Ken at Johnny Kelley Statue, Newton, Massachusetts, 16 January 2012

This post is about a week old, but after returning from my vacation in the Bahamas, I got caught with the bad cold that’s been racing through most of the communities that I belong to. Therefore, I’ve been spending the last few days just trying to get back into health.

One my first day back, I was doing a number of errands and realized that I wasn’t going to be far from Newton, and taking advantage of the time I had (and the 15 degree temperatures!) I did a walking meditation. I knew that the sight I had to use was the statue of Johnny Kelley that stands near the top of Heartbreak Hill on Commonwealth Avenue across the street from City Hall near Newton Center. Most people know of Newton as it is on the Boston Marathon route and has been the scene of many an exciting exchange of leads in the race. After going downhill for the first 16 miles from the start in Hopkinton, there are three hills in Newton that really challenge the runners just when they are starting to fade.  This is where you can make a big move in the race!

I did the marathon in 1998, and race walked it in 5:07:26.  It’s my one and only marathon, and it was a great experience.  I had to train for months to prepare for this, and it was a great effort and I was quite tired by the end, but I felt a sense of elation as I had accomplished a big goal.

So, what big goals are you planning for 2012? How are you stretching yourself?

Ken in Seven Hills Park, Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, 7 January 2012

Today, we had a very atypical January day for Eastern Massachusetts: highs in the mid to upper 50′s and sunny.  It was a beautiful day, and as I had a party to go to at a former colleague’s house, I decided to walk there, and then I thought “I haven’t done a meditation in Somerville yet!”

I go through Somerville, and particularly Davis Square, almost every day.  The Square is sort of the cool place to go now in the area after Harvard Square got so commercial.  There’s a bunch of funky stuff, like the Somerville Theater, Johnny D’s, cool statues, and numerous other places. There are also great statues that everyone thinks about when they think of Davis Square. It’s the most densely populated place in New England, and is the home of Marshmallow Fluff! In 1997, Davis Square was listed by the Utne Reader as one of the fifteen “hippest places to live” in the United States.

It was quite bustling, and there were many people out in shorts and T-shirts (but usually not both, this is January!).  It was just nice to have this warm up. I was just happy to be outside on a great day. I tried to be as meditative as I could on a beautiful day, but realized that I needed to just be present and observant when there’s so much action.

Ken at Johnny D's, Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, 7 January 2012

Ken at the Somerville Theater, Somerville, Massachusetts, 7 January 2012

So, can you be present when there’s a lot going on?  What do you do to help you keep present?

I have not been one to put a lot of weight into making resolutions as it seems like people think this is the only time of year that they can make changes to their lives, and I like to encourage everyone that we can make a new life for ourselves at every moment. That said, it is a great time to reflect on things and see how you want to move forward in this moment.

I was lucky enough over the New Year’s weekend to have taken a few workshops at Easton Mountain, namely in gratitude, attraction, and mindfulness. They overarching message to me in these leanings was one in intention. Too often in our busy world, we are doing things that we have trained ourselves to to without thinking. While that serves us well in some fields (like driving a car) it’s not as good when we are trying to have a conversation with someone or packing for a trip. I have personally experienced many a time when I had to clean up or take extra time when I did something unmindfully.

Another concept that I’ve picked up from my recent studies in Tantra is the concept of intentions vs. goals. I’ve spoken to the idea of goals here many times and I still think that there’s a great use for them, but also have discovered that sometimes it’s better to have an intention about something. To really mix metaphors, I also have realized from my study of GTD that there’s a difference between a project and an area of focus. A project is one where there’s a clear end point (e.g.: re-tile the bathtub) where an area of focus could be something you’re responsible for, but you can never really say is ever completed (e.g.: keeping a healthy body). A goal works for a project, but not as well for an area of focus.

Therefore, I don’t have a resolution (goal) for this year, but I do have intentions. If I were to have a goal, I’d succeed or fail. I want to be more present all the time towards an intention instead. For most of my life I’ve been very goal oriented (and will never be without goals!) but I’m realizing done areas of my life need me to be more mindful in each moment and striving toward something, and intentions seem to be a better fit for that.

My intentions for 2012 are to be more present in each moment and consider what is in my best interest. As you can tell from this, I can’t have this be a success or failure; it’s just a continual striving.

So, what are your intentions for 2012?

Ken at Beaver Brook Reservation, Waltham, Massachusetts, 2 January 2012

As I mentioned in my last post, I was doing my walking mediation through the fields of Rock Meadow in Belmont, when the landscape changed from meadow to woods, and I soon saw a bridge up ahead on the path.  As I got to it, I found that this was Beaver Brook and that the bridge went from the Rock Meadow Reservation to the Beaver Brook Reservation in Waltham.  My little brief walking meditation was all of a sudden going to get longer.  I could get two municipalities in in one day!  Score!

I have a history in Waltham.  My mother was born there, and I lived there for two years myself, not far from the Beaver Brook Reservation, but I hadn’t investigated it. It was striking that it became wooded quite quickly after crossing the bridge from Belmont, and it had your classic New England topography with drumlins and eskers. There were a number of mountain bikers on the trails, and all the trails were rocky (as is usual for New England). As there was no snow on the ground, it was easy to find footing.

Also surprising was to find a fully decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the woods!  Someone had extra time on their hands.  It brought a smile to my face!

Christmas Tree in Beaver Brook Reservation, Waltham, Massachusetts, 2 January 2012

I worked at breathing and trying to watch, listen, and just be present to what was around me. Waltham is technically a city, but this area was as rural as you can get, which is a nice little gem to know about so close to my house.  The sun was going down and I had to take about 30 pictures of me laying down on the bridge to try to get my face and the words etched in the bridge in the same shot.

So, have you changed your plans to take advantage of an opportunity, or do you always stay on schedule?

Ken at Rock Meadow, Belmont, Massachusetts, 2 January 2012

Today has been a recovery day for me.  I spent most of the day inside, as it’s been a bit chilly outside, and I’m just working at integrating myself after my retreat back into my day-to-day life here.  I’ve still got a lot of laundry to do, but I’ve also done my breathwork, yoga, morning pages, and I’ve gone out for some walks.  We have had a very mild start to winter, and there has been hardly any snow that’s fallen, and none that’s stuck to the ground.  I know that our municipalities are happy to save money on plowing!

I did decide that I should take this opportunity to get out and add to my list of towns for the Challenge.  As this Challenge is evolving, I am finding that I want to use this opportunity to not only go to new towns and cities that I’ve never visited, but to also go to new places in towns where I’ve known for a long time.  By the time I decided to do it this afternoon, I didn’t have too much time to travel, so I decided to go to Rock Meadow in Belmont, which is the next town over from me. I had always seen it from the road while driving, but had never been there myself.

Belmont Victory Gardens, Belmont, Massachusetts, 2 January 2012

I learn upon starting my walking meditation there that it used to be a farm, was owned by McLean Hospital, and was the site of victory gardens during World War II so that people could grow food.  The are still victory gardens there, although they are dormant at this time of year, but I was surprised at how big it was.  Most of the area is an open meadow, and it makes you think of places that you would see in an Jane Eyre movie of the English countryside.

Rock Meadow, Belmont, Massachusetts, 2 January 2012

After meditating and walking for a while, I came upon a surprise. (See the next post to find out what!)

So, have you made room in your life for surprises to happen to you?

Happy New Year to all of you! I’ve just gotten back from a New Years Retreat at Easton Mountain, and I’m both exhilarated and tired! It was a great weekend with some great workshops. We meditated 2012 in, and then danced! It’s a great way to start the year. I have the feeling it’s going to be a good year!

I got lots of ideas about future articles and spoke with a few possible guest bloggers here, and I’ll be writing out that more in the near future, but I wanted to take the opportunity to check another town off the list in the Meditate Mass 351 Challenge. As I dropped off my friend Steven in Ludlow, I was looking for a town around there that I could go to on the way home. Wilbraham seemed the best option, and it was a town that I had never been to before. It’s best known as the home town of Friendly’s Ice Cream, but I didn’t managed to see the original store.

As I’m sure will happen in the future, I don’t always get there at the best time. As sundown was about 4:30, I got there right as it was getting dark, and didn’t have the best lighting to take pictures, but I’ve got something to show for it. I parked near Wilbraham & Monson Academy (a private school that I remembered hearing about sometime in my past), and walked the little town center. Most of the commercial businesses are up on Route 20, but I like to see what the spirit of the place is without strip malls. This had a nice little park with a really cool World War II monument, but it was too dark then to get a picture of myself there. I had to do the best that I could with things that were lit, which left me with the Police department. At least it’s proof!

So, what are you doing to stretch yourself this new year?

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The Importance of Spiritual Fitness

Me

Let me tell you about Orion. He’s a big, muscular guy. An ex-football player, and an ex-marine. He’s a body builder now. He looks like an Arnold Schwarzenegger type. He manages a lumber yard in Virginia. He’s pretty fit.

Last weekend was Orion’s 30th birthday. He was celebrating it by going on a yoga vacation. We both attended a retreat for yoga teachers and advanced practitioners. It was at Easton Mountain, a Gay spiritual center in the Adirondacks near Albany, NY.

The first session was an intense warm up routine. Lots of stretching, in many different ways, to get the muscles warm and limber. With a deep focus on breathing, and bio-feedback. Yoga is meditation in postures.

Orion knocked his back out. It hurt him the rest of the weekend. He dropped out of the program, eventually taking vicadin. His back was so stiff, and hurt so much.

I felt sorry for him.

I asked him how he prepared for the yoga retreat.

He didn’t. He hadn’t practiced yoga in 3 years. He thought he could just pick it up again. I think that was the foot ball player or the body builder talking. The retreat had very clear preparation steps. We were to detoxify our bodies for two weeks. And we were to practice as much yoga as possible. Daily. At home, with DVDs, or in yoga classes. Orion did none of this. And he suffered the consequences for it.

You

You’re probably thinking something like, “I’ld never do something like that!” A whole weekend yoga boot camp. Forget it.

OK, I’m the yoga freak here.

But I know you’ve been through similar situations.

Think back to your college days, or high school.

You’ve got your final exam tomorrow. How do you study for it?

Well, best practices say study a few hours each day, over several weeks.

But how do you study for the exam?

You pull an all nighter, craming for the test. You fall asleep around 3 or 4 am. The next morning you wake up, drink a pot of coffee, and hope for the best.

That is, if you wake up in time for the test. I once had a student sleep through his final because he pulled an all nighter studying.

Some of you are triathletes or marathon runners. How to you prepare? Do you wake up the morning of the Chicago marathon, and decide over breakfast at McDonald’s, I think I’ll run the marathon today.

NO.

You plan ahead and start practicing months in advance. You need to get ready.

God

Our religious traditions are filled with stories like this.

Spirituality does not happen over night. It requires practice.

We heard the Taoist tale of Khing the woodcutter. And how he prepared for his sacred task of carving a bell stand. It was no ordinary bell stand, but an elaborate one for a temple.

In the Jewish tradition, Miriam is the sister of Moses. She is the only woman in the Tanakh, Hebrew Scriptures, named a prophet or a prophetess. When the Hebrews escape from Egypt, she leads the people in celebration. She sings and dances in victory. It’s “The Song of Miriam.” She inspires the Hebrews, and they rejoice with her. These are her spiritual practices. Our choirs still do this today.

In Christianity, we have John the Baptist. He eats locusts and honey, and lives in the desert with his renegade band of followers. He wanders from town to town, preaching the coming of the Messiah. And he baptizes people, that is, washes away their sins. That’s his spiritual practice.

Let’s face it. As Unitarian Universalists, this guy would probably not appeal to our religious sensibilities.

Islam has Mohammed. He learns Judaism and Christianity from his fellow merchants. He rejects the idolatry of his people. He begins to worship the one God. He goes to the caves outside Mecca to meditate in solitude and silence. There, his revelations begin. That’s his spiritual practice.

India gives the world Gandhi.

He’s a corporate lawyer. A graduate of British education in India and England. A very proper gentleman. But he believes in human rights, and he fights for equality. He organizes all kinds of boycotts, and protests, and marches in South Africa and in India. He breaks unjust laws. He opposes segregation, Apartheid, discrimination, excessive taxation, mistreatment of the poor and underprivileged, and especially the British occupation of India. But he also realizes that he needs to prepare himself. He needs to become a different person, so he could effectively transform the world. From this realization, comes his teaching, “to be the change we want to see in the world.”

“To be the change we want to see in the world.” That is the essence of spiritual fitness. As a child, he grows in up a religious family with Hindu devotionals. As an adult, he examines the religion of his youth. And explores other ones as well. Sound familiar?

Gandhi develops his deep spiritual practices gradually, over his life time. He experiments a lot. And he sticks with the practices that work for him. It’s trial and error.

He mediates every morning. He prays. He studies scriptures: Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, and Jewish, all the religions. He even translates the Bhagavad Gita. He eats a vegetarian diet, and even tries a Fruitarian one. He controls his sexuality, sometimes to the chagrin of his wife. He keeps a day of silence once a week. Silence.

He weaves his own clothing out of Indian homespun cotton. And wears very simple Indian peasant clothes: a dhoti and a shawl. He journals, daily. And he writes articles, letters, and edits a newspaper. He takes long fasts. To purify himself, and to protest social ills. And when factions would argue at a meeting, He’d do one of two things. He’d suddenly declare that it was time for prayer. Or, he would serve tea to everyone. He would break class barriers and take on the role of a servant. Jesus washes feed. Gandhi serves tea. Seekers would come to Gandhi’s ashram. They have great plans, and huge ideas. They want to organize all sorts of protests, and marches, and actions. Gandhi tells them to spin and weave their own clothing first. BUT, BUT, BUT they try to respond. And then clean the toilets, Gandhi says. That blows their bubbles. He’s teaching them patience and humility.

Gandhi’s spiritual work empowers him. His gumption for social justice comes from his inner spiritual work. His struggles for human rights and equality is effective only because of his spiritual preparation. His spiritual fitness. He calls himself a spiritual warrior.

Gandhi is an example for us. We need to “be the change we want to see in the world.”

You

You know as well as I do that spiritual practice is a challenge. It takes time to find the right one. And then things get in the way, and you forget about it. But with repetition, it becomes easier. It becomes your second nature. The practice sustains you. It kicks in, when you need it most. Like when you find yourself stressed out, worried, spinning out of control. Bills, shopping, work, guests, you name it. And suddenly you remember the practice. And it calms you down.

A mother once told me her teen son had locked himself in the bathroom. Teens sometimes need their privacy, you know. After a while, mom knocked on the door. She got a gruff answer, “Ma, I’m all right. Leave me alone.” After a long while, she knocked again. There was no answer. She could not open the door. She panicked. She forgot how to unlock a bathroom door. She could not get to her son, to see what was going on with him. And she worried: how could she lift him? He was bigger than her. Her mind raced. Was it drugs? Or alcohol? Or, heaven forbid, suicide? Did he drown in the bathtub? Or electrocute himself? Or something else? She was going crazy.

She called 911. The paramedics took care of everything.

In the ambulance she realized, she needed to let go. Her son was in capable hands. She could do nothing to help. And she remembered the meditative breath, her meditative breath. The breath that clamed her down. Breathing, she could care for him without obsessing, without driving herself crazy.

As it turned out, he had gone into insulin shock. All-knowing and all-powerful teen that he was, he had not taken his insulin that day. Or maybe for a few days. He felt fine, so he felt did not need his meds.

As religious seekers, the challenge for you is finding a spiritual practice that works for you. And sticking with it.

What is your spiritual practice?

What do you do to center and ground yourself?

What inner work gives you inspiration and energy to do your outer work?

Is it meditation? Knitting? Gardening? Biking, or jogging? Walking along the lake front?

Take moment to think about this, and jot down notes on the slip of paper provided.

We

As a congregation, we are here to help each other. One of our goals is spirituality. Let’s read the words on the cover of our OOS together: 2U “is a vibrant community that inspires you to develop your own spiritual path and live our your values in the world.”

We share spiritual practices together in worship. Worship is the core life of a congregation. We pray, we sing, and we seek inspiration together. That is a spiritual practice. We have small group ministries, with check-in, a spiritual reading, and personal reflection about the reading. That is a spiritual practice.

We have children’s and adult faith development programs. We learn spiritual practices, grapple with life’s tough questions, and find ways to serve the world for the common good. That is a spiritual practice.

We nurture ourselves, then we serve the world.

Like Gandhi said, we need to “be the change we want to see in the world.”

 - Viluis Rudra Dudzilla is Professor of Humanities & Comparative Religion at Harry S Truman College in Chicago, Illinois, USA and a Minister in the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Ken with Minuteman Statue on Battle Green, Lexington, Massachusetts, 26 December 2011

It’s the day after Christmas, and everyone is either extremely mellow, or they are frantically shopping for after Christmas deals.  It seemed to be a holiday for just about everyone, and I took the opportunity to clean up some things around the house, do some paperwork, and then I set outside to do some errands and do some writing.

I’m the type of person that I need to get out of the house to get something done that takes a lot of focused time.  I tend to go to the library to do a lot of writing or organizing.  As today was an official holiday for most municipalities, I decided to go to Starbucks, and in wanting to utilize my time well with this challenge, I headed off to Lexington to sit in a Starbucks and get some writing done.

As most of you know, Lexington is famous for the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775 and (along with the Battle of Concord) starting the American Revolution.  Lexington now is a pretty affluent suburb of Boston, but with a nice town center and many historic buildings.  The obvious shot for me was with the Minuteman statue on the Lexington Battle Green.

Lexington Battle Green Sign, Lexington, Massachusetts

Ken at Boston Marathon Starting Line, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 25 December 2011

On my way home from my family Christmas celebration in Upton, I decided that I had enough time to meditate in another town on the way home (hey, the whole reason for this challenge is to get me to go to places that I otherwise wouldn’t go and experience it.)  I decided that I’d try to Hopkinton, as that was relatively on the way home, and not a place that I normally would go through.

Hopkinton is best known to most as being 26.2 miles west of Copley Square in Boston.  In other words, it’s the start of the Boston Marathon.  I stopped at the Town Common and saw the Marathon Starting Line painted on Main Street (Route 135) and did a walking mediation around the center.  It’s quite cold, so I didn’t want to spend too much time, and it’s getting darker earlier.

I did the marathon in 1998 (in 5:07:16, which is pretty good considering I race walked the marathon and finished before many of the runners) and haven’t really been back since. That was a time that I really set a goal (I had been coaching people as part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training Marathon Walking Program, but hadn’t done one myself, so I really wanted to do this to proved that I was a marathoner too.  It was a tremendous effort, but so worth it see that I could do whatever I put my mind to.

So, what goals have you put your mind to?

Ken with Boston Marathon Starter Statue, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 25 December 2011