Chris Halverson (left) and Stefan Sencerz practice zazen (Zen meditation) at the Texas A&M Univerity-Corpus Christi's University Center.

Making Peace "I grew up in Duluth, Minn., in a tough, lower-middle class neighborhood, and there was a stigma to where I grew up," says Halverson, 30, who coordinates Zen meditation sessions of the Mindful Life Sangha (community) of Port Aransas. "The expectation was that you weren't going to go very far in life, so I was an extremely angry person when I was growing up. "In my post-high school years, that anger built up and I felt like I had to get out of my hometown," he says. "I thought the town was keeping me stuck, when it was actually me. I did a lot of searching in other directions- drugs and drinking, and I was married for a time. I thought these things would make me happy, but when everything was done I was still angry and resentful and right back where I started from. I was turning less toward other people because I was blaming them, which was ridiculous, and then turning that blame back on myself. When I realized I might have been being a little too hard on myself, that's when the real search started." Time to reconnect Halverson began engaging in actual Zen sitting meditation, called zazen, which he had read about in high school. "The idea of meditation is to turn off the noise outside and tune in to one's own center," Halverson says. "The purpose is calming the mind, allowing ourselves to settle back into that natural state of being quiet," Halverson says. "Just settling the voices in our heads. We have so many things talking to us throughout the day, and sitting zazen is a way to reconnect with our basic humanness. We spend so much time using up our resources, and we need a way to get them back." Halverson says the changes he saw in his before-and-after self were not dramatic, but still profound. He now takes the Zen attitude of letting things happen and accepting them, rather than counting anxiously upon a particular outcome. Halverson "sits zazen" about three hours daily.

Stefan Sencerz practices meditation at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's University Center. Around him, places have been set for others to meditate while sitting upon a mat (zabuton) and cushion (zafu). Left: Christopher Halverson demonstrates the customary hand position and placement often used during Zen meditation (zazen).The placement is symbolic of the body's center, located between the navel and the pelvis.

The wooden baton (center) is used to strike the bowl-like bell (above left) to signify the beginning and the end of a meditation session. The metal chimes (bottom) serve the same purpose. Information: Halverson's Web site: www.geocities.com/mindfullife Books: "Introduction to Zen Buddhism," D.T. Suzuki; "Zen Training:Methods and Philosophy,"Katsuki Sekida; "The Way of Zen," Alan Watts; "Ambivalent Zen," Lawrence Shainberg Sencerz's Web site: www.tamucc.edu/~sencerz/zen.htm

"I accept things in terms of who I am and I'm not angry anymore," says Halverson, who is enrolled in a non-residential seminary program out of Chicago called the Maitreya Buddhist Seminary. "It's allowed me to take stock in what I have and to realize that what I have now is more than I'll ever have." "We're always thinking, 'This or that is going to make me happy,' but the idea is that we're already there. Where we are now is really it. "Mindfulness is the most important thing, to just do what you're doing," Halverson says. "A classic Zen saying is , 'Chop wood, carry water.' Just do what you're doing. take time out in your day to just sit and be in that moment, allow the pen to just sit, and take time to coalesce and get everything back and then go forward again." Although Zen awareness has grown in recent years (the summer issue of Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine listed "living in the moment"-- a Zen precept--as its mission for that issue), many people still associate it with New Age-ness and blue-sky mysticism, Halverson says. Actually, he says, it has a lot in common with the major religions of the Western world. While it is not a religion, Zen shares the practice of gathering participants to build community and support. Through area sessions he met Stefan Sencerz, an associate professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, who organizes meditation sessions on the Corpus Christi campus. Sharing Zen teachings "He's one of the more experienced Zen teachers in the Coastal Bend community," Halverson says of Sencerz. "He's a definite force, and once you meet him you're touched." Halverson says he's not that rigid about the physical position someone takes for meditation upon the mats (zabuton) and cushions (zafu), as long as they are comfortable and give themselves over to the session. Beginners sit for about 15 minutes and more experienced adherents may take 45 minutes or more. A bell is struck to signify the beginning and the end of the meditation. Halverson and Sencerz coordinate zazen sessions and other activites whenever possible so as not to compete with each other. Sencerz began meditating in his native Warsaw, Poland, back in 1974. He moved to the United States in 1983. "I read an extremely influential book--'The Three Pillars of Zen,' by Phillip Kapleau-- and it got me started on zazen," Sencerz says. "I felt like, 'Let me do it and see where it goes, and at the same time it felt very familiar in a deep, intuitive way. "Most of the people who sit at A&M-CC are students, but it's open to everybody," says Sencerz,46, who also demonstrates Zen meditation in his Eastern Philosophy classes. "Doing zazen regularly keeps me balanced and really gives me good, steady energy," Sencerz says. "You can do zazen because you're curious, because you want mental and physical health or because you want to reach enlightenment (insight). "You may also do it to help everybody, or just because you want to do it. I do it for all of the above."