A FOCUS ON HEALING
When the RochesterZenCenter
opened its doors in 1966, it was one of only four places in the US
devoted to the daily practice of Zen meditation. On Saturday, May 6, a
symposium, “Healing & Buddhism” will mark the Center’s 40th anniversary.
“Between the war in Iraq,
the violent crime in Rochester, the
poor state of education in our public schools, and our strained international
relations, the world just seems particularly desperate right now,” says Roshi
Bodhin Kjolhede, explaining the symposium’s emphasis on healing. Kjolhede, a
graduate of the University of Michigan,
has been with the Center for more than 30 years, spending the last 20 as its
Abbot or priest.
He says one important milestone for the Center has been
making it more accessible and less rigorously faithful to its Japanese roots.
“Zen Buddhism migrated originally from India
to China, and
further east to Japan
and Korea,” he
says. “It has always undergone some adaptations to the new culture. I think we
tried to shift more toward the American temperament.”
The inclusion of women on equal footing as men, for example,
is a departure from Buddhism’s Japanese tradition.
While Buddhists are relatively small in number in the US
and Canada
compared to Christians, Buddhism’s influence in much of Asia
is significant. And it has a long association with mind-body health.
“Over time, the practice of meditation breaks down the
distinction between the self and others,” says Kjolhede. “Pain and suffering is
an unavoidable aspect of life, but our personalized psychodrama tends to
intensify that experience. Zen meditation doesn’t eliminate pain. It doesn’t
cure an illness, but it can change our relationship to it. Practice reveals
that the mind-body connection is inseparable.”
Zen Buddhism, Kjolhede says, is perhaps the least violent of
all world religions. “I think that is because Buddhism recognizes that the root
of violence is a desire to cling to that distinction between self and others,”
he says. “That’s where so many of the great divides in the world begin —
between the us and them. In that way, we see everything through iterations of
greed, anger, and self-delusion instead of truth.”
The symposium will feature David Abram, author of “The Spell of the Sensuous,” which
explores the relationship between human cognition and language. Jon Kabat-Zinn
will discuss his research in mind-body medicine, including mindfulness-training
in people with cancer and chronic pain. And a lecture by Kenneth Kraft will
explore spiritual responses to pressing social and environmental issues.
“We hope that the symposium stimulates the kind of thought
and action that heals some of the suffering that the media shows us every day,”
says Kjolhede.
Registration is $50, plus $10 for lunch. Details: 473-9180
or www.rzc.org.
A ‘HARBOR VILLAGE’
The future of the Port
of Rochester is beginning to take
shape.
At a public meeting last week at CharlotteHigh School, Tom Doolittle and
Varoujan Hagopian, of Sasaki and Associates, the Boston-based firm the city’s
hired to create the master plan, presented their vision for a 30-acre parcel
that right now is mainly parking lots adjacent to the ferry terminal.
What they described was essentially a city neighborhood of
moderate density. While the plan includes space for retail businesses, eating
and dining establishments, and even a bit of office space, the overwhelming
majority of developed space is dedicated to housing. There are apartment
buildings, townhouses, and something halfway in between, which the planners
dubbed “villa-style” housing.
The Sasaki plan isn’t a concrete design of what will be
built on the site. It’s a concept, intended to guide development. City
officials will seek private developers interested in acquiring the property and
building on it.
In Sasaki’s vision, buildings occupy only about 30 percent
of the total area. The rest is split between a public marina (about 55 to 60
slips), a small green space, open courtyards between the buildings, and a
modest grid of two-way streets throughout.
The ferry terminal could see new life as home to a proposed SUNYBrockportGreat LakesResearchCenter.
Although it suggests a small garage (360 cars) to be built
on the south side of Beach Avenue,
opposite the RobachCommunity
Center, the plan adds more than 1,400 parking
spaces, without incorporating a single additional parking lot. Nearly all of
that is on-street parking. Hagopian and his team suggested incorporating
garages into the homes to minimize the need for residents of the new homes to
park on the streets.
“We don’t want huge parking lots sitting around half empty,”
said Doolittle.
Of course, the consultants won’t have ultimate control over
details like garages, as Hagopian was quick to point out.
“In terms of the architectural style, we are not suggesting
any style,” he told the crowd. “That’s not part of the master plan. This plan
is a framework, and it’s very flexible.”
What ultimately gets built, he said, will be what the city
and the private developers bidding on the project agree on. And the plan
itself, while nearing completion, still has some wiggle room.
“There’s a possibility this plan will still change,” says
Hagopian, as city officials continue to work with him on it.
— Krestia DeGeorge
SECOND-HAND VIOLENCE
Studies show that children who witness violent crimes are
more likely to become victims or aggressors later in life, says Monroe County
Public Health Director Andrew Doniger. It is, however, a cycle that can be
broken, he says.
The county and the Children’s Institute are coordinating a
program called Rochester Safe Start, trying to reduce children’s exposure to
violence. Last week, they rolled out the second phase of “Shadow of Violence,”
an educational campaign that will run until September.
The key, Children’s Institute Director Deborah Johnson said
at a press conference, is encouraging adults to intervene on a child’s behalf.
A similar campaign in 2003 emphasized the importance of bystanders becoming
involved. And surveys before and after the campaign indicated that the number
of bystanders who did nothing when they witnessed violence was cut in half.
Three years later, however, apathy is again on the rise,
says Doniger. This year’s campaign also encourages victims of violence to speak
out by calling 211. The campaign’s message, says Johnson, is three-fold:
“Exposure to violence does hurt a child; you can help; you can get help.”
With the help of several partners, including the Ad Council,
the Institute created a 30-second public-service announcement, shot half in
black and white and half in color. The message: Intervention can brighten a
child’s life. Stark images of children sitting in front of cocked guns or
covering their ears are included in all of the campaign’s educational
materials, which include an 8-minute video, pamphlets, and posters.
The program is funded, in part, through by the US
Justice Department. Federal Funding ends this October, says Johnson, but
coordinators hope to continue the initiative with outside support.
— Sujata Gupta
FIXING IT
Not sure what to do when your toilet backs up? Or when the
baby shoves crayons down the kitchen sink?
The South East Area Coalition has published a home-improvement
guide that’s chock full of important information, such as how to fix minor
breakdowns on your own and estimated costs for repair and renovation projects.
While some sections are geared toward those living in SEAC’s
service area, such as grants available through its various home repair
programs, most of the book will be helpful for anyone who owns, or is thinking
of buying a home, in the city.
Guides can be picked up at most neighborhood associations.
For more information, call the SEAC office at 244-7405.
— Sujata Gupta
PSALMS SUNG NEW
What are you feeling at this moment: happiness, curiosity,
boredom? There’s a Psalm to express that emotion, and a range of others, from
contentment (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”) to utter self-loathing
(“My wounds stick and fester by reason of my foolishness.”)
People have been singing the biblical poems as a form of
meditation for thousands of years, and they’re often printed separately from
the Bible in a Psalter. Famous Psalters include the Geneva Psalter, the Luttrell
Psalter, and the very first book printed in North America,
the Bay Psalm Book of 1640.
Now there’s a Rochester
Psalter.
It’s the brain-child of Thomas Elston, a curly-haired
organist with sharp features who directs the choir at St. Luke’s Episcopal
Church in Fairport.
Elston was irritated by the high prices of arrangements
offered by music publishing companies — a year’s worth of Psalm settings
might cost $100 or more. He’d already set several Psalms to music, and he knew
other musicians who’d done the same. So he contacted about 12 local composers,
including Stephen Kennedy, Mitzie Collins, and Sandra Gay, and asked them if he
could compile their settings into one volume.
Some of the tunes in the Rochester
Psalter sound like they might have been penned in the year 1250. Others
have a contemporary, Elton John-ish appeal. One or two are based on gospel
songs. All of them are designed to be sung by amateur singers, choirs, and
congregations.
“It’s a work in progress,” Elston says. “Since most of the
participants are volunteers who have full-time day jobs, we’ve fallen behind a
bit.” But he hopes to finish a first set in the next few months, and he’s
working on getting permission from all the composers to go to press.
In the future, bound copies of the Rochester Psalter will be available for everyone for whom ancient
poetry restores the soul. Information: chatter3324@gmail.com, or check out the
project’s website, http://muslit.info.
— Brenda Tremblay
This article appears in May 3-9, 2006.
