“Who are you?” Bhante Kassapa Bhikku asks attendees at his meditation classes.
Audience members quickly announce their professions.
“No, not ‘What are you?’ Who are you?” Bhikku asks again.
The answer to that question doesn’t come as easily.
But that’s the reason people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and religions visit Metta House, all hoping that, through meditation and the teachings of Buddha, one’s true self may be discovered. The new Old Town meditation center offers free lectures and meditation on Wednesday nights, with donations encouraged.
Bhikku had a vision to create a Buddhist temple that could capture the attention of a philosophically hungry America, a nation in search of something different.
“Change is constant,” said Bhikku, who for the past five years has taught at Buu Mon, a Buddhist temple in Port Arthur. “If you’re going to change anyway, you might as well be the author of that change.”
It’s difficult to describe Buddhism without launching into a series of definitions. Metta House’s website labels itself an American Sangha of Theravada Buddhism — Sangha roughly means assembly and Theravada is the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism, the form created by Siddhartha Gautama himself.
– Full story: blog.beaumontenterprise.com
– By Christina Jones
