I just spent an amazing 4 days in a beautiful old nunnery an hour's drive north of New York City. I was joined by 80 other "contemplatives", some also students in the Zen Centre's Foundation program, and some from the community. The land was beautiful and NY is still in the peak of fall leaf colours.
I was surprised that we had designated "speaking times" and designated "silence times" each day, and we tried to move smoothlessly between them. This is harder than it sounds. Each day was broken up into digestible chunks of time of around 10-20 minutes. We started each morning with Zen zazen, which I've now learned starts with striking a bell three times, 20 minutes of silent watching the breath, striking the bell 2 times and bowing, taking a few minutes break with a few dharma words, and then repeating. I could pick out the Zen practitioners in the crowd with their perfect posture sits. The rest of us (Tibetan, Theravaden, or Mindfulness meditators) shifted more often or slouched somewhat as we sat.
The rest of the day was spent cycling between silent meditation sits, dharma talks, and intense dyad work. The dyad work was familiar to those of us in the Foundations course, and consisted of asking each other a single question over and over, replying to the question till nothing else came out, thanking the speaker, and then asking the same question again. Over and over for 10 long minutes, and then reversing roles. It was profound, to say the least. One of the most profound questions for me was "what am I attracted to?" and "what am I repulsed by? Maybe it was influenced because of spaciousness of the person working with me, but I uncovered layer after layer of those onions in the short period that was 10 minutes.
Interestingly, I participated in one dyad with a partner who was new to this dyad work, not in Foundations, and really didn't seem to get what to do. She kept trying to dialogue with me about my answers, and didn't just keep repeating the same one. And of course, the answers didn't go anywhere. I was disappointed with that pairing, but it simply made my other pairings sweeter.
Three times a day, we chanted the Heart Sutra (in English) and the Meal Chant. Now, I think I'm comfortable chanting, and have been doing so for 10 years with Tibetan Buddhism. But these Zen chants are different. Tibetan chants are calming, often personal mumblings, with eyes closed. Zen chants are loud and rhythmic and rumble around in your feet and heart as you feel the presence of so many people around you.
And then just when we were getting into the social part of connecting with the many "others" in the room, and enjoying the really good vibe, we got to dinner, and everything after was in silence. We ended with a dharma talk by the leaders, Koshin and Chodo, both Zen Chaplains and teachers. And more chanting. And Chodo ended the evening with a final poem imploring us not to "squalor our lives away". Powerful words to rumble through our consciousnesses as we trundled off to an early bedtime.
We were asked to maintain silence after dinner until after breakfast the next morning. For some this might have been challenging, but I welcomed the returning to my bedroom with my 2 other room mates. I don't mind having room mates, but really I don't like interacting with anyone at bed time. So for me this was perfect. I got a great night sleep with the early to bed and early to rise schedule and felt great. While it was somewhat jarring to back and forth between talking and communicating, it certainly an effective way to practice mindfulness moment to moment, and am thankful for the opportunities and insights the weekend brought.
I was surprised that we had designated "speaking times" and designated "silence times" each day, and we tried to move smoothlessly between them. This is harder than it sounds. Each day was broken up into digestible chunks of time of around 10-20 minutes. We started each morning with Zen zazen, which I've now learned starts with striking a bell three times, 20 minutes of silent watching the breath, striking the bell 2 times and bowing, taking a few minutes break with a few dharma words, and then repeating. I could pick out the Zen practitioners in the crowd with their perfect posture sits. The rest of us (Tibetan, Theravaden, or Mindfulness meditators) shifted more often or slouched somewhat as we sat.
The rest of the day was spent cycling between silent meditation sits, dharma talks, and intense dyad work. The dyad work was familiar to those of us in the Foundations course, and consisted of asking each other a single question over and over, replying to the question till nothing else came out, thanking the speaker, and then asking the same question again. Over and over for 10 long minutes, and then reversing roles. It was profound, to say the least. One of the most profound questions for me was "what am I attracted to?" and "what am I repulsed by? Maybe it was influenced because of spaciousness of the person working with me, but I uncovered layer after layer of those onions in the short period that was 10 minutes.
Interestingly, I participated in one dyad with a partner who was new to this dyad work, not in Foundations, and really didn't seem to get what to do. She kept trying to dialogue with me about my answers, and didn't just keep repeating the same one. And of course, the answers didn't go anywhere. I was disappointed with that pairing, but it simply made my other pairings sweeter.
Three times a day, we chanted the Heart Sutra (in English) and the Meal Chant. Now, I think I'm comfortable chanting, and have been doing so for 10 years with Tibetan Buddhism. But these Zen chants are different. Tibetan chants are calming, often personal mumblings, with eyes closed. Zen chants are loud and rhythmic and rumble around in your feet and heart as you feel the presence of so many people around you.
And then just when we were getting into the social part of connecting with the many "others" in the room, and enjoying the really good vibe, we got to dinner, and everything after was in silence. We ended with a dharma talk by the leaders, Koshin and Chodo, both Zen Chaplains and teachers. And more chanting. And Chodo ended the evening with a final poem imploring us not to "squalor our lives away". Powerful words to rumble through our consciousnesses as we trundled off to an early bedtime.
We were asked to maintain silence after dinner until after breakfast the next morning. For some this might have been challenging, but I welcomed the returning to my bedroom with my 2 other room mates. I don't mind having room mates, but really I don't like interacting with anyone at bed time. So for me this was perfect. I got a great night sleep with the early to bed and early to rise schedule and felt great. While it was somewhat jarring to back and forth between talking and communicating, it certainly an effective way to practice mindfulness moment to moment, and am thankful for the opportunities and insights the weekend brought.
