The two old friends talked with soft, delicate voices, but they spoke with a strong inclination about the power of spirituality.

The conversation between Sister Kathleen Osbelt and The Rev. Roko Sherry Charyat took place in the Noble Room on Wednesday at Hendricks Chapel. The talk, titled ‘The Contemplative Life: Two Traditions, One Mind,’ focused on mysticism and meditation.

‘We may start with a word or phrase,’ Charyat told the crowd, ‘and that may bring us into these moments of pure lucidity.’

The talk, co-sponsored by the Syracuse University Student Buddhist Association, Graduate Student Organization, Hendricks Chapel, the Religion Department and the Zen Center of Syracuse, brought together the two old friends from different theologies to talk about a subject on which they find considerable common ground.

In fact, meditation first brought Osbelt, a Catholic nun, and Charyat, a Zen Buddhist, together. Charyat teaches at the Zen Center of Syracuse, and after struggling to find salvation at home – she forced her husband and son upstairs while she meditated, which they didn’t enjoy – Charyat found escape in the Alverna Heights. It’s right next to Green Lakes State Park, and there are thousands of square miles of open space.

It’s also where Osbelt lives.

‘Right in front of our front door,’ Osbelt said, ‘people would be in their robes ringing their bells at 5 a.m. We were up, but that’s what piqued my interest.’

Osbelt attended Charyat’s classes, and the two soon went out to dinner.

They come from different religious backgrounds, so some distinctions exist. For example, Zen meditation finds importance in sitting with legs crossed for complete balance. Osbelt doesn’t teach any particular position, and considers it important to have legs and fingertips free, since they contain many nerve endings.

But the similarities dwarf the difference. Both use space and silence as the foundation from which meditation should begin. Both begin meditation with a word or sound – ‘I am’ or ‘Jesus’ are two that Osbelt uses frequently – and they try to attain inner peace and a connection with a higher power.

The two use God in a far different way than many people are probably used to hearing. They don’t use God as a means of scorn or a source of authority. It’s the most personal relationship, one without any rules as they explore enlightenment.

Charyat began meditating while enduring a difficult childhood. Her father, Leonard Cohen, was killed in World War II, and her mother later remarried as the family moved from Manhattan to New Jersey.

Charyat would sit under a tree and just meditate.

‘I really wanted to know what was reality and spiritual truth,’ she said.

By 1967, Charyat started studying Zen formally at the Zen Studies Society. Yesterday, she professed like a sage scholar, offering old, retold stories with affirming morals.

She tried to explain finding nothingness, and she told a story about the old Zen Master with a student. The student asked questions about Zen and kept talking, and soon the wise Zen Master started pouring tea. Quickly, the student told the Zen Master the cup was overflowing.

‘Like the cup,’ the conjured Zen Master said, ‘you must not overflow yourself.’

They repeated buzzwords like silence, emptiness, space and clutter.

‘A lot of people live in a way that is so media-oriented, they can’t get any space,’ Charyat said. ‘Everywhere you look, there’s music, TV, Internet. Clutter is coming at people today in ways it never has before.’

Said Osbelt: ‘As I’m driving home on 690 every day, I think, ‘Wow, think of this landscape without all these billboards.”

Both agreed that defining their experiences would put limits on them.

‘When you try to use words to describe the oneness of God, you’ve already lost it,’ Charyat said.

Though the crowd mostly consisted of adult women, some students attended.

‘I thought it was really interesting how someone who practices Zen and someone who practices Roman Catholicism are getting at the same thing,’ said Bob Powers, a sophomore environmental policy major. ‘It was really interesting to hear their takes on it and how they described the lack of being able to describe it.’

Said Osbelt: ‘I can’t imagine a person who truly practices meditation and isn’t compassionate.’

Published on March 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm