by Carianne Noga, Programs and Gallery Assistant

Numerous distinct conversations bubble up all around. They rise and fall, in and out of audibility, and they fade through one another interconnected. A woman talks excitedly about the kind of power she wields on a new contract her firm acquired, while a man nearby describes ways to create inexpensive, handmade Christmas gifts. The front door slams behind a girl storming off, spitting into her phone, “You can’t text me things like that!” At a table by the door, an older couple turns back to discussing their evening plans, while their immediate neighbor continues describing to a colleague her convoluted career path from social work to epidemiology.

I’m sitting in a cafe listening back to an interview recorded with the Venerable Sungak Sunim last week, but I’m also listening to the eclectic noise of my neighbors. I am mostly able to focus on the recording, but occasionally I get carried away by the curious chatter all around me. I don’t know these people, and I don’t really know anything about them except the tiny, little bits that float in through my ears. However, as I hear Sungak’s digitized voice, louder than the rest, it’s almost like her voice is giving subtitles to the mostly indiscernible din behind it. “100 Bhikkunis in the same room. We eat the food. You cannot hear any sound..,” then she fades to a whisper, “only quiet.” I can’t help but notice the great contrast between her description and the scene before me presently.

A Bhikkuni is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Sungak is specifically of the  Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism. This past Saturday, October 1st we held the first of a series of seven workshops in our Meditation Series, and we were led by Sungak through a sitting meditation and then a walking meditation that wove around the Pulitzer’s courtyard. She also gave a very thoughtful and informative talk to introduce the group to several key concepts of Buddhist practices. Back in that interview she elaborated as to why the dining hall would be so silent, an idea inconceivable to me. “Eating is also another practice, walking is another practice, speaking is another practice.” Well, if all of these things are practice, when’s the big event?

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