Keeping calm: Professor brings Zen meditation to classroom.

DaltheJigsaw

http://elonpendulum.com/2012/03/keeping-calm-professor-brings-zen-meditation-to-classroom/

genkaku

Every once in a while, a high school class might come the the Zen center I attended in New York and I was one of the people tapped to give them a presentation of some sort. I purely loved it. The zendo itself was still as salt and neat as a pin and here came a bunch of giggling, flirting, kool teenagers ... bubbling with a spirit that said, "I don't know what the hell this is all about, but if it gets me out of English class, I'll do it."

They would sit on cushions and do what they could to follow the leg-crossing instructions, giggling at their own difficulties. But towards the end, I would hit the inkin/bell and we'd try 10 or fewer minutes of actual zazen/seated meditation. At first, in the silence, things would be full of snorts and yawns and residual giggles. But bit by bit, like some collective exhalation, things would quiet down ... quieter and quieter ... until someone noticed how quiet things were and would issue a renewed giggle or twitch ... after which it would get quieter and quieter again.

And after the sitting, when there was time for questions, there were always one or two out of perhaps 20 who would ask a question that let you know something had touched them. Others who were similarly touched kept their mouths shut -- no teenager wants to be vulnerable within his or her peer group. But those one or two questions always made me happy to be a Zen student.