This week assignment was taking a class in a meditation center. This was really great for me as it made me explore something I always wanted to try and never had the time and the mind set to actually do.

A quick search on the web led me to a few relevant places, in particular I found one that was both recommended by a friend and close to where I live, it even had a class in twenty minutes! I took a spontaneous decision, gathered my stuff and walked to Bowery street. I got there right on time, took my shoes off as requested by the lady in the entrance and entered the Dharma Punx room.

I was exposed on the spot as the only person who had no previous experience in a group meditation. But that was fine and acceptable.

The meditation was guided by a tall bearded guy who started by talking about how the next two hours gonna look. He then proceeded to a guided meditation for about 20 min, concentrating on breathing and hearing ourselves and all the sounds of the environment surrounding us. After that he gave a small lecture with insights about our senses and the simple meaning of being really here and now. He proceeded by explaining the next exercise, which was explicitly saying out loud what sense is “on” between the three: hear, see, feel, and how these three have all of our perception of the world. The exercise was made in pairs, twice (15 minutes each time), with eyes closed, with a ticking sound to make us follow a quick rhythm.

Trying to keep the pace, and to express the correct sense was a very interesting experience. At a certain point my leg got numb from sitting and I felt pain. And so I used the word feel repeatedly, but after a little while I noticed that I was hearing the rest of the group, so the word hear was used. Then my attention turned to my paired girl as she was missing the rhythm, and I was imagining her in front of me (as my eyes are closed), and that brought me to use the word see. The interesting thing was that the pain in my leg was kind of ignored as other things were occupying my awareness and I was disconnected from the pain, as if it wasn’t my pain anymore but just some pain.

The last exercise was again in pairs and we were suppose to tell each other what we like in the present moment. From the way the light falls on the wall to the sound of our own voices. It was interesting to force myself to find more and more things.

The last part was another lecture about zen followed by a short discussion and feedback from the participants.

I liked this experience a lot and decided I will go next Wednesday as well!