Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

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Queequeg
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Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by Queequeg »

I'm setting up a meditation hall in my garage. In thinking about this, its a similar thought process to setting up my workshop/home gym. It occurred to me that Buddhist practice halls are something like the gymnasiums that have proliferated in the US. I was recently walking down a big commercial street in NYC, and it seemed like every five storefronts was a gym - this one a "boot camp", the next a cross-fit, the next a kick boxing gym, the next outfitted like night club, the next a soul-cycle, etc. Depending on the gym, one can either go in and workout on your own, or work with a personal trainer, or take classes, all directed to keeping the body in shape through some different activity or style of workout. Buddhist practice halls and dharma centers that are proliferating are in a sense similar except that we're working on an existential aspect of being. Yoga studios seem to straddle these two aspects - the mind and body. Places offer this style of meditation or that, this teaching or that...

I'm not sure what to think about this, but lacking patrons who support large monastic institutions, this might be the way that Dharma evolves and spreads...

"Hey, can you meet for coffee this afternoon?"

"Sorry, can't. Meeting up with my lama for a session."

I'm joking. I'm serious.

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There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Ayu
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by Ayu »

When I am traveling and looking for a quiet place for meditation, I use to visit churches and sit there. If the church is not famous, it is likely to be the most quiet place in a crowded city. I suppose, the Christian God doesn't mind me performing Buddhist meditation in his place. :smile: I don't use a bell anyhow.
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dzogchungpa
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by dzogchungpa »

Possibly of interest: https://www.lionsroar.com/mndfl/
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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Queequeg
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by Queequeg »

Ayu wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:06 pm When I am traveling and looking for a quiet place for meditation, I use to visit churches and sit there. If the church is not famous, it is likely to be the most quiet place in a crowded city. I suppose, the Christian God doesn't mind me performing Buddhist meditation in his place. :smile: I don't use a bell anyhow.
I heard Bob Thurman tell a story about proposing to the abbot of a Catholic monastery in New Jersey to let Buddhist monks move in - the abbot was explaining that the monastery was basically empty because no one wanted to become monks of whatever order was running the place. Apparently the abbot was not thrilled at the proposal. LOL
dzogchungpa wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:11 pm Possibly of interest: https://www.lionsroar.com/mndfl/
Egads. Its happening. Not quite the environment I'd want to meditate in... too sterile. I would prefer a Tantric Jackson Pollack aesthetic.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
narhwal90
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by narhwal90 »

Way too cool a place for me & too many cushions, but if a membership keeps one showing up to do the work then perhaps its a win.

I happen to be in a Christian church friday evenings, usually I can get in 10-20 minutes vipassana beforehand in the montessori classroom- they have a nice circular rug there and last winter they hadn't upgraded the thermostat on the radiant floor heating so it was rather comfy when they forgot to turn it off. They've since upgraded to a timer thermostat, so no extra heat lol I've meditated in the sanctuary a few times when people were using the classroom, but in the back- seems presumptive to go sit before the altar when I'm a guest there. It is very interesting to observe the different sound profiles of the small room vs the sanctuary- just 20 feet down the hallway but an entirely different soundscape.
Last edited by narhwal90 on Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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dzogchungpa
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by dzogchungpa »

Queequeg wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:19 pmI would prefer a Tantric Jackson Pollack aesthetic.

Believe it or not there actually is a Tantric Jackson Pollock, or at least a Tantric Abstract Expressionist, namely Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche:

There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
Tiago Simões
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by Tiago Simões »

dzogchungpa wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:53 pm
Queequeg wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:19 pmI would prefer a Tantric Jackson Pollack aesthetic.

Believe it or not there actually is a Tantric Jackson Pollock, or at least a Tantric Abstract Expressionist, namely Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche..
Is there a Tantric Bob Ross?
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dzogchungpa
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by dzogchungpa »

tiagolps wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:42 pm
dzogchungpa wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:53 pm
Queequeg wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:19 pmI would prefer a Tantric Jackson Pollack aesthetic.

Believe it or not there actually is a Tantric Jackson Pollock, or at least a Tantric Abstract Expressionist, namely Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche..
Is there a Tantric Bob Ross?

Not that I know of.
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
narhwal90
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Re: Meditation Halls... like Gymnasiums

Post by narhwal90 »

tiagolps wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:42 pm
dzogchungpa wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:53 pm
Queequeg wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:19 pmI would prefer a Tantric Jackson Pollack aesthetic.

Believe it or not there actually is a Tantric Jackson Pollock, or at least a Tantric Abstract Expressionist, namely Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche..
Is there a Tantric Bob Ross?

Perhaps?

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