Meditation with Jay Kauffman draws good crowd!

Before the meeting, I relaxed by watching the end of the excellent 1982 biopic "A Woman Named Golda," starring Ingrid Bergman as a believable Golda. It was the last film Bergman made. She died of cancer at age 67.

Learn your history of the Middle East by watching this film. Leonard Nimoy played her estranged husband Morris Meyerson.

Golda lived to be 80. She pooh-poohed the term "The Mother of Israel." The US was instrumental in their winning the Yom Kippur War. 

Robin Franklin and Doreen set up the room for us. Plenty of healthy snacks plus Hazelnut Coffee and Hot Water for Tea.



Many people, including myself, had attended the previous Meditation Group last September and as a result continue to meditate.

Jay Kauffman, soon to be 62, from last year's seminar. He lives in Glenside with his wife Nancy.

After the program, someone asked me if he's a therapist, b/c his responses to people were so compassionate.

 
 We gave the Kauffmans these pink hyacinths, harbingers of Spring.

Read background about Jay on my previous blog post. 

I think my favorite thing Jay mentioned today was that people look outside themselves for happiness, when it's really to be found inside us.

So many people I know say, "I can't wait until Spring. I hate the Winter."

I used to say the same thing and then I decided to love and embrace the winter. Even when my car was snowed in at the Giant Food Store a couple of weeks ago. 

Buying new things and going on vaca make us feel happy for a while.


In Vegas, here are the famous Bellagio fountains. I'm working on a short story about a young female mail carrier visiting Vegas.... and cleaning up.

Happiness is found inside us.

   

Holy Occipital Lobe!!!

Research has shown that Buddhist monks have the same benefits from meditating as a good night's sleep.



Raise your hand if you get a good night's sleep!

A woman named Pam sat next to me and said she had a problem sleeping, her mind went round and round and round.

As my late father used to say, "Simply lying in bed is restful." Look, he's talking to me from beyond the grave.

Another woman, Barbara, just lost her mother, and gave the eulogy at the church. Barbara said God has been wonderful to her and helped her grieve.

Jay told us a story about the Buddha. Someone lost her child to death. The Buddha sent her out and said Bring me a mustard seed if you find anyone who has not been touched by death.



Why do we exercise? asked Jay. B/c it benefits us.

In fact, yours truly finished 20 minutes on my exercise bike b/c my blood sugar shot up after eating

One home-made hamantaschen, a favorite Purim treat, made by Rachel Kaufman. (One F, unlike Jay's two "F" Kauffman.)

Since the apricot ones were gone, I ate a delicious prune one.

What are the benefits of meditating?

First, let's discuss the GOAL of meditating.

Elissa got it right: To be still.

When you're still, you experience Who you Really Are.

You experience who you are emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically.

We are, said Jay, with the help of his wife, Nancy, "Spiritual beings in physical form."

We get pulled in all directions. Meditation centers us. Allows us to control our attention.
  This was me yesterday checking out at the Giant. What a lot of commotion!

Use your mantra, said Jay, when you're frustrated in a long line or in heavy traffic. It keeps us centered.

Jay utilizes Jyoti Meditation. His spiritual advisors are listed at the top of this website.

We meditated for five minutes at the beginning. And five minutes at the end. I was in so deep I didn't even hear him say, Open Your Eyes.

He said there's a lot of energy in Group Meditation. Elissa wanted to know where groups might be meditating together. Actually, there's a place in Hatboro, PA, called Rina's Rocks. They meditate a couple times a month.

Focus on The Third Eye, said Jay, located between your eyebrows. 



Read what Wiki, my personal god, has to say about The Third Eye.

Another thing that Jay said that really moved me was, "Once you experience your Soul, you want to go back."

It's our Inner Light.

We're bombarded with stimulation. Ain't that the truth!!!



Athletes like the great Michael Jordan must learn to concentrate and still their minds.

Meditation means putting in the time to make it work for us.

He talked about the book

A Christian mendicant from Russia recited the Jesus prayer over and over to achieve inner peace. Read about it here. 

Meditation is helpful for people with chronic pain. Jay had had painful sciatica years ago and it helped him. I had an operation for painful sciatica and it helped me.

Now I'm composing this with my door open - it's freezing - but I wanna be part of this glorious day.

Look at my birdbath. It's melted considerably today.

Jay has a chair that he meditates in.

Last time he told us it's helpful to meditate in the same spot.

He suggested we meditate for half an hour.

He meditates before work - he might meditate at work - and it helps him with being more patient and less angry. Jay, angry? That I can't believe.



Jay said "Things will come to you in stillness."

As a writer, I often get ideas while meditating. This morning while walking across my living room I got an idea for another short story. That's b/c I'm listening to the audio book

  I want to experience what it's like being in a war. Oy yoy yoy!

Am listening to Ben Vaughn on WXPN. There's a very mellow song on right now called Do the Jerk. It seems that the song is just an excuse to get in touch with your soul. Seriously! Listen to it here, sung by the Larks.  

Okay, now let's branch out and take a look at our fabulous audience....

New Directions and Jay Kauffman did this for you!!!

Hello to Teresa, Renu and Vicky, who I haven't seen in a long time.

 Writers from our Coffeeshop Writers' Group who meet every Saturday at 1:30 pm downstairs in... the Coffeeshop. Donna Krause and the redhead Carly Brown.

 Nancy Kauffman, Jay's long-suffering wife. Of course not. His helpmeet. Teresa and Renu.

 The Kaufman contingent. Mom, Ellen, lives in St. Botts, near St Martins, where she's a journalist along with her husband of 22 years. They also run a movie festival.

Just found out there is no such island as "St. Botts." Ellen, originally from Philly, but also residing in NYC, has some sort of accent. She must live in St Barth's. 

The Kaufmans are so interesting! Rachel works at Brandywine at Dresher old-age home. One of her residents is none other than Ada's 105-yo mother, Lillian Moss.

  When she turned 100, she got this letter from President Obama.

About once a month, I send Lillian a postcard. It's the only mail she gets.

And who could be more interesting than Melissa of the rainbow-colored hair!



Melissa Kaufman in one of the photos from her blog "Running Away with the Circus."

 There's Ada now. Ada, your hair looks great. She just got it done. Hubby Rich went to get some more chairs.

 Jay and Nancy Kauffman are vegans. They would've loved my lentil soup I made the other day. But not after I added yogurt to it. Nancy, I love your sweater! Gee, that must've made you happy for a few moments. And there's Barbara whose mother just died. She and Donna are talking about our Writers' Group.

 C'est moi.

Who me? Carly seems to be saying.

There's talented Elissa in the back. She runs our Movie Night.

New Directions' Compass mental health mag is nearly ready. On Monday, I'm going to Boggs Printing in Hatboro to review the proofs.

Only a few people know what the front cover looks like.

Ed Quinn and Sharon! How could I have forgotten to take your pictures!

Ed is one of the reviewers of my poems and short stories. His three grandchildren are on the back cover in a snow scene.

Give meditation a try. As Jay said, It changed his life. Maybe it'll change yours.

Read last line of this poem by Rainer Maria Rilke:




ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLO

translated by Stephen Mitchell 
 

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.