Rochester-area’s Buddhists value meditative life
From The Democrat And Chronicle
Cecily Fuhr had the kind of serendipitous introduction to Buddhism that is typical of many of its American practitioners.
A graduate student in literature at the University of Rochester in the early ’90s, she happened to walk past the big old house at 7 Arnold Park, home of the Rochester Zen Center.
“There was a sign that mentioned meditation,” she says. “And I thought, ‘I’m pretty stressed out,’ so I knocked on the door.” It wasn’t long before she was a member. After graduation, she worked at the center for a couple of years before going to law school in Seattle. But she missed Rochester and the Zen Center and moved back. Next month, Fuhr, 40, of Rochester, is joining the center’s staff of 15.
“It’s the meditation,” she says of Buddhism’s appeal. “If that doesn’t work for you, you probably aren’t going to hang around for long.”
Many of those who practice at the Zen Center, or at the nearby White Lotus Society on South Goodman Street, say they cannot point to an “aha moment.” Rather, they say, it was a sense of stillness, of finding a home, that drew them to Buddhism.
The Rochester Buddhist community is small. There are about 200 local members of the Zen Center, which has a like number of out-of-town members, many of whom joined years ago when the United States had few Zen centers. Many still visit to meet with a teacher or for sesshin, or retreat.
Zen Center members practice a Japanese stream of Buddhism; the White Lotus community practices a Tibetan form. Their beliefs are the same, but the practices are different.
Zen is simpler, less elaborate. Practitioners sit in silence in the zendo, or meditation hall, facing the unadorned wall. The idea is to minimize distractions.
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