Being a Non-Buddhist in a Christian Town

One of the interesting things about being in Alice (or "The Alice" as purists assert) is the predominance of churches. It's a church-y place. They pop up everywhere. The other day I set off in the vain hope of finding a yoga class in the middle of the industrial area, only to round the corner and come smack up against the Baptist Church. I wouldn't have immediately guessed it were a church, were it not for the massive sign asserting that outside the front of what appeared to be a large aluminium warehouse. If I was thinking of not becoming a Baptist before I saw their church, I certainly was convinced of it afterwards.

Apart from a brief dalliance with the idea in my first year of uni, and some outstanding results in Religious Studies that mistakenly convinced my school pastor that I was in fact studying for his subject, I've demonstrated little interest in my Christian heritage. Were I to move away from that, Alice is the place to be. The local yellow pages informs me that there are 12 'Spiritual and Religious Organisations'. In fact, there are twelve Christian churches.

The reason I was scouring this area specifically was not in any related to an upcoming epiphany. I was looking for any Buddhist-like place or person to seek some more practical guidance. One of my frustrations - which are thankfully few and far between - is that I cannot seem to find a Vispassana meditation group sit in Alice.

Some of you may be aware that I put myself through voluntary purgatory over Christmas-New Year break and underwent the ten-day ordeal that is the Vispassana meditation course. It's a 10 day silent retreat (and not just any form of silence, this is 'Noble Silence') that requires you to get up at 4am in order to meditate for the next 10 hours (give or take an hour for lunch and short breaks of a few minutes to stretch your legs). Of course, I entered the course without much thought of the practical realities - sure, I knew the early morning starts would be hard, but I could cope. I had images of lying around, gazing at the birds, and generally chilling out. In reality, getting up at 4am was easy - it was all part of the routine, and I was becoming rapidly re-institutionalised. The difficult part was sitting cross-legged for three hours in a row, eyes closed with only the snorts and shuffles of my companions to keep the moneky mind occupied. It was uncomfortable, difficult and challenging. But fundamentally worthwhile.

Upon leaving, we were charged with three tasks - meditate two hours a day (once in the morning, once in the evening), do a 'group sit' once a week, and attend another 10 day retreat once a year. It's proved challenging to say the least. Like the enthusiastic, over-committed soul I am, I was really blitzing the daily meditation challenge. Up until the last few weeks. So I thought joining a group sit would be an important way to reinvigorate the practice. The Vispassanna website (http://www.dhamma.org) gave me two contacts for Alice group sits. Neither worked. Despite some considerable persistence (read: pestering) on my part, which included emailing some guy in Victoria and coldcalling a granny in Adelaide, I got nowhere.

So I decided any form of contact with any Buddhist in town would be at least one step closer to the goal. But with the yellow page listings being less than useful, I find that being a non-Buddhist in a Christian town is harder than being the first born again Christian (well, perhaps not as painful as he experienced, but you get the general gist). And there my spiritual journey has stalled. I'm afraid it's not a happy ending. Perhaps I should be a Christian after all...