The Zen of Quakerism (2016)

Summary

Garden II, ink on paper, by artist and Zen Master Rebecca Nie. View more of her work at rebexart.com. Quakers and Buddhists have a few things in common. Most importantly, they share a common humanity and a commitment to creating peace in the world. They are both enlightenment religions. Both George Fox and the Buddha experienced a transformative, liberating awareness through the dedicated practice of quiet contemplation. My life is an intersection of these religions. I was born a Quaker, to Quaker parents with Quaker grandparents and great-grandparents. I attended Friends schools through college. I sat in many meetings for worship. I have always been proud to be a Quaker. I found Buddhism later in life, when I was 27 years old. I was looking for a tonic for depression. I found Buddhist philosophy and writing soothing to my condition. I liked that Buddhism talked about meditation as a remedy to suffering. Even though I had been meditating all of my life in Quaker meetings, I had always struggled with how to do it. As a child, meeting for worship was somewhere between difficult and excruciatingly painful. To amuse myself, I would count things. I would count people with glasses. I would count ceiling tiles. I would count the seconds on my watch. I would welcome any spoken message that would break up the monotony of the silence. I would welcome the break of meeting so I could talk and run around again. When I learned to meditate in the Buddhist style, I learned to keep my awareness focused by counting my breaths. I learned to hold my body still while I focused my mind. I found a specific place to put my hands. In meditation, I was relieved of the burden of being moved by the Spirit to speak and say something spiritually profound. Learning Buddhist meditation techniques taught me how to sit in Quaker meeting. Through all those years of Quaker upbringing and Quaker education, I had somehow missed that fundamental teaching. In my Zen practice, I sat many hours of meditatio...