Meditation service at Temple Buddhist Center

Temple Buddhist Center, located within Unity Temple on the Plaza, led by Janet Taylor, offers a meditation service every Sunday at 9:00 a.m.

The room was quieter than any church service I’ve attended before, and I’ve attended hundreds, maybe thousands, of church services. Of course, this makes sense since it was a meditation service. No greeters, so soft background music, no announcement slideshow, not even a pre-service murmur from the congregation. Without a word spoken, the message was clear; come in, take a seat, still your body, and quiet your mind. Or at least do your best to quiet your mind, because really the mind is such a difficult thing to quiet. It keeps going on and on and on…

Somewhere around 9:00, though I’m not entirely confident of the start time since she waited until we restless new initiates had stopped glancing at our watches, the leader slowly and calmly climbed the two steps up to the stage and sat on the floor. She smiled at us, we unconsciously smiled back, and in a voice as gentle as a summer’s breeze, she invited us into silent meditation.

To help guide us into the place of stillness, she rang a low-pitched bell three times. Its vibrations washed over us as we sank into our quiet place, where I remained for at least a good 30 seconds.

Ok, so I’m not a master of meditation. I cannot count the number of times during the silence that I had to wrangle my brain back into the present stillness and try again to be mindful of my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Ooooo….she has cute pair of shoes. I wonder where she bought them.

After silent meditation, the leader led us in a simple chant of “Ahhhhh” to aid in the meditation. This vocal focal point was quite helpful, and by the time she rang her bell again my mind was fully present, though I’m not sure about the man who sat 3 pews up and kept rubbing his eyes. Was he still tired? I was. I could sure use a cup of coffee. I wonder if they have coffee in the lobby.

The highlight of the service for me was the guided prayer toward the end. We were invited to consider, in turn, a benefactor, a friend, someone we’d seen maybe just once, a difficult person, those in the room, and then our extended community. For each, we hoped for peace, joy, and freedom from suffering and pain. It was easy to visualize each person, to see myself saying to them, “May you have peace.” The hardness I felt toward my difficult person softened somewhat as I imagined looking into his eyes and hoping for his freedom from suffering and pain.

We closed the service by repeating this blessing three times:

"May the pure brilliant sun of bodhicitta dawn in each and every heart and mind, dispelling the darkness of suffering and confusion, unstoppably, until all are illumined and awakened."

Although it is a Buddhist meditation service, those of any faith are invited to and can easily participate. The leader encouraged us to open up our hearts, minds, and souls so that the goodness that is within us can be shared with the world, an act that is not unique to Buddhism. Followers of any faith or of no faith would find benefit from this calming, beautiful, life-promoting time of quiet meditation.

And then be sure to enjoy the coffee and cookies in the basement afterwards. This is church, after all.