Silver City, NM – Wednesday, April 8 The Center for Gender Equity celebrated Buddha’s Birthday. The event started of with a session of Zen Meditation to relax everyone’s mind which was led by Buddhist priest, Paul Stuetzer. After the meditation was over, guests then celebrated with pizza that was made by Ben Williams from the Bike Haus.
Ben Williams has been making Pizza for about ten years. He mentioned “I was asked to make pizza by Paul and I was happy to do so. Zen was a nice contrast from typical every day university pace. The Zen Meditation was relaxing and challenging at the same time. Being with your own thoughts can be difficult.”
WNMU student Marissa Aguire said “I liked the meditation, it allows you to be Zen within yourself, it gets rid of negative energies.” The meditation started with everyone sitting in a circle and being silent for approximately 10 minutes and concentrating on their breathing. After the ten minutes participants then walked slowly in a circle to warm up due to the fact they were outside. Maria Montanez, a student at Western, was one of the participants at Buddha’s birthday party and said “I have been coming to the meditations before and I like sitting in silence. It allowed me to breath. I like the people and the environment. I learned a lot from this event.”
Buddhist priest, Paul Stuetzer has been practicing Zen Meditation for thirty five years. He said “I started getting into Zen meditation when I was studying my state board exam for oriental medicine in California. I got the flu and almost died. My roommate at the time was there and I told him “I think I’m dieing.” And he said “good” then told me to learn about Zen and let go of the things you’re attached to that make me sick. So he gave me books to read about Zen. I read the books and they really made me feel better. Zen is a meditation practice to become you. And it just made sense when I started practicing it. I was raised catholic and went to a Jesuit college. I had to take a lot of stressful classes. The meditation offered me a way to go inside myself and understand who I am and that life and death is the same, as well as how to cope with illness. The reason I think Zen would fit Western New Mexico University is because when I was in school I was stressed and Zen helped me. Students can work through their issues through Zen meditations and learn how to cope with the stress. Anyone can do Zen meditation even if you’re not Buddhist. It’s a meditation to release stress.”
To find out about more info on events happening at the Center For Gender Equity find them on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/TheCenterforGenderEquity?fref=ts
