Photo by Kimmie Barkley ’14
When Zakaria Kronemer strolls down Campus Walk, the UMW junior isn’t thinking about his upcoming exam or the conversation he just had. Instead, he focuses on his feet as each step pounds the brick walkway. He feels the air touching his hand as the wind blows and concentrates on his muscles as they work to move his legs.
Kronemer practices living in the moment. It’s a lesson that he learned last summer as one of 40 students from around the world studying the Buddhist practices of meditation and tai chi in the mountains of eastern China at the Shengshou Temple.
Back at UMW this fall, he found that his outlook on life had changed. Most significantly, the philosophy major has adjusted his view of everyday tasks.
“Everything in the monastic life is a contemplative process,” said Kronemer, who traveled to China after receiving a scholarship from the Woodenfish Project, which educates emerging scholars on Chinese Buddhism. “That’s something that I’ve been trying to incorporate into my life – taking a step into the moment and appreciating the value and significance and experiencing beauty in everyday life.”
Still his life on campus differs starkly from his six weeks at the monastery. There, he slept on a wooden bunk with only a bamboo mat for comfort. He ate steamed rice and vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He boiled water from a stream to drink.
In the hot, humid Chinese summer, Kronemer woke each morning at 4:45. He and a queue of fellow students walked together down the mountain to a reflecting pool. There, they practiced tai chi – an ancient Chinese discipline of controlled, slow movements designed to improve physical and mental well-being – and meditated for more than an hour before eating breakfast.
“Everything in the monastic life is a contemplative process.”
– Zakaria Kronemer
Kronemer was introduced to meditation and the principles associated with mindfulness through a contemplative practice course that he took last spring.
“During Zakaria’s trip to China, he experienced firsthand and really lived according to Buddhist concepts, principles, and practices,” said Angela Pitts, associate professor of classics, who co-teaches contemplative practice. “He also had the opportunity to understand more deeply other spiritual traditions in the world and to learn and grow from them. Such understanding, derived from personal experience, is the best foundation I know of for the promotion of inter-cultural dialogue and mutual respect.”
Kronemer spent one week in silent meditation, during which students were not to make eye contact or talk with one another − or even read. Another experience, the one Kronemer found the most interesting and time-consuming, was tea meditation, in which he contemplated the value of the nourishment tea provides.
“Think about the tree that grew the tea leaf, the sunlight and water needed to nourish the tree, the person that picked the leaf and the people that support that person until eventually you get to the point that everything in the world is part of the tea in that cup,” he said.
Mindfully drinking a cup of tea took hours.
Professor of Philosophy David Ambuel, who also is UMW Leidecker Chair of Asian studies, co-taught contemplative practice with Pitts.
“Aristotle asserted that the highest form of life is the contemplative life. Most of us, though, live the active life, fully engaged in and occupied with school, society, work, family, and the many demands that these responsibilities place on us, not the life of the remote and isolated hermit absorbed in thought,” Ambuel said. “Training with some mindfulness techniques …can help us maintain awareness of where and who we are, and maintain a balance in our lives.”
Kronemer, who is from Silver Spring, Md., continues the practice he learned last summer by maintaining balance in his own life. He begins his day with tai chi, and he goes to the amphitheater behind Trinkle Hall to meditate every chance he gets.
“I’ve found a steadiness within me,” Kronemer said. “My mind isn’t fully drawn into the mass of stimulation that we experience each day. Instead, I’m more able to remain within the present moment appreciating all of the vitality and incomprehensible beauty it has to offer.”