Buddhist Monastery

 *mind: what have I just become? an ethnographer? for a certain time*

A sleepy bus rides ends on the rural northern part of the province of Groningen, the bus stops and when I look out of the window, I see the entry path right in front of me. Zen River Temple. The vanishing point of my view leads exactly towards the place, while the bus could not have parked any better for me to be directly confronted with it. That is the place we are going to experience a traditional Japanese Buddhist service shortly after. We are welcomed by a charming man with a bright smile, radiating his positivity to all of us right away. We enter the monastery and one can immediately sense the special energy this place resonates. After that, everything goes rather quickly, we take off our shoes and enter the main hall, find a personal cushion and the ceremony starts. I hear the many bells, starting with constant, occasional slams, the sound is travelling through the air, which is not just felt by my ears, but it seems to be felt throughout my body, through suspected vibrations. My openness for such experience facilitates the quickly calmed mode I find myself in shortly after. The bells are slammed more frequently, ending in a dramatic climax. Making me a little uncomfortable as I did not expect such dramatic ending of using these instruments. More and more people start to join the ceremony suddenly and I feel a little overwhelmed by the energy all these bring into the room, nevertheless, in a very positive way.

A woman starts a solo mantra that gives me goosebumps which would not leave until the end of the ceremony. Her unique, yet strong and clear voice communicates exceptionally well the message this mantra aims at, although I do not understand its language. The others start to join singing the mantra, and the aforementioned strong energy created by the now densely populated room is brought to a new level with their voices singing a well known Buddhist mantra in almost perfect synchronisation. I realise once again how powerful the human voice may be, particularly connected to singing. My mind drifts off when I suddenly here familiar words. English words appear, but not just any, rather strong and powerful ones in their meaning, that really underline the suspected message I sensed already without understanding the language. A positive, yet convincing attitude towards Buddhism is expressed, telling us to help the world in the Buddha way. It becomes hard for me to concentrate on the mantra itself as the whole atmosphere puts me in such a calm state where I see random thoughts coming and leaving in front of my eyes.

The ceremony continues, and I get drawn back into reality after the transcending mantra is over. Sudden movements by the participants, again in perfect synchronisation, show gratitude and appreciation towards the Buddha statue towards small altar in the middle of the room. Their direction changes sometimes inwards, facing each other, sometimes facing the statue. Occasionally their eyes are closed, though often left open. Their hands almost always find a centre in the middle of their body, making me motivated to do the same. Despite just standing nearby, I get drawn into the situation by the participant's noticeable devotion to their spirituality, which genuinely motivates me to experiment with similar exercises hopefully in the future.

The incineration of scents adds a new dimension to the ceremony. Not only does it smell nice, the nature of scents creates an association that had been established in my mind before, yet is even strengthened with this. This particular smell is directly distinguishable from any other, which I have, not surprisingly, encountered often in Southeast Asia before, or similarly themed places in Europe.

The ceremony ends as quickly as it began, and many people leave the room again. I am back into normal state, yet profoundly grounded with a deep sense of awareness I am sensing in myself. The calmness and deep harmony I reached that quickly is almost frightening, though it simply surprises me how the right conditions can affect me in such a way that I often not even receive through 20 minutes of meditation and conclude that it is facilitated through external sound and scent inputs.

Religion may be so strongly grounded in culture and civilisation because of this physical and chemical interplay of senses.

My own sympathy towards many Buddhist religions certainly affected my experience at the Zen River Temple. I was therefore more receptive and open for an assumingly positive experience. Someone else might have experienced the ritual as a little claustrophobic with that many people in one room. My experience was further shaped by an already established positive attitude towards Buddhist religions, and yet presented something I have never experienced this way.

I like to observe the physical dimensions of a room, with the altar, the Buddha and incense sticks in the middle of the room. Even broken through the wall and built a wooden extension, another two walls broken through to invite the light, people often look at each other during the ritual, though it presents simply an acceptance of their presence, as I perceived it. My height, in this respect, did not necessarily affect the observation, yet I felt a very comfortable posture.



The only thing you could really know are the memories written down. Yet, that whole week was very rememberable. I happen to be in the middle class of society, able to experience it this time even physically despite high COVID-19 cases. A feeling of normality, when suddenly a private bus was rented to travel. Perspective is often created through abundance. Services, often connected to jobs, however, have a fundamental function to connect the economy, yet materialism does not necessarily fulfill that function, just illusionary. And still, a lot of gold is used in many religions.

The monastery represented potentially more so the upper middle class of society due to the high contribution fees every month. Participants are certainly well educated, not worshipping God in an external entity, but rather inside themselves. The true experience, of seeing reality after deep meditational states may be so intense that one sees who they are. The consequence of your actions is a picture you portray to yourself; the result being still young, wild &free - assuming optimality, and some sense of heaven on Earth, with a religion such as Buddhism teaching you how to think, and how to not think, how to become aware, which is a very delightful trait.