Who are you? That was the question our leader tonight asked us to ask ourselves during the 10 minute silent meditation segment of the visit tonight. As much as those ten minutes were difficult, I was expecting to have a 25 minute meditation for some reason, so the ten minutes seemed to fly by to a certain extent.

As for the rest of the time at the Zen Center, it was again nice how welcoming they were to having so many visitors. This reminded me of how welcoming the Hindu temple was at our arrival which I think says something about the difference between eastern and western religions. Not saying Catholicism and Judaism aren’t welcoming religions, there are many more hoops to jump through and technicalities to deal with as opposed to the “all are welcome” attitude of the Hindu and Zen Centers.

The other thing I enjoyed about the ceremony we were able to participate in was the “Evening Bell” chant. It was really relaxing to smell the incense and listen to the bells ringing and the soft chanting was really nice to listen to. I was expecting to be really uncomfortable sitting on the floors and pretty much all of the expectations I had were wrong. I think from reading that book about the Zen monastery I expected the center to be strict and quiet and almost depressing. But quite the opposite was the reality. Everyone seemed peaceful and content. Although the worship space wasn’t anything too extravagant or big but the relics and decorations that are there are meaningful and poignant for those worshiping. It also shows the principle of Buddhist’s to simplify their lives.

I think the concept that I brought away from them was the idea of letting your ideas just flow through you without fighting them or arguing with yourself, to just allow yourself to relax. I think if our society could learn to do that, to simply take 5 or 10 minutes a day to sit and breathe and collect yourself, there would be drastically lower stress levels and frustrations. And when you think about it, sacrificing 5 minutes of looking at Facebook or watching TV and use it for something good instead.

Overall, I really really enjoyed spending the night with some of the people at the Zen center, it was extremely welcoming and I know I can use some of their beliefs in my life.