Rime means “no sides”, “non-partisan” or “non-sectarian”
What this journey of 30 religions before I turn 30 is doing to me so far can best be described as Rime, not taking any one side. My previous judgments of other religions are finally starting to shatter all around me. I see real people behind each service, each new religion and it’s a beautiful thing!
This once ultra conservative Christian is attending a Rime Buddhist service and yet nothing about it feels strange. I look forward to seeing and understanding how and what other people believe in.
I realized how much my mindset has changed as I talked to my mom this morning over the phone and could hear her judgement and mostly non understanding as to why I was going to attend a Buddhist service this morning. I quickly changed the subject as I am also starting to understand that most people aren’t open to understanding my project and well that is perfectly okay.
Rime Buddhist Center of Kansas City…
If I had to sum up this service in one word it would be “centering.” There were three different meditation times during one service. So different than a church service in the sense that this service seemed more about listening to your inner self than it was about being taught something. It’s as though I was the teacher of myself. I was given that freedom to listen to my thoughts, my breath, my body.
Leaving the service my mind wasn’t running through the normal race of processing what was taught and how I agreed or disagreed.
This service was so refreshing. Which makes me ask the question, can we be taught more with silence than with lectures? I don’t have the answer for that and it probably just depends on the situation. But in such a go go world with noises in every corner of our lives, it was just so good to be intentional about sitting still and being quite.
What I would like to say someday is that I am more comfortable in the stillness than I am in the noisy every day world. This is more on my mind because yesterday I looked into airbnb’s in Central America. I found three perfect tiny homes off grid overlooking the most lovely lake. (And background on that seems necessary… I am planning on traveling full time come the end of the year. That’s it in a nutshell.)
And as much as I want to be there NOW! I also know that I will have to come face to face with the stillness and some loneliness. My friends and family won’t be close and part of me will feel so alone. And as scary as that thought is, I know that I have to go! I have to sit with myself for months and just get to know myself as I enter the very beginnings of my 30’s.
I picture myself sitting outside overlooking the lake, meditating, feeling the wind blow across my face, the sun shining down, the noises of the purest nature noises.
So when I meditate these days, that is what I imagine. That is where parts of my heart and soul are. They sit there quietly just waiting for my body to show up.
Stars and Sunsets 