Is counting a big part of the way they teach meditation at the Zen Buddhist Temple?
Yeah, it’s focusing on your breath. When you first take the course, as a way to get you into it, they say count from one to 36, and if you get to 36 and the bell hasn’t rung yet, then count backwards 36 to one. And at a certain point, I’m not sure when they sort of like- I wonder why it’s 36. Yeah, there’s all these special numbers. Like 108, 36, 33. There are so many numbers in Buddhism. I guess it makes sense from an oral tradition that there’s these significant numbers that meant something, but I don’t know why 36. So I do the counting backwards from 5 to 0. I think at a certain point, it’s all very mystical when it happens (laughs), but you do an interview with Sunim where you get a mantra. I’m not sure how long you have to be practicing before you get a mantra that you repeat with your breath, or when it happens. But it hasn’t happened to me yet. So you didn’t explore any other Temples? No. You just felt that was the one for you? Yeah, I just felt instantly very comfortable, and d
