Meditation/Lecture

It was a Sunday morning in November and my friend Chardin and I rode our bikes to the zen center located on the 3400 block of Grove Ave. It was my first time attending the meditation and lecture, and I was nervous to be a new face, but excited at the pretense of learning how to silence my body and focus only on my mind.

We arrived and Chardin helped me situate myself on a plump, black cushion in an unused corner of the room. Everyone was peaceful and quiet and sitting with straight backs and closed eyes. The first 30 minutes of the weekly event was silent meditation. We sat, surrounded by strangers and swirling incense and thought of nothing, but the sounds and what they meant. In order to meditate, you are supposed to disconnect your mind from your body, ignore the wants and needs of the vessel. Exterior sounds drifted in from the streets, but those were sounds that other people could concern themselves with, I had greater things to realize about myself. I have tried my hand at meditating before, but never so successfully as in this place of quiet, safety and rest. Before I knew it the 30 minutes had ended and people were gracefully standing to their feet. I awkwardly stood, with a completely dead leg. My body was unused to sitting still for 30 minutes and my leg had fallen completely asleep. Attempting grace, I tried to put weight on it and my body actually collapsed into the nearest wall. Embarrassed, I tried to pull it together and got into line with the others. The walking meditation was about to begin. Worried that I wouldn't be able to walk, I was grateful that the steps we were taking were so tiny it seemed as if we were hardly moving at all. There was a man in robes who began the chant and carried wafting incense in his hands. We walked this way, in a line that followed the walls of the room, with no person in the front or back, for 20 minutes. It was the perfect exercise for me to regain the feeling in my legs. Once the walking meditation had ended we relocated our cushions and sat again, facing a woman who was an unfamiliar face. Laminated cards were circling the room and they had the words of a Buddhist chant printed on the glossy surfaces. I took one and passed the rest along. Once everybody had a card, the chanting began. This experience, of vocal unity was uplifting. The oneness amongst us all was evident, even though we were strangers. The chanting prayer lasted about 15 minutes and then we settled back to listen to the secrets of life. The woman in brown robes spoke to us about her experience as a Buddhist priest. She was beautiful in her age, and she was so peaceful. She spoke to us about the world and our interactions with each other. Her words resonated with me in terms of letting little things slide away, like water over rocks. She said there were people who reacted with anger, and people who were greater than such base reactions. There is a way to live life in harmony with other beings. I would like to be the person who does not react negatively to daily holdups and mishaps. This experience was such an amazing, refreshing one. Once the hour long lecture ended, there was time for questions, but I was too lost in my own thoughts to have anything to say. I felt more refreshed and susceptible to creativity than I had in a long time. I left the center feeling clean, and relaxed. I felt like a pure vessel for creative thoughts and wholesome actions. The entire experience lasted about 2 and a half hours and I can honestly say that it was one of the most positive 2 and a half hours that I have ever spent in my lifetime.

A book I am reading currently: The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating your Artistic Life, written by John Daido Loori.