Experiential Field Trip

Experiential Field Trip

Visiting the Ekoji Buddhist Sangha of Richmond was my first ever experience with meditation. I visited the Tibetan Buddhist group on 04/28/11 at 7:20 pm. They are a multi-denominational Buddhist community. The temple is used by different Buddhist groups. Before the service started I had an orientation for about ten minutes. On the first floor of the temple was a shrine, and on the second floor was where the Tibetan Buddhist group worship.  I expected the experience to be a good experience, and truly it was. They are a small, friendly group whose aim is to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Their teacher is Lama Norlha Rinpoche. Some of their members have been on the path for over 20 years, others have just begun. Regardless of their backgrounds or other attributes, they practice together as equals.

That evening’s service was about Chenrezi, the Lord of Compassion. There were four members, myself, and the sixth person was also a visitor who was interested in Buddhism and had found out about them on the internet. They chanted and meditated in order to realize their inborn great compassion. It included a period of silent meditation which lasted for 15 minutes. The liturgy was translated into English and also written phonetically to make the chanting easy. I silently read the English translation, whiles the members chanted.

After the service I had a discussion with the members and they explained that the motivation for practicing Tibetan Buddhism is to encounter enlightenment, not just for themselves, but includes all plants and animals, and even the beings that they can’t see.    .  

There was nothing that I disliked about the service/visit. My surprise was that the service was friendly and void of satanic /fearful/ scary chanting, which was the notion that I’ve always had. In the society that I grew up in when u hear that someone is a Buddhist or sits and cross-fold their legs or stand without moving to chant, it meant something evil/harmful was being done. I guess there are other chats that are meant to harm other beings, and that was the one I knew about if it really exist. However, the translation of the chanting that I read did not have any satanic words or chants to harm other beings, but rather chats for enlightenment for all beings.

The question that this experience raises in my mind is that, are there any chants in Buddhism that are aimed at harming other people or “charming” others to have one’s way. For instance, to covering up bad things like killing of people, drug trafficking, and so on,  and never get arrested