Sykes Chapel Takes Up Zazen Meditation Class

Since the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith Values opened in 2011, it has been an intended place of relief from the vigorous and often stressful world of college students. Recently, various classes and workshops that focus on spiritual and emotional wellness such as tai chi, yoga and guided meditation have been implemented within the Chapel’s walls to help students nurture their personal values and peace of mind.

The most recent class of this sort was a Zazen meditation session guided by Suzanne Hurley of the Tampa Zen Center. In the silence of the empty building, I joined a small group of students and participants to learn about the ancient art of Zen Buddhism and its recent emergence into American life, first in San Francisco in the 1960s, and today in many major cities across the country.

Hurley, a native of Tampa, moved out to California after a few years of unfulfilled college life in search of a new spiritual awareness, which she found in Zen meditation. “I was dissatisfied with my major and life in general, especially in Tampa,” stated Hurley. Through the teachings of Zen masters such as Shunryu Suzuki, a native of Japan who brought his passion for Zen Buddhism to San Francisco in the 1950s, Hurley found her own love for the subject and decided to make it a permanent aspect of her life.

“During my time at the San Francisco Zen Center, the Zen Master (who followed Suzuki Roshi) told me that, if I was going to return to the East coast, he wanted me to teach Zazen,” Hurley explained.

After a few years practicing at the Tassajara monastery and many more studying at the SFZC, Hurley returned to Tampa where she founded the Tampa Zen Center in 2006. “When I moved back to Tampa, I could not find any meditation center that offered the same kind of practice with the same kind of understanding [as those in California],” Hurley stated. The Tampa Zen Center originally took up practice at the Lotus Room on Kennedy Blvd, but is now located at Tree House Yoga on the Hillsborough river in North Tampa.

While they do not currently have an official Zen master on site, they do enjoy the practice of Zazen meditation, a quiet observance, in which each individual attempts to find silence and stillness within the mind while working toward a more enlightened and happy state of being. The Center’s website states that their goal is to “let go of our thoughts to calm our active minds. Zazen helps us bring stillness and focus into our daily lives as we practice being engaged fully in each moment.”

The group meets each Sunday morning for about three hours and is composed of two sitting meditation sessions, one walking meditation session, a service that includes a group chant of the Heart Sutra or, in Sanskrit, the Prajnaparamita, and finally a social hour with baked goods and beverages.

While the class in the Chapel was only an hour and a half long, and we spent much of the beginning learning some basic techniques and the history of Zen meditation, it was extremely revealing of the purposes of this form of spiritual awareness. Participants were given a glimpse into the practice itself with two sitting sessions and one walking session along with constant guidance from Hurley.

The group was small enough to comfortably fit in one of Sykes’s meditation rooms, an intricately designed space with stained glass windows, a partially vaulted ceiling and a beautiful circular floor pattern completely composed of different shades of wood. There, after hearing Suzanne’s story and that of the art of Zen meditation, we began our practice with a five-minute sitting session where we attempted to clear our minds of any capricious thought and focus solely on our breath.

This task proved to be much harder than it may sound and many of us did not make it past one breath before having to start over. Ross Draluck, a 2012 Masters of Accounting student explained, “I enjoy taking part in stress-relief activities [and] was not aware that Zen methods had a lot to do with one’s mind.” As a newcomer to meditation, Draluck found the process of trying to quiet his mind as “mildly stressful,” as it is an extremely difficult task. This may seem to contradict the point of Zazen, but Suzanne assured us that it is not easy for any practitioner of meditation to complete this task at first.

Elena Klinova, another participant and a third semester MBA student decided to try Zazen meditation because she believes, “it is always nice to learn something about the world and yourself. I like the fact that you can practice it regardless of beliefs,” she stated. This aspect of Zen and all forms of Buddhism has encouraged individuals from all backgrounds, belief systems and areas of the world to get involved in one form or another of meditation. It is a common misconception that Buddhism is a religion and meditation is a form of practicing that religion, however, this is not the case.

Buddhism and, likewise, meditation can be practiced alongside any religion or belief system, as it is simply a way of bettering one’s personal life through whichever avenues they choose. Much like the practice of yoga, a physical exercise that helps to relieve stress, meditation is a mental exercise meant to help clear the mind of daily anxieties and worry.

A student of the Tampa Zen Center and a junior in high school, Jonathan Fuentes also participated in the session at UT and explained his own perspective on this form of meditation. “Zazen is a very good practice for the overall health of the mind-body framework. Gradually your autonomic nervous system will balance out and, with continual practice, remain in balance,” stated Fuentes.

Of the Tampa Zen Center he explained, “I found what I was looking for.” As a high school student, Fuentes has achieved a more complete sense of spiritual awareness and fulfillment than many of his peers. The Tampa Zen Center as well as other aspects of eastern philosophy have helped him in his search for “absolute identity.”

Brandon D’Arezzo, a sophomore sociology major and one of the Student Wellness Coordinators at UT is responsible for many of the spiritual wellness classes that have taken place in the Chapel this semester including this one, was also present and stated, “Personally, I really enjoyed the Zen meditation class.

Each time I meditate it is completely different and this time I couldn’t get through one round. But eventually… I became more aware of myself and the environment around me. This seems to be the practice’s [purpose,] becoming more fully in the present moment.” D’Arezzo has previously organized classes such as tai chi and yoga workshops in the Chapel and hopes to continue providing practices such as these to students.

Zazen is not something to be mastered overnight, but worked at slowly and persistently, as is any great practice. With luck, Hurley will make it back to UT for subsequent classes in the future. She continues to promote the Tampa Zen Center, a non-profit organization, as a place for every denomination, sect, and type of human being interested in meditation.

Their website TampaZenCenter.org includes information on class times and the general ideas of Zazen meditation. As for wellness events on campus, keep an eye out for “Global Message” emails from UT with information regarding what’s going on here on campus.

Kaylee Moore can be reached at kjmoore@spartans.ut.edu.