A professor of mine and I started a Buddhist study / meditation group a couple of months ago. We created the group because there weren’t any Buddhist organizations in the area, and we wanted to have some people who were also Buddhist to discuss with, and perhaps even meditate with. After having a few meetings, we decided we wanted to start meeting weekly (we’d been planning on meeting monthly). A few weeks ago we talked about starting weekly meditation sessions. My professor volunteered to look into places we could meet and meditate together; after a bit of digging, we thought we’d found a place. Unfortunately, the board of folks who run the place met and voted us down. Oh well – we’re still searching! We think we have another place lined up, and we’re just waiting on the details and hopefully, the green light.
I’m looking forward to it, and my curiosity is certainly piqued. What’s it like to meditate with other people? I’ve never done it. All of my meditation experience has been by myself, sitting on my cushion in a quiet room. Does meditating with other people alter the experience any? I’m inclined to say that it would have to change the experience, but I can’t say how. If you’ve meditated with other people before, please chime in – I’m interested in your thoughts!
Unfortunately, none of us are really qualified to lead a meditation session; a few of the members have had some formal meditation training, but not nearly enough to teach. If one of us were qualified to guide the meditation (or if we could get a qualified person to come and do so), I’m sure it would alter the experience even more. It would be entirely new to me, because I’ve never taken part in a guided meditation session, nor have I received any formal meditation training. I’ve simply followed the meditation instructions I’ve read in many different books. Perhaps if our group grows to be a decent size, one of the larger groups from a nearby city could have a teacher visit us on occasion.
Comments 3
Josh,
I have had some expierance meditating in a group setting. A group has a reinforcing effect upon a meditation session.
Your mileage may vary but I think you will find that the group will give you motivation in your practice.
Not being an expert myself I cannot personally give much advice on how to lead a group in meditation. However, I encourage you to write to a Zen monastic at cybermonk@mro.org; A service of the good folks at Zen Mountain Monastery.
For more info check out
http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings
I correspond with the cybermonk from time to time when I need a little advice in my practice and it has been very helpful.
Posted 20 Dec 2006 at 9:45 pm ¶Seekingfor: Thanks for the excellent advice about Cybermonk. I’d never heard of such a thing. I’m going to let the group know; I’d say they’ll all find it quite encouraging to know we can get in touch with someone if need be.
Posted 20 Dec 2006 at 10:00 pm ¶I like Buddhism, too. Tell me when you’ve reached the power of Dhalsim
Posted 21 Dec 2006 at 5:30 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] wrote back in December about one of my professors and I starting a Buddhist meditation / study group. I wanted to lay down [...]
Post a Comment