Reflections on the Zen Center

In class I was informed that the Zen Center was not going to be anything spectacular or anything pretty to look at. It was almost as if it was a normal old house which was still something I unexpected. There were business offices upstairs and a lady who quilted downstairs. It was definitely different that all the other places we have visited as the building was not organized solely to the religion, but rather as a place to gather a couple nights a week.

The meditation session was a brand new experience to me. The explanation of how to meditate I found to be really interesting. When he said there would be a question to focus I thought that the whole meditation would revolved around focusing and answering the question. But instead we were told to let the mind drift to whatever was coming in and let information go and not chase it. Once information goes, it was then time to repeat the question and try again. It made the ten minutes go by fast as it was interesting to see where my mind would go after thinking about the question for bit.

The main focus of the whole night seemed to be about not to over think and figure out how the mind works. The meditation was all about letting the mind do what it wanted and not trying to force it to think about things, especially the future. Studying Buddhism has actually influenced me to stop giving too much thought into small problems and to clear my mind more. I am not sure if this is a phase or if I will ignore Buddhism in a few weeks, but it e.still very nice being able to learn new ways to think about things and life.