I took a little field trip last night to Sacred Sands Sangha, a Mindfulness Meditation group a friend of mine started. Mindfulness Meditation is based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. The group meets at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
Sarge dropped me off a little late, so they were already in the middle of meditation. I joined right in. After silent meditation accompanied by a bell, we all got up for walking meditation, perambulating through the hallway into another room, and back into the meeting room about 4 or 5 times. On each step with our left feet, we inhaled, and on each step with our right feet, we exhaled. Slowly. All in unison.
Then, my friend led us in Lovingkindness meditation, very similar to the Lovingkindness meditation Rev. McCormick taught us at the Ankers' Gathering of Friends, but with different wording. Instead of going through the meditation for ourselves, someone we like, someone neutral, someone we don't get along with, then all together, then for all living beings, we went through a whole series of meditations for ourselves and then for others.
We then read a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, each taking a paragraph until we finished one chapter, which coincidentally was about Lovingkindness meditation.
We followed this with "Dharma sharing," each "bowing in" to start sharing and "bowing out" to finish. After the sharing, we chose to meditate/pray about one of the group members for the rest of the week. Evidently, this is something they do a regular basis, choosing one of their group to focus on until they meet again.
I enjoyed the evening thoroughly and hope to go back on occasion. It's nice now and then to see what others are doing and what we have in common. This is why I'm on the Interfaith Council and why I'm going to the National Day of Prayer event tonight. Sharing with others, seeing our differences and commonalities strengthens my faith in my own path.
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