Every Sunday morning, a small group gathers at a tiny house in downtown Anchorage. Inside, they sit down, cross-legged, facing the wall. They stay totally still, except for their breathing. And they stay silent for the next 90 minutes.
They’re here to practice zazen, a form of Buddhist meditation. Compared to other types of meditation, zazen is pretty bare-bones — it’s just sitting and following your breath. And, crucially, you can’t do it alone. You need a community.
Judith Koshin Haggar was one of the Anchorage Zen Community’s founding members. She saw an ad for a meditation group in the Yellow Pages, and when she attended her first session, she knew she was in the right place…