Change Your Mind Day

Here is something that many people in our town might not be aware of. There is a Zen Community and a Buddhist temple in Woodstock. It is located in the Unitarian Church, on Dean St, next to Woodstock Square. Today, these organizations held an interesting event called "Change Your Mind Day" in the middle of the Square. Now, I have never attended an event like this before. The middle of the Square consisted of pillows surrounded by chairs placed on the ground. In front of them stood a large white statue of a Buddha. A man in robes sat in front of the statue, praying. Behind all this stood various tables with literature, a table with children's activities and coloring books, and a cardboard painting of an another Buddha. The price for the books was a small donation, whatever one wanted to give, which I found very different and interesting. There were also T-shirts and Buddha statues on sale($50 for the statues). The events of the morning consisted of a morning chant, followed by various talks and different types of yogas. What have I learned about these various organizations from attending this event?Well, zen doesn't seem to require that one be of a particular religion. It seems to be more of a practice rather than a religion. One can therefore be a Christian and still practice zen. Which makes me wonder why so many Christians seem to be against zen and consider it evil. Zen is supposed to teach you to clear your mind so that you can take appropriate actions and be fully involved in the moment. The name of the Zen Community is "Ten Directions" and it promises that it will try to help you "realize your true self" and "help all beings". In fact the front of the brochure for the group talks about it leading to "the clarification of the mind, so that we may live our lives for the benefit of all sentient beings". Now, who wouldn't want to do that?! The group meets on Sunday Evenings at 7 to 9 pm, at the Congregational Unitarian Church on 221 Dean St. in Woodstock. There is also an introductory class the first Sunday of each month at 7pm.Buddhism also proved to be an interesting concept. Basically, it tells us that "all life is sorrow" and that by following its precepts, you can make your sorrow come to an end. In other words, all us humans suffer and somehow following Buddhism can make things better. Yeah, I guess. I don't know about that. How does one do that? Well, here it gets more interesting. Buddhists follow an "Eightfold Path", which is supposed to help bring this sorrow and suffering to an end. Or at least bring it under control. I wondered how I myself could follow these precepts. Well, the first one is to have "the right understanding", in other words we must have "a really good understanding of Buddha's path. If we fail to have this understanding, we are like a man lost in the desert." This quote, by the way, is directly out of Buddhist Sunday School Lessons for Children. Now, again, I don't know. I don't see how understanding Buddha's path can help me out here. What Buddha did in his time and what I do today appear to be very different in nature. It gets more interesting, though. The second precept is having "the right aims". I like this particular quote the best "when we accept someone else's opinions we are going against Lord Buddha's advice to do our own thinking and have our own aims". I agree wholeheartedly. I certainly think even in Marengo we have accepted too many of the current opinions and mores and that many people have indeed stopped thinking for themselves. Doesn't seem like this precept will lead to less sorrow, though. Thinking for myself has led me to lose friends, respect, and make enemies and, if anything, has greatly added to, not subtracted, from my sorrow! Then there's "the right speech", speaking honestly and with compassion to people. Well, that certainly can't hurt, but again, honesty about our town and police situation has so far only increased my sorrow and the sorrow of others who were similarly honest. Meanwhile I don't see the liars and cheats experiencing a whole lot of sorrow. So, while it is a great precept and I try to follow it without ever having explored Buddhism before, I don't see how it can lead to anything but sorrow. Give life meaning? Sure, but not ease sorrow. At least not for the person speaking their mind and being honest. It gets even better. "The right actions", actions that will earn us respect from ourselves and from others. Again, I see the same problem when I look at our Marengo situation. I have great respect for myself and for others who have taken stands and tried to stand up for what is right, but it has certainly earned us little respect from anyone else. For anyone who reads the message board, we can clearly see the indignation mine and others' rightful actions have heaped upon their own heads. Again, I see little chance of following this precept leading to less sorrow. Then, to round out the precepts above, there's the "right livelihood" and the "right effort". Yeah, I guess having a job where you help people can lead to satisfaction and it pays to put in effort. I can see that. Have I followed both of these myself(without knowing, of course)? To a point. I guess I could use a refresher. The last precept is "right meditation" and here I'm lost. I don't have the time or the patience to meditate. I could not even summon a quarter of the concentration required for such a task. It seems beyond my wildest comprehension.What do I think altogether? Buddhism is a very interesting religion. It is very different from Christianity. There is no talk of an actual God or having to go to church or even sin. That is certainly tempting. But, on the other hand, I really can't get into concepts such as meditation, reincarnation, or karma. They seem too foreign to make a lot of sense to my Western mind. Altogether, though, I have to say one thing: even though I haven't changed my mind, I have learned a lot by going to this event and have done a lot of thinking as well. I also would be interested in going to further Buddhist and Zen type events and am looking forward to whatever else might be in store from the organizations I have discovered.Try this website if you wish to discover more: http://www.bluelotustemple.org