My Participation In The Morning Meditation Of The Mindfulness Practice Center Of Fairfax
Introduction
For our first religious service report, I've decided to look into Buddhism and want to visit the Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax. While visiting their website, I saw that they have a Morning Meditation Service every Wednesday from 8:15 to 9:15 in the morning. According to the website, Morning Meditation is an opportunity for members to start the day with a focused and serene mind, where they practice mindful breathing through guided sitting meditation, mindful movement, walking meditation, silent sitting, and a closing circle.
This Morning Meditation service takes place in the Chapel of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, which is located at 2709 Hunter Mill Road, Oakton, VA. In Buddhism, the ultimacy is Nirvana, which is a phenomenon experienced whenever a person reaches Enlightenment, or has overcome attachment and desire which is humanity's problem. Nirvana is a state of permanent bliss, a state where suffering no longer follows. Nirvana is not a heaven, since this would implicate that souls would dwell in existence after death, and Buddhists do not believe that there is such a thing as a soul since they believe that there is no permanent self.
Instead, they believe that what makes up humanity are different elements, called the 5 skandhas (physical factors, feelings, perceptions, volitions, and awareness), momentarily glued together through Karma, which can change at any moment after death to create a new being. The goal then, is liberation from the cycle of rebirth, known as samsara, and the means to achieving such liberation is what Buddhists call the eightfold path, which are the eight steps one must follow to achieve the cessation of suffering. However, as I researched a little bit deeper into their website, I noticed that they mentioned practicing mindfulness in the tradition of the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Zen is a Japanese/Chinese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition, and according to what I have read in our book thus far, those who practice Zen, practice skepticism and have semi different views on humanity and reality. According to those who practice Zen, it is believed that we are all already Buddhas, every individual has the nature of the Buddha, and the problem then, is that we deceive ourselves into believing we are not the Buddha.
Like Theravada Buddhist, those who practice Zen also still believe that we deceive ourselves through becoming attached to the desires of this world. The difference, however, is that they also believe that we deceive ourselves through becoming attached to the desire to reach Nirvana as well, when they believe that we have actually all along already reached and are experiencing Nirvana. Therefore, we're trapped by both our normal view of the world and our desire to be liberated from it, just as the book states, “There is no ‘goal.’ I am already enlightened. I have always been in nirvana. I am already the Buddha! There is no path to follow. I am already at the destination! I was simply confused about what already exists! Until you break free from this “dualistic” prison, you will never discover the truth, Zen teaches" (Young, pg 156).
Meditation is intended to involve the body and the mind in a way that allows the person meditating to control their mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, therefore leading the person to become more aware. The purpose of meditation is to stop the mind from rushing about in an aimless direction. This allows the Buddhist to fulfill the eighth and final step of the eightfold path; correct meditation. The peace of mind brought from mediation is what allows the buddhist to enter the state of samadhi in which all attachments have been broken. Samadhi could be understood to be the very last step before reaching Nirvana. According to Zen teaching, meditation is a self-discovery which awakens our pure minds and liberates it from our "monkey minds" thus reaching illumination.
Description
Once I arrived, I was immediately met with a sense of a serene space. The center itself as a building is simple, open, and surrounded by nature all around. It looks to be a two story building overlooking a large stretch of land covered in tall trees and forest. The minute you walk in you can tell you’ve walked into a meditation center from how quiet and peaceful the environment feels. At first I thought that the meditation class was canceled because I couldn’t see a single person in sight and all the lights were turned off with only the sunlight from the outside, lighting up the room. However, as I walked further into the building and peeked through a pair of glass doors, I saw two people seated on the floor amongst a circle of cushions placed on the wooden floor.
Unfortunately, because of the traffic that day, I had arrived five minutes late, so I didn’t want to barge in interrupting the people that were already inside and decided to stand in the lobby to quickly observe the interior and the pamphlets laid out on a table set in front of the meditation room. One of the pamphlets that were laid out on the table had a commonly asked question section, which asked the question “what if I arrive a little late?”, and it answered that one can still participate in the meditation as long as the person walks into the mediation room quietly in order to not disturb the class already taking place, so I decided that it was better late than never and began to take my shoes off to quietly walk in.
Since I was accompanied by Brandon and Daniel, the mediation teacher must have seen us taking off our shoes and went up to the door to kindly invite us into the meditation. I could immediately feel that the instructor was extremely and genuinely kind because of the gentle smile he had when he welcomed us to sit. To describe the instructor, he seemed to have been middle aged, of asian descent, and middle class. He was wearing pale colored simple clothing that was loose fitting and comfortable.
Once I was inside the meditation room and seated on the floor, I noticed that they had a lot of Asian based decorations like an origami wall decoration, an abstract oriental ink painting that was hanging from a bamboo stick, and an orchid flower placed next to a white lit candle in the middle of the meditation circle. The rest of the room was big and spacious, lit only by the sunlight shining through all the windows which provided anyone inside with a view of the forest and nature.
The service itself only took about 45 minutes in total. It started off with what the Instructor called mindful breathing, where through guided sitting meditation he taught us the proper posture one should have when meditating and the rhythm one’s breathing should follow, slowing down our breathing little by little as we moved further into the mediation, following the sound waves from the bell he was using which according to my research is a metal Tibetan Buddhist singing bowl. The instructor guided us with a soft and soothing voice, guiding us slowly to breathe in and out, while also encouraging us to free our minds of the clutter of thoughts we might have had before walking into the service, and instead focus our thoughts and attention to following the movement of our breathing.
We then proceeded into what he called mindful movement. We stood up behind our sitting area, simply standing up straight with our feet about hip-width apart, allowing our knees to be slightly loose, having our shoulders loosen and our chest comfortably open as we continued to breathe. He’d then ring the bell bowl and guide us into a series of different feet positions and movements while encouraging us to imagine ourselves following the wave current of a soft ocean, or dipping forwards and scooping up water to then slowly move backwards and drink the imaginary water as we inhaled and exhaled accordingly to the movements, slowing down and bringing our full attention and awareness to this moment-to moment practice.
Once our bodies became looser, we were guided into walking meditation, where we were encouraged to notice the sensation of our own breath and feel the weight of our bodies upon our feet. Walking slowly as we focused our minds on each movement and sensation each step required; the gentle movement of raising our foot, the feeling our foot would experience as we slowly would lay it down on the floor, the contact our foot would make with the earth as we’d firmly plant it on the floor, and lastly the shifting of our weight onto the same leg as we’d raise the other leg. We walked around the circle only once, very slowly, until we arrived back to our seats. He finished off the service by telling us to stand together in a circle and join hands to form the closing circle where we shared our energy amongst ourselves.
Making Connections
Looking back at my observations I've noticed that I did not see any direct references to Nirvana. The instructor never directly mentioned nirvana in the mantras, it never came up anywhere in the artwork or pamphlets, and there was no music, but looking at what I've learned about Zen teachings, it could be inferred that since those who practice Zen already believe they have been experiencing Nirvana all along, they don't necessarily give it that much reference to it directly. One of the mantras I heard him say, and saw in one of the pamphlets, was "I have arrived, I am home".
While trying to find this mantra in the book, I was not able to find this specific mantra anywhere amongst our text. However, when I looked for it on google, I found out that this is a teaching derived from the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who I had mentioned earlier in my introduction. Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, revered throughout the world for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967. Thich Nhat Hanh also happens to be the spiritual leader whose teachings are followed by those who practice Zen at this Center.
When trying to understand this mantra I came across one of his teachings, where he says, "I have arrived, I am home" is the shortest Dharma Talk I have ever given. "I have arrived, I am home" means "I don't want to run anymore." You need that insight in order to be truly established in the here and now, and to embrace life with all its wonders". Since meditation often includes focused repetition of a mantra, and is known to be a sacred sound that evokes the spiritual, the Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax recommends in their pamphlet that during the Walking meditation it can be helpful to repeat this simple silent mantra.
I believe they hold this mantra to be very important because it connects to how they believe that we also deceive ourselves through becoming attached to the desire to reach Nirvana, when all along we've had it, therefore there is no reason for us to be so concerned about it and instead should enjoy the space we are in at the moment and just be present. The mantra essentially is trying to encourage us to let go of the idea that the path will lead us to the goal, when in reality; with each step we take, we arrive. I also believe that the art found at the Center could as well be connected to the teachings of Zen Buddhism.
According to Zen, the awakening of our pure minds and liberation from our "monkey minds" can happen gradually or in a flash of insight. Ink painting is an art form known to be most closely associated with Zen Buddhism. The first Japanese artists to work in this medium were Zen monks who painted in quick brush strokes which left flowing marks that could not be changed, to express this religious view of the sudden awakening.
