Sacred Indeed: Finding Peace in Japan [Video]

When I was fourteen, I was introduced to the concept of Zen meditation, a practice from the Japanese branch of Buddhism, through a spiritual leader in my community. He told me that he couldn’t explain Zen, that you had to experience it. 

“Ok, I answered, but what even is the IT that I should seek to experience?” I asked.

His basic instruction only confused me further when he said, “Sit and stare at a wall until it isn’t a wall any more. And continue to stare until it becomes a wall again.” I understand this better now to be a metaphor for how we project our judgements onto objects, and how meditation can help us to diminish those judgements/distractions/misperceptions, but may not erase them entirely. At the time, I just stared at the wall, and kept seeing…a wall!

I learned that Zen masters often speak in koans, which are like …