East Grove Blues

Since about this time last year I have been visiting a Buddhist sect called Shinnyo en. They are a modern sect of an older form of esoteric Buddhism. Like many Buddhist orders they claim a direct line to this darma or that. I can never keep tract of all the names or what they mean. Not to seem like a dick, but I really I don’t care a whole lot.

I originally started to go to see what it was and what it was like. I generally am interested in anything religious and my curiosity got the best of me. They also have a special form of meditation called (excuse my spelling) Sheshin training. They have a spiritual medium help you through your meditation. Seeing that I had a chance to try all this out and see what it was like, I decided to give it go.

Here are some things that I like: They have a very solid community of very eager and helpful people. They are great with volunteer work and they keep the place very clean. They do a wide variety of different ceremonies that are usually interesting the first time around. The head of the order is a women and she has a quiet but commanding presence. The first head of the order gave up a lot and went through some rigorous training before finding his own middle way.

Things I don’t like: The temple is like an office building, far to ‘modern’ for my tastes. They video tape everything, which is kind of creepy, but they also replay old video’s of previous sermons, which can be alright. They are almost to happy and smiley, it seems like an effort and less natural. You have to pay for meditation training (BOOOO!!!!!), and they have a book store which sells expensive watches.

The weirdest thing for me is that they say that the two dead sons of the founder are spiritual guides (in the spirit realm) for the sect. They pray to them for guidance. I don’t want to make the opinion of this being good or bad, but for me personally it gives me a weird vibe that has permeated the whole experience. I just can’t get over it. Inside the temple they have these cast heads of the two young sons, and their parents, the founders of the sect. Maybe it’s because I went to Eureka College where they have a scary bust of Ronald Reagan in the middle of campus, but those gold cast heads freak me out. Not a fan.

Today, after a year of going on and off I finally hit the right time to do the meditation training. I was supposed to feel spiritual energy coming from the spirit realm through my spiritual guide and into me. ( I didn’t) He was then supposed to give me special words to contemplate before my next training. (the special words seemed a bit general) I felt a bit uncomfortable for most of it and rather empty at the end of it and not in a good way.  I don’t like organized religions in general, but I find them fascinating. This was no different. It was interesting, but I didn’t get what I was ’supposed’ to get out of it.

So what did I take away from the experience? Sitting meditation is just not me thing. Being there today reminded me that almost all of my meditation breakthroughs have come from walking meditation. I feel like my form is best when I am walking and I find it much easier to clear my mind when I have to keep stepping. I had forgotten a lot of that because I have been focusing on sitting meditations for probably over a year now. To be honest it is also cold and I have been lazy. I made it out tonight though, and it was a lovely time, as meditation goes. I am glad to have gone to the training if for no other reason that to connect with what really works for me.

Perhaps one of these days I will get to what good meditation feels like to me. I will wait to go into the weirdness of that for another time.