miraculous? \n  \nthere has never been \nis not now \nand will never be \nanything more perfect \nmore beautiful \nmore miraculous \nthan a glass of water \n  \nthere are miracles everywhere you look \nthe eyes with which you see \nare miraculous \nour brains\, nervous systems \nour heart’s pumping blood \nmiracles! \n  \nthat we are alive \nand aware \nin this world of marvels \nis a great blessing \n  \n  \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-8-20/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/0-2-3.jpeg
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201001
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201015
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20201202T223748Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201202T224819Z
UID:1531-1601510400-1602719999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Beginner's Mind by Shunryū Suzuki
DESCRIPTION:Beginner’s Mind \n  \nPeople say that practicing Zen is difficult\, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross-legged position\, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense. The Zen school developed in many ways after it was established in China\, but at the same time\, it became more and more impure. But I do not want to talk about Chinese Zen or the history of Zen. I am interested in helping you keep your practice from becoming impure. \n  \nIn Japan we have the phrase shoshin\, which means “beginner’s mind.” The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner’s mind. Suppose you recite the Prajna Parmita Sutra only once. It might be a very good recitation. But what would happen to you if you recited it twice\, three times\, four times\, or more? You might easily lose your original attitude towards it. The same thing will happen in your other Zen practices. For a while you will keep your beginner’s mind\, but if you continue to practice one\, two\, three years or more\, although you may improve some\, you are liable to lose the limitless meaning of original mind. \n  \nFor Zen students the most important thing is not to be dualistic. Our “original mind” includes everything within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind\, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty\, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s there are few. \n  \nIf you discriminate too much\, you limit yourself. If you are too demanding or too greedy\, your mind is not rich and self-sufficient. If we lose our original self-sufficient mind\, we will lose all precepts. When your mind becomes demanding\, when you long for something\, you will end up violating your own precepts: not to tell lies\, not to steal\, not to kill\, not to be immoral\, and so forth. If you keep your original mind\, the precepts will keep themselves. \n  \nIn the beginner’s mind there is no thought\, “I have attained something.” All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement\, no thought of self\, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate\, it is boundless. Dogen-zenji\, the founder of our school\, always emphasized how important it is to resume our boundless original mind. Then we are always true to ourselves\, in sympathy with all beings\, and can actually practice. \n  \nSo the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner’s mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature\, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say\, “I know what Zen is\,” or “I have attained enlightenment.” This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen\, you will begin to appreciate your beginner’s mind. It is the secret of Zen practice. \n  \n—Shunryū Suzuki\, the Prologue to Zen Mind\, Beginner’s Mind  (1970)
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/beginners-mind-by-shunryu-suzuki/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201001
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201008
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LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T121004Z
UID:1319-1601510400-1602115199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/1/20
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 1\, 2020 \n  \nOn September 27\, at our Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering\, we were talking about “Nature\, Ecology and the Environmental Crisis.” Katie Radditz mentioned Gary Snyder’s essay “Fire\, Floods and Following the Dao\,” from his book Back on the Fire\, published in 2007. She mentioned how relevant it is to our current wildfires in Oregon\, California and Washington. That reminded me of Gary Snyder’s great essay from 1969: “Four Changes\,” which came at a time when a lot of people were waking up\, and which helped that to happen. Later\, it was published in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Turtle Island. But before getting to that\, I’d like to start this issue with one of Kim’s recent poems: \n  \nHoly Smokes \n  \nDownwind from where the forest burns \nwe inhale the cindered souls of trees \nthat in a whoosh became particulate \nand rode the wind to enter us. With \nthis breath take in the spirit whisker \nof a mouse\, incinerate wren’s cry \nclenched and tumbled from the sky\, \nmoss that leaped from green to nothing\, \nflailing leaf that in a fiery gasp \nrushed through charcoal into dust \ninside the billow flame that roiled and— \nholy\, holy\, holy became the smoke-smudge \npall that smuggled mountains into us. \n  \nNow freighted for life with dusky mist\, \neven as we help sustain our neighbors \nwho lost everything but life\, we survivors \nare the walking shrine of little lives. We are them\, \nare earth mind suddenly\, to weigh by human choice \nwhat’s best for upward yearning seed of cedar\, \nfootfall of mouse\, wingbeat of wren. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nAnd now… \n  \n  \nFOUR CHANGES \n  \nI. POPULATION \n  \nThe Condition \n  \nPosition:  Human beings are but a part of the fabric of life — dependent on the whole fabric for their very existence. As the most highly developed tool-using animal\, we must recognize that the unknown evolutionary destinies of other life forms are to be respected\, and we must act as gentle steward of the Earth’s community of being. \nSituation:  There are now too many human beings\, and the problem is growing rapidly worse. It is potentially disastrous not only for the human race but for most other life forms. \nGoal:  The goal would be half of the present world population\, or less. \n  \nAction \n  \nSocial/Political:  First\, a massive effort to convince the governments and leaders of the world that the problem is severe. And that all talk about raising food-production — well intentioned as it is — simply puts off the only real solution: reduce population. Demand immediate participation by all countries in programs to legalize abortion\, encourage vasectomy\, sterilization (provided by free clinics)\, and try to correct traditional cultural attitudes that tend to force women into childbearing\, remove income tax deductions for more than two children above a specified income level\, and scale it so that lower-income families are forced to be careful too\, or pay families to limit their number; take a vigorous stand against the policy of the right-wing in the Catholic hierarchy and any other institutions that exercise an irresponsible social force in regard to this question; oppose and correct simple-minded boosterism that equates population growth with continuing prosperity; work ceaselessly to have all political questions be seen in the light of this prime problem. \nIn many cases the governments are the wrong agents to address. Their most likely use of a problem or crisis is another excuse for extending their own powers. Abortion should be legal and voluntary. Great care should be taken that no one is ever tricked or forced into sterilizations. The whole population issue is fraught with contradictions\, but the fact stands that by standards of planetary biological welfare\, there are already too many human beings. The long-range answer is a steady\, lower birthrate\, area by area of the globe. The measure of optimum population should be based on what is best for the total ecological health of the region\, including its wildlife population. \nThe Community:  Explore other social structures and marriage forms\, such as group marriage and polyandrous marriage\, which provide family life but many less children. Share the pleasure of raising children widely\, so that all need not directly reproduce in order to enter into this basic human experience. We must hope that no one woman would give birth to more than one child or two children\, during this period of crisis. Adopt children. Let reverence for life and reverence for the feminine mean also a reverence for other species\, and for future human lives\, most of which are threatened. \nOur Own Heads:  “I am a child of all life\, and all living beings are my brothers and sisters\, my children and grandchildren. And there is a child within me waiting to be born\, the baby of a new and wiser self.” Love\, lovemaking\, seen as the vehicle of mutual realization for a couple\, where the creation of new selves and a new world of being is as important as reproducing our kind. \n  \nII. POLLUTION \n  \nThe Condition \n  \nPosition:  Pollution is of two types. One sort results from an excess of some fairly ordinary substance—smoke\, or solid waste—that cannot be absorbed or transmuted rapidly enough to offset its introduction into the environment\, thus causing changes the great cycle is not prepared for. (All organisms have wastes and by-products\, and these are indeed part of the total biosphere: energy is passed along the line\, refracted in various ways. This is cycling\, not pollution.) The other sort is powerful modern chemicals and poisons\, products of recent technology that the biosphere is totally unprepared for. Such are DDT and similar chlorinated hydrocarbons—nuclear testing fallout and nuclear waste—poison gas\, germ and virus storage and leakage by the military; and chemicals that are put into food\, whose long-range effects on human begins have not been properly tested. \nSituation:  The human race in the last century has allowed its production and scattering of wastes\, by-products\, and various chemicals to become excessive. Pollution is directly harming life on the planet: which is to say\, ruining the environment for humanity itself. We are fouling our air and water\, and living in noise and filth that no “animal” would tolerate\, while advertising and politicians try to tell us “we’ve never had it so good.” The dependence of modern governments on this kind of untruth leads to shameful mind-pollution through the mass media and much school education. \nGoal:  Clean air\, clean clear-running rivers\, the presence of Pelican and Osprey and Gray Whale in our lives; salmon and trout in our streams; unmuddied language and good dreams. \n  \nAction \n  \nSocial/Political:  Effective international legislation banning DDT and other poisons — with no fooling around. The collusion of certain scientists with the pesticide industry and agri-business that is trying to block this legislation must be brought out in the open. Strong penalties for water and air pollution by industries — “Pollution is somebody’s profit.” Phase out the internal combustion engine and fossil fuel use in general\, do more research into non-polluting energy sources such as solar energy and the tides. No more kidding the public about nuclear waste disposal: it’s impossible to do it safely. So nuclear-power generated electricity cannot be seriously planned for as it stands now. \nStop all germ and chemical warfare research and experimentation; work toward a safe disposal of the present staggering and stupid stockpiles of H-Bombs\, cobalt gunk\, germ and poison tanks and cans. Provide incentives against the wasteful use of paper\, and so on\, which adds to the solid waste of cities\, develop methods of re-cycling solid urban waste. Recycling should be the basic principle behind all waste-disposal thinking. Thus\, all bottles should be re-usable; old cans should make more cans; old newspapers should go back into newsprint again. Establish stronger controls and conduct more research on chemicals in foods. A shift toward a more varied and sensitive type of agriculture (more small scale and subsistence farming) would eliminate much of the call for blanket use of pesticides. \nThe Community:  DDT and such – don’t use them. Air pollution: use fewer cars. Cars pollute the air\, and one or two people riding lonely in a huge car is an insult to intelligence and to the Earth. Share rides\, legalize hitchhiking\, have hitchhiker waiting stations along the highways. Also — a step toward the new world – walk more; look for the best routes through beautiful countryside for long-distance walking trips: San Francisco to Los Angeles down the Coast Range\, for example. Learn how to use your own manure as fertilizer if you’re in the country\, as the far East has done for centuries. There is a way\, and it’s safe. Solid waste: boycott bulky wasteful Sunday papers which use up trees. It’s all just advertising anyway\, which is artificially inducing more energy consumption. Refuse bags at the store and bring your own. Organize park and street clean-up festivals. Don’t work in any way for or with an industry that pollutes. Don’t be drafted into the military. Don’t waste. (A monk and an old master were once walking in the mountains. They noticed a little hut upstream. The monk said\, “A wise hermit must live there” — the master said\, “That’s no wise hermit\, you see that lettuce leaf floating down the stream\, he’s a Waster.” Just then an old man came running down the hill with his beard flying and caught the floating lettuce leaf.) Carry your own jug to the winery and have it filled from the barrel. \nOur Own Heads:  Part of the trouble with talking about DDT is that the use of it is not just a practical device\, it’s almost an establishment religion. There is something in Western culture that wants to totally wipe out creepy-crawlies\, totally\, and feels repugnance for toadstools and snakes. This is fear of one’s own deepest inner-self wilderness areas\, and the answer is\, relax. Relax around bugs\, snakes\, and your own hairy dreams. Again\, we all should share our crops with a certain percentage of bug life as “paying our dues.” Thoreau says\, “How then can the harvest fail? Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds? It matters little comparatively whether the fields fill the farmer’s barns. The true husbandman will cease from anxiety\, as the squirrels manifest no concern whether the woods will bear chestnuts this year or not\, and finish his labor with every day\, relinquishing all claim to the produce of his fields\, and sacrificing in his mind not only his first fruits but his last fruits also.” In the realm of thought\, inner experience\, consciousness\, as in the outward realm of interconnection\, there is a difference between balanced cycle\, and the excess that cannot be handled. When the balance is right\, the mind recycles from highest illuminations to the muddied blinding anger or grabiness that sometimes seizes us all. That is the alchemical “transmutation.” \n  \nIII. CONSUMPTION \n  \nThe Condition \n  \nPosition:  Everybody that lives eats food and is food in turn. This complicated animal\, the human being\, rests on a vast and delicate pyramid of energy transformation. To grossly use more than you need to destroy is biologically unsound. Much of the production and consumption of modern society is not necessary or conducive to spiritual and cultural growth\, let alone survival; and is behind much greed and envy\, age-old causes of social and international discord. \nSituation:  Humanity’s careless use of “resources” and its total dependence on certain substances such as fossil fuels (which are being exhausted\, slowly but certainly) are having harmful effects on all the other members of the life-network. The complexity of modern technology renders whole populations vulnerable to the deadly consequences of the loss of any one key resource. Instead of independence we have over-dependence on life- giving substances such as water\, which we squander. Many species of animals and birds have become extinct in the service of fashion fads — or fertilizer — or industrial oil. The soil is being used up; in fact\, mankind has become a locust-like blight on the planet that will leave a bare cupboard for its own children — all the while in a kind of Addict’s Dream of affluence\, comfort\, eternal progress — using the great achievements of science to produce software and swill. \nGoal:  Balance\, harmony\, humility\, growth that is a mutual growth with Redwood and Quail — to be a good member of the great community of living creatures. True affluence is not needing anything. \n  \nAction \n  \nSocial/Political:  It must be demonstrated ceaselessly that a continually “growing economy” is no longer healthy\, but a cancer. And that the criminal waste which is allowed in the name of competition — especially that ultimate in wasteful needless competition\, hot wars and cold wars with “communism” (or “capitalism”) — must be halted totally with ferocious energy and decision. Economics must be seen as a small sub-branch of Ecology\, and production/distribution/consumption handled by companies or unions or cooperatives with the same elegance and spareness one sees in nature. Soil banks; open space; logging to be truly based on sustained yield (the US Forest Service is sadly now the lackey of business). Protection for all predators and varmints. “Support your right to arm bears.” Damn the International Whaling Commission which is selling out the last of our precious\, wise whales! Ban absolutely all further development of roads and concessions in National Parks and Wilderness Areas; build auto campgrounds in the least desirable areas. Initiate consumer boycotts of dishonest and unnecessary products. Establish Co-ops. Politically\, blast both “Communist” and “Capitalist” myths of progress\, and all crude notions of conquering or controlling nature. \nThe Community:  Sharing and creating. The inherent aptness of communal life — where large tools are owned jointly and used efficiently. The power of renunciation: If enough Americans refused to buy a new car for one given year it would permanently alter the American economy. Recycling clothes and equipment. Support handicrafts — gardening\, home skills\, midwifery\, herbs — all the things that can make us independent\, beautiful and whole. Learn to break the habit of acquiring unnecessary possessions\, a monkey on everybody’s back — but avoid a self-abnegating anti-joyous self-righteousness. Simplicity is light\, carefree\, neat\, and loving — not a self-punishing ascetic trip. \n(The great Chinese poet Tu Fu said\, “The ideas of a poet should be noble and simple.”) Don’t shoot a deer if you don’t know how to use all the meat and preserve that which you can’t eat\, to tan the hide and use the leather — to use it all\, with gratitude\, right down to the sinew and hooves. Simplicity and mindfulness in diet are the starting point for many people. \nOur Own Heads:  It is hard to even begin to gauge how such a complication of possessions\, the notions of “my and mine\,” stand between us and a true\, clear\, liberated way of seeing the world. To live lightly on the Earth\, to be aware and alive\, to be free of egotism\, to be in contact with plants and animals\, starts with simple\, concrete acts. The inner principle is the insight that we are interdependent energy-fields of great potential wisdom and compassion expressed in each person as a superb mind\, a handsome and complex body\, and the almost magical capacity of language. To these potentials and capacities\, “owning things” can add nothing of authenticity. “Clad in the sky\, with the Earth for a pillow.” \n  \nIV. TRANSFORMATION \n  \nThe Condition \n  \nPosition:  Everyone is the result of four forces — the conditions of this known-universe (matter/energy forms\, and ceaseless change); the biology of his or her species; individual genetic heritage; and the culture one is born into. Within this web of forces there are certain spaces and loops that allow to some persons the experience of inner freedom and illumination. The gradual exploration of some of these spaces constitutes “evolution” and\, for human cultures\, what “history” could increasingly be. We have it within our deepest powers not only to change our “selves” but to change our culture. If humans are to remain on Earth they must transform the five-millennia-long urbanizing civilization tradition into a new ecologically-sensitive\, harmony-oriented\, wild-minded scientific/spiritual culture. “Wildness is the state of complete awareness. That’s why we need it.” \nSituation:  Civilization\, which has made us so successful a species\, has overshot itself and now threatens us with its inertia. There is also some evidence that civilized life isn’t good for the human gene pool. To achieve the changes\, we must change the very foundations of our society and our minds. \nGoal:  Nothing short of total transformation will do much good. What we envision is a planet on which the human population lives harmoniously and dynamically by employing various sophisticated and unobtrusive technologies in a world environment that is ‘”left natural.” Specific points in this vision: \n  \n\nA healthy and spare population of all races\, much less in number than today.\nCultural and individual pluralism\, unified by a type of world tribal council. Division by natural and cultural boundaries rather than arbitrary political boundaries.\nA technology of communication\, education\, and quiet transportation\, land-use being sensitive to the properties of each region. Allowing\, thus\, the Bison to return to much of the high plains. Careful but intensive agriculture in the great alluvial valleys; deserts left wild for those who would live there by skill. Computer technicians who run the plant part of the year and walk along with the Elk in their migrations during the rest.\nA basic cultural outlook and social organization that inhibits power and property-seeking while encouraging exploration and challenge in things like music\, meditation\, mathematics\, mountaineering\, magic\, and all other ways of authentic being-in-the-world.\nWomen totally free and equal. A new kind of family — responsible\, but more festive and relaxed is implicit.\n\n  \nAction \n  \nSocial/Political:  It seems evident that there are throughout the world certain social and religious forces that have worked through history toward an ecologically and culturally enlightened state of affairs. Let these be encouraged: Gnostics\, hip Marxists\, Teilhard de Chardin Catholics\, Druids\, Taoists\, Biologists\, Witches\, Yogins\, Bhikkus\, Quakers\, Sufis\, Tibetans\, Zens\, Shaman\, Bushmen\, American Indians\, Polynesians\, Anarchists\, Alchemists . . . the list is long. Primitive cultures\, communal and ashram movements\, cooperative ventures. Since it doesn’t seem practical or even desirable to think that direct bloody force will achieve much\, it would be best to consider this change a continuing “revolution of consciousness” which will be won not by guns but by seizing the key images\, myths\, archetypes\, eschatologies\, and ecstasies so that life won’t seem worth living unless one’s on the side of the transforming energy. We must take over “science and technology” and release its real possibilities and powers in the service of this planet — which\, after all\, produced us and it. More concretely\, no transformation without our feet on the ground. Stewardship means\, for most of us\, find your place on the planet\, dig in\, and take responsibility from there. The tiresome but tangible work of school boards\, county supervisors\, local foresters\, local politics\, even while holding in mind the largest scale of potential change. Get a sense of workable territory. Learn about it and start acting point by point. On all levels\, from national to local\, the need to move toward steady state economy\, equilibrium\, dynamic balance\, inner growth stressed must be taught – maturity\, diversity\, climax\, creativity. \nThe Community:  New schools\, new classes\, walking in the woods and cleaning up the streets. Find psychological techniques for creating an awareness of “self” that includes the social and natural environment. “Consideration of what specific language forms — symbolic systems — and social institutions constitute obstacles to ecological awareness.” Without falling into facile interpretations of McLuhan\, we can hope to use the media. Let no one be ignorant of the facts of biology and related disciplines; bring up our children as part of the wildlife. Some communities can establish themselves in backwater rural areas and flourish — others maintain themselves in urban centers\, and the two types work together — a two-way flow of experience\, people\, money\, and home-grown vegetables. Ultimately cities may exist only as joyous tribal gatherings and fairs\, to dissolve after a few weeks. Investigating new lifestyles is our work\, as is the exploration of ways to explore our inner realms — with the known dangers of crashing that go with such. Master the archaic and the primitive as models of basic nature-related cultures — as well as the most imaginative extensions of science — and build a community where these two vectors cross. \nOur Own Heads:  Are where it starts. Knowing that we are the first human beings in history to have so much of our past cultures and previous experiences available to our study\, and being free enough of the weight of traditional cultures to seek out a larger identity – the first members of a civilized society since the early Neolithic to wish to look clearly into the eyes of the wild and see our selfhood there\, our family there. We have these advantages to set off the obvious disadvantages of being as screwed up as we are — which gives us a fair chance to penetrate some of the riddles of ourselves and the universe\, and to go beyond the idea of “human survival” or “survival of the biosphere” and to draw our strength from the realization that at the heart of things is some kind of serene and ecstatic process that is beyond qualities and beyond birth and death. “No need to survive! In the fires that destroy the universe at the end of the kalpa\, what survives?” — “The iron tree blooms in the void.”  \nKnowing that nothing need be done is the place from which we begin to move. \n  \n—Gary Snyder (Summer of 1969) \n* \n  \nHere’s a link to an audio recording of Gary Snyder reading “Four Changes”: \n  \nhttps://www.garynabhan.com/news/2020/04/four-changes-by-gary-snyder/ \n  \npeace\, love & ecology \n  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-1-20/
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201001
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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/24/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 24\, 2020 \n  \n  \nHOW HIPPIES MAY STILL SAVE THE WORLD \n  \nShortly before the Era of Social Distancing began\, my friend Bill Faricy and I were eating granola for breakfast and we got to thinking about hippies and what we have given to the world. Granola\, for one. And whole wheat bread. Brown rice. Organic food. Recycling. Yoga. Vegetarianism. Holistic medicine. Natural childbirth and breastfeeding. Nonviolence. Massage. Bright colors! Free love. Good vibes. The list got longer and longer. \n  \nThe most challenging problem that we humans face is that the way we are living is destroying the ecological health of our planet. Hippies intuited this\, and began trying to live in harmony with Mother Earth. The changes were not just on the outside\, with long hair and geodesic domes. There were deeper changes in thinking\, feeling and imagining. \n  \nIt was obvious that hippies were not going along with the status quo. The status quo is by its nature static\, and resistant to change. The hippies clothing styles were mocked\, but the peace symbol and the peace hand gesture—which are now emojis—represented something which threatened the foundation of an economy built on militarism and endless war. \n  \nThe hippies laid-back attitudes were inimical to the Protestant ethic of Hard Work\, and to the Spirit of Capitalism. Great efforts had been made and billions of dollars spent to turn citizens into Consumers and the hippies were opting out!—making their own sandals and growing their own food. At every turn the hippies weren’t going along with The Program\, and The Program was designed to create Endless Progress and Prosperity. What was wrong with them? \n  \nIt turned out that there was something wrong with the global project of turning the planet into a Theme Park for Humans. The War On Nature is one we don’t want to “win.” The hippie chanteuse sang: “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.” \n  \nI was born in 1951\, and I didn’t hear the word “ecology” before 1968 or ’69. Around 1970\, the year of the first Earth Day\, it became evident to anyone who was curious and who read books that there were too many people on the planet for its “carrying capacity\,” and that we were not only cutting down all the trees and catching all the fish\, but we were poisoning the world with our toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. \n  \nHippies may have invented granola\, and coined the expression “Have a nice day!\,” but most of the things on my list of contributions made by the hippies are older things that hippies revived and gave momentum to\, like yoga\, massage and good vibes. Hippies weren’t the first vegetarians. Credit Buddha and Mahavira for that\, about 500 BC\, with their doctrines of nonviolence (ahimsa). Hippies didn’t discover organic food. Before pesticides were invented\, no one ate food with poison on it. And the alarm was sounded not by hippies\, but by Rachel Carson—definitely a non-hippie scientist. But the hippies read her book Silent Spring\, which was published in 1965\, and started organizations like the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (www.pesticide.org). \n  \nHippies started nonprofit organizations by the tens (or hundreds) of thousands. There are currently 1.5 million nonprofit corporations in the United States. I started two myself. There are an estimated 10 million non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the world. Hippies didn’t start them all\, but hippies are part of a long tradition of nonviolent revolutionary change from the bottom up. \n  \n“Hippies” is a word like “gypsies” that can refer to all kinds of people\, all over the world. There is a caricatured picture of the long-haired\, barefoot\, stoned hippie that the mainstream media perpetuates. And surely there is a shadow side to hippie culture. I’m just giving one hippie’s perspective on positive contributions that hippies have made\, and how the Hippie Way of understanding and being-in-the-world can help us to make the transition to the Post Fossil Fuel Era as gently and beautifully as possible. \n  \nI don’t want to convert anybody to Hippieism. I became a hippie effortlessly. I looked a certain way\, dressed a certain way\, and thought and acted in certain ways\, and people pointed at me and said: “Look\, Martha\, a hippie!” I wrote an email to a woman in Lebanon in 2012 and signed it: “peace & love\, Johnny.” She knew I was a hippie. \n  \nMy hair isn’t long at present\, and I only occasionally wear a hippie-style shirt from somewhere like Nepal or Africa or Guatemala. But I think like a hippie. I believe in Peace and Love—the core hippie values. I love Mother Earth and everyone who lives here—people\, plants\, animals\, clouds\, rivers\, stones. \n  \nThis subject is too big for this kind of short essay. Here are the most important hippie ideas: \n  \nNature is Sacred \nMoney isn’t Everything; (Money and Wealth are not the same thing) \nLocal Organic Agriculture \nLocal Economics \nCommunity \nPeace & Nonviolence \nChildren raised to be free\, rather than obedient \nMeditation & Mindfulness \nLive the life you love; (Do your own thing) \nLove Everyone! \n  \nI don’t have room to elaborate on all these ideas\, but I’ll say a few more things. We can’t continue to destroy the ecological health of the planet. Short term financial profit is not a good enough reason to do it. It’s suicidal. And omnicidal.  \n  \nOne hundred years from now\, food will be grown closer to where it is eaten. And most things we need will be made locally. The ecological damage inherent in large scale industrial production is unsustainable. The current economic system is unjust and inherently unstable. That which is unsustainable can’t be sustained. \n  \nIf all children were raised in a loving\, nurturing environment\, respected as people\, allowed to realize their full human potential and follow their hearts’ desires\, our world would be transformed utterly. It’s a tall order. To do it\, adults will have to become more loving and kind. At present\, at home and around the world\, physical\, psychological and emotional abuse of children is the norm. (See For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childrearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller.) \n  \nMeditation and mindfulness\, which hippies were instrumental in helping to bring from the East to the West\, can help us to co-create a Culture That Nurtures\, a culture of Peace\, Love\, Happiness & Understanding. \n  \nWe need to aspire to love everyone unconditionally. No exceptions. No enemies. No “others.” One Human Family. It’s easy! (Much easier than what we’re doing now.) As Bob Marley sang:  \n  \nOne love! \nOne heart! \n  \nI’ll close this issue of peace\, love\, happiness & understanding with some Good Vibes: \n  \nLove’s In Need Of Love Today \n  \n(Spoken.) “When you say that you kill in the \nName of God or in the name of Allah\, \nYou are truly cursing God\, for that is not of God. \nWhen you say that you hate in the name of God or Allah\, \nYou are lying to God\, for that is not of our Father. \nLet us pray that we see the light.” \n  \nGood morn or evening friends \nHere’s your friendly announcer \nI have serious news to pass on to everybody \nWhat I’m about to say \nCould mean the world’s disaster \nCould change your joy and laughter to tears and pain \n  \nIt’s that \nLove’s in need of love today \nDon’t delay \nSend your’s in right away \nHate’s goin’ round \nBreaking many hearts \nStop it please \nBefore it’s gone too far \n  \n—Stevie Wonder \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paZEqzrrO-4) \n* \n  \nWhat the World Needs Now \n  \nWhat the world needs now is love\, sweet love \nIt’s the only thing that there’s just too little of \nWhat the world needs now is love\, sweet love \nNo\, not just for some\, but for everyone \n  \n—Burt Bacharach  \n(sung by Dionne Warwick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg)  \n* \n  \nAll You Need Is Love \n  \nLove\, love\, love \nLove\, love\, love \nLove\, love\, love \n  \nThere’s nothing you can do that can’t be done \nNothing you can sing that can’t be sung \nNothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game \nIt’s easy \n  \nNothing you can make that can’t be made \nNo one you can save that can’t be saved \nNothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time \nIt’s easy \n  \n[chorus]  All you need is love \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love\, love \nLove is all you need \n  \n[repeat]  Love\, love\, love… \n  \n[chorus] \n  \nNothing you can know that isn’t known \nNothing you can see that isn’t shown \nNowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be \nIt’s easy \n  \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love\, love \nLove is all you need \n  \n—John Lennon \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg) \n* \n  \nGet Together \n  \nLove is but a song we sing\nFear’s the way we die\nYou can make the mountains ring\nOr make the angels cry\nThough the bird is on the wing\nAnd you may not know why \n[Chorus]  Come on people now\nSmile on your brother\nEverybody get together\nTry to love one another right now \nSome may come and some may go\nWe will surely pass\nWhen the one that left us here\nReturns for us at last\nWe are but a moment’s sunlight\nFading in the grass \n[Chorus] \n  \nIf you hear the song I sing \nYou will understand (listen!) \nYou hold the key to love and fear \nAll in your trembling hand \nJust one key unlocks them both \nIt’s there at your command \n  \n[Chorus]  Come on people now \nSmile on your brother \nEverybody get together \nTry to love one another right now \n  \n—Chet Powers (recorded by The Kingston Trio and by The Youngbloods) \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deW7_D5qems) \n* \n  \nAnd a hippie classic: \n  \nSan Francisco \n  \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nBe sure to wear some flowers in your hair \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nYou’re gonna meet some gentle people there \n  \nFor those who come to San Francisco \nSummertime will be a love-in there \nIn the streets of San Francisco \nGentle people with flowers in their hair \n  \nAll across the nation  \nSuch a strange vibration \nPeople in motion \n  \nThere’s a whole generation  \nWith a new explanation \nPeople in motion \nPeople in motion \n  \nFor those who come to San Francisco \nBe sure to wear some flowers in your hair \nIf you come to San Francisco \nSummertime will be a love-in there \n  \n—written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas (performed Scott McKenzie) \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U) \n  \n  \npeace & love \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-24-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200920T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200920T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20210317T173526Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210318T174422Z
UID:1869-1600614000-1600621200@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: PRISON THEATRE Book Tour with Ashley Lucas
DESCRIPTION:On Sunday\, September 20th\, we hosted a virtual book for Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration by Ashley Lucas. We had a good turnout on Zoom–Ashley was in Michigan\, Howard in New York\, Al and Nick in Seattle\, lots of friends in Portland and Carlos from Peru! Prison Theatre was published by Methuen Drama on September 3\, 2020. An interview with Ashley is featured in the September 3rd issue of the peace\, love\, happiness & understanding journal.  \n  \nThe fourth Shakespeare in Prisons Conference is highlighting Ashley’s book. Here are some links: \n  \nAshley being interviewed about her Prison Theatre book: \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76dfvyk_bB0&t=6s \nAshley talking with returned citizens who have performed in plays in prison: \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28mGM-3t30g \nConversation between Ashley and prison theatre directors. (Note. I’m in this one (JS)): \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGYQEqUIUdQ \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-prison-theatre-book-tour-with-ashley-lucas/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200917
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200924
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200917T234643Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120733Z
UID:1284-1600300800-1600905599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/17/20
DESCRIPTION:The Platters \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 17\, 2020 \n  \nIt’s smoky. For the past week\, Portland has had the worst air quality of any major city on the planet. And there’s a lot of competition! But\, for now\, our air is worse than the air in Delhi\, India or Shanghai\, China. Nancy and I have been joking about meeting in smoky places\, like in the song by the Corsairs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDvR-7ughY). And then\, of course\, there’s the Platters’ hit: “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2di83WAOhU). And we can’t forget Smokey Robinson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9cWgkpIZ4). My friend Nick Eldredge is a fan of Smokey Stover. Notary sojack. \n  \nAaron Gilbert wrote that he has been fighting fires. Kim Stafford sent me an email on Monday: \n  \nThis morning early\, reading about inmates on the fire lines\, it came to this. \n  \n                     Inmate Fights Fire  \n  \nWhen it gets really bad\, they want me out—out there \non that fire-line\, sweating sparks\, staring down flames \nI look up to as I dig like some fiend. Dollar an hour \nto be a crispy critter to save somebody’s home. Yeah\, they \nfigure the same jinx of brave and stupid got me convicted \nmight make me right to stand my ground for fire.  \n  \nLike these boots? Like this hickory handle I flick \nback and forth so my shovel slashes dirt\, leaves \nno food fire can eat? I like leaning back to see \nthat red sun staring through these skeleton trees \nlike bars in my cellblock window. And the wind \nbrings me smoke for free. Free?  \n  \nWhen my sentence ends\, you think I’ll walk free? \nYou think they’ll look at me to say\, “He’s good”? \nThey plot their own fire-line to keep me on the dark side. \nGot it? Like my face tattoo says “Bad Man. Don’t Hire.” \nYou can walk out the prison gate\, but try walking through \nthe reputation wall to freedom after they call you felon.  \n  \nI served my time. Serious good behavior. And after? \nGive me a chance. Or shall I say\, I’ve been burned. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nPart of that poem reminded me of Randall Brown’s song “One Second Chance.” I met Randall in the Arts In Prison group at Columbia River Correctional Institution. At one point in his life he was living in Nashville and earning his living writing songs. Just as Kim adopted a persona for his poem\, Randall\, who never imagined he would actually go to prison\, wrote a song about a guy who has just gotten out of prison. Here are the lyrics: \n  \nIt says here you’re from Houston \nAnd you’re certified to drive a truck \nBut it doesn’t say what you’ve been doin’ \nFor the last five years \nThen he watched his eyes keep readin’ \nThen he watched his eyes look up \nAnd he watched another job he needed just disappear \n  \n‘Cause when they get to the line \nHave you been convicted of a crime \nThey say thanks for comin’ and they don’t call you back \nI ain’t askin’ for every job under the sun \nI just want one \nSecond chance \n  \nOn August 22nd  \nLittle Jacob’s turnin’ nine \nBut his momma moved him \nA half a state away \nI left another message \nOn her phone at home last night \nAnd she finally had her lawyer \nCall today \n  \nShe knows he can’t afford  \nTo take this thing to court \nAnd I’m tryin’ hard to make her understand \nI’m not askin’ for every weekend of every month \nI just want one \nSecond chance \n  \nI was young and I was stupid \nI regret it everyday \nI ain’t saying I didn’t do it \nBut I’ve paid for my mistakes \nIt’s a lost and empty feeling when they don’t want you around \nI’ve finally got my freedom but what good is it now \n  \nThere’s some day’s when it feels like it’s been a 100 years \nSometimes it seems like only yesterday \nWe were painting Jacob’s nursery \nCounting days until he was here \nNext thing I knew I’d thrown it all away \nNow I know I can’t go back \nTo the life I used to have \nWhen I still held the whole world in my hands \nI had a job I had a wife I had a son \nNow I just want one \nSecond chance \n  \n—Randall Brown \n* \nRandall says:  \n  \nI’ve been out almost 2 years. My current job is foreman for a construction company. I’ve just accepted a position as an operations manager for a commercial construction company in Portland.  \nWhen I got out I was nervous because of the stigma we get as inmates. But my reentry to society went great. I was able to find work within a few days. I did get divorced while in\, but I’ve found a woman who accepts me for me and not my past.  \n* \n  \nThinking about smoke and fires\, I naturally thought of Gary Snyder’s “Smokey the Bear Sutra”: \n  \nSMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA \n  \nOnce in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago\, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings\, the walking beings\, the flying beings\, and the sitting beings–even the grasses\, to the number of thirteen billion\, each one born from a seed\, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth. \n“In some future time\, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake\, Walden Pond\, Mt. Rainier\, Big Sur\, Everglades\, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River\, Mississippi River\, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head\, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature.” \n“The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite\, to be mountains\, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it.” \nAnd he showed himself in his true form of \nSMOKEY THE BEAR \n     A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs\, showing that he is aroused and watchful. \n     Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments\, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war; \n     His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display–indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer\, rabbits\, chipmunks\, snakes\, dandelions\, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma; \n     Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers\, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys; \n     Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west\, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness\, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth: all true paths lead through mountains— \n     With a halo of smoke and flame behind\, the forest fires of the kali-yuga\, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind; \n     Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her; \n     Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs\, smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism; \n     Indicating the task: his followers\, becoming free of cars\, houses\, canned foods\, universities\, and shoes\, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body\, Speech\, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash. \nWrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him… \nHE WILL PUT THEM OUT. \nThus his great Mantra: \n     Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana  \n     Sphataya hum traka ham mam \n     “I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND  \n     BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED” \nAnd he will protect those who love the woods and rivers\, Gods and animals\, hobos and madmen\, prisoners and sick people\, musicians\, playful women\, and hopeful children: \nAnd if anyone is threatened by advertising\, air pollution\, television\, or the police\, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR’S WAR SPELL: \nDROWN THEIR BUTTS \nCRUSH THEIR BUTTS \nDROWN THEIR BUTTS \nCRUSH THEIR BUTTS \nAnd SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel. \nNow those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada. \n  \nWill help save the planet Earth from total oil slick. \nWill enter the age of harmony of man and nature. \nWill win the tender love and caresses of men\, women\, and beasts. \nWill always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at. \n  \nAND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT \nthus we have heard. \n  \n(may be reproduced free forever)  \n  \n—Gary Snyder \n* \nThat reminds me of a joke… \n  \nWhat do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common? \nSame middle name. \n  \nAnd now it’s time to sing along to the Smokey the Bear Song with Eddy Arnold: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myz93sXW66Y \n  \npeace & love \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-17-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200915
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201015
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200915T225612Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211130T020006Z
UID:1274-1600128000-1602719999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue
DESCRIPTION:Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nSeptember 15\, 2020 \n  \nWelcome to our first meditation and mindfulness dialogue! The numbers below refer to passages from the book Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh. (JS) \n  \n#159  A Healing Mantra \nAlthough I myself am locked within walls & a structure of rules\, the cosmos still sustains me and it still nourishes me. I am isolated yet I feel no alienation from the world. I cannot touch a tree or a cloud\, but yet I still feel them. I know they are there for me just outside the walls. For now\, my friends & my family are the light of the sun\, and the door of my heart is filled with love\, light & sun from theirs. Being stripped to the simplest form of oneself will allow you to be filled full of all the beauty that the cosmos has to offer. Empty yourself to be filled with the wonders of life. \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n#49 – What is a leaf? \nIs one of my favorites! In segregation we have paintings that are of different scenes. At first it was cool\, then I and others got over it. But since putting this wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh in perspective you see more than a painting. For it opens my eyes to the time\, the painter\, the painter’s years of art skills\, everything down to what makes paint…paint. There are so many miracles that came together to make these paintings! It’s amazing. Now I try to be mindful of what miracles come into place to make people I meet\, foods I eat. Being conscious of what had to come together to create your best friend or your favorite food gives you much more appreciation for how they come to be in your life. \nThank you for giving me a chance\, Johnny. I’m really working on myself. My goal is day by day. (Today be less ego-oriented.) Trying to not care who judges me for being me. Because that’s not my problem\, I am happy and peaceful. It’s been a sacrifice\, but as I’m learning sacrifice is the way to a peaceful life! \nPeace Love Happiness \n—Jake Green \n* \nOriginally\, I had no intention of sharing this\, as it was written by inspiration to myself as though it were a summation of what I see as the core of my soul\, for lack of better words\, and also like a mantra and daily meditation. Here it is: \n  \nI am the good man. \nI am the good decisions that I make. \nI am compassion\, I do not fake. \nI am kindness\, I am love. \nI am by choice\, not by chance. \nI am intent\, not happenstance. \nI am in servitude of good. \nI am alive and I am living. \nI am grateful I am. \n  \n—Joseph Opyd \n* \n#6  Concentration \nConcentration is an interesting concept in prison—Why should I want to concentrate on my situation being what it is? But as I’ve grown spiritually\, I’ve come to realize how useful concentration can be.  \nThere is a lot to complain about in life\, but there is also a lot to enjoy! Concentration\, or focusing on what I think as I’m thinking it\, and what I feel as I’m feeling it\, has taught me that my life is richer if I concentrate on the “good” and the “bad”—accepting both for what they are and their role in my life. The passage in the book (#6) talks of the power of concentration in creating happiness at any time. I do think this is important\, however the more useful aspect of concentration for me is being able to be fully—(or as close as I can come for now)—aware of the situations that I find myself in\, and what ripples I make in that environment. Concentration\, or mindfulness\, has also helped me embrace the “bad” parts of life. By being mindful of the roots of my reactions and feelings when a “bad” thing happens I have learned to cope\, embrace and/or overcome these situations\, while gaining a little more skill in mindfulness. \nMy point is that by being mindful I have learned that there is value in all situations. While I suffer I learn\, while I’m happy I learn. Mindfulness is our tool to dig through the layers of our minds and be really truly in the moment\, allowing us to remove reaction and embrace each event for what it is truly worth\, “good\,” or “bad.” \n—Cody Dalton \n* \nI find myself\, my soul\, my beliefs and my being saturated in belonging—belonging to a love so deep\, so real\, so unreal. Coming from a life of nothing and going to a life full of love I never knew I could be a part of. A love that I knew was there\, there for others\, but for me…well\, it was only window shopping. \nNow I long to be drenched in the core of my soul\, always and forever drowning in this love\, this love that has pierced my cosmic veil. This love for all\, for beauty\, for the ones who opened so many doors into and onto the mind\, heart and truth that dwells within my being. \n  \n#191  Love is Understanding \nWhen we do not understand things we fear them. There was a time for myself\, and not too long ago\, when I was fearful of myself. Fearful of who I used to be\, and fearful of the things I had done. Fearful of what I was capable of. I did not fully understand myself\, because I was hiding from myself. When I opened up and allowed someone in\, someone who is truly there for me—only then did I have the strength to face myself and understand why I did what I did\, who I am\, and who I was. Only then did I find the compassion to forgive my demons\, and leave them\, and forgive myself. Love is understanding not just our own faults\, but the faults of others—loving them and loving ourselves. \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n#4  Ambassador of the Cosmos \nI love Thich Nhat Hanh’s word “interbeing” and what it suggests to my imagination—the interdependence and interconnectedness of everyone and everything! In this passage he doesn’t use the word\, but he describes how when he looks deeply into a piece of bread\, he sees the sunshine\, the rain and the earth without which there would be no bread. Some people imagine that they are somehow “independent\,” but with every breath we take\, oxygen revitalizes our blood\, and we exhale carbon dioxide which nourishes the trees\, which produce oxygen… I’m glad I get to be part of this whole miraculous process that has no beginning or end. \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \nWhat is it that you really know? Not just what you have been told or what you think or have read or surmise but something that you deeply know. And how is that different from the other kind of knowing where you think it or have heard it? I think starting with what your base understanding is one of the most crucial steps in meditation. Knowing your own inner ground….and what you don’t know. Write it down. And maybe a few months or years from now you can come back to it and see if anything has changed. \n  \nWhat Do I Know? \n  \nClosing my eyes\, \na silent darkness\, \nlight \nat the edges. \nMy breath moves \nup and down\,  \nholding each moment\, \ninhalation \nthen release. \nThe human heart \nis quixotic\, \nmalleable\, \nalmost like a berry \nin the palm of my hand. \nIn my ears\, \na deeper space \nthat stretches out\, \na disappearing \nreverberation. \nWe touch nothingness. \n  \n—Deborah Buchanan\, from Layers of Sediment \n* \nWhen I invited people who don’t live in prison to be part of our new meditation and mindfulness community\, I included Jake Green’s meditations on “What is a Leaf?” Scott Teitsworth was reminded by Jake’s “sweet words” of a passage from a book he edited by his guru\, Nitya Chaitanya Yati. (JS) \nEven when you do something as simple as sip a cup of coffee or tea\, think about what you are doing. Your morning tea begins in some far-off land\, where very poor people get up at four o’clock. They crowd onto a battered bus\, then walk to the plantation where ripe leaves are waiting to cut into their fingers. Leeches climb on them to drink their blood. All day long they fill their baskets\, then they go home to a meager supper. The tea leaves are hauled to huge mills employing hundreds of people\, where they are cleaned\, dried\, and made into the kind of blend you want. Then it is put in tins or boxes\, and sent by truck down the mountains and out to the coast. The shipyard is filled with more poor laborers\, who load the tea onboard ships. Then across the ocean it comes to your port.The distributors parcel and package it and send it to your local market\, where you buy it and take it home. Thus the whole world participates in one cup of tea. If you like sugar with your tea\, there is another world of production and distribution behind that spoonful of white grains you tip into the cup. So should you not look into the numinous aspect of just a cup of tea? \nIf you become sensitive to the numinous aspect of life\, gratitude will naturally fill your whole being. Each time you put a morsel of food in your mouth or sip your tea or coffee\, you will become so grateful to the corporate life of mankind for giving you so much for so little effort. You will see nothing but the unity underlying the many forms of the world. Great will be your joy to share\, to give\, to receive. Then you won’t fight. The belligerency comes in where you see only your own personal interests—“my home\,” “my family\,” or just“my self.” The superficial form of your self interest should be subsumed in the ocean of the general interest\, and you should feel the world is your country\, your home. That humanity is your family\, filled with your brothers and sisters. \nThe Guru* wants us to really feel this: to stand united\, to find peace and become peacemakers. We have to first be peacemakers in our own lives. We bring peace to ourselves. By putting all the peaces together\, we make peace with the world.If you fragment it\, you lose it. So let us gather all the peaces together in one meaning\, in one divine thread of love and compassion and understanding. \n  \n—from That Alone: The Core of Wisdom by Nitya Chaitanya Yati pp. 140-141 \n*Narayana Guru (1856-1928). This book is a long commentary inspired by a philosophical poem by Narayana Guru\, Ātmopadeśa Shatakam. \n—Scott Teitsworth \n* \n#7   Why we suffer \nThich Nhat Hanh reminds me that all things change\, and I will suffer if I refuse this truth\, like a stone in the river trying to stop water’s journey\, I will be rolled and all my rough edges worn away. When he speaks of the river\, I remember a time we went to a back channel and wandered along in a canoe\, and I entered a kind of trance of well-being as the river flowed and sunlight splashed everything alive. When I suffer sometimes\, when I wake at night and remember my failures\, I go back to the river in my mind\, and try to see it for what it is: \n  \nCall me the scruffy hermit of willow islands. \nCall me the skipping stone eager to squander all \nfor a few joyful episodes of buoyancy. I could be \ncounting money? I could be a hero of fame? \nCall me one lost to water’s wonders\, far gone \ndown a back channel gaping at water beads \ndripping brilliant from the paddle’s blade.  \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \nI look through my study cards. Today’s contemplation is “Observation of the Mind.” Do I have solid mindfulness established\, or is my mind more of the scattered quality? To what degree are desire/lust\, anger\, and confusion present or absent in my mind? This is not about judgement; as humans\, we spend so much time with these mental qualities that we might as well use them as meditation tools. This is more like a checklist\, is a quality present or absent? The card reminds me: all mental contents arise and pass away. Can I observe that right now? Can I see that my thoughts now are different than my thoughts 10 minutes ago? Bonus points if I can train myself to have some awareness of others\, that other people also have rapidly changing mental qualities. “Your True Home” (YTH) speaks about this exercise at item 120\, “Mindfulness of the Mind.” Another exercise I can do with my mind\, and its contents\, is to ask if current thoughts are beneficial to my wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around me\, or if they detract from wellbeing. Again\, this is not about judgement or criticism\, it is about taking inventory of the mind. Flipping through YTH\, I find this in item 47. \n—Shad Alexander \n* \nSpaciousness \nIt is 4:45 am. A small glimmer of light in the eastern sky\, but a mass of stars still predominates in the dome above. My favorite time of the day: mornnight. My mind is rested and fresh\, still empty. \nI have two and a half days of precious spaciousness. My husband is away for a couple days of bike riding while I had planned to go away camping with women friends. My outing was cancelled because of high winds\, falling trees and fire danger. David said\, “Oh well\, I won’t go if you’re going to be here alone.” I said\, with a duplicitous smile\, “Oh no\, you go ahead. You don’t want to disappoint your friends by not showing up. I’ll be fine.” \nDon’t get me wrong; I love my husband\, but he should know\, after 36 years\, that I treasure these infrequent\, but cherished times of aloneness. And this one is serendipitous spaciousness. I am never lonely being alone. I am filled with empty spaciousness. The house feels bigger. It is breathing and expanding\, and I breathe and expand\, in tandem\, like singing a harmonious duet. \nDuet. Round: In my family we played duets on the piano and sang rounds. “Go to Joan Glover and tell her I love her\, and by the light of the moon I will come to her.” Repeat one bar after the first has been sung. Etc. And\, “Orléans\, Beaugency\, Notre-Dame de Cléry\, Vendôme\, Vendôme…”  Sung as a round\, it sounds like cathedral bells tolling throughout the city. We sang dozens of rounds. \nSpaciousness allows my mind to remember things like this. My mind can rest or wander; either way\, it awakens refreshed\, mindful. \n—Jude Russell \n* \nReading some passages in Your True Home\, I was again impressed with how beautifully Thich Nhat Hanh expresses complex Buddhist concepts in clear\, easy to understand language. One of these concepts that touched me this morning was #9: I Have Arrived. So much of our lives are concerned with striving–we want to learn things\, we want to get better at things\, we want to excel\, we want to create. And this striving is wonderful: it has produced our art\, science\, architecture\, literature\, airplanes\, medicine…our civilization\, the civilizations that came before us and those that will come after us. But the most important thing about life–greater than any discovery\, creation\, or attainment– is the simple fact that we are alive. When we’re in great danger\, or facing a serious illness\, we often remember that nothing is more important than protecting our precious life. But the practice of meditation is taking time to appreciate this fact without the stimulus of danger. If we open our eyes and ears we can remember how fantastic it is\, how precious\, how exciting\, how beautiful\, how crazy it is that we are here. We have arrived. We are not only alive but we can be aware of our life and we can appreciate our life. Meditation practice is taking time to appreciate this amazing fact.  \n—Howard Thoresen \n* \nI’ve tried to learn meditation a few different times and I’ve never succeeded. My self-discipline is spotty\, my posture’s always off\, and I forget the proper hand positions. My body gets uncomfortable and my brain rebels against meditating. My thoughts increase instead of quieting down. Plus\, I’m not a very Buddhist-like person\, thanks to my intemperate ways. I gave up trying to meditate years ago.   \nAfter giving up\, though\, a funny thing started happening. I noticed that my mind would sometimes quiet down on its own\, without much effort from me. When I’m outside I get absorbed by the awesome fullness of life. When I sit in my house and pay attention I feel content with my heartbeat and the peace in my local airspace. When I let my thinking and my judgements be calm the outer and inner worlds do just fine. This balance doesn’t last indefinitely; there are things to do—groceries\, e-mails\, etc. But I can return pretty easily to what Alan Watts calls “sitting quietly\, doing nothing.”  I’ll leave the meditating to the pros. I’m simply grateful for the moment\, and being part of it\, and having people to share it with. \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n78  The Wounded Child \nI was planning on writing about another part of the book\, but I read this\, this morning\, and it kind of hit me like I needed to write about this instead. \nI guess a good question is: what is the child inside of us? I suppose it is part of us\, the child that is\, just because we grow into adulthood we don’t necessarily leave that child behind—he or she comes with us. I believe children are more susceptible\, at a young age\, especially to trauma. I think a traumatic experience as a child can have more of an effect than experiencing that same trauma at an older age. \nI sometimes struggle with a lack of self worth\, and have some insecurities. I am sure most people do\, and maybe being in prison just heightens them. For instance\, sometimes I struggle to even call my family. I will convince myself that they don’t want to hear from me and they have better things to do than talking to me. \nI have recently reconnected with a girlfriend from my past. Talking to her has been great\, but when she says\, “I love you\,” in my mind I say that doesn’t make sense. I have made so many mistakes. Am I worthy of Love? I feel I have worked very hard these last fourteen years to become a better human being. I try to be kind and compassionate to others. Is that enough? I don’t have much else. What if I screw up again? I think maybe that is the child inside of me that is scared. \nI think in these moments of insecurity if we are able to recognize the source\, and why we are feeling this way\, we can begin to heal them. I realize I have done some amazing things with my time in prison. I have met some amazing people along the way that have taught me so much about life and its true meaning. I am not angry anymore and have become a very patient\, understanding person. Maybe sometimes too patient—it may take me a couple days to answer someone’s  question sometimes. I want to make sure I understand what they are asking before I answer though. Geez! I do truly believe that all humans are worthy of being loved\, so I guess that includes myself. Dang it! I know the best thing I can do for myself is continue to live a healthy clean life\, love others\, and surround myself with like-minded people—and when she answers my call\, enjoy it for all it’s worth in the here and now. My hope is that someday I will be a successful productive member of society\, and when that child inside comes calling I can reassure him that we have the tools to live a healthy life\, and everything is going to be okay. \n—Aaron Gilbert \n* \nYour True Home: It is in the now\, the breath\, the fully aware moment. I can’t add to or take away from it. And\, if I hold on to it\, I get stuck because new “now” moments have begun piling up behind this one. If I touch it\, let it go—not holding on to anything—then I can flow from one now to the next\, feeling everything.  I see a connection to Kristen’s topic of “Contentment.” When I can be content with life as it is\, instead of wasting energy with how it was\, I have one less roadblock to the “now” moment.” When I can allow my guard down\, for myself at least (if not for others)\, I can enter that moment to begin the experience as it is. Then I can breathe and allow each “now” moment to come and go as they wish. \nIn spite of all this “now” mindfulness\, “in the moment” talk is that I can’t\, (won’t or don’t)\, just let go of ego\, barriers\, worries past and present\, judgements\, etc. Well\, not for as long as I think\, or tell myself I should. I tell myself that I “want” to do this. I attend the Zen practice sessions so I can practice being more skilled at this—sometimes I even succeed at something\, which leads me back to all that I judge. (Thanks\, Jake.) I “need” to let go. Once in a while\, I do somehow\, more by happy accident than skillful action\, manage to set everything down\, breathe\, and contentedly exist. The more often I struggle with this\, the more often I manage to stumble into aware\, conscious breathing\, where thoughts come and go without my bidding\, or following another white rabbit. Someday\, I want to arrive at my True Home. \nEven this work is plagued by ego\, self-aware judgement\, criticism\, worry about the opinions of others—that I don’t somehow measure up to some arbitrary standard. (All of this is more in my head than in reality.) It all comes from awareness that I am no expert\, guru\, or skilled practitioner of mindfulness\, but find myself at the beginning. Always At The Beginning!!—just like everyone else: breathing\, just breathing\, being gentle and kind when I see I have followed another wild hare off into some dark forest and away from my thoughtful breath. \n—Michel Deforge \n* \nThis is one of my favorite guided meditations from Thich Nhat Hanh.  \nIt begins with his signature meditation on being aware of our most basic source of life. \nTake three deep breaths then breathing normally\, gently\, follow someone saying to you the following\, or say to yourself:  \n  \n“Breathing in I am aware that I am breathing in.  Breathing out I am aware of breathing out.”  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a flower. \nBreathing out\, I feel fresh. \nFlower/Fresh  (say this to yourself\, for three in and out breaths) \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a mountain. \nBreathing out\, I feel solid. \nMountain/Solid \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a mountain lake. \nBreathing out\, I reflect things as they are. \nWater/Reflecting \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as the sky or space. \nBreathing out\, I feel free. \nSpace/Free. \n  \nSome of my reflections on this practice. \nOn being a flower: \nWhen I sit and see myself as a plum blossom\, I feel delicate and careful\, I want to be aware of the subtle fragrance and the fresh air. I feel still and listen for the insects and the breeze in the tree.   \nLater\, when I want to thank someone\, like my yoga teacher or a friend that brings a gift\,  I remember feeling like a flower\, and I will put my palms together and offer a “flower bud” of thanks.  \nOn being a mountain: \nMoving from feeling like something delicate to feeling solid as a mountain\, grounds me and I feel a strength\,  and a knowing  that makes me feel more steady than any fleeting emotions.  \nOn being a mountain lake: \nThe water is still\, we can reflect what is aroud us\, like trees on the shore that are inverted but without distortion.  Such a sense of calm.   \nOn being the sky : \nThe feeling of spaciousness fills me with each breath.  Beyond judgement\, I feel space in and out\, and appreciate the space we need to give one another to be fully human and unique. \nThis simple meditation moves us through an expansive experience with just four images that are familiar to us all\, because we are alive on this planet.   \nThere is a song that goes along with this meditation\, that can help tune us up.   I will find a copy with the music and send it next time if you all are interested.  \nI hope you will find some peace\,  be well.   \nA plum blossom to you\,  Katie \n(I wish I could send you some plums that are growing now on the plum tree) \n—Katie Radditz \n* \nOur dialogue begins. Thank you. We’re off to a good start!  \nToday\, on September 15th\, I’m mailing this to just under a dozen people living in prison and emailing it to just under two dozen people who aren’t. It’s a conversation. Feel free to write and email me in response to something somebody shared. That will be the basis of the next letter\, which will go out on October 15th. Also\, between now and then\, please send me your ruminations on passages from Your True Home or other poems or texts. Or just your thoughts. Or a poem. \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in peace and love. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200910
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200917
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200910T203440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120632Z
UID:1258-1599696000-1600300799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/10/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 10\, 2020 \n  \nThe Paradise of Books \n  \nCervantes says that Don Quixote stayed up day and night reading books until he fried his brain and went completely mad. The hero of Salman Rushdie’s latest novel\, Quichotte\, has watched so much television that he can’t tell what’s real from what’s not. \nSince June 7th\, I have been hosting a Zoom gathering on Sunday afternoons at 3 pm\, Bibliophiles Unanimous! \n  \n (https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous/). \n  \n We’ve been having a lot of fun with it. It’s not like a “regular book club\,” where each month everyone agrees to read the same book and then talk about it. I think the impetus for that kind of book group is that we all hunger for more connection with each other\, especially a shared cultural framework that is not limited to Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. It’s why\, when we’ve just read a book or seen a movie\, we say to all our friends and to anyone who will listen: You must read this book! (Or see this movie!) \n  \nOur weekly Zoom gathering is a meandering dialogue. Topics have ranged from poetry\, to books with pictures\, to oddball books\, to books that changed the way you see and experience the world.  \n  \nOur house is filled with books. The bookshelves are filled to overflowing. I’m sitting in a nest of books. I think of many of the books and their authors as my friends. Even though I’m just sitting here\, I can easily imagine myself to be walking along the open road with Walt Whitman by my side. On my life journey\, he has taught me so many things! Like this one: “I am not contained between my hat and boots.” And: “All truths wait in all things.” And: “Seeing\, hearing\, feeling are miracles\, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.” It’s good to know these things. \n  \nThings I read are constantly changing my inner landscape. Want to see the world in a new way? Try this: \n  \nIn the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge\, it is written that animals are divided into:  \n  \n\nthose that belong to the Emperor\,\nembalmed ones\,\nthose that are trained\,\nsuckling pigs\,\nmermaids\,\nfabulous ones\,\nstray dogs\,\nthose included in the present classification\,\nthose that tremble as if they were mad\,\ninnumerable ones\,\nthose drawn with a very fine camelhair brush\,\nothers\,\nthose that have just broken a flower vase\,\nthose that from a long way off look like flies.\n\n  \n—from Other Inquisitions\, by Jorge Luis Borges \n* \n  \nAs a young man\, Jack Kerouac’s books On the Road and The Dharma Bums gave me permission to explore the big world\, follow my heart’s desire\, and live a life relatively free of societal constraints. \n  \nAnd then there were books that furthered my exploration of the nature and meaning of my human existence. The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda\, inspired me to become a vegetarian\, and to begin meditating in quest of samādhi—“the peace which passeth understanding.” J. Krishnamurti spoke of “freedom from the known\,” and other radical ideas. The I Ching\, Tao Te Ching\, and the poems of Han Shan were a window into the ancient Chinese ways of seeing and being. More recently\, I’ve added the Hsin Hsin Ming of Seng Ts’an to that list. Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind\, Beginner’s Mind taught many hippies of my generation about Zen meditation. I’ve learned about Haiku\, Zen and Japanese Culture from R. H. Blyth. My favorite books by him are Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics and Volume 1 of his four-volume series\, Haiku\, titled Eastern Culture. \n  \nI learned about Advaita Vedanta from the Bhagavad Gita\, Talks With Ramana Maharshi\, the Vivekachudāmani of Shankara and The Philosophy of the Upanishads by Paul Deussen. Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy shows how the world’s religions express the same fundamental truths. Joseph Campbell’s vast knowledge of world mythology also illuminates how “Elementary Ideas” are given different costumes or masks in different cultures. (I enjoy listening to talks he gave more than reading his books—they bring out his lively mind and engaging personality better.) \n  \nFor now\, I’ll mention just a few books that gave me a better understanding of the world in which we live. Woman and Nature by Susan Griffin woke me up to the centuries of oppression of women by men\, and gave me a sense of the importance of listening to women’s voices and helping to co-create a more just world. Magical Child and Evolution’s End by Joseph Chilton Pearce\, and For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty In Childrearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller gave me unforgettable lessons in how our systematic physical\, emotional and psychological abuse of children thwarts human potential and sows seeds for every kind of violence—from suicide to genocide. In my view\, the one thing that the world needs most is more lovingkindness. \n* \n  \nSome poems came my way this week. Josh Barnes sent me this sonnet: \n  \nSonnet #1 \n  \nEach snowdrift piles higher than the last\, \nThe ground’s surface has long frozen over; \nA frigid picture—Nature’s wild past \nThat beckons the heart—taunting\, Come closer; \nBut as times change the beauty is melted\, \nLeaving a dreadful Silence in its stead\, \nFor the ones that would’ve truly felt it \nAre lying inside their graves\, long dead; \nBut beauty shed need not mean beauty lost\, \nAnd life has many a surprise in store\, \nLike rivers that spring from ‘neath the frost\, \nThen freely flow from the glaciers to pour; \nEndless the stream of life in its beauty\, \nThe circle of life doing its duty. \n  \n—Joshua Barnes \n* \n  \nDoug Marx shared some poems from his “Sheltering In Place” series. He prefaced his reading by saying that the poems are not his voice\, but the voice of a persona. He said it’s as if these poems are being dictated to him. Here’s one: \n  \nSheltering in Place #12   \n  \nThe crows are freaking out about the mask. \nWe’re not speaking.  \n  \nNow they squawk \nand flee me when they see me coming up the walk \nin my orange and yellow \ntie-dye pandemic disguise.   \n  \nI can’t blame them. \nThey can’t see what I’m hiding from \nand neither can I.  \nThey don’t know the real me anymore \nand neither do I.  \n  \nI don’t ask why\, I just don’t want to die.  \n  \nHow explain four million \nnine hundred and eighteen thousand \nfour hundred and twenty  \ndown\,  \n  \nor one hundred and sixty thousand \ntwo hundred and ninety \ngone.  \n  \nTheir world isn’t falling apart right now. \nThe spider webs are still holding.  \n  \nFlashbacks of the old life come at me \nlike phantom reds and blues  \nin the mind of a man five months blind.  \n  \nSome humans freak out about the mask too  \nand would as soon kill you as wear one.  \n  \nI can’t explain anything to them either. \nThe death look in their eyes terrifies me.  \n  \nWhen I see one coming I squawk \nand cross the street.  \n  \nWelcome to the masquerade. \nYou are on your own. \n  \n—Doug Marx \n* \n  \nDear Readers:  \n  \nPlease send me your poems and short writings\, or poems and short writings you love\, and which have inspired you\, that were written by somebody else. \nWe’ll end this issue with a poem that Nick Eldredge wrote. It hangs on his wall as a reminder… \n  \n¡Gracias! \n  \nJuanito \n  \nYARD SALE  \nsat & sun 9 to 4 \neverything I know \nmust go \nslightly used certainties \npreowned philosophies \nrefurbished realities \nbargains galore \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-10-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200903
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200910
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200903T165355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200903T165606Z
UID:1233-1599091200-1599695999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/3/20
DESCRIPTION:After The Winter’s Tale at Two Rivers prison in 2014: Ashley Lucas and Jeffrey Sanders.  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \n  \nSeptember 3\, 2020 \n  \nInterview with Ashley Lucas \n  \nJohnny Stallings.  Your book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration comes out today\, published by Methuen Drama. Can you tell our readers what it’s about and how you came to write it? \n  \nAshley Lucas.  I traveled to ten different countries to see as much theatre inside prisons as I could. When I started\, I thought the book might be more focused on how theatre in prisons gets made\, which is certainly something the book discusses\, but I realized when I really started talking to incarcerated people about their work that what I most wanted to know was why theatre matters to them. The vast majority of people I met in my research had little to no relationship to theatre prior to their incarceration\, yet somehow once they started doing theatre inside the walls\, it became deeply important to them. I wanted to find out what that was about. Most of these folks didn’t see themselves as training to become professional theatre makers after their release from prison. They told me stories that revealed that they were using the theatre to accomplish other things besides the staging of plays. They were building communities\, developing professional skills\, creating social change\, and maintaining hope as a way to survive the harsh world of the prison. The book endeavors to make the people that I met feel alive and present to readers who likely will never get to meet the extraordinary folks I encountered in prisons. \n  \nThe process of how I came to write the book is multifaceted. On a very practical level\, back in 2013\, Methuen Drama invited me to write a book about theatre in prisons around the world\, but in a certain sense I had begun this journey long before that invitation arrived to mark the official start of my research. My father spent twenty years in Texas prisons\, and in a sense I grew up in prison visiting rooms. I started acting in community theatre productions when I was in middle school\, just a few years before my father’s incarceration began. In that sense\, both theatre making and visiting prisons have been major cultural practices that shaped my life from adolescence. Nearly a decade into my father’s incarceration\, I was in graduate school working on my Ph.D. in theatre and ethnic studies when I decided to write an interview-based play about people who have family members in prisons. When I started performing my play Doin’ Time: Through the Visiting Glass as a one-woman show\, I started getting invited into prisons to share it with incarcerated audiences. People began introducing me to other folks who made theatre in prisons\, and that was how I came to realize that theatre was actually happening inside these facilities. My work as a scholar shifted to follow my artistic practice\, and I began to research prison theatre companies. That led me to a job at the University of Michigan\, which recruited me to teach theatre and also become the Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP). (I’m now the Former Director and continue to teach in the program\, while the fabulous Nora Krinitsky serves as the current Director.) My work as a playwright/performer\, administrator of a prison arts program\, teacher of students who facilitate theatre workshops in prisons\, and scholar who studies such programs informs how and why I wrote this book. Fundamentally\, my experiences as the daughter of someone who served two decades in prison shapes my approach to writing this book more than anything else. \n  \nJohnny.  Before asking my next questions\, I want to mention that the Prison Creative Arts Project is the largest prison arts organization on Planet Earth. So\, my next questions… After seven years of travel and work on the book\, are you excited that it’s coming out today? Who do you hope will read it? What do you hope the book will do to them? \n  \nAshley.  I am so grateful that I was able to finish all of my research travels as planned before the advent of the global pandemic. It would have made me so sad to miss out on meeting any of the extraordinary theatre companies and artists I had the honor to meet in my journeys. I am both excited and a little overwhelmed that the book is finally coming out. At the PCAP we’re just starting new correspondence programming in lieu of the work we have always done in prisons in person. It’s very sad not to be able to be physically present with all of the people we care about inside prisons\, but the fact that we are being allowed to start this new correspondence programming gives us the ability to send books into prisons for the first time in PCAP’s thirty-year history. We’re sending all participants in our theatre workshops a copy of my book\, and I pray that the men and women who receive it will find it both a consolation and an inspiration in this terribly difficult time. It’s always really tough to be in prison\, but the pandemic adds layers of pain\, fear\, and physical torment that are not always part of an incarcerated person’s daily life. Good books have helped me through the hardest moments of my life (and are helping me now). I pray that my book can be a layer of support for people on both sides of prison walls who really need it right now. I think Prison Theatre has the potential to do this for folks because it’s full of stories of people who have used their artistic talents as mechanisms for survival in very trying circumstances.  \n  \nJohnny.  I get the impression from your book that you are also making a case to prison administrators and the general public that theatre in prison is more than just a way for prison residents to while away the time. It has value. You’ve already said that prison theatre helps to build community\, develop professional skills\, create social change\, and maintain hope. Let’s talk about love. In your travels\, in 2014\, you visited Open Hearts Open Minds’ production of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale  at Two Rivers prison in Umatilla\, Oregon\, and you write about that experience in your book. What happened in the Visiting Room where the play was performed? \n  \nAshley.  Yes\, I hope that the book has many audiences. I hope that prison administrators with open hearts who truly wish for the world to be a safer place rather than a more punitive one will read the book and see how much theatre programming can do to improve the lives of everyone inside the prison—the incarcerated folks and the staff—and the lives of those connected to them in the outside world (ie. their families and the general public coming to see the plays). \n  \nI am so happy that you brought up love! I find that people are terrified to talk about the concept of love in connection with prisons. There seems to be an automatic assumption that the only kind of love that can happen in prisons is sexual\, romantic\, or aggressive\, and of course\, the truth is that because people in prison are complex human beings\, just like the rest of us\, all forms of love and affection exist inside prisons. We love our friends\, our mentors\, the people who become our chosen families. A prison that recognizes the humanity of the people inside it and actually wants them to be empathetic and driven to make positive contributions to the lives of others should actually cultivate a broad range of opportunities for safe and loving relationships among people\, in much the same ways that a good school\, religious congregation\, or community organization would. The theatre is an extraordinary vehicle for emotional openness\, vulnerability\, and love. If we can’t enable one another to be vulnerable in safe ways\, then we are cultivating a culture of isolation and aggression. Since the vast majority of people in prison will live again in freedom some day\, we need to invest in their emotional wellbeing and stability. People cannot be well if they do not feel that they are loved\, admired\, and appreciated for their unique gifts and abilities. \n  \nI hope that the chapter I wrote in Prison Theatre about the Open Hearts Open Minds production of Winter’s Tale helps readers to feel in some measure the magic of that production. The acting\, costumes\, music\, and sets were all absolutely beautiful\, but the incredible joy and love that that performance brought to everyone in the room really altered the world of the prison. The visiting room where the performance was held was full of families and children. I was blessed to sit by a woman named Sharon Lemm whose son Joseph Opyd was in the cast. She had been at Two Rivers prison for the Open Hearts Open Minds production the year before\, and when she realized that a number of men in the cast had no families there to support them—indeed some no longer had contact with their families at all—she promptly adopted the entire theatre troupe and became known as Momma Sharon. Her extraordinary spirit exemplifies something larger that was happening at Two Rivers that day. All kinds of human connections were forming. Families were mixing with one another to celebrate the cast. The prison staff were engaged and even proud of the work they’d seen the incarcerated men do. Audience members like me who were until that day strangers to almost everybody in the room were welcomed with open arms—literally\, there were people hugging all over that prison visiting room! It was such a glorious evening\, a celebration of life in spite of the prison in which we found one another. That play helped break down all kinds of barriers that divide people and helped us all to see what we shared in our common humanity.    \n  \nJohnny.  One thing that keeps people away from theatre is money. Not charging admission means that more family members\, and even small children\, come to see the plays. By making the play free it is a pure gift from actors to audience. What we discovered is that\, in the case of our prison productions\, the gift was reciprocal. It means so much to the actors that family and strangers have traveled a long way\, and come inside a prison(!)\, to see them\, and to appreciate them with thunderous applause. For the volunteers with Open Hearts Open Minds programs\, volunteering in prison is not some kind of noble act of charity. It’s a profound reciprocal giving. Have you noticed something similar in your work supervising college students who go into prisons in Michigan? \n  \nAshley.  Yes\, absolutely! Many people I meet want to talk about what a great thing our program is doing for folks in prisons\, but in truth the most demonstrable growth I can see\, as someone whose worked with the program for years\, is in the college students. Most of them have never set foot in a prison prior to joining PCAP and don’t believe they have any connection to the carceral system. Then they spend a semester collaborating with incarcerated people and come to love and respect those folks in a way that reshapes their entire world view. The experience of meaningful and prolonged interaction with people who live in very different circumstances than you do expands your understanding of how things like state power\, structural inequality\, racism\, and social justice work. My students and the currently and formerly incarcerated folks with whom we work also come to see the arts as active forces that can help us to build coalitions\, address problems\, and create opportunities. Fundamentally\, my students are not going into prisons to teach or to provide social services. Our mission is to equalize power dynamics as much as the prisons will allow us to do so and approach one another as collaborators with a shared stake in the community and artistic outcomes of our projects. In this way\, we all learn and grow together. My students will often tell me that going to prison is the best part of their week\, and none of them like prisons. Being in community with other people who take you and your artistic gifts seriously is an incredible joy\, a great blessing—one that can be harder to find in the outside world where our presence in a classroom or other public space is often taken for granted. People in prison treasure their time with people from the free world\, and they remind us of what a gift it is to be truly present with others. \n  \nJohnny.  Thank you so much\, Ashley\, for taking the time to share with our readers. Congratulations on completing this vast project! It’s going to make the world a kinder place. How can people order your book?    \n  \nAshley. Thank you\, Johnny! I’m so grateful that this book project enabled me to get to know you better and to meet the extraordinary folks at Open Hearts Open Minds. I hope very much to return to visit you and the incarcerated folks with whom you work. \n  \nMy book is available from all major booksellers\, and I encourage you to support local and independent bookstores when ordering. My favorite independent bookstore is Literarity Book Shop in my hometown of El Paso\, Texas: https://www.facebook.com/LiterarityBooks/. My friend Bill Clark who owns it has my book in stock and ships anywhere in the United States. You can reach him through the store’s Facebook page or by emailing him directly to order: bclark@literarity.com. Local bookstores sustain our communities\, and they need our support! \nYou can also order directly from the publisher’s website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/prison-theatre-and-the-global-crisis-of-incarceration-9781472508416/. \n  \nNote to our readers:  Ashley will be doing a virtual book tour\, which includes being the special guest of The Open Road’s Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering on Sunday\, September 20th\, at 3 pm\, Pacific Time. Here’s the link:   \n  \n https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82169567543 \n  \nI hope you’ll join us! \n  \nAnd to clarify a couple of points… I’m no longer doing theatre inside Oregon prisons. Open Hearts Open Minds is moving forward under the leadership of the amazing Carla Grant as Executive Director. To learn more about what they’re doing\, here’s a link to their website: www.openheartsopenminds.net.  \n  \nI do have a lot of prison pen pals\, and The Open Road (openroadpdx.org) has a Prison Education Project and a Meditation & Mindfulness Project for people who live in prison and for those who don’t. This “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding” journal is mailed every week to 33 friends inside prison walls and emailed to 130 friends on the outside. \n  \npeace & love \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-3-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200827
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200903
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200827T164937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120527Z
UID:1207-1598486400-1599091199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/27/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \nAugust 27\, 2020 \n  \nMeditation & Mindfulness \n  \nAnd when he was demanded of the Pharisees\, when the kingdom of God should come\, he answered them and said\, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: \nNeither shall they say\, Lo here! or\, lo there! for\, behold\, the kingdom of God is within you. \n  \n—Luke 17: 20-21\, King James Version \n* \n  \nThe Open Road is inaugurating a Meditation & Mindfulness Project for people who live in prison and for those who don’t. We aren’t promoting any religious tradition\, we just want to support and encourage each other to be more peaceful\, loving\, happy and free. It seems to me that whatever one’s religious beliefs\, and for atheists and agnostics as well\, meditation and mindfulness are a doorway to the Golden World—a feeling of perfect well-being. Everyone experiences these perfect moments. Meditation and mindfulness are ways to nurture and strengthen the feeling that our life on earth is a blessing and a miracle. Meditation and mindfulness can be enjoyed by anyone. \n* \n  \n“…Our blessedness\, like His\, is infinite. \nHis glory endless is and doth surround \nAnd fill all worlds without or end or bound. \nWhat hinders then but we in Heaven may be \nEven here on Earth did we but rightly see?” \n  \n—Thomas Traherne (1636-1674)\, from “Thoughts—IV” \n* \n  \nTo people in our society\, where working hard\, making money\, high achievement and getting things done are considered so important\, to sit still and do nothing seems like a big waste of time. \n* \n  \nGoing nowhere\, as Leonard Cohen would later emphasize for me\, isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply. \n  \n—Pico Iyer\, from The Art of Stillness \n* \n  \nWalt Whitman spoke to his friend Ellen O’Connor of his ability to stop thinking at will\, and to make his brain “negative”: \n  \nThere is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me…. \nI do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid\, \nIt is not in any dictionary\, utterance\, symbol. \n  \n—Walt Whitman\, from “Song of Myself” \n* \n  \nI began practicing meditation at the age of nineteen. That was fifty years ago! I can’t imagine my life without it. I’m certain I would have suffered a LOT more.  Ninety-nine per cent of our suffering is self-inflicted. Here’s a little poem I wrote: \n  \nwhen you see how simple it is to be happy \nyou’ll kick yourself \nfor spending so much time being miserable \n  \n—Johnny Stallings\, from everything I touch \n* \n  \nNautilus Hall Press has just published three chapbooks by Deborah Buchanan: “Layers of Sediment\,” “The World A Well\,” and “Moment Before.” The covers are beautifully illustrated by Andrew Larkin. They are grouped as a set\, “Like Fluttering Silk\,” and can be ordered from Deborah by emailing her at dlbadger@gmail.com. The cost of the set is $25\, plus $5 for shipping and handling. Here’s a poem from “Layers of Sediment”: \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—Deborah Buchanan \n* \n  \nThe word “meditation” can mean a lot of different things. It can mean sitting still with your back straight. Other things that give us a feeling of inner peace can also be ways of meditating: going for a walk\, listening to music\, or playing music\, drinking that first cup of coffee in the morning\, reading. Even thinking and talking can be done in a meditative way. \n* \n  \nAsk the world to reveal its quietude— \nnot the silence of machines when they are still\, \nbut the true quiet by which birdsongs\, \ntrees\, bellworts\, snails\, clouds\, storms \nbecome what they are\, and are nothing else. \n  \n—Wendell Berry from Given \n* \n  \nWhy meditate? One reason is: “to stay sane.” The noise inside our heads can actually drive us completely mad. Here’s what Aldous Huxley says about it: \n  \nUnrestrained and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spiritually dangerous….If we pass in review the words we have given vent to in the course of the average day\, we shall find that the greater number of them may be classified under three main heads: words inspired by malice and uncharitableness towards our neighbours; words inspired by greed\, sensuality and self-love; words inspired by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason\, but merely for the sake of making a distracting noise.  These are idle words; and we shall find\, if we look into the matter\, that they tend to outnumber the words that are dictated by reason\, charity or necessity.  And if the unspoken words of our mind’s endless\, idiot monologue are counted\, the majority for idleness becomes\, for most of us\, overwhelmingly large. \n  \n—Aldous Huxley\, from The Perennial Philosophy \n* \n  \nWhat is mindfulness? Thich Nhat Hanh says: \n  \nMindfulness is when you are truly there\, mind and body together. You breathe in and out mindfully\, you bring your mind back to your body\, and you are there. When your mind is there with your body\, you are established in the present moment. Then you can recognize the many conditions of happiness that are in you and around you\, and happiness just comes naturally. \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh\, from Your True Home\, #218 \n  \nHe’s fond of saying: “The present moment is a wonderful moment.” \n* \nKim Stafford sent this: \n  \nFinding Deep Calm \n  \nI have a Palestinian friend named Gheed living in Gaza City\, where life is hard and much of each day is spent trying to be safe. Most days\, power is only on for four hours\, and then darkness. Food is hard to come by. There is often danger in the streets. \nI know how in prison\, some are put in “segregation\,” in solitary. But in Gaza\, the whole country is in segregation\, surrounded by walls\, razor wire\, under frequent attack. \nBut my friend Gheed seeks beauty\, anyway. She takes photographs of her cup of coffee…of a flower…of light at the window. And she sent this message to the world\, in Arabic: \n  \nعظيمٌ هذا الهدوء العميق الذي أحيا فيه وأنمو ضدّ هذا العالم، هدوءٌ أحصدُ فيهِ ما ليس في استطاعةِ أحدٍ أنْ ينتزعه مني، ولو بقوة الحديد والنار ..” \n— غوتة \n  \nI was able to find a translation\, and it turns out she has been reading Goethe\, a writer in Germany in the early 19th century. This is what she has translated into Arabic from Goethe: \n  \nGreat is this deep calm in which I live and grow against this world\, a calm in which I reap what no one can take away from me\, even by the power of iron and fire. \n– Goethe \n  \nI love to think of my friend in the danger and difficulty of Gaza finding deep calm. And I love to think that this calm can be sought by anyone anywhere. It is our right to feel this. And it is possible. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nPeople who live in prison who want to participate in the Open Road Meditation and Mindfulness Project can write to me at this address: \n  \nJohnny Stallings \nThe Open Road \nPMB 268 \n4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd. \nPortland\, OR  97214 \n  \nPeople who don’t live in prison\, who want to be part of our merry band of mindful meditators can email me at stallingsjohnny@gmail.com\, or contact me through the Open Road website (openroadpdx.org). \n* \n  \nMeditation and mindfulness can be very simple. Hafiz says: \n  \nAnd at times\, when we really need to know \nsomething about perfection \n  \nthe movement of your breath might do\, or the \nbeating of our hearts. \n  \n—Hafiz  (1320-1389)\, version by Daniel Ladinsky \n* \n  \nSeng Ts’an says: \n  \nwhen the mind is still \nall views disappear \n  \nand \n  \nempty\, clear\, your light shines \nwithout mental effort \n  \n–Sent Ts’an (529-606 A.d.)
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-27-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200820
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200827
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200820T184655Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200820T185436Z
UID:1155-1597881600-1598486399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/20/20
DESCRIPTION:Sal Dale as Hermia\, Steve Jamison as Lysander\, Allen Mills (hidden) as Puck\, Bradley Foote as Oberon\, Zeb Harrington as Demetrius and Aaron Gilbert as Helena in the 2010 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Two Rivers prison in Umatilla\, Oregon. \n  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nAugust 20\, 2020 \n  \nKim Stafford and I were talking about those moments when life feels perfect. He had written a poem that morning\, which he read to me and then sent in an email: \n         \n          Practical Illusions  \n  \nWhen I lose track of time\, I feel free \nfor a little while. And when I feel free\,  \nI can tackle the impossible. I can break \na miracle down to a series of steps\, \nso magic begins to enter\, beauty intrudes\, \nthen I’m in thrall to curiosity and wonder\,  \nfriendship with the future returns\, and all \nmy regrets fill a basket of quirky souvenirs.  \n  \nI’ve lived in exile from joy\, daunted by \nmortality\, taking what they call a realistic view \nby counting up my hours and days of failure. \nThere’s no shortage there\, and I’m expert \non musing\, dwelling\, brooding on my losses. \nBut then the turning comes as I lean close in \nto creation\, something out of nothing. It begins  \nwith surrender to anything I love to do. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nLast year\, about this time\, I wrote this poem: \n  \nKim Stafford\, Ace Reporter \n  \nhe carries a tiny notebook around with him \never on the alert \nlooking\, listening \nwords are spoken\, inspiration strikes\, events unfold \nhe takes out his little notebook\, jots things down \nhe’s collecting all the latest news \nlater\, he will file his next report— \nWhat’s Going On Here On Planet Earth \n  \n–Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nKatie responded to Aaron Gilbert’s letter in last week’s issue of “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding”: \n  \nThis is fantastic\, Johnny. It’s amazing for me to read what Aaron wrote about his blossoming. So articulate and open and still on his quest to love and forgive. It takes me back to my own blossoming that came from seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in prison. Like in Shakespeare’s time the men had to play all the roles\, of course. Incredible to see them though. In a fantastic costume from the Portland Opera\, here came Aaron playing Helena in all her loveliness. I happened to be sitting next to his mom\, who had traveled hundreds of miles to see the play and was proud and astonished and happy to be there. Along with the rest of us\, she got to see Aaron transformed through this role he had mastered. It made me realize the power of literary art and embodying a character in a play. We were all uplifted and transported into some other possible realm. The prison walls even became precious for providing such a container and program for learning and listening and trusting one another enough to produce such a work of art together. The best part was the post-play reflection\, hearing the men talk about their experience through the whole process—the accomplishment of reading\, memorizing\, acting\, actually getting to touch another person\, coordinating the action. But most of all loving each other and being loved by each other and by their director and costumer. It was heartbreaking to see the men leave by one door back to their cells. We walked out the gates\, moved by tears and laughter\, transformed\, as they were\, and dedicated to returning again and again\, till they too walk out as free men. I’m grateful to you\, Johnny\, for imagining and following your heart to create such an experience for us all.  \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nOn my birthday\, or around New Year’s Day\, I often read through my journal for the previous year to remind myself of things that happened. This morning I was doing that and found something that ties into what Aaron wrote for last week’s issue and to Katie’s response. I had copied a letter to Howard Thoresen into my journal. Here’s what I wrote to him: \n  \nseptember 8\, 2019 \n  \n¡howardito! \n  \nnancy is with her mom this weekend\, so i went out to two rivers by myself yesterday \ni brought up the subject of julius caesar and the men talked about how awesome it was and how good it is to have a way to form strong bonds of friendship \nthen i told them that october 5th will be my last day facilitating the dialogue group \ncarl alsup (brutus) told me what a big impact i have had on the lives of many men there \nthen stuart morton (cassius) got the bright idea that we should go around the circle and everyone should say something to me \n(this is a thing we’ve done a few times \ni got the idea from jack kornfield \nthe chosen person listens while everyone says what they most admire\, etc.\, about him \ni think it can be a kind of medicine for people who are suffering from feelings of worthlessness\, et cetera) \nanyhow\, they really gave me the full treatment \nwhen you were here you said that you can’t take a compliment \ni don’t know\, but i think 40 minutes of something like this would overcome your resistance and do something to you \njust thinking about the experience is making me cry \nit seems that my ability to see their innate goodness and beauty has helped many of the men to see it in themselves and in others \nto feel loved and to love \nfor many of the men\, and for me\, this represents a profound change in the way we experience our human life on earth \nit’s a gift we have given to each other \nwell\, that’s about it for now \n  \njake merriman is coming over shortly \nthe men report that during the final performance he cried through the whole play \nwhich gladdens my heart \n  \npeace\, love & happiness \njuanito \n* \n  \nWalt Whitman said: \n  \nThis minute that comes to me over the past decillions\, \nThere is no better than it and now. \n* \n  \nI have a hunch that when Kim began writing the poem “Practical Illusions” he didn’t know how it would end. He begins with the freedom he feels when he loses track of time\, then\, like a beachcomber\, he picks things up and examines them\, and ends by speaking of surrendering to anything he loves to do. One of the things he loves to do is write poems. He gets pleasure from taking us on this journey and we get pleasure from accompanying him. Walt Whitman asks:  \n  \nWho wishes to walk with me? \n  \nThe end of the poem calls to my mind the idea of following your heart’s desire. When an opportunity arises to give free advice to young people\, that’s what I say: “Follow your heart’s desire.” When I was young\, my dad said to me with great seriousness\, as if imparting important wisdom: “John\, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do.” I didn’t say anything to him at the time\, but I remember thinking: “Not me! That’s not how I’m gonna live my life.” I never came up with a plan of what I want to do with my life. Like a hummingbird\, I just go from one flower to the next. Today is my 69th birthday. I’m eating a red pear from our red pear tree. I’m the happiest man on earth. \n  \nThomas Traherne (1636-1674) said this about a defect in his university education: \n  \n“There was never a tutor that did professly teach Felicity\, though that be the mistress of all other sciences.” \n  \n(Thomas Traherne\, from Centuries of Meditations\, Third Century\, number 37) \n* \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in peace & love. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-20-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200813
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200820
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200813T161044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200813T162907Z
UID:1125-1597276800-1597881599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/13/20
DESCRIPTION:Aaron Gilbert as Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (Two Rivers prison\, 2011) \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nMy mind started to blossom… \n  \nAugust 13\, 2020 \n  \nRecently I suggested to Aaron Gilbert that he might write about what he’s learned about love while in prison. This is what he wrote: \n  \nJuly 26\, 2020 \nDear Johnny \n  \n….I have been contemplating on expanding on my ideas from my last letter and what I have learned about Love while in prison. Wow! There is just so much to it. I think of one thing\, then it expands into so many different ideas. I will just try to keep it simple and hit the points that have truly meant the most. \n  \nBefore I came to prison\, I had a very narrow view of what love was. When you get to a place like this\, you have two choices\, you can either cling to positive things in your life or go down a very dark lonely path. I asked myself how did this happen\, how did I get here? The answer was quite simple\, it was because I didn’t care about anyone or anything\, including myself. Through self-reflection\, I started to try to figure out: why? Then I met Johnny. \n  \nI was very skeptical at first about what this man was all about. I just wanted to be in the play\, but first we had to sit through this “dialogue group.” We would\, or they would\, talk about these foreign topics: Mythos\, Identity\, Silence\, Love\, etc. I just wanted it to be over so we could get on with rehearsals. I don’t know how long it took\, but I remember exactly when it happened for me. I began to hear other people speak and the biggest thing I heard was the silence. Someone would have something to say and I remember wondering what Johnny was doing when he got that look on his face\, then it hit me at once\, he was LISTENING! I began to realize that he was truly caring for us just by listening to us. My mind started to blossom\, I started to see the things I had been contemplating about love become something real. He volunteered a huge portion of his life to come and listen to us when most of the rest of society had written us off. This is one of the most pure forms of love I have ever felt and I wanted more. \n  \nFor the first time in my life\, I became engaged with people around me. At the end of class\, Johnny would say “be kind to yourself.” I started to work on self-forgiveness and ask for forgiveness from the people I hurt. This love was transforming my life and I started to feel like a person of value. \n  \nThe question then became: is it truly possible to love everyone? It is very complicated and I have a lot of work to do in this category\, but I believe the answer is “yes\, it is possible.” I have been in prison for almost fourteen years now\, I have many friends that have committed the worst possible crimes\, and they will never go home. When you know these guys without that stigma over their head\, you realize that they are human as well\, with the same basic needs as the rest of us\, to love\, to be loved and have companionship with others. You realize they are no less human than anyone else is\, even though society wants us to think otherwise. These “lifers” are some of the most respectful caring people I have met in my life\, not only on the inside. Most of these guys are doing good things for others\, trying to make their environment a healthier place to live. \n  \nThis is where I struggle because there are many people I don’t know that I may still be holding judgment against. I believe Love says if you forgive one person’s transgressions\, you should be able to forgive them all. As I said\, Love is a work in progress. \n  \nI have learned most everything I know about love from being in prison. It doesn’t seem right\, but it is true. Mostly because one man was able to help my mind flower and start to soak in all the light of Love. The best part about it is I am not the only person he touched. I know of many more in the few short years I was part of Group Dialogue. I can’t imagine how many others have felt some of that love as well. I was reading The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh recently\, and something that stood out\, I am just paraphrasing\, but he was saying of love “we can’t expect to fit people into our own little world about what we feel love is. We should truly try to understand them for who they are\, even if they have wronged us we should try to understand why.” Imagine if we can all just take a little piece of that compassion\, understanding\, and listening and spread it\, it has to make the world a better place\, right? \n  \nMaybe next time I can expand a little more on the journey of life and what it means to me. This is just the most important thing I could say today. I do want to thank Johnny for you just being you. This world needs people like you in it now more than ever I believe. I know the impact you have had on me and many others has forever transformed us into better humans\, so thank you for all that love…. \n  \nLove & Respect \nAaron G. \n* \n  \nAaron was in the dialogue group at Two Rivers prison from April of 2010 to May of 2013\, when he transferred to the Oregon State Penitentiary. He’s serving the end of his sentence at South Fork Forest Camp. While at Two Rivers\, he played Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream\,” Sir Toby Belch in “Twelfth Night” and Juror Number Six in “Twelve Angry Men.” In real life he’s a nice guy\, but as a juror he wanted to convict the defendant quickly so he could go to a baseball game! (Just kidding\, Aaron.) \n  \nIt is kind of Aaron to say so many nice things about be.  I\, too\, learned a lot about love in prison. One thing I learned is that the circle is a good shape for us humans. Everyone has an equal place in a circle. That’s important. In 2015\, when I started going to Two Rivers once a month\, instead of once a week\, other people came forward to facilitate the dialogue group discussions and to direct the plays. I think we all have had a similar experience to what Aaron is talking about. Being in a circle with 16 or 20 people\, sometimes talking\, always listening\, is a transformative experience. We get to know each other in a deep way and we get to know ourselves better too. I don’t know where the love comes from\, but we all have felt it getting stronger and stronger. This world can be seen as a School for Love. When it is\, even prison is a home for The Nonstop Love-In. As Aaron says\, we all have the same basic needs: “…to love\, to be loved and have companionship with others.” \n  \nKim taught a poetry class at Coffee Creek prison. And wrote a poem about it: \n  \n  Poetry Class     \n     at the Women’s Prison \n  \nPut chairs in a circle. “Where \nis everyone?” “Oh\, they’re all \nwatching ‘Love after Lock-Up.’ \nIt’s fake\, but addicting.” \n  \nOn every chair\, put a notebook \nand a pen. “You know what? \nIn this class I’m not an inmate\, \nI’m a person.” “Every time \n  \nthat door opens\, and another \njoins our circle\, we’re stronger.” \n“It’s not so much what we write — \nit’s how we listen.” Finally\, the show \n  \nover\, the room resonant\, \nwe are the full twelve writing \nin a ring\, as onto scribbled pages \nwe bow to pray hard stories. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nHere’s a poem that Katie Radditz shared: \n  \nA Blessing \n  \nJust off the highway to Rochester\, Minnesota\, \nTwilight bounds softly forth on the grass. \nAnd the eyes of those two Indian ponies \nDarken with kindness. \nThey have come gladly out of the willows \nTo welcome my friend and me. \nWe step over the barbed wire into the pasture \nWhere they have been grazing all day\, alone. \nThey ripple tensely\, they can hardly contain their happiness \nThat we have come. \nThey bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. \nThere is no loneliness like theirs. \nAt home once more\, \nThey begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness. \nI would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms\, \nFor she has walked over to me \nAnd nuzzled my left hand. \nShe is black and white\, \nHer mane falls wild on her forehead\, \nAnd the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear \nThat is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist. \nSuddenly I realize \nThat if I stepped out of my body I would break \nInto blossom. \n  \n—James Wright
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-13-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200806
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200813
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200806T155641Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120354Z
UID:1101-1596672000-1597276799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/6/20
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nAugust 6\, 2020 \n  \nSome Thoughts On Culture That Nurtures \n  \nAll human beings live inside cultures. Our language\, our customs\, the things we make\, the way we interact\, the stories we tell all help to co-create our culture. Our culture is supposed to help us understand ourselves and the complex\, mysterious world in which we live. Culture is supposed to nurture us—help us to be confident\, happy\, imaginative\, loving and kind. It should nurture our genius\, help us to realize our fullest potential. Each of us is unique and has much to give to others which no one else can. \n  \nIf we turn on the TV\, we may find that many of the messages we get from the programs and from the commercials are unhelpful. They don’t make us wiser or kinder\, happier or more free. They can make us more fearful and angry and depressed. We are taught who we should hate. \n  \nThere are old and new stories about Paradise. It either happened a long time ago\, or may happen sometime in the future. I try each day to tune myself to the Paradise that is already here. In this newsletter\, I’m looking for things that will inspire\, delight\, enlighten\, or in some way help the reader to bless this day. \n  \nSometimes we need consolation: \n  \nConsolation \n  \nDarwin. \nThey say he read novels to relax\, \nBut only certain kinds: \nnothing that ended unhappily. \nIf anything like that turned up\, \nenraged\, he flung the book into the fire. \n  \nTrue or not\, \nI’m ready to believe it. \n  \nScanning in his mind so many times and places\, \nhe’d had enough of dying species\, \nthe triumphs of the strong over the weak\, \nthe endless struggles to survive\, \nall doomed sooner or later. \nHe’d earned the right to happy endings\, \nat least in fiction \nwith its diminutions. \n  \nHence the indispensable \nsilver lining\, \nthe lovers reunited\, the families reconciled\, \nthe doubts dispelled\, fidelity rewarded\, \nfortunes regained\, treasures uncovered\, \nstiff-necked neighbors mending their ways\, \ngood names restored\, greed daunted\, \nold maids married off to worthy parsons\, \ntroublemakers banished to other hemispheres\, \nforgers of documents tossed down the stairs\, \nseducers scurrying to the altar\, \norphans sheltered\, widows comforted\, \npride humbled\, wounds healed over\, \nprodigal sons summoned home\, \ncups of sorrow thrown into the ocean\, \nhankies drenched with tears of reconciliation\, \ngeneral merriment and celebration\, \nand the dog Fido\, \ngone astray in the first chapter\, \nturns up barking gladly \nin the last. \n  \n—Wisłowa Szymborska \n* \n  \nI like happy endings. If I get into a conversation with friends where we talk about how terrible things are or how bleak the future looks I always try to end our talk on a positive note. Hopelessness and despair accomplish nothing—except to make us feel miserable. Life is short. This day is precious. I want to enjoy it. \n  \nKirk Bromley shared this poem with Howard Thoresen\, who sends it to all of us: \n  \nThe Tuft of Flowers \n  \nI went to turn the grass once after one \nWho mowed it in the dew before the sun. \n  \nThe dew was gone that made his blade so keen \nBefore I came to view the levelled scene. \n  \nI looked for him behind an isle of trees; \nI listened for his whetstone on the breeze. \n  \nBut he had gone his way\, the grass all mown\, \nAnd I must be\, as he had been\,—alone\, \n  \n‘As all must be\,’ I said within my heart\, \n‘Whether they work together or apart.’ \n  \nBut as I said it\, swift there passed me by \nOn noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly\, \n  \nSeeking with memories grown dim o’er night \nSome resting flower of yesterday’s delight. \n  \nAnd once I marked his flight go round and round\, \nAs where some flower lay withering on the ground. \n  \nAnd then he flew as far as eye could see\, \nAnd then on tremulous wing came back to me. \n  \nI thought of questions that have no reply\, \nAnd would have turned to toss the grass to dry; \n  \nBut he turned first\, and led my eye to look \nAt a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook\, \n  \nA leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared \nBeside a reedy brook the scythe had bared. \n  \nI left my place to know them by their name\, \nFinding them butterfly weed when I came. \n  \nThe mower in the dew had loved them thus\, \nBy leaving them to flourish\, not for us\, \n  \nNor yet to draw one thought of ours to him. \nBut from sheer morning gladness at the brim. \n  \nThe butterfly and I had lit upon\, \nNevertheless\, a message from the dawn\, \n  \nThat made me hear the wakening birds around\, \nAnd hear his long scythe whispering to the ground\, \n  \nAnd feel a spirit kindred to my own; \nSo that henceforth I worked no more alone; \n  \nBut glad with him\, I worked as with his aid\, \nAnd weary\, sought at noon with him the shade; \n  \nAnd dreaming\, as it were\, held brotherly speech \nWith one whose thought I had not hoped to reach. \n  \n‘Men work together\,’ I told him from the heart\, \n‘Whether they work together or apart.’ \n  \n—Robert Frost \n* \n  \nHere’s a poem Kim Stafford sent our way: \n  \n      The Fact of Forgiveness  \n  \nIt is a given you have failed. \nIt goes without saying you were hurt          \n      and so you hurt some others. \nOf course you alone could have saved someone          \n      or something you did not. \nThe midnight court of the sleepless mind          \n      has reached its verdict: Life Sentence. \nLife will be long and hard\, but also mysterious          \n      in how you are condemned to live           \n      by beauty all the same. \nThrough the bars of your cell\, you must watch           \n      the moon grow full and generous. \nA tune made for others will arrive at evening\,          \n      smuggled into your mind as if for you. \nThe world can’t keep its treasures from you—          \n      no matter how little you deserve\,         \n      you have it all: \nMoon\, Sun\, Sleep\, Waking\, Water\, Air—         \n      a bird dancing away out of sight          \n      leaving the print of its flight          \n      and a filament of song           \n      for you. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nKim’s poem reminded me of this passage from Shakespeare: \n  \nHamlet:  What have you\, my good friends\, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither? \nGuildenstern:  Prison\, my lord? \nHamlet:  Denmark’s a prison. \nRosencrantz:  Then is the world one. \nHamlet:  A goodly one\, in which there are many confines\, wards and dungeons.  Denmark being one o’ th’ worst. \nRosencrantz:  We think not so\, my lord. \nHamlet:  Why then\, ‘tis none to you\, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.  To me it is a prison. \nRosencrantz:  Why then your own ambition makes it one; ‘tis too narrow for your mind. \nHamlet:  O God\, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space— were it not that I have bad dreams. \n  \nThat’s it for now. \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in love. \n  \n–Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-6-2/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200730
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200806
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200730T170704Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120243Z
UID:1075-1596067200-1596671999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  7/30/20
DESCRIPTION:Cartoon by Gary Larson \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOh no! Not another Humor Issue! \n  \nJuly 30\, 2020 \n  \nA three-legged dog walks into a bar and says: “I’m lookin for the man who shot my paw.” \n  \nWhy did the hipster burn his mouth? \nHe drank his coffee before it was cool. \n  \nI told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. \nShe looked at me surprised. \n  \nI got my daughter a fridge for her birthday. \nI can’t wait to see her face light up when she opens it. \n  \nWhat did the pirate say when he became an octogenarian? \nAye matey. \n  \nA sandwich walks into a bar. The bartender says\, “Sorry\, we don’t serve food here.” \n  \nWhy did the yogurt go to the art exhibition? \nBecause it was cultured. \n  \nHow do you throw a space party? \nYou planet. \n  \nWhat did one hat say to the other? \nYou stay here. I’ll go on ahead. \n  \nA horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks what he’d like. The horse doesn’t reply because it’s a horse and obviously can’t speak or understand English. Several people get up and leave\, sensing the danger in having a large live animal in an enclosed space. \n* \nA young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer\, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” \nThe barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other\, then calls the boy over and asks\, “Which do you want\, son?” The boy takes the quarters and leaves. \n“What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!” \nLater\, when the customer leaves\, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream parlor. “Hey\, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?” \nThe boy licked his cone and replied: “Because the day I take the dollar the game is over!” \n* \nAn American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied that it only took a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish. The fisherman said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. \nThe businessman then asked\, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” \nThe fisherman said\, “I sleep late\, fish a little\, play with my children\, take siesta with my wife\, Maria\, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life\, señor.” \nThe businessman scoffed. “I am a Wharton MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds\, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor\, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product\, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City\, then L.A.\, and eventually New York City\, where you will run your expanding enterprise.” \nThe fisherman asked\, “But how long will this all take?” \nTo which the businessman replied\, “Fifteen or 20 years.” \n“But what then?” \nThe businessman laughed and said\, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.” \n“Millions? Then what?” \nThe businessman said\, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late\, fish a little\, play with your kids\, take siesta with your wife\, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends.” \n* \nA guy said to God\, “God\, is it true that to you a billion years is like a second?” \nGod said\, “Yes.” \nThe guy said\, “God\, is it true that to you a billion dollars is like a penny?” \nGod said\, “Yes.” \nThe guy said\, “God\, can I have a penny?” \nGod said\, “Sure\, just a second.” \n* \nA string bean took his friend\, an eggplant\, to the hospital. \nString Bean: How is he\, Doc? Can you save his life? \nDoctor: I have good news and bad news. The good news is I can save his life. The bad news is he’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life. \n* \nTwo young salmon are swimming along one day. As they do\, they are passed by a wiser\, older fish coming the other way. \nThe wiser fish greets the two as he passes\, saying\, “Morning\, boys! How’s the water?” \nThe other two continue to swim in silence for a little while\, until the first one turns to the other and asks\, “What’s water?” \n  \n—“Borrowed” from the Internet and joke books by Johnny Stallings \n* \nOne day the first grade teacher was reading the story of Chicken Little to her class. She came to the part of the story where Chicken Little tried to warn the farmer.  \nShe read\, “…. and so Chicken Little went up to the farmer and said\, “The sky is falling\, the sky is falling!” \nThe teacher paused\, then asked the class\, “And what do you think that farmer said?” \nOne little girl raised her hand and said\, “I think he said: ‘I’ll be darned! A talking chicken!’” \n—Will Weigler \n* \n  \nFor an extra bit of fun you might try this video of people singing and dancing on top of a train in India. (I’ve ridden in this train\, but not on it.): \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmrmVs10X8 \n  \nMay all people be happy! \n  \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-7-30/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200723
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200730
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200723T041150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200723T041525Z
UID:1053-1595462400-1596067199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  7/23/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJuly 23\, 2020 \n  \n“The world is a Dancer; it is a Rosary; it is a Torrent; it is a Boat; a Mist; a Spider’s Snare: it is what you will; and the metaphor will hold\, and it will give the imagination keen pleasure.  Swifter than light the world converts itself into the thing you name\, and all things find their right place under this new and capricious classification.  Must I call the heaven and the earth a maypole and country fair with booths\, or an anthill\, or an old coat\, in order to give you the shock of pleasure which the imagination loves and the sense of spiritual greatness?  Call it a blossom\, a rod\, a wreath of parsley\, a tamarisk-crown\, a cock\, a sparrow\, the ear instantly hears and the spirit leaps to the trope.”   \n  \n(The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson\, edited by Linscott\, pp. 197-198\, (1841)) \n* \n  \nBattle or Picnic? \n  \nLife has often been described as a battle. Perhaps the most famous example is the Bhagavad Gita. Just as a great battle is about to begin\, the warrior-prince Arjuna asks his charioteer and guru\, the god Krishna\, to drive their chariot between the two armies. Time stops. Filled with pity\, and unwilling to kill his kinsmen who are on the opposing side\, Arjuna refuses to fight. Krishna urges Arjuna to do his duty\, to stand up and fight like a man. He teaches Arjuna that the highest liberation comes from the realization that one’s self is the unborn and undying Self of all—not other than God. Arjuna decides to join the fight\, the battle begins\, and everyone on both sides is slaughtered. \n  \nThe Bhagavad Gita is a complex wisdom text which is located in the middle of a story about war. It is essentially about yoga and how to live a life of inner peace and freedom\, but the plot of the epic in which it is set requires Arjuna to fight in the war. So\, a central metaphor suggests that life is a battle\, and the honorable thing is to boldly do what is required of you. \n  \nWe are often reminded that life is a struggle or a battle. Darwin’s idea of the survival of the fittest is used to support this idea. Our economic system is predicated on the idea of a fierce competition which many people will inevitably lose. Too bad for them. \n  \nI like the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. In one of his talks at a meditation retreat\, he began by saying: “Some people think that a meditation retreat is a kind of picnic…” When someone is an expert in a field\, he usually warns newcomers that such expertise requires years of discipline and hard work. So\, I was expecting Thich Nhat Hanh to continue by saying\, “…but it’s not.” He surprised me by next saying: “I love picnics!” And I thought to myself: “I love picnics\, too! Everyone loves picnics! Picnics are lovely!” \n  \nAnd it occurred to me that rather than thinking of life as a struggle\, as some kind of ordeal\, as a battle to be fought\, I would think of my life as a picnic. Why not? As we learn from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s entertaining journal entry that I am using as the epigram for this essay\, we can say anything we want. I have the feeling that life is everything-at-once. But I can’t imagine everything-at-once. So\, for now\, I’m going with “picnic.” \n  \nIt’s a picnic to which everyone is invited. A gathering. A feast. Little kids are running around. Maybe there’s a softball game. There’s potato salad. Sandwiches. Lemonade. There might be pie. Ants. At a picnic\, everyone has the feeling that life is good. \n  \nSince we’re here just a little while\, doesn’t that sound good? As a metaphor\, isn’t it preferable to a scene of chaos\, confusion and carnage? \n  \nIn the UNESCO Constitution\, signed in November of 1945\, it says: “…wars begin in the minds of men…” We should choose our metaphors wisely. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings  (11/14/19) \n* \n  \nNaomi Shihab Nye really goes to town with metaphors in this poem: \n  \nSifter \n  \nWhen our English teacher gave \nour first writing assignment of the year\, \nBecome a kitchen implement \nin 2 descriptive paragraphs\, I did not think \nbutcher knife or frying pan\, \nI thought immediately \nof soft flour sifting through the little holes \nof the sifter and the sifter’s pleasing circular \nswishing sound\, and wrote it down. \nRhoda became a teaspoon\, \nRoberto a funnel\, \nJim a muffin tin \nand Forrest a soup pot. \nWe read our paragraphs out loud. \nAbby was a blender. Everyone laughed \nand acted giddy\, but the more we thought about it\, \nwe were all everything in the whole kitchen\, \ndrawers and drainers\, \nsinging teapot and grapefruit spoon \nwith serrated edges\, we were all the \nempty cup\, the tray. \nThis\, said our teacher\, is the beauty of metaphor. \nIt opens doors. \nWhat I could not know then \nwas how being a sifter \nwould help me all year long. \nWhen bad days came \nI would close my eyes and feel them passing \nthrough the tiny holes. \nWhen good days came \nI would try to contain them gently \nthe way flour remains \nin the sifter until you turn the handle. \nTime\, time. I was a sweet sifter in time \nand no one ever knew. \n  \n—Naomi Shihab Nye \n* \n  \nHoward Thoresen has often recommended to me the book Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.  \n  \nJeff Kuehner sent a couple poems: \n  \nThe Panther \n  \nHis vision\, from the constantly passing bars\, \nhas grown so weary that it cannot hold \nanything else. It seems to him there are \na thousand bars; and behind the bars\, no world. \n  \nAs he paces in cramped circles\, over and over\, \nthe movement of his powerful soft strides \nis like a ritual dance around a center \nin which a mighty will stands paralyzed. \n  \nOnly at times\, the curtain of the pupils \nlifts quietly—. An image enters in\, \nrushes down through the tensed\, arrested muscles\, \nplunges into the heart and is gone. \n  \n—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)\, translated from the German by Stephen Mitchell \n* \n  \nThere Will Come Soft Rains \n  \n(War Time) \n  \nThere will come soft rains and the smell of the ground\, \nAnd swallows circling with their shimmering sound; \n  \nAnd frogs in the pools singing at night\, \nAnd wild plum trees in tremulous white\, \n  \nRobins will wear their feathery fire \nWhistling their whims on a low fence-wire; \n  \nAnd not one will know of the war\, not one \nWill care at last when it is done. \n  \nNot one would mind\, neither bird nor tree \nIf mankind perished utterly; \n  \nAnd Spring herself\, when she woke at dawn\, \nWould scarcely know that we were gone. \n  \n—Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) \n* \n  \nHere’s a link to a short (12 minutes) film on “Sacred Economics” featuring Charles Eisenstein: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs \n  \nThat’s it for this issue of “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding.” Tune in next week for another exciting episode. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-7-23-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200716
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200723
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200716T171508Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200717T003510Z
UID:1038-1594857600-1595462399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  7/16/20
DESCRIPTION:Three amigos bringing in the New Year at Alma del Sol in Guanajuato\, Mexico: Johnny Stallings\, Hugo Anaya & Kim Stafford. \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJuly 16\, 2020 \n  \nI asked Kim Stafford if he would write something for our newsletter about his experience as Poet Laureate. Like the generous writer and human being described in his essay\, he said “Yes.” \n* \n  \nTo Be a Better Person \nMy 100 poetry events as Oregon’s 9th Poet Laureate \n  \nWhen I met the Poet Laureate of Linn-Benton Community College I learned what my work as a poet is really about. This student poet\, chosen by his teachers to serve as a writer and reader of poems at various campus events for a year\, was telling me about his work teaching writing at the juvenile detention center as a volunteer\, sharing poems with fellow students\, opening meetings with a poem\, and other acts of generous incantation. Then he said it: “I don’t write poems to become a better poet. I write poems to become a better person.” \n  \nThat’s it! That’s what poetry is for—the writing of it\, the reading of it\, teaching\, sharing\, posting\, publishing\, handing off to a friend in need of lyric buoyancy. It’s not just a literary activity. It’s a human activity\, a way to become more awake\, more human\, humane\, compassionate\, alive\, and connected. \n  \nI wish I could remember that student’s name\, but I will never forget what he taught me. And maybe something like that will be the legacy of my own work as wandering bard in Oregon. Years after I’m gone\, people in little towns will say\, “This guy came and told us the great thing about poetry is you can’t make money doing it—so you are completely free in how you do it. I can’t remember his name\, but he said a poem could save your life. He said a poem could make you live at a deeper level\, closer to community\, more ready to take hard things in life as they come\, and to help others with gentle words.” \n  \nAs Oregon’s 9th Poet Laureate from May 2018 through May 2020\, I was a sitting duck\, but a willing one. There was an “event request form” on the website of the Oregon Cultural Trust\, and it took about five minutes for anyone—a librarian\, teacher\, writer\, reader\, or other individual—to fill out the form\, it would come to me\, and I could not say no. Would I drive to the Alvord Desert to read poems as part of an open air piano concert (with Hunter Noack of www.inalandscape.org)? Yes! Would I drive to Klamath Falls to read poems…to Gold Beach…to Astoria…to Madras\, Stayton\, Astoria\, the Umatilla Reservation at Tamástslikt Cultural Center? Oh yes. Would I write with veterans for the V.A. Hospital? Would I work with inmates at Coffee Creek Women’s Prison\, Columbia River Correctional Institution\, at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution? Yes\, of course. Would I do an assembly for 120 primary students…for seventeen immigrants becoming citizens…for the Oregon House of Representatives…for a winery\, a business association\, a city council? Absolutely. Would I meet with one young writer full of fury and eloquence to help her onto the path of poetry? Yes. \n  \nThe job was a two-year rush of such encounters where all kinds of people wrote all kinds of things\, and I traveled to meet with them and together raise the human spirit.  \n  \nNow that the torch has been passed to a new Oregon Poet Laureate\, Anis Mojgani (his event-request form is here: https://culturaltrust.org/oregon-poet-laureate/calendar/)\, I still feel I have the calling of poet as servant of the people. Since my official term ended in May\, I’ve taught a class online in Scotland\, done a radio interview with a station in Newport\, put poetry prompts and other writer resources on my website (www.kimstaffordpoet.com)\, given several poetry readings online\, and hatched public service projects with other artists for individuals and families sheltering at home. \n  \nIn a way\, the job of a poet laureate is the same as the job of any writer: Something came to my page that I would love to share with you. It’s about discovery\, generosity\, and connection: \n  \nDew & Honey \nSip by sip in thimble cup \nthe meadow bees will drink it up \nthen ferry home to bounty’s hive \nby flowers’ flavor hum and thrive \nto show us how through word and song \nby gesture small and patience long \nin spite of our old foolish ways \nwe may fashion better days. \n  \nSo\, my friend\, come sip and savor \nsyllables as crumbs of pleasure. \nBy sunrise\, in our conversations\, \nwe begin a better nation. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \nBefore visiting our dialogue group at Two Rivers prison\, Kim wrote this poem and brought it with him as a gift for the men in the group: \n  \nTwo Rivers \n  \nOne river flows above ground— \neveryone can see it shining \nacross the land\, following the valley \nand shaping the valley\, never at rest. \n  \nAnd some people say\, I know who \nyou are…I know what you’ve done… \nwhat you lost…where you came from… \nwhere you are going. I know. \n  \nBut what do they know of you\, really? \nFor another river flows below all that\, \ninvisible\, at the speed of a dream \ninside you—intuitive\, curious\, innocent. \n  \nAnd you say\, I know who I want to be… \nI know what I’ve learned…I know what I love… \nI need to know who I really am. So you remember\, \nyou wonder\, you write\, you shape story\, \n  \nand you say to yourself on the page\, \nHidden river\, spill your secrets \nat the wellspring. I hold forth \nmy cup no one else can see. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nThe ending of his poem reminds me of this brief quote from Sylvia Plath: \n  \nSo many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes\, yet they would open up\, unfolding quite wonderfully if only you were interested in them. \n  \n—Sylvia Plath \n* \n  \nIn the spirit of Kim’s essay\, here’s some life advice from Walt Whitman: \n  \nThis is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals\, despise riches\, give alms to every one that asks\, stand up for the stupid and crazy\, devote your income and labor to others\, hate tyrants\, argue not concerning God\, have patience and indulgence toward the people\, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men\, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families\, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life\, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book\, dismiss whatever insults your own soul\, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. \n  \nfrom the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman \n* \n  \nRecently\, I was listening to a talk Cornel West gave at the University of Oregon on April 26\, 2019 called “What It Means to Be Human.” It’s always a joy to be enlivened by his lively mind! Here’s a link:  \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aekb3ppKm5w&t=480s \n  \nI was talking with Kim about “the poet’s job.”  A short time later he sent me some of his aphorisms on the subject. Here they are: \n  \nIt is the poet’s job to turn fact into food\, loss into learning\, and pain into song.  \n  \nThe poet’s work is to be the Eric Snowden of the inner life: All shall be revealed. \n  \nAll a writer can do is compose clues to what can never be spoken\, footnotes to the inexpressible. \n  \nA poet’s remedy for myriad troubles: Cook up a feast of words\, and see what you learn. \n  \nLike a bird lifting from a twig\, the poet steps away from all freight. Even as you plod the road\, your soul is in flight. \n  \nA poet’s work is to compose a filmed parade of images with a sound track of percussive words. \n  \nPoetry is the moonlight of the interior life—waxing and waning\, causing the soul to flood and ebb. \n  \nEveryone should compose their own text for the tee shirt they wear along the summer avenue—so we could be known by what we are willing to say. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nAnd he sent some quotes from other poets: \n  \nThe poet’s job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep\, so important\, and yet so difficult to name\, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way\, that people cannot live without it. \n  \n—Jane Kenyon \n* \n  \nPoetry isn’t a profession\, it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that. \n  \n—Mary Oliver \n* \n  \nWant to take workshop from Kim? Go to his website\, click on workshops\, and sign up for one. Here’s the link: \n  \nwww.kimstaffordpoet.com \n* \n  \nI recently read Susan Griffin’s long essay “The Eros of Everyday Life” again. I read it with the kind of pleasure I’ve been getting from standing in the backyard in the summer sun\, picking blackberries\, putting them into my mouth one at a time and crushing them between my tongue and the top of my mouth. Here’s a quote: \n  \nEverything I encounter permeates me\, washes in and out\, leaving a tracery\, placing me in that beautiful paradox of being by which I am both a solitary creature and everyone\, everything. \n  \n—Susan Griffin \n* \nThat’s it for now\, y’all. Until next time… \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-7-16-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200709
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200716
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200708T173254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200708T173510Z
UID:1016-1594252800-1594857599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  7/9/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJuly 9\, 2020 \n  \nlove is a place \n& through this place of \nlove move \n(with brightness of peace) \nall places \n  \nyes is a world \n& in this world of \nyes live \n(skilfully curled) \nall worlds \n  \n—e.e. cummings \n* \n  \nCan I see another’s woe\, \nAnd not be in sorrow too? \nCan I see another’s grief\, \nAnd not seek for kind relief? \n  \nCan I see a falling tear\, \nAnd not feel my sorrow’s share? \nCan a father see his child \nWeep\, nor be with sorrow filled? \n  \nCan a mother sit and hear \nAn infant groan\, an infant fear? \nNo\, no! never can it be! \nNever\, never can it be!… \n  \n—from “On Another’s Sorrow” by William Blake \n* \n  \nLonnie Glinksi\, who was in our dialogue and theater groups at Two Rivers prison—(he played Ophelia in our 2015 production of “Hamlet”)—sent me a letter on June 4th. With his permission\, I’m sharing a slightly edited version: \n  \nDear Johnny \n  \nIn recent days I have suffered a loss of a dear man who has moved on. He turned 91 last month. With a few adaptations he loved to play ping pong\, though spending most of the day in a wheelchair. \nHe is an artist that draws wonderful pictures. He spent much energy writing poems\, telling stories of his life\, and trying to write songs\, but he never quite got the hang of that. \nWe would argue over topics\, would fight over the songs. We would laugh at each other for no reason at all. And while he was here\, he was the person I could talk to about topics and feelings of which I now write. \nWith the recent Supreme Court decision regarding unanimous verdicts\, it appears he will be going home or for re-trial. No one will tell me where he moved on to; I only know he is not here. \nWhile that spark of joy for him remains alive in my heart\, the waves of grief that wash through my body repeatedly attempt to drown out that joy. The experience of having the spark and the grief of his leaving at the same time is new for me. \nI had a pen-pal through the U.U. outreach by that I could write to about such things\, but he came down with cancer. He promised to write if he could\, but has not written. The grief of that loss is different than the current one. \nAlthough uncomfortable\, I am not attempting to make it go away. Instead I just watch it\, feel it\, know it is there. Repeatedly\, it washes through me like a wave when I look at the place where he used to sit. \nLee was hard of hearing and had to see your lips for conversations. Since he couldn’t hear himself he spoke really loudly\, irritating those without that challenge. Now I expect to hear that voice while I’m in my cell\, through the multiple voices and dayroom noises\, and it isn’t there. Another wave. \nThen I feel the spark\, the joy for his experience and what he has to look forward to. So I watch this spark\, feel this spark\, and like the wave\, I leave it be. \n  \n—Lonnie Glinski \n* \n  \nI was Zooming with some friends this morning (7/3)\, and the subject came up of “All the Problems in the World”—a familiar theme in our conversations. All of us were feeling that the problems are so many and so old and so big that\, for each of us\, our efforts to make the world a better place were puny and woefully inadequate. One friend said: “Homelessness. I have a spare bedroom: I should be letting a homeless person sleep here.” And I remembered my friend Nick. Lonnie’s letter makes me think that I should do the laptop equivalent of putting pen to paper and say a few things about Nick. I’m terrible at remembering dates. How long ago was it that he died? I pulled up his obituary: \n  \nConsoletti\, Nick\, May 10\, 1947 to May 31\, 2012. Nick Consoletti\, Ph.D.\, passed away at home in Hillsboro on May 31\, 2012\, at the age of 65. Nick was a philosopher\, scholar\, musician\, brilliant conversationalist and poet\, dedicated traveler and a tremendously kind\, loving and loyal friend. Our authentic and gentle friend is greatly loved and missed. \n  \nI met Nick in the late Seventies. In a coffee shop\, of course. Most of the people who knew him probably met him in a coffee shop. This one was in the basement of an old brick building on the Portland State University campus. In addition to coffee shops\, Nick liked college campuses and libraries—places you could meet people who liked to talk about “All the Problems in the World\,” and how they could be solved. His two favorite authors were Buckminster Fuller—a man who had practical solutions for All the Problems in the World—and J. Krishnamurti\, who also had ideas about how the world could be transformed. According to him\, we just needed to be free of fear\, free of ideas of past and future\, free from authorities (inner and outer)\, free from ambition and ideologies and nationalism\, free from our opinions\, from “the known\,” from our carefully constructed autobiographies. Here’s a Krishnamurti quote: “Thought is always old; thought is never new; thought can never be free.” \n  \nBut back to Nick. He had a heavy backpack\, which included a sleeping bag\, books\, and maybe a tent. In coffee shops and on college campuses\, Nick would meet people who might offer him a couch to crash on. Over a period of 30 years or so\, Nick probably stayed with me\, on average\, one or two nights a month. He hitchhiked from one end of the country to the other\, but mostly up and down the West Coast\, from the Bay Area to Seattle\, with stops in Eugene and Portland. Once a year\, he would go all the way down to Ojai\, in Southern California for Krishnamurti’s annual talks.  \n  \nNick didn’t smoke\, drink\, take drugs or eat meat. He never asked for money\, but if given five or ten bucks\, he would quietly put it in his pocket. He played the dulcimer in coffee shops with a nearby hat for possible donations. He was a walking encyclopedia. He attended LOTS of conferences that featured cutting-edge thinkers. He wanted to hear them in person: Gregory Bateson\, David Bohm\, Erich Jantsch—it was a very long list! Whatever topic you might mention\, Nick would instantly tell you the name of an article or book that would educate you further on the subject.  \n  \nHis main interest was in “appropriate technology\,” or how we humans can live in a sustainable way on this planet\, without relentlessly destroying the health of the ecosphere. He was baffled by the fact that so much was known about how we could live more sustainably\, and yet we persist in living in ways which indicate a lack of concern for future generations. Nick would have loved Greta Thunberg! \n  \nIn the brief obituary\, you might notice that he had a Ph.D. degree and that he died at home. Nick didn’t have a “home”—his own apartment—until the last year of his life: after his kidneys failed and he had to stay in one place for his twice-weekly dialysis treatments.  \n  \nInspired by David Bohm’s ideas about dialogue\, Nick—without money and without a home—earned his doctorate by facilitating a dialogue group and writing a dissertation about it. After he got his degree\, he applied to some colleges\, but was never offered a job. He continued to be an exemplary Coffee Shop Philosopher right up until the end. When I decided to “do something” at Two Rivers prison in 2006\, maybe it was Nick’s example that inspired me to start a dialogue group\, rather than “teach a class.” I learned a lot from Nick. I miss him. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-7-9-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200702
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200709
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200702T170806Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120031Z
UID:1001-1593648000-1594252799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding 7/2/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJuly 2\, 2020 \n  \nThis is a simple story I tell myself about our human life on Earth. We start out as perfect innocent beings. Then something happens to us. We become “adulterated.” We learn to think and talk. We learn and co-create stories about who we are and about the world in which we live and our relation to it. We become grownups. Which is great. But. We are now stuck with our stories\, which we repeat over and over. We have lost much of the spontaneous joy and wonder we had when we were very small. And the maps we have made of the world\, though useful and even necessary\, are an extreme over-simplification—(like this one)—of our life. \n  \nBut that is not the end of the story. Once we have achieved something like “well-adjusted normal\,” we want more. We want a life rich in meaning. We want happiness! Love! We want to live in such a way that we bless each day\, that our life gets better and better as it goes along\, until we are amazed at what a miracle it all is. \n  \nHere are two of William Blake’s poems of innocence: \n  \nInfant Joy \n  \n“I have no name: \nI am but two days old.” \nWhat shall I call thee? \n“I happy am\, \nJoy is my name.” \nSweet joy befall thee! \n  \nPretty joy! \nSweet joy but two days old\, \nSweet joy I call thee: \nThou dost smile\, \nI sing the while\, \nSweet joy befall thee \n* \n  \nLaughing Song \n  \nWhen the green hills laugh with the voice of joy\, \nAnd the dimpling stream runs laughing by; \nWhen the air does laugh with our merry wit\, \nAnd the green hill laughs with the noise of it; \n  \nWhen the meadows laugh with lively green\, \nAnd the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene\, \nWhen Mary and Susan and Emily \nWith their sweet round mouths sing “Ha\, Ha\, He!” \n  \nWhen the painted birds laugh in the shade\, \nWhere our table with cherries and nuts is spread\, \nCome live & be merry\, and join with me\, \nTo sing the sweet chorus of “Ha\, Ha\, He!” \n* \n  \nBut then something happens to these innocent children: \n  \nThe School Boy \n  \nI love to rise in a summer morn \nWhen the birds sing on every tree; \nThe distant huntsman winds his horn\, \nAnd the sky-lark sings with me. \nO! what sweet company. \n  \nBut to go to school in a summer morn\, \nO! it drives all joy away; \nUnder a cruel eye outworn\, \nThe little ones spend the day \nIn sighing and dismay. \n  \nAh! then at times I drooping sit\, \nAnd spend many an anxious hour\, \nNor in my book can I take delight\, \nNor sit in learning’s bower\, \nWorn thro’ with the dreary shower. \n  \nHow can the bird that is born for joy \nSit in a cage and sing? \nHow can a child\, when fears annoy\, \nBut droop his tender wing\, \nAnd forget his youthful spring? \n  \nO! father & mother\, if buds are nip’d \nAnd blossoms blown away\, \nAnd if the tender plants are strip’d \nOf their joy in the springing day\, \nBy sorrow and care’s dismay\, \n  \nHow shall the summer arise in joy\, \nOr the summer fruits appear? \nOr how shall we gather what griefs destroy\, \nOr bless the mellowing year\, \nWhen the blasts of winter appear? \n* \n  \nThe GARDEN of LOVE \n  \nI went to the Garden of Love\, \nAnd saw what I never had seen: \nA Chapel was built in the midst\, \nWhere I used to play on the green. \n  \nAnd the gates of this Chapel were shut\, \nAnd “Thou shalt not” writ over the door; \nSo I turn’d to the Garden of Love \nThat so many sweet flowers bore; \n  \nAnd I saw it was filled with graves\, \nAnd tomb-stones where flowers should be; \nAnd Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds\, \nAnd binding with briars my joys & desires. \n* \n  \nHere’s William Wordsworth’s account: \n  \nOde on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood \n  \nThere was a time when meadow\, grove\, and stream\, \nThe earth\, and every common sight \n                 To me did seem \n            Apparelled in celestial light\, \nThe glory and the freshness of a dream. \nIt is not now as it hath been of yore;— \n             Turn wheresoe’er I may\, \n              By night or day\, \nThe things which I have seen I now can see no more. \n            The rainbow comes and goes\, \n            And lovely is the rose; \n            The moon doth with delight \n     Look round her when the heavens are bare; \n            Waters on a starry night \n            Are beautiful and fair; \n     The sunshine is a glorious birth; \n     But yet I know\, where’er I go\, \nThat there hath past away a glory from the earth. \nNow\, while the birds thus sing a joyous song\, \n     And while the young lambs bound \n            As to the tabor’s sound\, \nTo me alone there came a thought of grief: \nA timely utterance gave that thought relief\, \n            And I again am strong. \nThe cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep\,— \nNo more shall grief of mine the season wrong: \nI hear the echoes through the mountains throng. \nThe winds come to me from the fields of sleep\, \n            And all the earth is gay; \n                Land and sea \n     Give themselves up to jollity\, \n            And with the heart of May \n     Doth every beast keep holiday;— \n                Thou child of joy\, \nShout round me\, let me hear thy shouts\, thou happy \n        Shepherd-boy! \n                 Ye blesséd Creatures\, I have heard the call  \n     Ye to each other make; I see \nThe heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; \n     My heart is at your festival\, \n       My head hath its coronal\, \nThe fulness of your bliss\, I feel—I feel it all. \n         O evil day! if I were sullen \n         While Earth herself is adorning \n              This sweet May-morning; \n         And the children are culling \n              On every side \n         In a thousand valleys far and wide \n         Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm\, \nAnd the babe leaps up on his mother’s arm:— \n         I hear\, I hear\, with joy I hear! \n         —But there’s a tree\, of many\, one\, \nA single field which I have look’d upon\, \nBoth of them speak of something that is gone: \n              The pansy at my feet \n              Doth the same tale repeat: \nWhither is fled the visionary gleam? \nWhere is it now\, the glory and the dream? \nOur birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; \nThe Soul that rises with us\, our life’s Star\, \n          Hath had elsewhere its setting \n               And cometh from afar; \n          Not in entire forgetfulness\, \n          And not in utter nakedness\, \nBut trailing clouds of glory do we come  \n               From God\, who is our home: \nHeaven lies about us in our infancy! \nShades of the prison-house begin to close \n               Upon the growing Boy\, \nBut he beholds the light\, and whence it flows\, \n               He sees it in his joy; \nThe Youth\, who daily farther from the east \n     Must travel\, still is Nature’s priest\, \n          And by the vision splendid \n          Is on his way attended; \nAt length the Man perceives it die away\, \nAnd fade into the light of common day… \n* \n  \nThis is about the first third of Wordsworth’s poem. For the complete poem\, click this link: \n  \nhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45536/ode-intimations-of-immortality-from-recollections-of-early-childhood  \n  \nHe is sad that he has lost something that he vividly remembers having as a child: “There hath past away a glory from the earth.” William Blake and Thomas Traherne were able to find it\, or something like it\, in the later part of their lives. Here is Thomas Traherne’s poem “Innocence\,” along with a link: \n  \nInnocence \n\n\n\n  \nBut that which most I wonder at\, which most \nI did esteem my bliss\, which most I boast\, \nAnd ever shall enjoy\, is that within \nI felt no stain\, nor spot of sin. \n\nNo darkness then did overshade\, \n      But all within was pure and bright\, \nNo guilt did crush\, nor fear invade \n      But all my soul was full of light. \n\nA joyful sense and purity \n      Is all I can remember; \n   The very night to me was bright\, \n      ’Twas summer in December. \n\nA serious meditation did employ \nMy soul within\, which taken up with joy \nDid seem no outward thing to note\, but fly \nAll objects that do feed the eye. \n\nWhile it those very objects did \n      Admire\, and prize\, and praise\, and love\, \nWhich in their glory most are hid\, \n      Which presence only doth remove. \n\n      Their constant daily presence I \nRejoicing at\, did see; \n      And that which takes them from the eye \nOf others\, offer’d them to me. \n\nNo inward inclination did I feel \nTo avarice or pride: my soul did kneel \nIn admiration all the day. No lust\, nor strife\, \nPolluted then my infant life. \n\nNo fraud nor anger in me mov’d\, \n      No malice\, jealousy\, or spite; \nAll that I saw I truly lov’d. \n      Contentment only and delight \n\n      Were in my soul. O Heav’n! what bliss \nDid I enjoy and feel! \n      What powerful delight did this \nInspire! for this I daily kneel. \n\nWhether it be that nature is so pure\, \nAnd custom only vicious; or that sure \nGod did by miracle the guilt remove\, \nAnd make my soul to feel his love \n\nSo early: or that ’twas one day\, \n      Wherein this happiness I found; \nWhose strength and brightness so do ray\, \n      That still it seems me to surround; \n\nWhat ere it is\, it is a light \n      So endless unto me \nThat I a world of true delight \n      Did then and to this day do see. \n\nThat prospect was the gate of Heav’n\, that day \nThe ancient light of Eden did convey \nInto my soul: I was an Adam there \nA little Adam in a sphere \n\nOf joys! O there my ravish’d sense \n      Was entertain’d in Paradise\, \nAnd had a sight of innocence \n      Which was beyond all bound and price. \n\nAn antepast of Heaven sure! \n      I on the earth did reign; \nWithin\, without me\, all was pure; \n      I must become a child again. \n  \n\n–Thomas Traherne \n\n\n  \n https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45414/innocence.)  \n  \nHere’s what Hamlet had to say. I’ve used it in a previous newsletter (4/23/20)\, but\, hey!\, some things are worth reading more than once. Hamlet knows intellectually that the world is beautiful and people are glorious\, but he just can’t feel it: \n  \nHamlet.  \nI have of late\, but wherefore I know not\, lost all my mirth\, foregone all custom of exercises\, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory\, this most excellent canopy\, the air\, look you\, this brave o’erhanging firmament\, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why it appears nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.  What a piece of work is a man\, how noble in reason\, how infinite in faculties\, in form and moving how express and admirable\, in action how like an angel\, in apprehension how like a god\, the beauty of the world\, the paragon of animals—and yet\, to me\, what is this quintessence of dust?  Man delights not me.  No\, nor woman\, neither. \n* \n  \nI have the nutty idea that every child is an incarnation of the Divine. Recently\, I had the good fortune to meet Zak and Rina’s daughter Nina\, who was born on May 6th. She proved once again—(like every baby I’ve ever met)—that Augustine was wrong. We are born in innocence\, not in sin. Our job is to welcome each new arrival on this planet and to co-create a culture that nurtures their well-being. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-7-2-20/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200625
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200702
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200625T153328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T115933Z
UID:984-1593043200-1593647999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  6/25/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJune 25\, 2020 \n  \nJon Roush sent this poem: \n  \nIf I can stop one Heart from breaking \nI shall not live in vain \nIf I can ease one Life the Aching \nOr cool one Pain \n  \nOr help one fainting Robin \nUnto his Nest again \nI shall not live in Vain. \n  \n—Emily Dickinson \n* \n  \nA short time after I got the poem from Jon\, I got a letter from Josh Underhill (5/30/20). He seems to be thinking along the same lines as Emily. After some preliminaries\, here’s what he had to say: \n  \nI am not sure if I agree with your words “I don’t feel like I have much influence on the world\, but I create my world…” I do however agree each of us lives and creates our world from moment to moment and we choose whether or not to live in hell or paradise. Because I believe that\, and you seem to also\, our own moment to moments\, and our own choice in living in hell or paradise I believe influences the world. Everything we do from moment to moment\, our hell or paradise\, all has a ripple effect in the world. Even a smile to someone passing on the sidewalk may transform their day\, causing them to not flip-off the car that cuts them off that would have ended up in a road rage and loss of life. You can not say you haven’t changed our lives in Group Dialogue\, changed our world\, and in that changed the way we address the world\, in turn changing the world of those around us\, our friends and families. The ripple effect. I have something on this subject that I’ll see if I can find to include with this letter\, which maybe you can put in an upcoming newsletter. We all on this world are connected\, interdependent of one another and without others around us changing the world\, our world withers and dies. So see\, everything you do influences the world. \nThe thing that scares me about this belief is those things done in wrong or hurt\, what many of us are guilty of\, and has sent some to prison for. Those things we each have done\, what ripple effect did it have on the world? That is something I will not get into right now\, and in some ways don’t want to think about. Guess that’s the choice of living in hell or paradise. \n  \nJosh appended this quote to his letter: \n  \nThe life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life\, and that in turn another\, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. \n  \n—Frederick Buechner \n* \n  \nAfter reading Josh’s letter\, I wondered what exactly I had written to him (4/20/20). Here are a few excerpts: \n  \nIt’s a beautiful Spring day today. We have bright yellow goldfinches and bright red house finches flying around our back yard. I enjoyed your quote from Mr. Shin about being present to what you are doing in the moment. Moments are important. We are so busy thinking about the past and imagining the future that we need to be reminded to pay attention to where we are and to what’s happening within us and around us…. \nFor me\, meditation and mindfulness have been very helpful for my well-being. My mind is not as noisy as it once was. I can easily find my way to what I call “The Golden World….” \nHave you finished reading Ishmael yet? The stories we tell ourselves shape the world in which we live. This is true individually and collectively. When we change our stories\, we change our world—and to some extent we even change the world. I don’t feel like I have much influence on “the world\,” but I create “my world” from moment to moment\, and whether I live in a paradise or in a hell is more-or-less up to me. Outside factors impinge on my happiness\, but how I process my experience and knowledge makes a big difference in whether I am enjoying my life or am miserable. \nIshmael is about the stories we have been telling ourselves collectively that have brought us to a situation where we are destroying the ecological health of our beautiful planet. In order to live in ways that are not so destructive\, we will need new stories. \nWilliam Blake said: “every thing that lives is Holy.” That’s a good start. \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we be peaceful and at ease. \nMay we be well in body and mind. \nMay we live in love. \n* \nWhen I wrote to Josh to ask his permission to publish excerpts from our exchange of letters in this newsletter\, he said “yes\,” and asked me to also include some things I wrote (6/9/20) in reply to his letter. I’m including a couple sentences in square brackets\, although Josh\, who is modest\, didn’t ask me to : \n  \nEverything has a ripple effect—good things and bad things. The Big World—what I was calling “the world”—has a LOT of forces in play. I think there are way more good deeds than bad deeds being done right now everywhere in the world. Basically\, people are good and want to be helpful to each other. The good deeds are often subtle\, like the example you gave\, of smiling at someone as you pass on the sidewalk. But the wrong and hurtful things that you mention in your letter sometimes create more of a wave than a ripple…. \nA man in our dialogue group who was serving a life sentence once said that he could never undo the deed or make amends to the loved ones of the person he killed. He said he hoped that by living a good life\, he would be able to help so many people that in the balance\, at the end of his life\, the good would outweigh the bad…. \nI think it is wise of you not to dwell on the negative ripples that went out from what you’ve done in the past…. Shame and guilt don’t help you or anyone else…. \n[You have nurtured and strengthened what is best in you—your kindness and generosity\, your thoughtfulness toward others. You are living the life of a good man\, and that not only benefits others with a ripple effect\, it benefits you every hour of every day of your life….] \nBe kind to yourself. Don’t engage in negative self-talk. Don’t put yourself down or belittle yourself. Don’t engage with shame or guilt. Don’t dwell in the past. Love everyone!—including Josh Underhill. That beautiful innocent person you were when you were three years old is still who you are in essence. You are worthy to love and be loved. \nYes\, there are ripple effects that result from our negative thoughts and actions. But your job and my job is to:  \nAccentuate the positive\,  \nEliminate the negative\,  \nLatch on to the affirmative\, \nAnd don’t mess with Mr. In-Between! \n* \n  \n(Note: Josh and I and other actors sang this Johnny Mercer song together after one of the plays we did at Two Rivers prison.)  \n  \nLet’s close with more Emily: \n  \nA letter is a joy of Earth — \nIt is denied the Gods — \n  \n& \n  \nThe Infinite a sudden Guest \nHas been assumed to be — \nBut how can that stupendous come \nWhich never went away? \n  \n  \n—This issue was co-edited by Josh Underhill & Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-6-25-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200618
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200625
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200618T153659Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T115824Z
UID:964-1592438400-1593043199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness  6/18/20
DESCRIPTION:When the Morning Stars Sang Together by William Blake \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness newsletter \n  \n  \nJune 18\, 2020 \n  \nThe tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way. \n  \n—from William Blake’s letter to John Trusler\, August 16\, 1799 \n* \n  \n“I always say to myself: What is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment?” \n  \n—R. Buckminster Fuller\, from I Seem To Be a Verb \n* \n  \nNancy and I have been worrying about the men and women who are in prisons and jails at this difficult time. I was telling Kim about a conversation I had with Rocky Hutchinson—that I was touched to learn that Rocky was worrying about us. The next day\, while my coffee buddies and I were having Zoom fellowship\, this poem from Kim arrived in my email box: \n  \nInmate Calls Home  \n  \nMom\, I been all night worried— \nthis virus thing\, they say it gets everywhere. \nSo don’t go out\, okay? Get food\, sit tight. \nRead. Just read. You like that. Make calls.  \nNot great\, I know. You love those friends.  \nNights\, I hear you tell them things.  \nMom\, I been worried—cabin fever. Yeah\,  \non the inside we’re used to that. Lots of practice. \nTime just turns like a silly dancer\, you watch it. \nBut Mom\, what you gonna do with all that time?  \nNo visits\, no go where you want\, no bench \nin that park you like.   \nNights\, Mom\, no worry. No worry\, \nokay? Me\, I’m good. I’m so good. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nHoward Thoresen sent a couple of poems: \n  \nLife-and-Death \n  \nWater isn’t formed by being ladled  \ninto a bucket \nSimply the water of the whole Universe has been ladled \nInto a bucket \nThe water does not disappear because it has been \nScattered over the ground \nIt is only that the water of the whole Universe \nHas been emptied into the whole Universe  \nLife is not born because a person is born \nThe life of the whole Universe has been ladled \nInto the hardened “idea” called “I” \nLife does not disappear because a person dies \nSimply\, the life of the whole Universe has \nBeen poured out of this hardened “idea” of “I” \nback into the Universe. \n  \n—Uchiyama Roshi   \n* \n  \nIt Is I Who Must Begin \n  \nIt is I who must begin. \nOnce I begin\, once I try — \nhere and now\, \nright where I am\, \nnot excusing myself \nby saying things \nwould be easier elsewhere\, \nwithout grand speeches and \nostentatious gestures\, \nbut all the more persistently \n— to live in harmony \nwith the “voice of Being\,” as I \nunderstand it within myself \n— as soon as I begin that\, \nI suddenly discover\, \nto my surprise\, that \nI am neither the only one\, \nnor the first\, \nnor the most important one \nto have set out \nupon that road. \nWhether all is really lost \nor not depends entirely on \nwhether or not I am lost. \n   \n— Václav Havel  \n* \n  \nReminders from Walt: \n  \nI…peruse manifold objects\, no two alike and every one good\, \nThe earth good and the stars good and their adjuncts all good…. \n  \nDazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me\, \nIf I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me. \n  \n—from “Song of Myself by Walt Whitman \n* \n  \nAnd a very short story: \n  \nA woman went to see her therapist\, who was also a woman.  “I have a problem\,” she began.   \n“Yes?” the therapist said\, in that way that therapists do.   \n“It’s my husband\,” the woman said.   \n“I don’t see your husband here\,” said the therapist.   \n“He’s not here\,” said the woman.   \n“Where is your problem?” asked the therapist.   \n“In my mind\,” the woman said\, and suddenly realized highest perfect enlightenment. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-6-18-6-24-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200611
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200618
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200611T175044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T115733Z
UID:935-1591833600-1592438399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness 6/11/20
DESCRIPTION:painting of George Floyd by Lukas Carlson \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness newsletter \n  \n  \nJune 11\, 2020 \n  \nThe black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws—racism\, poverty\, militarism\, and materialism. It is exposing the evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced. \n  \n—Martin Luther King\, Jr. \n* \n  \nI recently posted this on my FaceBook page: \n  \nAt the root of racism\, injustice and violence are ignorance\, fear\, and a lack of imagination and love. \n  \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in love. \n* \n  \nI also posted a link to Martin Luther King’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522wcqUlS0Y)\, along with these “comments”: \n  \nLove is creative understanding goodwill for all men. \n  \n—from Martin Luther King’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies” \n* \n  \nIn this world\, \nhate never yet dispelled hate. \nOnly love dispels hate. \nThis is the law\, \nancient and inexhaustible. \n  \n—Buddha\, from the Dhammapada \n* \n  \nWho loves not\, knows not God; for God is love. \n  \n1 John 4:8 \n* \n  \nLove to faults is always blind\, \nAlways is to joy inclin’d\, \nLawless\, wing’d & unconfin’d\, \nAnd breaks all chains from every mind. \n  \n—William Blake \n* \n  \nBlake also said: \n  \nEvery thing that lives is Holy \n  \nand: \n  \nChildren of the future Age \nReading this indignant page\, \nKnow that in a former time \nLove! sweet Love! was thought a crime. \n  \nand: \n  \nArt Degraded Imagination Denied War Governed the Nations \n* \n  \nHere are some more thoughts: \nthere is one human family \nwe all belong \nwe need each other more than we know \nwe came here to love and be loved \nat the core of every human being is something radiantly beautiful \nThich Nhat Han speaks of “interbeing” \nat the most fundamental level\, we are not separate from each other \nor from the flowing river of life \n  \nAgain\, Blake: \n  \nCan I see another’s woe \nAnd not be in sorrow too? \nCan I see another’s grief\, \nAnd not seek for kind relief?…. \nNo no never can it be\, \nNever\, never can it be. \n* \n  \nIn 1855\, Walt Whitman said: \n  \nOf every hue and caste am I\, of every rank and religion…. \n  \nIn all people I see myself\, none more\, and not one a barley-corn less…. \n  \nI speak the password primeval\, I give the sign of democracy\, \nBy God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms. \n  \n—from “Song of Myself” \n* \n  \nOne of the best books I’ve read in recent years is Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Written as a letter to his son\, it’s powerful and poignant. Highly recommended! If you’d like to learn more about the racist dimension of our society\, especially in relation to the criminal justice system\, you might read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and watch the documentary “13th\,” by Ava DuVernay.  \nHere’s a link to Cornel West speaking about love and justice:  \n  \nhttps://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/06/10/cornel-west-george-floyd-cooper-ac360-vpx.cnn \n  \nI’ll close this issue with passages from Martin Luther King’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies”: \n  \nWe must discover the power of love\, the power\, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that\, we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way…. \nSo this morning\, as I look into your eyes\, and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world\, I say to you\, “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.” And I’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere\, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And then we will be in God’s kingdom. \n  \n—delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church\, Montgomery Alabama\, November 17\, 1957\, from the book A Knock at Midnight
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-6-11-6-17-2020/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200607
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200608
DTSTAMP:20260425T204643
CREATED:20200603T191633Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240616T193251Z
UID:901-1591488000-1591574399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: the Open Road Literary Salon
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \n \n  \n“The real joy of a book lies in reading it over and over again\, and always finding it different\, coming upon another meaning\, another level of meaning.” \n–from Apocalypse by D. H. Lawrence \n  \n¡Beloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOn June 16th\, our topic will be Books That Give You Something New Every Time You Read Them. \n  \nHere’s the Zoom link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n  \nI hope to see you there!  \n  \npeace\, love & happiness  \nJohnny \n  \n  \n \n  \nFrom the back cover: \n  \nIf you know Johnny\, you will love this book. If you don’t\, after reading\, you will want to meet him—by reading this book. Who else can provide such a good-humored\, big-hearted\, modern Socratic quest into the nature of human happiness\, and the myriad paths to finding joy? Johnny lived in India—and in the remote Eastern Oregon town of Ashwood. He’s spent years in prison—as a generous visitor creating dialog circles to bring lively thought to shadowed lives. And all the time he was writing these zesty morsels of insight\, poem\, story\, meditation\, and manifesto just for you. \n  \n—Kim Stafford\, author of As the Sky Begins to Change  \n  \n  \n\n\n\nIf you missed our 2021 Valentine’s Day Special\, you can enjoy the poems we read by clicking on this phrase: Valentine’s Day Special! LOVE POEMS. Or you could get inspiration from the STORY POEMS we shared on Sunday\, March 28th. Or: MYSTICAL POETRY & PROSE from Animist\, Polytheist\, Hindu\, Taoist\, Buddhist\, Jewish\, Christian & Muslim mystics (4/11/21). Or Poetry (9/25/22). Or American Indian Authors and Culture (11/20/22).\n\n\n  \nWe had a lovely group reading on Zoom of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” on his birthday (May 31\, 2020)\, and have been carrying on a lively literary salon ever since on Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m. You’re invited! \nI know that in our busy world not everyone can come every week\, or stay for the whole thing\, but if this sounds like fun to you\, please join us this Sunday or some other Sunday. \nDon’t worry\, this is not a college class! It’s non-competitive. There’s no homework. No one is expected to know anything\, learn anything or improve in any way. It’s just a way to get together and enjoy each other’s company–a locus for the Nonstop Love-In that is happening always and everywhere. \n  \nHere’s the a list of the topics we’ve used so far: \n  \n\nPoetry Corner (favorite poems old and new) 6/7/20\nCan a book change the way you see and experience the world? (give examples) 6/14\nThe Quintessential Hippie Library (you could start with the Whole Earth Catalog and The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda and go from there—some of you surely know what I’m talking about) 6/21\nWhat are your five all-time favorite novels? or six? or whatever? 6/28\nReligion and Spirituality (what sacred-mystic-poetic texts have most enriched your life?) 7/5\nWhat writers taught you most about the way the world works—sociologically\, politically\, economically\, ecologically\, philosophically\, mythologically\, psychologically\, anthropologically\, scientifically\, aesthetically\, fundamentally? 7/12\nBooks With Pictures in Them (this would include art books as well as illustrated books and children’s books) (another question: what are the most gorgeous books you own\, or wish you owned?) 7/19\nfeatured poet: William Blake  7/26\nOddball Books (books found off the beaten path\, books the other people probably haven’t heard of\, books that are unlike other books\, books that explore non-mainstream ways of seeing and understanding the world\, y’know: oddball books)  8/2\nIdea Books (nonfiction books that you learned something from that has stayed with you)  8/9\nWell-Written Books (what writers write in a way that thrills you?)  8/16 \nBooks About Books (literary criticism\, books about reading\, writing\, writers\, words\, the alphabet\, libraries\, et cetera) 8/23 \nFilms Based on Books: which are the best?  8/30\nPoetry Corner. Read us poems you’ve written\, or some of your favorites from other writers.  9/6\nMulticultural. Books not written in English and/or not written by white guys. Fiction or nonfiction  9/13\nGuest Author: Ashley Lucas.  This was a Special Event–a Virtual Book Tour. Ashley’s new book\, Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration had just been published. Ashley (in Michigan) read from her book\, answered questions and hosted a conversation. Howard joined us from New York\, Al and Nick from Seattle\, lots of Oregonians\, and Carlos from Peru! You might want to read this Interview with Ashley Lucas.  9/20\nNature\, Ecology & the Environmental Crisis. 9/27\nNo Bibliophiles Unanimous on 10/4.\nPositive Futures\, Utopian Visions. Mainly thinking nonfiction here\, but novels that give a positive vision of the future would also be good (if there are any.)  10/11\nThe Bible. What does this book mean to you? What have you learned from it? What is its role in our society? What is its role in Western Literature? Considered as a myth (sacred story)\, what does it say about us\, our world\, and our relationship to the Divine?  10/18\nShakespeare.  10/25\nKids Books. For Children of All Ages. Bring kids’ books to read. Bring kids if you can. What were your favorites when you were a kid?  11/1\nIrish Writers  11/8\nEconomics  11/15  Know of any well-written books that have helped to illuminate this arcane subject for you?\nRead any good books lately? A favorite question of bibliophiles  11/22\nMythology with Will Hornyak. Any authors\, books\, articles that have drawn you closer to the world of myth? What myths do you live by? 12/6\nPoetry’s Task with Kim Stafford.  12/20/20\nFavorite Women Poets with Deborah Buchanan & Katie Radditz. 1/3/21\nSPECIAL EVENT!!!: A Play Reading with Howard Thoresen\, Alan Benditt & Andrew Larkin. This is gonna be F-U-N! Contact Johnny for details.  1/17/21\nIdentity & Mythos: The Stories We Tell Ourselves.  1/31/21\nValentine’s Day Special! LOVE POEMS.  1/14/21\nFACTORY by Antler. Group Poetry Reading!  2/28/21\nPoems & Books About Work. We’ll talk about Antler’s poem “Factory\,” share poems about work\, talk about books on the subject of work\, and regale each other with some of our own work experiences.  3/14/21\nStory Poems. Homer\, Dante\, Shakespeare\, Edward Lear\, Robert Service–y’know\, Story Poems. Poems that tell a story.  3/28/21\nMYSTICAL POETRY & PROSE from Animist\, Polytheist\, Hindu\, Taoist\, Buddhist\, Jewish\, Christian & Muslim mystics.  4/11/21\nSHAKESPEARE’S 457th BIRTHDAY!!! Bring along some of your favorite passages from the Immortal Bard.  4/25/21\nALL THINGS GREEK. Stratis Panourios\, our hierophant\, from Athens\, led a dialogos about Greek drama. 5/16/21\nAnnual Group Reading of SONG OF MYSELF to celebrate Walt Whitman’s 202nd birthday!  5/30/21\nBloomsday Celebration!  6/13/21\nPLAYS!: Plays you’ve read\, plays you’ve seen\, plays you’ve performed.  6/27/21\nWhat are your favorite 50 books from the past 50 years?  (Books published since 1971.)  7/11/21\nWhat are Your Favorite Documentary Films?  7/25/21\nPoetry Corner!  8/8/21\nWhat Do You Read?\, How Do You Read? & Why Do You Read?  8/22/21\nWomen’s Liberation!  9/5/21\nBooks With Pictures In Them with Special Guest Professor Andrew D. Larkin  9/19/21\nLooking Glass Bookstore with Special Guests Bill Kloster and Katie Radditz  10/3/21\nPoems That Are Funny  10/17/21\nNature  10/31/21\nNature Poetry  11/14/21\nMythology  11/28/21\nGroup Reading of “A Christmas Carol” 12/12/21\nRead Any Good Books Lately?  1/9/22\nFavorite Fictional Characters  2/27/22\nFor Women’s History Month: Women Writers and Characters  3/13/22\nWar & Peace & Spring!  3/27/22\nGary Snyder & Friends  4/10/22\nOf Strange Shadows: TheMysteries of Shakespeare’s Sonnets with Keith Scales (Celebrating William Shakespeare’s 458th Birthday)  4/24/22\nWhat Shaped Your Worldview (Including Books)?  5/8/22\nAnnual Group Reading of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”  5/29/22\nBloomsday Celebration  6/16/22\nA Conversation With Susan Griffin  6/26/22\nAuthors & Writings That Make You Happy!  7/10/22\nAuthors & Writings That Make You Happy!  7/24/22\nRead Any Good Books Lately?  8/28/22\nRead Something You Wrote  9/11/22\nPOETRY  9/25/22\nMore Poems  10/9/22\nNeruda\, Mistral\, García Márquez\, et cetera  11/6/22\nAmerican Indian Authors and Culture  11/20/22\nSilence  12/4/22\nAnnual Group Reading of A Christmas Carol  12/18/22\nSong Lyrics1/1/2023\nHope  1/15/23\nKeith Scales Reads T. S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets  1/29/23\nValentine’s Day Special: “What have you learned about love from books & plays & poems?” 2/12/23\nSnowed In! 2/26/23\nMemorize a Poem!  3/12/23\n“sweet spring…  4/9/23\nShakespeare’s Birthday Extravaganza!!!  4/23/23\nPsychology  5/7/23\nFavorite Women Authors  5/21/23\nPoetry Reading: Featured Poets are Elizabeth Domike & Alex Tretbar  6/4/23\nVisions of Utopia & Paradise  6/18/23\nWhat’s Going On?  7/30/23\nWhat Are Your Top Ten (or Fifteen) Favorite Novels of All Time? 8/13/23\nMother Goose & Friends  9/10/23\nBlack Elk’s Vision  9/24/23\nSPECIAL EVENT!: Mythic Ireland with Will Hornyak  10/8/23\nPeace & War  10/22/23\nWisdom  12/3/23\nA Child’s Christmas in Wales read by Keith Scales  12/17/23\nWhat are the best books you read in 2023 & what books are you looking forward to reading in 2024?  12/31/23\nHistories!  1/14/23\nWho do you admire\, and why?  2/25/24\nWorld Literature  3/10/24 \nBook Launch for The Nonstop Love-In by Johnny Stallings  3/23/24\nMysteries!  4/7/24\nSci-Fi!  5/5/24\nOld Poems!  5/19/24\nSong of Myself  6/2/24\n102.  Books That Give You Something New Every Time You Read Them  6/16/24\n\n\n  \nI hope to see you at our next Sunday Zoom gathering! \npeace & love \nJohnny \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200604
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200611
DTSTAMP:20260425T204644
CREATED:20200604T160610Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T115606Z
UID:922-1591228800-1591833599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness  6/4/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness newsletter \n  \nJune 4\, 2020 \n  \nMost of the writing I’ve done in my life has been in journals and letters. I found this letter that I wrote in 2010 to a man serving time in a Texas prison. He was suffering from depression\, so I wrote this letter to him. (I have edited it slightly.) \n  \nJuly 29\, 2010 \n  \nDear E \n  \nSome thoughts on depression. \nI think a  lot of suffering comes from “bad mental habits.” I would estimate that 99% of our suffering is self-inflicted. \nIn my own life\, I find three practices very helpful. \nMeditation \nDialogue \nStudy \n  \nMeditation \nYou don’t need a meditation teacher or tradition. All you need to do is spend some time every day sitting quietly. Doing nothing. Paying attention. Watching your thoughts. Being still. Being calm. Breathing in and out. Forget about the past\, forget about the future. Forget about The Autobiography of E. \nThought and language give rise to concepts like “self” and “other.” “Inside” and “outside.” “Body” and “mind.” “Life” and “death.” In silence\, there are no such categories. In silence\, there are no problems. In silence\, there are no boundaries. \nDo not waste another minute of your precious human life in self-pity or regret. Go forward. \nCount your blessings. \nEverything you see is utterly miraculous. Your body is miraculous: your hands\, your eyes\, your brain\, your lungs\, your stomach\, your heart. \nYou are perfect. There is nothing wrong with you. You are basically good. Love\, happiness and freedom are your birthrights. \nEveryone you see around you is beautiful inside. Look for that beauty. \nWater the seeds inside you of peace\, love\, happiness and understanding. \nDo not water the seeds of fear\, anger\, regret\, sorrow\, self-pity. \nPrison is a great place to find the peace which passeth understanding. \nPrison is a great place to learn to love yourself and everyone else\, without exception. \nPrison is a great place to learn how to stop making yourself miserable and be happy. \nPrison is a great place to be free. \n  \nDialogue \nWe need each other more than we know. \nDialogue is a way of breaking out of our isolation\, getting out of our rut\, connecting with others. \nYou said that there is one person who you can have a really good conversation with\, and that he has helped you to see things in a better perspective. \nTake good care of that relationship. Honor it. Spend time with him. \nThere are other guys in prison whom you can have meaningful dialogue with if you are patient and make an effort. \nThe trick is to get below the superficial level where most conversation takes place and down to stuff that is more meaningful. \nMy prison dialogue group has taught me that everyone hungers for meaningful dialogue\, even if they don’t know it. \nWe all need to learn the art of giving expression to who we are below the surface\, and to eliciting that from others. \nI know that in prison especially people tend to “do their own time\,” and obviously you don’t want to naïvely open yourself up to someone who would take advantage of your openness in some way\, but the cost of not communicating authentically with others is loneliness and isolation. So\, it’s worth the effort. \nIt’s important to speak and to be heard\, to see and be seen\, and ultimately to love and be loved. \nIf we talk about the weather or about sports\, neither of us will learn anything that we don’t already know\, but if you ask “What is your story?” and really listen you will find that this other person is just as interesting as you are. You will learn things you didn’t know. \nNot just “Where did you go to high school?\,” but “Have you ever loved a woman?” Not “What are you in for?\,” but “What is your heart’s desire?” \nSo\, now I will ask you that question\, as par of our ongoing dialogue. \nWhat is your heart’s desire? \n  \nStudy \nI hated school. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that school felt like a prison to me. I spent the whole time looking out the window\, dreaming of escape. \nI feel like precious years of my life were stolen from me. I’m still angry at the world of adults that locked me up like that. \nWhat was my crime? \nMy parents expected me to go to college after high school\, but I dropped out after half a year. \nAt that point my education began. I started reading things I wanted to read\, following my curiosity. I never stopped doing that. \nI think that if I was in prison\, I would do my best to pretend that it was my monastery\, my university. \nPart of my approach to reading is that I mostly read things that I expect will change me\, open my heart or my mind\, or both. Of course sometimes I read for pure entertainment. Books that are funny lighten our mood. Stories feed our imagination. \nMostly\, I read to gain a better understanding of us human beings and the world in which we live. For me\, this kind of reading can be tremendously exciting and make my life more meaningful. It enlarges my world. \nHere are some of the books I have discovered on my lifelong reading journey: \nFirst of all\, there are foundational books. These are the classics—the books that have been most important to humanity—that people have read and re-read. Millions of people have used the spiritual classics as a guide to their lives. The spiritual classics include the Bible\, the Qur’an\, Bhagavad Gita\, Tao Te Ching\, I Ching\, Dhammapada\, and Buddhist sutras. \nIn addition to those basic spiritual texts\, there are the classics of literature\, from the Odyssey of Homer to Ulysses by James Joyce. The literary critic Harold Bloom puts William Shakespeare at the center of what he calls the Western Canon. \nI find I am especially nourished by the writings and sayings of various saints\, yogis\, prophets\, mystics\, poets\, and spiritual geniuses\, ancient and modern. What they all have in common is something that might be called “depth.” It’s a long list but here are some of my favorites: \nLao Tzu\, Seng Ts’an\, Han Shan\, Hafiz\, Shakespeare\, Traherne\, Blake\, Emerson\, Thoreau\, Whitman\, Dostoevsky\, Narayana Guru\, Ramana Maharshi\, R.H. Blyth\, J. Krishnamurti\, Shunryu Suzuki\, Martin Luther King\, Alan Watts\, Joseph Campbell\, Susan Griffin\, Wendell Berry and Thich Nhat Hanh. \nThese people—along with my close personal friends—profoundly affected the way I see\, experience and understand my life\, the world\, and their inseparability. \nI have more I want to write about books\, but I have to do some stuff right now\, so I think I’ll save it for another letter and get this in the mail to you. \npeace & love \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-6-4-20-6-10-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200531T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200531T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T204644
CREATED:20200526T184434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200603T194117Z
UID:855-1590937200-1590944400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Song of Myself on Zoom!!!
DESCRIPTION:  \nWe had a very successful group reading of “Song of Myself” to celebrate Walt Whitman’s 201st Birthday on Sunday\, May 31st\, at 3 pm on Zoom.  \n  \nWe recorded it\, but haven’t uploaded it to YouTube yet. If you want to see it\, contact us through this website\, or email me if you know my email address. \n  \npeace & love  \nJohnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/celebrate-walts-201st-birthday-with-song-of-myself-on-zoom/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200528
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200604
DTSTAMP:20260425T204644
CREATED:20200528T113524Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220719T043219Z
UID:880-1590624000-1591228799@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness 5/28/20
DESCRIPTION:painting by Charles Erickson \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness \nMay 28\, 2020 \n  \nIn 1681 William Penn\, an English Quaker\, was granted territory in North America by King Charles II. The land was named Pennsylvania. Penn planned to build the city of Philadelphia\, which means “brotherly love.” Before coming to America\, on August 18\, 1681\, he wrote this letter to the Native American chiefs: \n  \nMY FRIENDS\, There is a Great God and Power\, that hath made the world and all things therein\, to whom you and I and all people owe their being and well-being; and to whom you and I must one day give an account for all that we do in the world. This Great God hath written his Law in our hearts\, by which we are taught and commanded to love and help\, and do good to one another\, and not to do harm and mischief unto one another. Now this Great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of the world\, and the king of the country where I live hath given me a great province therein; but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent\, that we may always live together as neighbors and friends; else what would the Great God do to us? who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another\, but to live soberly and kindly together in the world. Now I would have you well observe that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the world\, who have sought themselves\, and to make great advantages by you\, rather than to be examples of justice and goodness unto you\, which I hear hath been matter of trouble unto you\, and caused great grudgings and animosities\, sometimes to the shedding of blood\, which hath made the Great God angry. But I am not such a man\, as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard towards you\, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind\, just\, and peaceable life\, and the people I send are of the same mind\, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly; and if in any thing any shall offend you or your people\, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same\, by an equal number of just men on both sides\, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them. \n—William Penn (1644-1718) \n* \nAnother Seventeenth Century Englishman had this to say: \n  \n28 \nYour enjoyment of the world is never right\, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father’s Palace; and look upon the skies\, the earth\, and the air as Celestial Joys: having such a reverend esteem of all\, as if you were among the Angels. The bride of a monarch\, in her husband’s chamber\, hath no such causes of delight as you.  \n  \n29 \nYou never enjoy the world aright\, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins\, till you are clothed with the heavens\, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world\, and more than so\, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God\, as misers do in gold\, and Kings in sceptres\, you never enjoy the world.  \n  \n30 \nTill your spirit filleth the whole world\, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table: till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made: till you love men so as to desire their happiness\, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all: you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your private estate\, and are more present in the hemisphere\, considering the glories and the beauties there\, than in your own house: Till you remember how lately you were made\, and how wonderful it was when you came into it: and more rejoice in the palace of your glory\, than if it had been made to-day morning.  \n  \n31 \nYet further\, you never enjoyed the world aright\, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it\, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectly hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it\, that you had rather suffer the flames of Hell than willingly be guilty of their error. There is so much blindness and ingratitude and damned folly in it. The world is a mirror of infinite beauty\, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty\, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace\, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. \n  \n—Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) from Centuries of Meditations\, First Century\, also quoted by Aldous Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy\, pp. 67-68 \n* \nThis was written more recently: \n  \nKindness \n  \nBefore you know what kindness really is \nyou must lose things\, \nfeel the future dissolve in a moment \nlike salt in a weakened broth. \nWhat you held in your hand\, \nwhat you counted and carefully saved\, \nall this must go so you know \nhow desolate the landscape can be \nbetween the regions of kindness. \nHow you ride and ride \nthinking the bus will never stop\, \nthe passengers eating maize and chicken \nwill stare out the window forever. \nBefore you learn the tender gravity of kindness \nyou must travel where the Indian in a white poncho \nlies dead by the side of the road. \nYou must see how this could be you\, \nhow he too was someone \nwho journeyed through the night with plans \nand the simple breath that kept him alive. \nBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside\, \nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.  \nYou must wake up with sorrow. \nYou must speak to it till your voice \ncatches the thread of all sorrows \nand you see the size of the cloth. \nThen it is only kindness that makes sense anymore\, \nonly kindness that ties your shoes \nand sends you out into the day to gaze at bread\, \nonly kindness that raises its head \nfrom the crowd of the world to say \nIt is I you have been looking for\, \nand then goes with you everywhere \nlike a shadow or a friend.    \n  \n—- Naomi Shihab Nye \n* \nHer poem reminded me of this line from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”: \n  \nWhoever walks a furlong without sympathy\, walks to his own funeral dressed in his shroud. \n  \nIt’s a good line\, but he’s just getting warmed up: \n  \nAnd I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth\, \nAnd to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times\, \nAnd there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero\, \nAnd there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe\, \nAnd I say to any man or woman\, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes…. \n  \nI hear and behold God in every object\, yet understand God not in the least…. \n  \nWhy should I wish to see God better than this day? \nI see something of God each hour of the twenty-four\, and each moment then\, \nIn the faces of men and women I see God\, and in my own face in the glass\, \nI find letters from God dropt in the street\, and every one is signed by God’s name\, \nAnd I leave them where they are\, for I know that wheresoe’er I go\, \nOthers will punctually come for ever and ever. \n* \n  \nWalt’s 201st birthday is this Sunday\, May 31st. We’re going to have a group reading of “Song of Myself” at 3 pm (West Coast Time). To enjoy this exhilarating event\, go to the Zoom website and click on “Join a Meeting.” The meeting ID number is 892-8123-9555. Then\, the password is 623246. I hope to see you there! \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-newsletter-5-28-6-3-2020/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200521
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200528
DTSTAMP:20260425T204644
CREATED:20200521T172314Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T030351Z
UID:846-1590019200-1590623999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness  5/21/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness \n  \nMay 21\, 2020 \n  \nThe Subject Tonight is Love \nThe subject tonight is Love \nAnd for tomorrow night as well\, \nAs a matter of fact \nI know of no better topic \nFor us to discuss \nUntil we all \nDie! \n  \n                                   —Hafiz\, version by Daniel Ladinsky \n* \nI wrote this essay last Fall: \n  \nThe Noble Ninefold Path \n  \n“If you have tears\, prepare to shed them now\,” he said. We did and we did. The actor who Marc Antony is 34 years old. He has spent the last 17 of those years in prison\, which is where Nancy and I were watching this production of Julius Caesar. After the performance\, the actors talked to the audience about how much they love each other\, and tried to express how much that means to them “in a place like this.” \nI didn’t direct this production\, but in 2008 I directed a production of Hamlet at Two Rivers prison in Umatilla\, Oregon\, and have directed a number of plays in prison since then—mostly by William Shakespeare. For thirteen years I went to prison more-or-less every week and facilitated meaning-of-life dialogues. After doing this for a number of months\, one day I mentioned the word “love.” It’s a word you are not supposed to say in prison. It is taboo outside of prison as well. But that’s another story. \nInviting men in prison to talk about love had a strange effect. We all began to love each other. Over the years this love deepened to the point where we could all feel it. It was palpable.  \nI’m not the first person to notice this\, but I’ve come to understand in a deep way that everyone needs to love and be loved. Like a puppy at the Humane Society\, we are all waiting for someone to take us home. \nWhat the men in prison taught me about living in love got me to thinking about how in philosophical traditions and in many spiritual traditions knowing is privileged over loving. I looked again at the noble eightfold path and it wasn’t there. There was no mention of love! \nI’m not a Buddhist and certainly not a scholar of Buddhism\, but I realized something had to be done about this and so\, with an utter lack of humility\, I would like to suggest a revision to one of the Buddha’s most fundamental teachings and propose to all and sundry the adoption of: \nThe Noble Ninefold Path \nright understanding \nright thinking \nright speech \nright action \nright living \nright effort \nright mindfulness \nright meditation \nright loving \nThis may sound like a joke\, but it’s not. I’m not suggesting that all the books on Buddhism be revised. What I’m suggesting is that if you use the noble eightfold path as a guide to your practice you could add one more thing to the list. And that it would be helpful to do so. It’s not a trivial addition.  \nOne could argue that the Mahayana tradition has already done something like this with the bodhisattva ideal of compassion for all beings. Fair enough. Many modern Buddhist teachers—I’m thinking at the moment of Thich Nhat Hanh\, Pema Chödrön and Jack Kornfield—put a big emphasis on love. This idea of adding one more item to the eightfold path is done\, I hope\, in that same spirit. \nPeace\, love and happiness—the hippie virtues—all tend to be scoffed at by “smart people”—maybe because these are arts which are not taught in school. \nOne meaning of nirvana is a kind of floating away from this world of cares—the world of samsara. But in later Buddhism\, the duality is abolished: samsara and nirvana are not two. \nFor “intellectuals” and intellectual traditions the head is more important than the heart. This is not surprising. That’s kind of what “intellectual” means. But it seems to me that being a whole human being is preferable to performing the role of Mr. Know-It-All. Love and understanding need each other. \nHead without heart leads to tragedy. In my lifetime\, a bunch of geniuses had all kinds of reasons why it was a good idea to drop jellied gasoline on families planting rice in paddies. Had they listened to their hearts\, the whole thing could never have happened. \nWhat is “right loving”? I don’t know. Like all the other “rights” of the noble ninefold path\, you do your best to figure it out as you go along. Love\, of course\, includes compassion. But love is much more than that. I love to see a beautiful flower. I don’t feel compassion for it. I love it because it’s beautiful. I love it without even knowing why I love it. Thich Nhat Hanh—that sweet man!—reminds us that we are all flowers. \nMy own aspiration is to love the heck out of everyone and every thing. “Unconditional love” means loving no matter what and for no reason. \nIn the Bible it says: “Who loves not\, knows not God; for God is Love.” \nWilliam Blake says: \nLove to faults is always blind\, \nAlways is to joy inclin’d\, \nLawless\, wing’d & unconfin’d\, \nAnd breaks all chains from every mind. \nA good way to end this little essay might be with the Meta Prayer: \nMay all beings be happy! \nMay we be peaceful and at ease! \nMay we be well in body and mind! \nMay we live in love! \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nI shared “The Noble Ninefold Path” with a few people. I sent a copy to Shad Alexander\, who lives at Two Rivers prison. He sent this reply\, which I am sharing with his permission: \n  \nRegarding the “Ninefold Path\,” (if I may indulge my inner nerd)… Love is not explicitly stated in the bulletpoint framework of the Eightfold Path because it is implicitly enmeshed throughout the entire path structure\, and each individual path factor. The whole thing is about love. Buddha challenged us to rise above romantic love\, or sexual love\, or selfishly focused love\, as it is commonly expressed (both then and now). He separated out the main characteristics of selfless love into qualities that each of us can strive to embody. Mettā is translated as “unconditional love\,” or “universal love\,” or “loving-kindness\,” but a better translation involves a flavor of wishing goodwill for all others. Karunā is usually translated as “compassion\,” but again the English falls flat. Karuna is the inspiration to take some action\, even a trivial or symbolic action\, to ease the suffering of others. If you see a homeless person panhandling\, metta is the wish that the person’s life conditions will improve\, karuna is giving the person a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. Neither action will solve homelessness or hunger\, but together they are “drops in the bucket” which may someday result in a shift our culture and society at large. Muditā is translated as “vicarious joy\,” or perhaps the opposite of jealousy—this is the quality of feeling glad for someone else’s success. This is the cooperative and non-competitive quality of love. Upekkhā means equanimity or non-reactivity. As regards to love\, this is the unconditional aspect of love. (In a broader use of the term\, upekkhā is the Holy Grail of the entire practice\, not reacting with attachment to the ups and downs of life.) All four of these qualities together are Buddhist concept of “love.” Buddha called these “God’s Temple” or “Living Like God.”* (A quick side note: Buddha refused to acknowledge if he believed in God as a deity or not. But he taught his followers that they could become “like God” through the experience of love.) \nThe four qualities of love are both tools that can be used to achieve the final goal of liberation\, and they are side-effects of having achieved the final goal. Using Metta as an example: I still harbor a lot criticism towards others\, so my instructions are to pretend like I have a lot of metta towards others. If I pretend long enough\, it inevitably sinks in. (Buddha was the original person to coin the idea of “Fake it until you make it.”) On the other end of the spectrum\, enlightened meditation masters assure me that in advanced stages of meditation\, love for all beings is a natural expression from the realization that all living things are interconnected and interdependent. \nBringing this all back to the claim that the entire Eightfold path is about love… The Eightfold path begins and ends with “Right Understanding.” A beginner’s understanding is: “All living beings are terrified of punishment\, all fear death. Comparing oneself to others\, one should neither kill nor cause to kill. All living beings love life. Comparing oneself to others\, one should neither kill nor cause to kill.” (Dhammapada.) That novice understanding leads a person to train their mind towards thoughts of non-harm and cooperation (love); to train their speech towards words that promote love; to act with love; to choose a livelihood that does not harm others (love); to make earnest efforts to free themselves from harmful thoughts/actions and to engage in loving thoughts and actions. These efforts result in increasing mindfulness\, a living embodied awareness of of “Am I living with love?” or “Am I living absent of love?” Meditation is a tool to help us open up to the fullest potential of love\, but once that fullest potential is achieved\, meditation from a place of pure love tips the scales towards a more ultimate Right Understanding: all beings are interconnected and interdependent. To love myself is to love all others. \nOr so I have been told… \n(The word “sammā\,” we translate as “right\, proper\, perfect\,” as in Right Speech\, Right Thoughts\, etc. But what is meant by “right?” Samma has a nuance of “the absence of harmfulness” or the presence of metta/karuna/mudita/upekkha. So maybe a better translation would be “understanding with love\,” “thought with love\,” “speech with love\,” etc.) \n* The term is “Brahma-vihāra\,” God-Abiding. \n—Shad Alexander \n* \n  \nA bonus for people who get the email version of this newsletter—links to videos of two contemporary bodhisattvas\, Alokananda Roy and Fritzi Horstman: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OspzzO7gAiw&t=455s \n  \n  \n \n  \n  \n  \nhttps://vimeo.com/398088783?fbclid=IwAR3wrd-7igOwlGZo_R5jSI5IERo54Dld59nWAnXMSbTB11H8AEYK-RzRZRE \n  \nMay we live in love. \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-5-21-20-5-27-20/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200514
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200521
DTSTAMP:20260425T204644
CREATED:20200515T033211Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T030013Z
UID:839-1589414400-1590019199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness newsletter  5/14/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness \n  \nMay 14\, 2020 \n  \nA human being is part of the whole called by us “universe\,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself\, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. \nThis delusion is a kind of prison for us\, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. \nOur task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. \n—Albert Einstein \n* \nFather Gregory Boyle is the former pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles. In 1992\, he founded Homeboy Industries\, which is is the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. \nhttps://homeboyindustries.org/our-story/father-greg/ \nHe is the author of the Tattoos on the Heart and is featured in the documentary film “G-Dog.” In a TED talk he gave in 2012\, he uses a similar image to Albert Einstein’s “circle of compassion.” In the context of this talk he is not talking about “all living creatures\,” but about “the easily despised.”  Here’s an excerpt from that talk: \n  \nWhat we all want to create and form is a community of kinship such that God\, in fact\, might recognize it. I suspect that Mother Teresa diagnosed the world’s ills correctly when she suggested that the problem in the world is that we’ve just forgotten that we belong to each other. So\, how do we stand against forgetting that? How do we create and imagine a circle of compassion\, and then imagine nobody standing outside that circle? And to that end\, what we hope to do—all of us\, I think—is to inch our way out to the margins\, so that we can stand with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. That we can stand with those whose dignity has been denied\, with those whose burdens are more than they can bear. Occasionally\, you get very fortunate and blessed to be able to stand with the easily despised and the readily left out. With the demonized\, so that the demonizing will stop. And with the disposable\, so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. I suspect that if kinship was our goal we would no longer be promoting justice\, we would\, in fact\, be celebrating it. For: no kinship\, no justice. No kinship\, no peace. \n—from Gregory Boyle’s TED talk on Compassion and Kinship \n* \nI don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this 20 minute talk. It makes me cry every time. Here’s a link: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipR0kWt1Fkc&t=208s \n  \n* \nBelow is a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh which I read regularly to remind me who I am. It’s followed by his story of how he came to write the poem. Its content is not unrelated to what Albert Einstein says in the quote that opens this newsletter. \n  \nPlease Call Me By My True Names \n  \nDo not say that I’ll depart tomorrow— \neven today I am still arriving. \nLook deeply: every second I am arriving \nto be a bud on a Spring branch\, \nto be a tiny bird\, with still-fragile wings\, \nlearning to sing in my new nest\, \nto be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower\, \nto be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. \nI still arrive\, in order to laugh and to cry\, \nto fear and to hope\, \nthe rhythm of my heart is the birth and death \nof all that are alive. \nI am the mayfly metamorphosing \non the surface of the river\, \nand I am the bird which\, when Spring comes\, \narrives in time to eat the mayfly. \nI am the frog swimming happily \nin the clear water of a pond\, \nand I am the grass-snake \nthat silently feeds itself on the frog. \nI am the child in Uganda\, all skin and bones\, \nmy legs as thin as bamboo sticks. \nAnd I am the arms merchant\, \nselling deadly weapons to Uganda. \nI am the twelve-year-old girl\, \nrefugee on a small boat\, \nwho throws herself into the ocean \nafter being raped by a sea pirate. \nAnd I am the pirate\, \nmy heart not yet capable \nof seeing and loving. \nI am a member of the politburo\, \nwith plenty of power in my hands. \nAnd I am the man who has to pay his \n“debt of blood” to my people \ndying slowly in a forced labor camp. \nMy joy is like Spring\, so warm \nit makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. \nMy pain is like a river of tears\, \nso vast it fills the four oceans. \nPlease call me by my true names\, \nso I can hear all my cries and laughter at once\, \nso I can see that my joy and pain are one. \nPlease call me by my true names\, \nso I can wake up \nand so the door of my heart can be left open\, \nthe door of compassion. \n* \nAfter the Vietnam War\, many people wrote to us in Plum Village. We received hundreds of letters each week from the refugee camps in Singapore\, Malaysia\, Indonesia\, Thailand\, and the Philippines\, hundreds each week. It was very painful to read them\, but we had to be in contact. We tried our best to help\, but the suffering was enormous\, and sometimes we were discouraged. It is said that half the boat people fleeing Vietnam died in the ocean; only half arrived at the shores of Southeast Asia. \nThere are many young girls\, boat people\, who were raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries tried to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy\, sea pirates continued to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day\, we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. \nShe was only twelve\, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself. \nWhen you first learn of something like that\, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl\, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we can’t do that. In my meditation\, I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was\, I would now be the pirate. There is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I can’t condemn myself so easily. In my meditation\, I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam\, hundreds every day\, and if we educators\, social workers\, politicians\, and others do not do something about the situation\, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages\, we might become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate\, you shoot all of us\, because all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs. \nAfter a long meditation\, I wrote this poem. In it\, there are three people: the twelve-year-old girl\, the pirate\, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The title of the poem is “Please Call Me by My True Names\,” because I have so many names. When I hear one of the of these names\, I have to say\, “Yes.” \n—Thich Nhat Hanh \n* \nAnd one more poem: \n  \nA Little Stone in the Middle of the Road\, in Florida \n  \nMy son as a child saying \nGod \nis anything\, even a little stone in the middle of the road\, in Florida \nYesterday \nNancy\, my friend\, after long illness: \nYou know what can lift me up\, take me right out of despair? \nNo\, what? \nAnything. \n  \n—Muriel Rukeyser
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