c. 2005 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ It’s harder than it looks. Sitting still, counting exhalations, clearing the mind. It’s just about impossible for over-stressed, multi-tasking New Yorkers with more things on their daily to-do list than there are days in the week to do them.

But those who practice Zen meditation say if you keep working at it, those lists and all the chores attached to them will float away like bubbles on a breeze.

“The first step is creating some quiet, some peace in your life,” said Kenneth Byalin, who leads a Zen group that meets every Tuesday night at Mount Manresa Jesuit Retreat House in Fort Wadsworth. “It’s very challenging for most Americans, but sitting still for half an hour a day is really beginning to transform our lives.”

While Zen meditation is a 2,500-year-old Buddhist practice, its non-denominational character appeals to the members of the small, interfaith group.

“There is no Catholic Zen, Jewish Zen or Islamic Zen,” said Byalin, a West Brighton resident. “It has no theology.”

A Catholic priest agreed.

“It’s imageless prayer, a meditative approach,” said the Rev. Matt Roche, a Jesuit priest who is a retreat director at Manresa. “It’s not for everyone, but I feel it’s very hospitable. It’s a way for Jews, Muslims and Christians to pray together.”

The type of Zen practiced at Manresa comes from the Soto lineage in Japan, and was brought to the United States primarily by two men, Bernard Glassman and one of his students, the Rev. Robert Kennedy, another Jesuit who teaches theology and Japanese at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, N.J. Byalin studied with both men.

A social worker and psychotherapist, Byalin first showed up at Manresa after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 to help support the rescue and recovery workers who had set up camp at the retreat house. When plans were being made to start a Zen group there, Byalin said he’d be happy to help.

“I wasn’t expecting to be leading the group,” he said. But there he was on a recent Saturday, at the group’s once-a-month daylong retreat, sitting on his Juzu _ or prayer bed _ helping a newcomer figure out a position she could maintain for 20 minutes without fidgeting. Full lotus, the cross-legged pose most often associated with yoga, is considered the best way to sit.

“Its hard to wiggle,” Byalin said. “Even if you think you want to move, you’re sort of stuck.”

But full lotus can be a pain in the knee for people with issues there, so Byalin and his first-timer came up with a kneeling position that becomes manageable with a “seiza,” a sturdy round cushion, supporting the buttocks.

“All the teaching is about helping people sit,” he said. Once seated, a meditator is told to count her exhalations until she reaches 10, and then to begin again. “It takes some people a year to count to 10,” Byalin said. “Some people never get past one.”

But the trick is, when thoughts pop up, to let them just float away and go back to counting, starting with that first breath. “As our practice gets stronger, we can do it in more distracting situations,” Byalin said. “What we are seeing in the beginning is how our thinking works.”

Zen meditation is a way for people to free themselves from their usual reactions. By being mindful of those reactions while remaining still helps train a person away from his or her ordinary knee-jerk reaction.

“We just create this freedom for ourselves,” Byalin said.

Byalin said his Zen practice has freed him from anger.

“I started out as an angry person,” he said. “Now, when I get angry, most of the time I can let it go right away if I want to. I can always let it go within 24 hours.”

Zen meditation can have physical benefits as well. Jerry Mulnick, a Grasmere resident and former marathon runner, watched his blood pressure soar when he had to give up running. Friends suggested he join the Zen community at Manresa.

“I stayed with it,” he said. “It lowers hypertension.”

Mulnick has been with the group for several months and has made his daily meditation a priority, setting aside 20 minutes either in the early morning or late at night for sitting. He looks forward to the group’s Tuesday night meetings and the monthly retreats.

“When you’re with a group, it kind of reinforces what you do,” he said.

MO/JL END RNS

(Leslie Palma-Simoncek writes for the Staten Island Advance in Staten Island, N.Y.)

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