Yesterday, Judith and I shared with a bunch of old time Rinzai practitioners our experience at the monastery. While the idea for such an event is a good thought, trying to make sense of the experience is another matter. We wanted to convey the experience of that much meditation, but naturally words failed.

We ended up mainly sharing pictures of the actual temple and monastery grounds. Even if that was not the most concrete and direct way to give any semblence of an experience, I think we did a fair amount of eye opening to the physicals of the experience. That, in my opinion, is not too far off. It takes the mystique off the place, and creates a sense of context and mood. This was fine, since the people there were fairly advanced and know they cannot relate to the week itself. We wanted to encourage others to go, but to setup some real barriors for those with casual attitudes. Luckily, there were none of those there last night.

After sharing pictures and talking about the personal impacts of the week, we broke out the cookies and chatted informally. We talked through the dokusan pain, the udon feast, and how to setup your bowls for meals. The mood was light and friendly. It really did feel like just a bunch of friends getting together to see each other again. It seemed a pity that the other traditions did not get a chance to see this fellowship.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2004 at 11:52 am and is filed under Public Talks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.