Photos

OMEGA APRIL 2010

I mentioned to some that the retreat made me feel like a battery coming out of it's charger, when I return to my life, after the retreat.

Five last hours of silence, as I drive home in my car. Enjoying it. Still enjoying all of you. I again want to thank all of you. The connection I feel at Omega is unique in my life. To the friends I made last year, great to see you again. To my new friends, I hope you have the chance to feel as I do now next year when you return from your second retreat. I feel like you"re all my good friends, and I hope to see you again.

I hope we can meet here and share, keep in touch with each other, and make it a fun place that brings smiles to our faces too, and fosters humanity in ourselves and in others as we reach out in our lives.

All should be able to post here. Look around and try to figure it out, that's what I'm doing. If you're having trouble email mail me at: bellofmindfulness@gmail.com for all blog related questions, suggestions or whatever. I will check it every few days.

Please post a photo, as like me others aren't that great at names. Other than that, if you have photos from the retreat that you'd be willing to share, that would be awesome. I believe this is also a venue to continue conversations with each other, so maybe an email address with that photo would also be a good idea.

You can log into the blog with:
LOGIN: bellofmindfulness
PASSWORD: chew50times
I thought that would be easy to remember.

I'll part with a favorite quote we can keep in mind from the retreat:
"You're gonna breathe anyway, you might as well do it!"

With love from my heart,
John

"Empty Shoes" and "Unto the East": Poetry Reading, Author Chat, and Fundraiser

Friday, March 26, 2010 08:00 PM
Calvary Methodist Church, 300 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, MA,

Patrick T. Randolph, editor of "Empty Shoes" and Mary ElizaBeth Peters, author of "Unto the East," will host a shared reading and author discussion of their poetry works at Calvary Methodist Church in Arlington. "Empty Shoes" is a collaborative work featuring 158 poems about hunger and homelessness from 80 poets, and "Unto the East" is a solo poetry project chronicling the experience of the author, currently awaiting a double lung transplant. The reading is free, and proceeds from the sale of "Empty Shoes" will benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition. For more information please email patientpress@gmail.com

Heaven appears now in Love from within

Heaven appears now in Love from within

Heaven on Earth. What a beautiful idea.

Why must one wait for death to enjoy this state of eternity? Why not enter while one is still alive?

Right now.

This very moment. Open the door within your heart. That’s the entrance way, the tunnel leading to Peace, Understanding, Everlasting Love. While you’re concscious. Perhaps Awakening. And able to enjoy the “Afterlife” by simply closing your eyes. That’s it, close them, and open . . .

Open to the child-like essence inside where all is pure, innocent, Divine. We all have it. It’s within our reach.

Just forgive your Self. Disobey any and all expectations. Let them fly away like a dove soaring toward the highest branch of the Tree of Life. Look. God is in everything. Everywhere.

Inspire your Self. Guide your Self. Love your Self.

“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"

Christina, Do you see why I needed to
share Kibir’s poem published in the Kabat-Zinn book and highlighted in the
writings by you? It moved me so much, after taking from your Heaven such a small taste. A sip. A curious sniff of all any of us ever wanted, ever hoped to return
to: that state that has always been and always will be now and forever more
if we but let it manifest . . . let all go . . . let our Selves be Free.

_________________________

Heaven on Earth, an excerpt

by Christina at Abundantly Radiant

” . . . I’m reading “Coming to Our Senses” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. He quotes Kabir, a fifteenth century Indian poet who speaks to this idea of being present… perhaps a taste of heaven on earth…?”

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think…and think…while you are alive.

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.
If you
don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten-
that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now,
in the next life you will
have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth,
find out who the Teacher is,
Believe the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the
work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

- Kabir
translated by Robert Bly

For Christina’s inspiring post, see
Heaven on Earth

two photos from my phone

Hi Everyone

That was a profound experience and it reshaped my life. I love the photos.

Happy New Year to all. I think the next retreat is on April.

Thanks John

hey all; i'm not much of a writer but i do want to keep in touch, hear how everyone is doing. and i'll chime in if i think i have anything to say. peace brothers and sisters. Mark (Concord MA)

Omega 2009

What a moving experience the Omega 2009 retreat was for me.

I thank each who attended for creating that great experience. Each person contributed something to make the whole event.

Thank you John for starting this blog.

Ralph J. Kieffer

More photos.

Photos from Omega

Hello from John Miller

I hope this blog will serve our needs to stay in touch with each other, and help us all with our mindfulness practice. My intent is for everyone to be able to post to the blog, but I'm not a technology whiz, so it really is a work in progress for all of us. I have benefited enormously from the retreat, and I look forward to seeing you all there again. Forgive me for the time it took to do this.
John

Thank you for your patience, and your prodding.