“… it is a similarly strange experience when something you have practiced for many years and highly value, but that used to be very much a minority interest, emerges into mainstream culture and begins to “go viral”. It almost seems as if everyone is doing it, apparently including Bill Clinton, Russell Brand, Google employees, and even the US Marines. …” – Jenny Wilks, 2013 (reprinted from the BCBS Insight Journal, October 8, 2014)

If you have sat in the chapel with us, even briefly, you know this: except for some bells to mark the passage of time, it is very quiet. No one is chanting or wearing robes. There aren’t any statues or burning incense. We are just sitting.

What we are doing may seem very strange. Committed Buddhists, who see meditation as part of an Eight-Fold Path that has been practiced for over 2000 years, wonder how meditation can be separated from its ethical, ritual, and devotional contexts. 21st century Americans of no particular religious persuasion likewise wonder how it is possible for busy, multi-tasking, internet-savvy people to just stop and sit. They wonder if religion is being smuggled into modern culture.

So what’s going on? Sit. Find out for yourself.