Student Testimonials
I started meditating two years ago at the same time I was accepted into the major of jazz and contemplative studies at U-M music school. Meditation and Contemplative Education has transformed me. I never made the decision to lose weight, stop drinking, and smoking but they just dropped away naturally like a fruit dropping from a tree.
Meditation has made me more tolerant, patient, empathetic. I am learning to lovingly witness all my negative habits without judgment. I am learning to embrace all my issues instead of repressing them. I am also becoming more aware of that immense, suffering that is out there which I've been shielded from my whole life. Meditation and Contemplative Education has pushed me towards my inner creative unique self which is can easily become lost and forgotten.
GF, The University of Michigan
I feel so rejuvenated after sitting meditation. I have a variety of experiences. I have had a few almost heart-stopping experiences of harmony and oneness. Sometimes I feel myself sinking as I leave the surface of my conscious far above me.
Sometimes I feel lighter and feel as though I leave my body below me.
The benefits of meditation are boundless. It has significantly affected every part of my life. Several years ago when I first started, I was lazy in my meditation practice, but once I saw the effects of meditation in my life I became a regular partitioner. Meditation is like keeping a clean, orderly room: everything is neat and tidy, and when one needs to find something, it is in its place. Likewise, keeping a clean and orderly mind facilitates clearer thinking and decision making. Instead of sorting through a rubble of half- thoughts, one can come to the conclusion one needs with the efficiency and clarity that is impossible with a cluttered mind. I find that I am much better centered. My relationships with the people around me have improved significantly. By being well centered through meditation, one can calmly assess most situations and find the shortest path to peace. This peace is essential to life and all human relations. Compassion for all beings has multiplied itself significantly, as has happiness. Through meditation one can see that there is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. Meditation has leant me a sense of independence as well as interdependence with all beings that I did not know before. I have a very real sense of self-fulfillment, as I fill that once gaping hole inside of me with myself; this was the only thing that could truly fit in that void. These are only some emotional and psychological benefits of meditation. There are also many physical benefits. Since I have begun a regular meditation practice, I have been less vulnerable to sicknesses such as colds and the flu. As a child and young adult, I suffered terribly from any illness that affected the lungs. I suffered bronchitis regularly, and once had a collapsed lung and was interned for 5 days. Since meditating, I have been sick much much less and also the periods of illness have been much much shorter and less severe. As a very real byproduct of meditation, life has become less of a task and more of a gift.
GZ, The University of Michigan
(In meditation) I experience a kind of immense stillness . . . a lightness and calmness in my mind and body. If I have had a stressful day, I often feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
Meditation has allowed me to appreciate more deeply and fully the world around me. The colors of the sky, the movement of animals, the smells of trees and flowers on my walk to class, the feel of my clothing on my body . . .
Meditation has also enriched my experience as an English student. I find myself more delighted in and excited about words, their sounds and almost infinite connotations. My reading process itself seems to have been enhanced; I become more effortlessly engrossed in the novels and poetry I read, and also absorb more of their content and meaning.
Because of meditation, I believe I am more aware of all the thoughts that run through my head, as well as the many emotions, good and bad, that can overpower us during the day. Because I am more conscious of these thoughts and emotions, they control me less, and I feel happier, calmer and lighter.
I've noticed that I take more delight in the happiness of others. Oftentimes when I see someone else smile, even a total stranger, I feel happy for them and with them. Sometimes just seeing someone smile or laugh is a stress reliever. Also, when someone does something kind for me, I often feel a powerful gratefulness and love.
AF, The University of Michigan
.Sometimes when I meditate I feel extremely connected to my self and have a feeling of lightness. I sometimes wonder where the limit is that distinguishes a meditation from anything else. It's hard to draw a line because as I get more involved in spirituality and meditation, I get more involved in anything else that I do. I say this because it seems to me that those ways in which I perceive meditations start to expand to life outside meditation. Parallel to my involvement with meditation, my "day to day life" has become fuller and lighter. As I do with the thoughts that I have when I am meditation, when I get distracted from any activity I am doing, I intend to return to it, without placing judgment on myself. I feel more aware of my surroundings, and find myself being less judgmental about others and myself. The things that bother me do not take the space they used to inside my mind, awaking anxiety and anger. Thanks to meditation, I feel I can live more peacefully with everyone including myself.
JV, The University of Michigan
During the fall semester of my junior year, I stumbled upon Dick Mann’s course, Psychology and Spiritual Development. I began meditating a bit more frequently, and saw major changes taking root in my life. It was almost as though once I opened myself to “spiritual development”, everything else in my life began to fall into place. I became calmer, more open, and had this greater sense of the universe providing for me. In the realm of behavior, I began to make healthier choices including limiting the toxins I took into my body, both physically and otherwise. The summer following my junior year, I had the opportunity for deeper integration, more experiential exploration through living in a small spiritual community, and attending a mindfulness retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, whereupon I established my regular sitting meditation practice. By senior year, courses like Creativity and Consciousness, and Contemplative Practice Seminar served to strengthen my understanding of and commitment to sitting practice and the transpersonal realm, and also introduced me (finally) to a community of students and administrators outside the Zen Temple who were on my same wavelength.
It wasn’t long before I began to notice some other positive manifestations of my practice in my overall life. Even from the very beginning, it became clearly imperative that I simplify all aspects of my life: dropping all charades, consuming less, even speaking less, and this too brought about positive change. Through my practice, I found myself more content than ever, better able to handle adversity with a sense of tranquility, and like I mentioned before, just having a greater sense of the universe providing for me. My connections with others also became reflective of my personal changes. Shallower relationships began to fall by the wayside while my more meaningful relationships deepened, and I found myself sort of drawing in the type of people with whom I truly wished to spend time. And recently, I received a reflection of these changes while visiting with one of my oldest college friends who’d been more on the outside of my development. He mentioned that he and others had noticed a clear change in me since we’d first met: “you seem to have found something, like now you just have this inner peace.” Whatever it is I’ve found (personally I think it’s just Truth), it’s enabling me to be much more fearless, to live my life as an experiment and to see what comes of it.
SM The University of Michigan
In a small room, all white, two chairs, and a bed. It was almost unreal, the serenity of the place. I sat down and watched my teacher perform ceremonial thanks . . . Then she turned to me, slowly repeated a sound, one that I had never heard before, but I could tell by her face that I was supposed to repeat it. In my head I thought, well I have come this far, might as well try – I started repeating the mantra normally at first, and then more lightly and softly, until I said it only in my head. I drifted, falling, hundreds of feet. I don't like heights or speed, but this wasn't scary, a peaceful, flawless fall into what I couldn't really make out, but it felt like water. Crystal blue water, the most refreshing type. It cooled my whole body instantly – then a thought, wow, this is great. Go back, quick, before I lose it – like a good dream - I started my mantra again, and as far as I remember was just peaceful for the rest, calmed. Even this was a change from my sometimes distanced, flustered self.
CS The University of Michigan
In these times, which place much demand upon the individual on many levels, I find that meditation practice is something familiar and comforting to which I can return, day after day. Having a meditation practice is something that helps me find my center, (i.e. an understanding of myself) especially when life seems crazy.
Often, after sitting, my ideas seem more orderly, because I can more clearly see what I value and what is important. Through meditation I have realized that I shouldn't be in so much of a hurry, and (it has) shown me how very small things in interpersonal relationships and our interaction with the world can affect us. Perhaps most importantly, meditation helps me understand my place in an increasingly complex world.
RWH The University of Michigan
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