American Buddhist Net

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN

...The Buddhists in Mount Tremper, 50 miles southwest of Albany in the Catskills, likewise welcome visitors at certain times, recommending the weekly Sunday morning program with beginning instruction in meditation at Zen Mountain Monastery. Senior monastics said they see no conflict between Buddhist practice and someone's search for God. The quest for greater mindfulness and compassion welcomes the question.

At an hour of instruction, 10 newcomers are briefly taught: how to sit depending on their flexibility - ranging from a full lotus position to chairs - or kneel on their mat with a pillow; remain still - hands folded, eyes fixed, counting breaths; and meditate - acknowledging discomfort, stray thoughts, distractions, and then letting them go.

They consider the mind a sense organ, and believe that people often go through their lives daydreaming, or thinking the same worried thoughts in recurring loops, instead of living in the moment.

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