PHẬT TỬ TỌA THIỀN TRÊN ĐƯỜNG PHỐ
VÀ TRONG TRẠM TÀU ĐIỆN NGẦM
CỦA THÀNH PHỐ NEW YORK
Sam Littlefair
Một tổ chức mới thành hình
có tên gọi là Buddhist Insights
gồm cả Tăng sĩ lẫn Cư sĩ Phật tử Mỹ đang giúp cư dân thành phố New York thực
hành Thiền Chánh niệm tại nhiều “Thiền đường” quen thuộc một cách thật bất ngờ.
Từ trạm tàu điện ngầm đến hành lang các cao ốc, từ một góc đường phố đến một phòng
trưng bày nghệ thuật, … - Và do đó, họ đã
thu hút được
sự chú ý của nhiều người. Phật giáo đã đến với Tây phương không phải chỉ qua nội dung nhân bản và
khoa học trong kinh sách mà còn cụ thể hòa nhập vào cuộc sống đời thường. Phật
giáo thật sự đã “xuống đường” ở các nước Âu Mỹ!
Buddhists
bring meditation to the streets and subways of NYC
Sam Littlefair - Nov 16, 2016
Photos
courtesy of Buddhist Insights.
A new organization called Buddhist Insights is helping New Yorkers meditate in all manner of
surprising places — and to make friends with their surroundings. And
they’re garnering attention, too.
Meditating in a New
York subway station.
[Ngồi Thiền trong một trạm tàu điện ngầm]
New
Yorkers may not think of the city’s gritty streets as a place to find inner
peace, but a new group called Buddhist Insights is aiming to change that.
“There’s this idea that you have to escape
New York to find peace and quiet,” explains Buddhist Insights co-founder
Giovanna Maselli. To challenge that idea, she and her co-founder, Buddhist monk
Bhante Suddhaso, hold meditation classes in unconventional locations
around the city. They call them “street retreats.”
“The
street retreats started as a fun thing to do,” explains Maselli. “But they got
a lot of positive feedback. People realized that they could meditate anywhere.”
A Buddhist Insights
class in a building lobby.
[Một lớp Tọa Thiền trong hành lang của một tòa nhà]
Buddhist
Insight’s mission is to connect New Yorkers to Buddhist monastics. Maselli
explains that when she was trying to find a monastic teacher in 2015, she came
up empty. So she collaborated with Suddhaso, a monk in the Thai Forest
Tradition of Theravada Buddhism, to start the organization. He and Maselli, who
has a background in creative consulting, almost accidentally invented their
concept of hosting meditation classes in the street.
“It
all started because I tend to be late,” says Maselli. “Whenever we met, I would
find him waiting for me in meditation, so I started taking pictures of him.”
Meditating against a
New York wall full of graffiti.
[Ngồi Thiền dọc theo một bức tường đầy màu sắc]
Maselli
posted those photos to Instagram, where each one garnered hundreds of
likes. After less than a year, the Buddhist Insights account has more than 20,000 followers. When Buddhist Insights
held its first class in January, promoting it on Instagram, fifty people showed
up and another fifty put their names on the waiting list.
In
lieu of a dedicated space for their meditation classes, Maselli and Suddhaso
started hosting weekly classes in the wilderness of New York City: churches,
art galleries, beaches, sidewalks, subway stations, parks, and anywhere else
they could freely sit.
A Buddhist Insights
class in an art gallery.
[Một lớp Tọa Thiền trong một phòng trưng bày nghệ thuật]
“It’s
about establishing the attitude of meditating anywhere and making friends with
your environment,” explains Suddhaso. “Often, when we’re meditating and there’s
noise outside, we think, ‘Oh, I could meditate if not for that noise.’ The
problem isn’t the noise. What’s disturbing your meditation is your attitude
toward the noise. The noise is just noise. So, we’re establishing the attitude
of focusing on the present moment and using it as your laboratory for
investigating the mind. That’s something you can do anywhere, with any
conditions.”
Class in the Union
Square subway station.
[Ngồi Thiền trong trạm tàu điện ngầm Union Square]
Weekly
classes often take place on the beach or the sidewalk, but some programs
have gotten very creative. In June, Buddhist Insights hosted
contemplation-of-death meditation in a cemetery. In September, they held a
retreat in a chocolate factory. “When we talk about renunciation, it’s
abstract,” explains Maselli. “When you bring it to a place where you can taste
the chocolate, it has a different impact.”
In
October, they hosted a day-long retreat of loving-kindness meditation on the
subway, encouraging attendees to practice loving-kindness for the commuters
sitting around them.
Inadvertently,
the meditation sessions also serve as a welcome counterpoint to the growing
problem of fake Buddhist monks aggressively panhandling in Times Square, along with many other cities around
the world.
The
“street retreat” isn’t an entirely new idea. Zen teacher Bernie Glassman and
the Zen Peacemakers order have been hosting “street
retreats” for decades, spending days and
nights living on the streets of New York. Buddhist Insight’s retreats are
different in that they are short, and anyone — beginner or advanced — can attend.
The
group also hosts more conventional programs and hopes to offer even more. Last
month, Buddhist Insights launched an online fundraiser to open a meditation and retreat center in Queens.
Suddhaso and Maselli say they’ve discovered a significant appetite for Buddhist
monastic teachings in New York — something that no one else in the city is
offering.
Suddhaso meditating on
Rockaway beach in the winter.
[Thầy Suddhaso ngồi Thiền trên bở biển Rockaway khi mùa Đông
đến]
Suddhaso
says that he thinks the appetite comes from people wanting to move beyond
secular practices like mindfulness meditation to find more profound meaning.
“When
it comes to that more profound level, it’s useful to connect with people who
have devoted their lives to these teachings, which is why we bring in monks and
nuns who have often been practicing for decades,” he says. “They’ve committed
their lives to embodying the Buddha’s teachings. That’s something people
recognize as genuine and valuable.”
Suddhaso and Maselli.
[Thầy Suddhaso, bên phải, và nữ Phật tử Maselli]
Buddhist
Insights is also notable for it’s nonsectarian model. Like MNDFL in
Manhattan and Dharma Bum Temple in San Diego, Buddhist Insights lets students sample
teachings from different schools, helping them find what ancient Buddhist
tradition feels most fitting for them.
Classes
and retreats at Buddhist insights are led by Suddhaso or monastics visiting
from other centers in the Theravada, Vajrayana, or Zen traditions. Programs are
offered free of charge, with donations welcomed.
Sam
Littlefair Wallace is the associate digital editor of Lion's Roar. He has also
written for The Coast, Mindful,
and Atlantic Books Today. Find him on Twitter, @samlfair, and
Facebook, /littlefairwallace.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét