September 28, 2005
SISTER SPIRIT MARIA
My name is Maria and I am twelve years old. I grew up as a Catholic. I got baptized and I did my first communion. I will be going to Catholic school for two more years before I can do my confirmation.
A few weeks ago I went to explore a different religion. This was Buddhism. We went to the Garrison Institute in upstate New York, which is a Buddhist community. From the outside, the building looked like a Catholic school, but from the inside it looked like a mini-hotel. There was a long hallway with bedrooms leading off it.
One of the community people took us into a big room. At the end of the room there was a big Buddha sitting with his legs crossed, surrounded by many flowers and other little statues of the Buddha. The room looked like it was a place where you could pray to the Buddha and relax.
The community woman helped us to do some meditation.
We sat on the floor on a cushion. The woman told us to clear our minds of any thought and see if we could focus.
Instead of clearing my mind, when I was meditating was all I was thinking of was going to sleep in a nice air-conditioned room because it was really hot.
I would like to try meditation again, but next time I want to be awake because all I was thinking about the first time was sleeping.