I attended a Buddhist meditation group last night at the Indianapolis Zen center. It was an interesting experience.
The first thing that happened was chanting in phonetic Korean. While I am sure it had deep meaning to those who first did it some 2,000 years ago, parroting noises which no one understands in rhythm just felt silly to me. Maybe it gets more meaningful later but I can't see how without actually learning the Korean.
Chanting was followed by 2 rounds of 20 min of sitting meditation with a few minutes of walking in between. The sitting was peaceful and a joy. I have a regular sitting practice and it was nice to sit with others.
At the end the lead teacher (his name was Lincoln I believe) ended with a nice encouragement to develop an ongoing practice while thanking everyone for coming out. Then came the bombshell!
The last thing he said was "I have something I would like to share.. wait Are there any Trump supporters in the room?" This was followed by what felt like 10 min of awkward silence then I raised my hand and said "Yes". His response was "I guess I can't say what I was going to... goodnight".
I had just been singled out and shamed for having conservative political leanings in a Buddhist meeting.
If what you have to say is so insulting and hurtful that you have to make sure everyone agrees with you in advance, you just might need to consider if no harm, non judgment, acceptance and non attachment (for him its to a political allegiance) is your genuine lifestyle and not just something that you are pretending to aspire to. read more