Today in the Eastern Disciplines group, we kicked off with a seminar about Wherever You Go, There You Are, a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn about mindfulness that we are all reading. The section we discussed talked about different postures and techniques for meditation. We talked about misconceptions about whether meditation gets rid of pain or not (my understanding is it doesn’t, it shifts perspective sometimes though) and the point of visualizing various natural features for inspiration, like mountains and lakes. The ability to ask each other questions and discuss meaning helps me a lot to feel that I am attaining an understanding of a text with depth and many perspectives, and I think we all really enjoy combination of light rapport and respect for the subject matter that this particular group has.
Right after that, Dr. Menon and Dr. Chandra, who are faculty at Rice University, came to talk to us about Hinduism and Hindu and Indian medicine. Dr. Menon spoke to us about the basics of what Hinduism is, showed us many sanskrit words, and explained the concept of cyclical time, which was a bit of a struggle for most of us to comprehend. Dr. Chandra went more into health care, Ayurveda (which means life knowledge) medicine, and the idea that prevention is worth much more than cure and a connection with the body can prevent the need for some medications.
Dr. Chandra Dr. Menon
(We don’t have pictures of them talking to us, sadly!)
We still had some time before lunch, so we walked to the Doherty to conduct some research for our individual papers. Some of the topics people came away with were “Women in Hinduism”, “The Way Buddhism Has Changed Women’s Roles” “Ayurveda and Mental Health” and “Reincarnation in Buddhism”.
After lunch, Stan Merrill, who learned how to teach mindfulness meditation from Jon Kabat-Zinn, came to talk to us about meditation and lead us in a practice. He spoke to us about the health benefits of meditation, and about what he thought were the main key points of how to meditate and why to meditate. The meditation he led contained aspects of the zen meditation we did at the zen center (counting breaths) and of Metta meditation (loving kindness meditation) and we all really enjoyed his open and inviting way of leading meditation. Afterwards, he showed us a Ted talk about how we define ourselves, and engaged in one of the most lively discussions I’ve seen this A-term, about topics ranging from balancing acceptance and expressing when you are hurt, to how to reflect on traumatic events without ruminating on them. He was friendly and insightful and open to all of our questioning.
Stan Merrill talking to us about meditation. You can see many of us leaning forward, rapt.
Today, we had the start of our personal explorations, finding specific directions for our search for knowledge at the Doherty, and had the great experience of meeting three experts in their fields who gave us perspective and insight into several Eastern Disciplines. I’m really glad to have this space to be practicing techniques like meditation every day and to be learning about the greater context that these practices are put into, with culture and religion. I’m excited to see what each of us finds in our searches, and to continue to grow within this group!
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