Buddhist practitioners from Edmonton recently embarked on a $1 million garden expansion, north of Busby, at the Westlock Meditation Centre.
The serene atmosphere at the centre, also known as Tu Vien Truc Lam monastery, strives to help people find emotional and physical stability through meditation.
Monastics use meditation to cultivate mindfulness and compassion, however Abbott Thay Phap Hoa added walking meditation can help drown anxieties and sorrows simply by focusing on being present of one’s steps.
Hoa encourages the community to visit and walk slowly through the garden when the Avalokita Statue Project (Bodhisattva of Great Compassion) at the centre is completed. He noted walking is a tool people can use to learn about the connections between one’s mind and body.
However, there is no projected completion date for construction at this time.
The uphill battle to find emotional stability can be a long road for some people and that’s why a group of Vietnamese-Canadians have been building the foundation for the meditation garden.
It aims to help people overcome emotional hurdles, keeping in mind Buddhists believe every human being is born into a world full of suffering. However, Buddhists also believe everyone has the ability to break free from a life of suffering and choose happiness instead.
Monastic student Peter Trang (Duc Tang), 25, says Buddhist practitioners often strive to be like a lotus — a lotus flower emerges from muddy waters untouched and beautiful, in spite of challenging environmental factors. Trang has been practicing monastics with Hoa since he was only 13 years old.
In 2011, Hoa and Trang travelled to a Chinese island to map out a design that could endure the harsh Canadian climate.
“Thay wanted to build something that would last for a long time, especially in Canada — in the west, to leave behind for the younger generation,” Trang said. “It’s going to be like a Buddhist Zen garden.”
Handpicked statues are being shipped from China and are currently being installed in front of the centre. Some pieces of the statues include text with a wide variety of Buddhist lessons from Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist.
In 1973, the Vietnamese government denied Hanh permission to return to Vietnam after urging the American government to withdraw from the Vietnam War. He went into exile in France. However, Hanh was given permission to make his first return trip to Vietnam in 2005 and has returned regularly since. He was awarded the Courage of Conscience award in 1991.
Currently, he lives in the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the south of France, and travels internationally to host retreats and talks.
“We have the text in Vietnamese, Chinese and English because we’re in Canada,” said Khai Tran, volunteer gardener. “We want people to be able to come out here and visit, and understand. It’s a meditation garden so you can read the lesson and reflect on the idea.”
Tran worked with several other volunteers to unload, clean and assemble statues the group recently had built and shipped from China on Sept. 1. The smallest statue required six men to lift each piece, but some statues weigh up to 30 tonnes. The project has been funded solely through donations.
English meditation at the Tu Vien Truc Lam Monastery at in Edmonton takes place at 6:30 p.m. every Friday, while the Westlock Meditation Centre is used strictly for walking meditation and retreats in Vietnamese and English each year.
“A couple of years ago, we didn’t have this place so we had retreats in Edmonton, but it wasn’t ideal because it’s in the city and it’s always noisy,” said Trang.
“There’s not a lot of nature in it, so when Thay found this place for us, he realized it was the perfect place for us because it’s very nourishing and a lot of young people love to come here and practice meditation.”
