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Albuquerque Center
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A quiet place in a noisy world.
This week of August 18th, 2014.
Hello <<First Name>>, enjoy your newsletter. It's best if you do display images (they are safe), and be sure to see the great article by Laurence Cotter. We all have a Zen story to tell ... your sharing yours may be just the right words at the right time for that someone you will probably never know.
 

Crazy Zen

Laurence Cotter
Albuquerque Zen Center

 

There was a call for Buddhist volunteers sent out from the Chaplain’s office at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) to Buddhist organizations in Albuquerque. Seiju asked if I’d go. I have gone.

I do not know why exactly. I’m not Buddhist, nor religious. But I have done some ‘hard time’ in various contemplative religious environments trying to break free from the mind’s incarcerations of time, space and ego personality. I’ve been just another inmate, but wearing robes instead of an orange jumpsuit.

The MDC Chaplain asked me to go to the PAC units. These Psychiatric Acute Care units have detox and step down ‘pods’. One is for women. A tall lovely lady  named Rainbow noticed me wandering lost in a cavernous cinder-block hallway. She turned out to be the administrator in charge of MDC medical services.

I was shown the concave plastic detox ‘boats’ on the floor in which alcoholics, benzo, heroine, meth and opiate addicts hold on for dear life hoping to get to the other shore. Others in ‘reds’ shuffled around shackled in chains. Some just sat around talking to themselves and others. A few stared out from under blue eyebrows tattooed where their old ones had been. It was a scene not unlike a zendo in mid dai-sesshin.

She took me to the women’s unit where an anger management group was in progress. I was asked to explain my being there to them. Now most of the twenty or so women there, if they were not anti or non- religious, were militant fundamentalist Christians who immediately wanted to know what I believed. I figured mentioning Buddhism or Zen was ill advised. I said I was from the Albuquerque Meditation Center where people in trouble come for refuge to pray and meditate in silence and in secret. I added that a few prayers were chanted out loud in unison which sounded mysterious but no one was really sure what they actually meant. This is a familiar occurrence in churches, so they understood.

I said I didn’t just believe, but that I know there is an original pure and wondrously real holiness closer to us than we are to ourselves whom we should respect and watch very closely for, and not be calling names. Name-calling like God, Allah, Buddha, Brahman, Christ, Mohammed and Krishna has caused way too much violence and bloodshed in the world. There were nods all around. I was there to accompany them, if they wished, in whatever secret spiritual journey they were on at this rotten, difficult time in their lives.

If we could discover together how their current religious orientation or disorientation might help them to cut through the confusion in their lives or even discover some genuine ultimate concern worth turning their lives around for, that would be great. But I would be grateful if maybe I could just provide some of them an opportunity to be quietly listened to and understood; a time when they could speak confidentially without being judged or interrupted.
           
Having spent many years as a psychological and spiritual counselor I have seen how transformative just feeling understood can be. Sometimes the experience opens up into a deep peaceful space where new possibilities appear. On the other hand, sometimes it doesn’t do shit. But it’s worth a try, especially if you have been living in a violent chaotic world of relentless misunderstanding most of your life.
           
We sit usually one on one in a small office with a window open to the CO’s (Commanding Officer) control station where a stun gun recharges and there are colored buttons that open and close things. I see them only once or twice before they are shuffled around or released, sentenced or sent up to Grants. Some I have seen for months.
           
Most are suicidal to one degree or another. A few are homicidal. They have a diversity of psychiatric diagnoses. A few who know the system and want to avoid being stuck in general population again have threatened suicide on purpose just to get in. It’s the only unit at MDC where any attempt is made at rehabilitation. And it’s usually less crowded.
           
Almost all are drug addicts. The drugs have a powerful and pervasive influence. The rituals of getting and using them, the ecstasies they experience being high and the dark nights of the soul they experience because of the ruin these drugs have made of their lives are in themselves intense religious experiences. One lady said that meth made her feel like she was being raised from the dead. Nothing else that is possible for them remotely compares to it.
           
But they also report feeling safe, even hopeful when incarcerated. They eat and sleep better. They get cleaned up and psychiatric medications are better regulated. Most have multiple children in foster care or with family. I have a theory I sometimes share with them that unlike the usual sociopathic cons in the general population (both inside and outside of prison) who are not bothered by a conscience, they do have a conscience which has caused their minds to crack just enough so that perhaps some small enlightened understanding might shine in. They find the theory plausible. But a lot of bad stuff can seep in as well.
           
About meditation: They are by and large too disorganized psychologically for any formal meditation. For the schizophrenics it is contraindicated. A basic one-pointed mantra-like repetition practice has helped to regulate breathing and calm them down. A mindfulness attention recognizing harmful emotions early and regulating them before any harm is done is fundamental to the anger management work. In prisons (this is a short-term detention facility) where a long-term continuity of attention is possible meditation has been successfully practiced.
           
A very calm solid Tibetan nun in her late seventies goes to other women’s units wearing robes and beads. (About 15% of the 2,000 MDC population are women.) She reports having some success. But we are not sure what success in this case actually means.
          
Perhaps it means that through us some mutual compassion is being manifest in which we acknowledge our shared complicities, our suffering and mortality. Maybe we are manifesting a common underlying wisdom that is always already enjoying the luminous emptiness and pure awareness deep in that prior reality where we are all at peace and released from the unending labors of having to be somebody.  
Beginner's Instruction Saturday 8:15AM
Wear loose clothes, bring a friend, come early for a cup of coffee or tea. Also, the beginners instruction is a great refresher if you have been away for a while.

probably not zero ...

Zen and Aikido Class Last Chance to Register - Monday, Tuesday
Join us for a 13 week Zen and Aikido class ... in conjunction with Both Hands Clapping. Classes will be held at the Kodokan Judo Club, 670 G Juan Tabo NE (at Copper). The last chance to register for the noon class is Monday, the 18th. The last chance to register for the evening class is Tuesday the 19th.
 
Learn and practice both Zen and the powerful, graceful art of Aikido in the same class setting. This class is suitable for both men and women, (almost) all ages. Follow this link for more info. For any questions, e-mail Jim Redel.





gassho (sincerest thanks) to our visitors ...
Justin, Claudia, John, Lupe, Jaine

A member donated some bumper stickers. Be sure to stop by and pick one up.

Zazen in an AZC t-shirt ... priceless.

We are always looking for short articles and first-person stories, from both AZC members and non-members alike. (700 words, plus or minus would be great - please include pictures if you can.) Please send to Jim Redel.
Got a favorite AZC photo? We'd be happy to include it.Please send to Jim Redel.
We are now registered with the Amazon Smile programs, where they will donate a percentage of certain purchases to AZC. Please consider this the next time you shop at Amazon.(You can clock on the image to check it out.)

At AZC, we depend entirely upon the donations of our sangha members and the support of those who strive, as we do, to help others see their worlds a bit more clearly. If you've found a photo or link or article that you feel may help to inspire others, we welcome your support.

AZC Calendar

Monday 8/18
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo
11:30-12:50PM Noon Zen and Aikido
5:30-7:00 PM Evening Zendo


Tuesday 8/19
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo
5:30-7:00 PM Evening Zendo

6:00-7:20 PM Evening Zen and Aikido

Wednesday 8/20
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo
7:30 AM Bagels and Coffee / Tea
11:30-12:50PM Noon Zen and Aikido

5:30-7:00PM Evening Zendo

Thursday 8/21
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo
5:30-7:00 PM Evening Zendo and Discussion Group

6:00-7:20 PM Evening Zen and Aikido

Friday 8/22
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo

Saturday 8/23
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Zendo
7:30-8:15 AM Bagels and Coffee
8:15-9:15 AM Work Practice
8:15-9:15 AM Newcomers Instruction
9:30-11:00 AM Mid-morning Zendo

Sunday 8/24
Closed