The Latest from K.C. Walpole & the Gateless Gate Sangha
Greetings:
Thought I would share this because it is a little out of this world. As y’all know, I am doing my 21st MBSR retreat and the newly constructed women’s prison. We have been unable to raise the needed amount of money to get mats and cushions. So, I brought every cushion I could find at the center and toted them down on the motorcycle. Well, they are all in use, and a couple of the inmates that had done previous cycles came in on their lunch break to sit.
Now visualize this. We have a cold tile floor with cushions. Not a single mat. We sit down on the cushion for periods of 25 and 10. Now again, visualize this. There are no light switches in prison. Many motion detectors turn the lights off if there is no movement in ten minutes. Now, if there is any movement at all, they will key on it and flip the lights on. So, when we are at the 25-minute
mark I clap my hands for everyone to stand up. That is when the lights go on. Now this is an awesome power to turn lights on by clapping hands. Now again, I have just barely clapped, only moving an inch or two and hardly making a sound, and the motion detectors turn the lights on.
So, think in terms of the stillness in the room with no one moving but just the minds for 25 minutes at a time, and I can objectively validate they are not moving because the lights go off at ten minutes into the sit without coming back on till I make the signal. These kids are doing an awesome job, and I don’t know that I could sit as they do with some of the injuries they have from a life on the street and being coupled with some o
f the drama and trauma floating around in their heads from yesteryear. Just a thought I wanted to share with y’all. Make no mistake, there are a couple in chairs but only a couple and they, too are still.
