It began at 7:30 in the morning and went until 9:30. Seven people were signed up to attend but only 3 came. The leader of this group is Kosho. He is a Zen Buddhist from Japan. As soon as I entered he told me how to get started with the zazen meditation. There was another woman already there and a third came in a little later. Two of us were beginners. We meditated for 30 minutes. Then he went over the basics and we meditated another 20 minutes or so. Then he taught us some basics about Soto Zen Buddhism and did a chant. He finished it off by serving us a breakfast of rice, soup and pumpkin. During this breakfast we all conversed and this was the most interesting part. The other two women were also seekers and very intelligent. Kosho was rather difficult to understand because of his accent but I got enough out of it. Zen Buddhism is about living for right now. It can be summed up as "Be happy. Don't worry." Do what you choose to do at the moment with all your heart. It is not a religion. It has no "god" or sacred text. It is about practicing the right way to live.
Overall, I was impressed by the level of conversation. It is definitely a group I will return to.
http://www.sotozen-net.or.jp/kokusai/howtodozazen01.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment