On Sunday, September 26th from 6:00-8:00 pm, I joined a Tibetan meditation group at the Community Yoga Center on the Arcata Plaza. They meet at the same time every week in the semi-small yoga studio upstairs, and of course, anyone is welcome. This week, the focus of the gathering was Mahayana Buddhism. In short, Mahayana Buddhists believe in no Creator or ruling deity. They believe that deity is present in the doctrine of The Three Bodies of Buddha; The first being The Body of Essence, which is the ineffable, impersonal absolute reality, or infinite truth that is Nirvana. The second is The Body of Bliss or Enjoyment: Buddha as a formless, deity, divine, celestial spirit with the power of saving grace. The third is The Body of Transformation or Emanation. This is an emanation or illusion in human form provided by the divine Buddha to guide a person to Enlightenment (something anyone can achieve).
Upon arrival, I found the gathering to be a lot less formal than I imagined it would be. I was immediately welcomed by a nice woman in loose pants and a t-shirt and the sweet smell of burning incense. On the front wall, hung a poster of Chenrezig, the compassionate Buddha (the other main focus of the evening). Before that was a shrine, adorned with tea lights and framed pictures of the Dalai Lama. I settled into a folding chair with my text along with a few other people, but most sat on mats on the floor in front of me. My text was a small, rectangular collection of unbound pages, tucked away into a folded front and back cover, which we all read together aloud. It was written in Sanskrit, with English translations underneath. I was told that most Sundays, the group read the text in Sanskrit, but this time we read everything in English, apart from the mantras. They probably did this, because they sensed there were some first-timers in the group.
The first hour of this gathering consisted of readings from the text, repeated mantras, and moments of silent meditation, led by a member of the group, who didn't seem to be any more important than anyone else in attendance. The meditations succeeded in quieting my thoughts about the past and future and bringing me into the present moment. "Om Mani Peme Hung" was one of the meditative mantras that was chanted and sung many times, and one of my favorites. There was no English translation for this in the text, so at the end of the service, I asked a friend there about the meaning, and she told me that it meant "the jewel within the lotus". She then walked me over to the front wall and showed me its pictorial representation in the poster of the Chenrezig.
The second hour of the gathering was an open discussion. It began with a woman reading a passage out of a book observing the emptiness, formlessness and voidness of the mind. At the end of the reading, a man asked "So let's talk about all this emptiness" The woman who was reading the book answered by telling the man to "think about Los Angeles". Once he confirmed that he had Los Angeles pictured within his mind's eye, she said "Okay, now think about New York City", and he did. Her point was that the mind doesn't have to travel across the country to get from Los Angeles to New York. It instantaneously moves from point A to point B, because it has no form, no filling, no density. But it is eternal, and therefore real, therefore causing ripples in the eternal universe, effecting Karma, which is also real. She and a few others went on to discuss how the mind isn't bound by anything, and has no location in space or time. Even material things that are impermanent like the mats and the shrine in the studio have no location, because everything we give a name to isn't made out of just one thing. The shrine is made up of candles, pictures and incense, which includes wax, wood, fire, glass, metal and dried plant material, amongst an infinite amount of other composites. Everything is made up of something, which basically means that nothing can really be located, and that everything is connected.
Another point of discussion was emotions and their volatile impermanence. In Mahayana, if one is experiencing a negative emotion, the goal is to instantly transform it into something more favorable, instead of clinging to it. On an energetic level, something that is given attention expands, so the idea in this practice is focus on the transformation of the negative feeling into something more beautiful instead of the negative feeling itself. The fact that this transformation is possible means that the unfavorable emotion of fear, sadness, frustration... etc, is an illusion. It is unreal, because it is impermanent and malleable. Knowing this enables one to transmute an emotion like anger into something like exhilaration, or sadness into serene inspiration; Similar energies with very different usages, made possible by a shift in intention. At this time, I watched the sun set through the studio windows and the light change from piercing white to a more subdued, golden glow.
Proceeding the discussion, we all wrapped up the gathering by re-reading a dedication to Dalai Lama from the text, I contributed a dollar, my email address and phone number, and that was that. I can sincerely say that this experience was worth my while and very stimulating. I'll most likely be back for another visit sometime soon.
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