We were invited to a Sunday morning Buddhist ceremony by a young man we have met many times at our favorite restaurant. If he'd only invited us once, we would have nodded and said we may just do that sometime. But Ryan would text us three Saturday nights in a row after his initial invitation. So we went. (-:
The Soka Gakkai International or SGI (Community) Center is located in Forest Hills, NY, in Queens--a 20 minute subway ride east of Manhattan. Our friend was waiting on the steps to take us in. As we entered, people were chanting rhythmically in a monotone that you could almost tap your feet to. In fact I ended up tapping my feet as it continued for 20 minutes.
Next there was a sharing from a young woman who attributed her chanting practice to many good things in her life, one being her efforts to increase lawyers in her firm doing pro bono work. There was a lot of clapping and laughter during her talk. (I like it when there is laughter in any religious setting.) Ryan leaned over and told me this was his favorite part of the service.
After that, a group of women sang a lively song called "When Love Takes Over" accompanied by four female dancers. This could have been placed into any Christian service. There was a speaker then a video was shown of their Sensei in Japan about the importance of appreciating workers "behind the scenes".
Overall, it was an interesting experience. If you want to hear how the chanting sounded, I found a good example on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbU2-9YcGI.
The Soka Gakkai International or SGI (Community) Center is located in Forest Hills, NY, in Queens--a 20 minute subway ride east of Manhattan. Our friend was waiting on the steps to take us in. As we entered, people were chanting rhythmically in a monotone that you could almost tap your feet to. In fact I ended up tapping my feet as it continued for 20 minutes.
Next there was a sharing from a young woman who attributed her chanting practice to many good things in her life, one being her efforts to increase lawyers in her firm doing pro bono work. There was a lot of clapping and laughter during her talk. (I like it when there is laughter in any religious setting.) Ryan leaned over and told me this was his favorite part of the service.
After that, a group of women sang a lively song called "When Love Takes Over" accompanied by four female dancers. This could have been placed into any Christian service. There was a speaker then a video was shown of their Sensei in Japan about the importance of appreciating workers "behind the scenes".
Overall, it was an interesting experience. If you want to hear how the chanting sounded, I found a good example on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbU2-9YcGI.
