On February 16th, 2016, Ms. Pimchanok and the Saisamorn Family invited Phrakrubhavanavites, the abbot of Seattle Meditation Center, to run a meditation class at Vancouver Public Library, a big library located in the middle of Vancouver, Canada. Though it is a crowded city, Vancouver still has some peaceful places suitable for meditation.
People from different career fields, from a student to an assistant manager of an international bank, came to meditate together. The teaching monk went over the meditation technique and educated the participants on the principles of basic meditation and what to expect from meditation. He also made some recommendations about the 7 bases of the mind and the importance of the 7th base, which is comparable to an entrance to brightness, happiness and the inner body, and suggested the participants to imagine a bright, light and transparent sphere, along with reciting the Mantra ‘Samma Arahang’. The teaching monk suggested that our mind is like rippled water, and that it should be taken back to the stillness of the center with a delicate and gentle touch.
Starting from putting their hands together and sitting in a comfortable position, stilling and relaxing the mind, the participants were told to maintain the mind at the center of the body the entire time. At the end, the teaching monk gave an explanation about the 5 obstacles of meditation, and let the participants rate their own meditation experiences which was mostly rated an 8 out of 10.
With this session being the 7th time of the program. People who participated in the program continued their interest in it. Also, new participants asked many questions that were answered satisfactorily by the teaching monk.
