Long Sit @ Bo Hyun Sa

 

 On the second Saturday of each month there is a long sit which begins at 5:30am. The whole process is highly ritualized and carefully choreographed. 

Freddy, one of the present members, who was also playing the gong, mentioned the 108 prostrations as his favorite. I am not sure if it was something I missed, that happened at the beginning; I was late. Or, if it is something that happens on other occasions. 

However, since I arrived, we did  a 30 min. sitting meditation. Then, we took a break to prepare breakfast. The breakfast was served. There were only 4 of us present. There were some specificities related to the presentation of breakfast that are hard to explain in writing, but that are very important for the ritual. Once finished, we took everything to the kitchen and washed dishes and did some chores.

Then, we went back to the room and did the chanting in Sanskrit ( I assume) that we read from a booklet. Only one of the chants was in English. It basically emphasized the idea of having a goalless goal.

I am not sure at what point we were all meditating. But, there was a moment when the people who come at 9:00 AM were also there. We meditated for another 30 min., then we did some chanting again. We did some walking meditation as well. Upstairs there was Carlos doing interviews. He would ring the bells and one by one would get up and go talk to him. 

When it was my turn, the one thing he told me that I think it is important to document is the structure of my meditation. He said that to subtract myself from my thoughts, the most immediate think is to focus on my breath. The, he suggested I add a mantra: when I inhale I say mentally "who am I," and when I exhale I say "I don't know."

I came back to the room during a walking mediation. I joined. We sat again until every one had gone to talk to Carlos. To end, there other meditation sessions, but I lost track of their order. I left a little bit after 11:00 AM