Just This Zen Meditation — A Peaceful corner in Taipei City
By: Eliza Chu-Yun Huang
Tags: Meditation, Taipei, Mindfulness, Zen, Taiwan

“May we see our circumstances and ourselves clearly to heal ourselves, live well and serve others.” — Justin Pollard.

Founded by Justin Pollard, Located in Taipei city center, “Just This Zen” aims to help every individual to find their inner peace by traditional Buddhism meditation. With benefited by the meditation practice, Justin who went through a harsh childhood depression, advocating a spiritual practice could help people to develop a healthier mindset and be able to maintain a better life.

Just This Zen — Free Sunday Practice

I decided to give it a try by knowing Justing through pottery studio as a good friend, at this moment, I starting to meditate for merely 3 months with guided meditation programs in apps. With zero group meditation experience and concerns about how the group might affect meditation process, I walk in the door of the location which shares with Yoga classes, wide apartment with natural light, Justin welcoming the new members for orientation, “When you consistently thinking about anything during meditation, you aware of it, and ask yourself: why? Why do I keep thinking about this person? Or why do I thinking about work? There are two things that might happen. One is that your more thorough awareness of the issue will weaken its power over you. Or, after some weeks of practice, an answer to your question might suddenly pop up in your mind. ” he explained.

Peacestreet Community Center

After all the members arrived, we started the meditation by Justin hit the wooden stick ‘Chook bi’ (죽비) for 3 times to reminds everyone to sit in posture. The schedule is 20 minutes sitting meditation, 5 minutes walking meditation, and another 20 minutes sitting meditation, 5 minutes walking meditation, the last is 10 minutes sitting meditation, without any music and human-guided, only you and the dot you are staring at. Inhale, exhale, and my mind started to wonder, “Why am I so anxious and worried now?”, inhale, exhale, “because you are having a big changing movement in your life, and people always react with fear when they don’t know what they will be facing at.” inhale, exhale, the metro steered outside of the window, inhale, exhale, someone moves a bit and the cushion we sat make noises, inhale, exhale, none of the noise bother me at all, I focused on the dot I staring at, with breathing, the motivation to working hard for my dream just cames back, the fear doesn’t lead me anymore, instead, the rational peace does.

When we finished an hour meditation practice, Justin handed everyone a copy of his notes of the topic for us to discuss. There will be a different topic every week, for this week is “The Dharma and Mental Health”, Justin made a vivid metaphor: When the mental state is unstable and affecting our actions toward people close with us, it is like when you are driving a car and you are out of control. Then you need a professional to help you.

Overall, “Just This Zen” provides a moment for us to be calm and see ourselves clearly. I am not religions as my parents, therefore, I was a bit skeptical about Zen and Buddhism meditation at the beginning simply because I am not interested in involving any religious groups, however, “Just This Zen” is not talking about god or Buddha, it is about us, about how do we find a balance among daily challenges, fears, anxiety, negativity and doubts. This afternoon, I found my inner peace in rackety Taipei city, further, through meditation I figured out how wrong the negative attitude I had for facing everything and everyone around me, I am grateful that I am able to fix the mistake from now.

A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation Video

If you are interested in Just This Zen Meditation experience, please read the following information:

Contact

www.justthiszen.com

LINE ID: hbcjustin

Location

Peacestreet Community Center, Heping East Rd sec 3 #83 3rd fl 台北市和平東路三段83號三樓 Taipei, Taiwan 110

Free Sunday Practice Schedule

11:30am to 12pm: New Member Orientation (Mandatory for New Members)

12:05 to 12:25 — Seated Meditation

12:25 to 12:30 — Walking Meditation

12:30 to 12:50 — Seated Meditation

12:50 to 12:55 — Walking Meditation

12:55 to 1:05 — Seated Meditation

13:05 to 13:10 — Short Break

13:10 to 13:20 — Check-in (Members briefly discuss events of the past week.)

13:20 to 14:00 — Dharma Discussion (Read an article about that week’s topic and discuss it together.)