Before I'd moved to New York (and then moved back to Houston), I had lived OTL. I kept getting speeding tickets, and realized that I should just take highways out of the equation and move ITL. Now that I'm back in Houston and OTL, I have to drive on highways on a daily basis. I still find Houston drivers to drive ridiculously slowly (minivans are my nemesis--I mean, really, 30mph in a 40mph zone?). I should move to Germany. Given my occasional to frequent disregard for the speed limit (okaaaaay, frequent), I thought that I should mellow out. That, combined with the desires to learn more about Zen and to work some spirituality into my life, made me decide to check out the Intro to Zen Meditation class offered at the Houston Zen Center.
Presently, the Intro class is over a five-week period for 1.25 hours once a a week, though I feel as though my class, which was way back when, was longer. It costs $75, though, if you can't manage that, there are scholarships. It's taught by Gaelyn Godwin, Sensei, and Mike Keller. The class is nicely structured with a good progression. One of the first things Gaelyn said was that you can't go into meditation with any goals in mind. Oh, shit. Class started with a discussion on the homework, which is to meditate each day (progressively longer over the weeks) and to practice mindfulness on something different for that week (eating an apple, tying your shoes, opening doors, etc.). Gaelyn or Mike then discussed various things related to meditating, including Zen concepts, before we went downstairs to meditate.
We meditated downstairs sitting on cushions (5 or 10 minutes the first week, and, for the last session, we were up to 20 or 25), then walking meditation. In walking meditation, you walk very slowly, still have your hands in an "o" shape (thumbnails touching on top, one hand above the other on the bottom), and focus on your breathing. One distraction was when I was sitting behind someone (who looked like he was still in college--I felt old) and his nicely defined shoulders were in my direct line of sight. Even worse was walking meditation, where I spent the period trying not to check out his nice butt. A few months after the class, I spotted him at a mall, which made him seem really young. That killed any thoughts of his nice shoulders and butt.
The Zen Center is located in the Heights in a large house (the Zen priests live there), and there's plenty of parking on the street. One day, I was running late, and walked in to find everyone listening intently to a visiting priest. Oops. In the middle of his talk, I saw this guy trying to open the front door, then pounding on the door, and I thought, "What a dork, the entrance is on the left side door further back." A discussion with one of the Zen Center folks later, and someone comes in and asks, "Is someone's [at this point, I have a feeling] parked in front of someone's driveway?" Double oops. Somehow, I just don't see driveways (I have another story for another review). This guy was incredibly pissed off, but, as I walked with him to move my car, I asked him how he knew I was in the Zen Center. He said, quite tersely, that'd he'd looked in my car. How did that help? He saw lots of relaxing things. That cracked me up, because I had two yoga mats in my car.
The Zen Center has an intro to sitting (meditation) session the first Wednesday of every month at 6:30pm. It also has morning meditation, which has sitting, walking, then sitting meditation (you can go to either sitting meditation or both), though it is way the frick early, from 5:50-7:15am. I would definitely be napping then, which is okay, because I don't snore, but my head nods like a bobblehead. Evening meditation is from 5:30-6:10pm, though that's for HZC members and those who are or have already taken the Intro to Zen Meditation class. HZC a more extensive program on Saturdays, which includes a talk and refreshments after. It also has visiting teachers, talks, and retreats. Dharma Punx, a younger group, is there on Sundays from 1:00-2:15pm doing meditation and a discussion.
Sadly enough, I haven't kept up with my meditation. Have I mentioned that, though I haven't gotten a ticket thus far, I've had a cop gesture at me to slow down (hey, I had to accelerate to get away from those slowass mofos) and gotten pulled over another time? read more