Diamond Way Buddhist Club: Providing Space to Meditate
March 6, 2017
The UW-L Diamond Way Buddhist club has about 20 members, and is a club that provides a relaxed environment for students to engage in guided meditation. The club meets in room 3130 of the Student Union every Tuesday at 7 PM.
Meetings open up with an introduction for any newcomers on Diamond Way, and the advisor allows time for questions to be asked so Buddhism concepts may be explored freely.
Meditation lasts roughly 30 minutes. Advisor Scott Stine leads meditations on campus. Stine has been involved with the club for 16 years. He explains that his senior year at UW-L, he peaked interest in meditation. It was through the campus club that he learned about meditation and Buddhist teachings as a whole.
“I think the club can be useful for students in a lot of ways. If anyone is interested in learning about meditation, the mind and how to work with what shows up in the mind, then Buddhism has a lot of insights and wisdom to share.” Stine spoke to the benefits of being involved in the club.
Offering some background, Stine elaborated on the meditations, “all the Buddha’s teachings and meditations are aimed at helping us realize that at our essence we are completely fearless, joyful and actively compassionate. So, if anyone is interested in developing those qualities in themselves we have methods that have been proven to work over the last 2600 years that they can check out. I also think it might be hard to find a more joyful and relaxed group on campus. I am clearly biased, but the students that are part of the group this year are pretty fantastic.”
Member of the Diamond Way Buddhist Club, Rylee Hedberg agreed that it is a very relaxed group of people, “I like [Buddhist Club] because it gives me a chance to clear my head and helps me learn how to focus on important things.”
Every Thursday at 7 PM students and all community members are welcome to engage in the same guided meditation at the community Diamond Way Buddhist Center. Located at 517 Main Street, the center has its roots in UW-L.
UW-L counselor and member of the Diamond Way Buddhist Center of La Crosse, Liz Stine, explained that a philosophy professor who taught at UW-L in the 90’s was looking for “something more meaningful in his life,” and he picked up Diamond Way. The philosophy professor eventually wrote a letter to Lama Ole Nydahl—cofounder of Diamond Way Buddhism—and received a meditation to share with the people of La Crosse. This eventually lead to the community’s meditation center, which extended to campus later.
Stine spoke of the campus club as an organization “for students who may be looking for something different; something other than what they had grown up within this predominantly Christian culture.”
The club allows students access to learn more about meditation and Tibetan Buddhism, and having a center downtown promotes community involvement. More information about Diamond Way Buddhism and the La Crosse meditation center can be found at:
