A Buddhist Monk Walked Into a Library...

No this isn't the start to a funny joke, it's a weekly occurrence at the Chanhassen library where Bhante Sahti leads a meditation class. My friend's sister Barb is one of the weekly participants. Today Bhante Sahti was kind enough to let me interview him on my flipvideo for class.

"Bhante" means teacher and teach he does. He leads three weekly classes on meditation as well as runs the occasional retreat. He is very willing to share and help others who are interested in meditation. It wasn't even two minutes into the interview before he was offering to come up to our campus to talk with any interested students and even lead a session. I think that would be really neat.

It was an interesting interview and I'm looking forward to going back and listening to it again. I think one of the important points he made was that meditation is not tied to a particular religion. That is a misconception--one that sometimes even scares some people off. Especially in the dominant US culture where meditation is not commonly practiced. This is why he thinks it is advantageous to the first time meditator to go to a facilitated class.

I went to his meditation class about a year and a half ago. It was the one and only session I attended. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be there that particuar day. A Buddhist nun was leading the session which was still cool. So today was a treat to finally meet the teacher my friends have come to admire so much. Perhaps, someday I'll even give meditation a try again after all, it was very obvious Bhante Sahti had much to teach me. The following clips are from that interview.

PART ONE (INTRODUCTION AND BHANTE SAHTI'S BACKGROUND):

PART TWO (COMING TO THE U.S.):

PART THREE (although clip will say part two this is really part 3) MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MEDITATION:




PART FOUR (PLEASURE AND CONSUMERISM):




PART FIVE (BHANTE DESCRIBES A MEDITATION SESSION):