Walking into the Losel Shedrup Ling of Knoxville, one can’t help but notice the contradictions.
Nestled in a hidden corner along Kingston Pike, fluorescent lights contrast the colorful paintings while metallic Buddhas clash with humming fans. Four like-minded worshippers are gathered together in an act of solemn devotion in the quiet hours of a Thursday night, chanting rhythmically in unison, either in defiance of these contradictions or perhaps in spite of them.
They’re members of the only Buddhist congregation in Knoxville.
Tracy Black, one of those attending the Buddhist ceremony, explained that every Thursday night, members of the church gather to perform the Tibetan meditation ceremony known as “Chenrezig.” Unlike the traditional idea of meditation, which involves long periods of silence and inner-reflection, the “Chenrezig” consists of 45 minutes of unified chanting in an attempt to reach the plane of tranquility that many Buddhist practices acutely strive for.
“You’re visualizing ‘Avalokiteshvara,’ who’s the embodiment, the representation of compassion,” Black said, explaining that the ultimate goal of the chanting is to achieve enlightenment for all people rather than for one individual. “It’s all about connecting with that compassionate nature that’s within all of us and helping us to let go of the things that keep us from realizing that.”
Seated on padded mats arranged in a circle, the worshipers sang steadily together, sometimes off-key, yet always with a distinctive vigil noticeable only in the intensity of their eyes. While English is their native tongue, the worshipers chanted exclusively in Tibetan.
“English is not a very chant-able language,” Jay Meeks, another Buddhist faithful and attendee of the ceremony, jokingly observed.
For Meeks, the path to Buddhism was born out of a difficult time in his life, starting with a little spare time and a good book.
“I was in-between jobs, so I just started reading, and I was quite shocked about the impact it had on me,” Meeks said of the Buddhist literature he read in 2006 which helped him stray from the “rat-race” way of life he had been living.
Yet it wasn’t until last year that Meeks, finding that “something wasn’t quite right with my life,” chose to commit to the Buddhist religion, which he cites as bringing a “sense of peace” to his life where he had none before.
Beyond the walls of the Losel Shedrup Ling, there exists a small community of East Tennesseans committed to Buddhism and its practices. In the Smoky Mountain community of Happy Valley, the ‘Milarepa Osel’ serves as a retreat center for any practicing meditators to come and get away from the chaos of daily life.
Closer to home, the UTK Mindfulness and Meditation Club meets every week to exercise the calming practice of self-reflection in true Buddhist form.
Rachelle Scott, interim head of the Department of Religious Studies, teaches the history and culture surrounding Buddhism to her students at UT. During her many trips to Thailand to study the religion, Scott said she has garnered a very different view of Buddhism than what is prominently practiced around Knoxville.
“The vast majority of Buddhists there do not meditate,” Scott said of the religious faithful in Thailand, who choose rather to practice their faith by praying at temples, making offerings to monks or bowing before the image of the original Buddha.
While she does not make any public declarations of faith, Scott admits to experiencing what some might classify as a “religious experience” during her travels abroad. Unexpectedly, many of her most insightful moments came not from prayers with monks or during meditations, but from everyday occurrences with the native people.
“I’ve gotten a lot of really good information by going to Buddhist temples and watching (soccer) matches,” Scott recalled.
When conveying Buddhism to her students, Scott said she always tries to dismiss the clichés and simplicities that tend to shroud the true nature of what the faith is all about.
“One of the main themes that I talk a lot about is the inherent diversity of the religious tradition,” Scott explained. “I try to emphasize the fact that when we think about Buddhist thought or Buddhist practice that it’s not just what monks think or what monks do … the vast majority of Buddhists throughout its history have been lay people.”
Embodying the idea that Buddhism is open to anyone willing to experience it, Black said it best when she summarized not only what the religion meant to her, but what it means to all those who hold it dear.
“The whole point of the Buddhist teaching is that we suffer because we misunderstand our situation, and we project an ego that is separate from everything else,” she said. “If we can let go of that and realize that, we can have a heart full of wisdom.”
