For the second day in the row, I was the youngest person at the morning meditation by at least 20 years. It was nice to see so many older people embracing something eastern like meditation. Since I’m here in Chautauqua to experience, to be enlightened, to clear and open my mind, I pushed all judgments to the back. As I sat during meditation, and I felt my mind start to wander as it usually does, I brought myself back to the center with affirmations: I am whole. I am happy. I am intelligent. I am prolific. I am complete. Just to remind myself why I’m here. Bill the moderator (whose name, I found out, is actually Jim) told us to imagine that each breath we take is like a wave from the ocean ebbing and flowing. He said it helps him fall asleep at night, too.
After meditation, I sat on the front porch writing in my journal, sipping coffee, watching the people across the street set up for the peace prayer. I considered not joining them today (again I was the youngest one there) and instead observe them from the porch. But I’m not here to observe. So I closed my journal and joined the prayer circle. I even learned how to say “peace” in sign language.
As I walked back to the apartment, I wondered why it seems that so many people in Chautauqua are old. I realized that it’s because the kids are usually in club all day. People in their 20s are here to study music, dance, theater, etc., so they’re probably in class. Others are taking continuing education classes or maybe sitting on the beach. So the elders, who are probably retired, are just here to relax, meditate, pray. It’s all good.
I wonder if anything I did this week will have an impact on my life once I get back to Chicago. I’ll probably go back to my non-secular lifestyle, watching too much bad American television, searching for my next freelance project, struggling to get the words of my novel on paper. But maybe I’ll take a few minutes each morning to do a little bit of yoga, write in my journal more often, or just sit quietly in an attempt to meditate. I learn something from every experience and take it with me wherever I go. That’s the whole point of life. There’s no such thing as a negative experience.
Leila Nadya Sadat, and international human rights lawyer gave the morning lecture. She was a great speaker, talking mostly about the International Criminal Court and her criticism of the US’s involvement. She made some interesting points, and overall I was impressed. I still counted 24 knitters though.
After lunch there was a Mystic Heart Meditation Seminar that I was interested in attending. On my way there I considered skipping it. Maybe it’s too new age for me. Too spiritual. Maybe I should just go to the plaza and write. But I dragged my butt to the Hall of Missions. The teacher was a man named Subagh Singh Khalsa. He was skinny with an olive complexion and a long grey beard. He wore a turban, and although he was very friendly with a gentle tone, I couldn’t help but notice he looked a little like Osama Bin Laden. He took us through a couple of meditation practices that involved chanting, which made me just a tad uncomfortable, but I went through the exercises, and as my fingertips rested on my thighs, lips pressed together, feet planted on the floor, I remembered a time when I was little, probably around five or six. I would sit in my room and be deep in thought about my own existence. I guess it was a form of meditation. Just without the chanting and deep breathing. But I remember actually being so deep into it that I almost felt something like an out-of-body experience. That’s pretty deep for a small child. I never experienced that feeling when I got older. Still haven’t.
I ran into Subagh later that afternoon while I was grabbing a snack at Food For Thought. I told him I was a writer, and he smiled and said, “You’re going to be a successful writer. I can see it.”
Char and I attended the interfaith lecture given by Mohamed M. Keshavjee, a Muslim lawyer from England who was harassed at the US border in 2003. We weren’t getting much out of his lecture unfortunately, so we left after 20 minutes and walked around the plaza. At 4:30 the kids put on the annual Air Band Competition where each different grade lip-synced to a skit. Char’s daughter Clara did a solo performance of the Electric Slide.
I was going to attend a Unity workshop, but decided I had had enough spirituality for one day.
Tomorrow, last day in Chautauqua:
§ Morning meditation
§ Peace prayer
§ Morning Lecture by Robert Franklin, president of Morehouse College
§ Brown Bag Lunch: The Hydrogen of Fiction. We’ll see what this is about.
§ Interfaith Lecture by Harvey Cox, Hollis Professor of Divinity
§ Jason Alexander (yes, George Costanza) presents “Donny Clay Will Show You the Way!” Really looking forward to this one
Talk to you tomorrow.
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