{"id":687,"date":"2009-07-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html"},"modified":"2009-07-07T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T09:00:00","slug":"setting-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html","title":{"rendered":"Setting the Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m in the midst of searching for a new apartment in New York City, a task I do not look forward to. In the back of my mind is the dream that one day I could make a separate space in my home for meditation &#8211; a space that is not the room I sleep in, not the room I eat in, not the room I write in. A meditation room. A place of peace and quiet, with no other distractions, neat and clean and no clutter, where I could just sit. <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/brandeis%20peace%20room.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"brandeis peace room.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/124\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px;text-align: center\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><\/span>(Peace Room at Brandeis University) <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nHow could I make this happen? What if I moved out to Brooklyn? Maybe my two roommates and I could get a 4 bedroom for the price of a Manhattan 3 bedroom, and use the 4th room as a meditation room? That sounds great except that they don&#8217;t meditate, so it would be Emily&#8217;s Second Room. That&#8217;s not going to work. <\/p>\n<div>And then there&#8217;s the problem that even though in theory this room would be a clean, quiet room, there&#8217;s always street noise and roommate noise, and supers who set off firecrackers on the roof. There is no totally quiet and clean space, and that&#8217;s not the point of meditation anyway &#8211; to shut out noise. Noise is a part of daily existence. Notice that I want to shut it out. Maybe for me a meditation room would be a step in the wrong direction. Maybe I need to stop dipping my toes in the pond and instead jump right in to the depths of my mind, noise and clutter and all. The principles of meditation are ones that, I hope, I&#8217;d be able to use in my daily life when I&#8217;m not on the cushion. Setting myself farther apart from that is maybe not the best way to go.<\/p>\n<p>And yet it seems strange to just plop my zafu down on the rug in any old spot on my bedroom floor. This practice that we do is an important one, and I&#8217;d like to use it as a way to nurture myself. I put care into preparing a meal. I have meticulous dental hygiene (I hope &#8211; I&#8217;m going to the dentist next week so we&#8217;ll see if all that flossing has been paying off). Shouldn&#8217;t I put thought into my meditation space as another way I take care of myself?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m curious how other people have set up their meditation spot in their home. Is there one spot in your room that you use? A particular rug you sit on? Do you have a picture or a shrine there? is it a permanent set-up, or is the act of setting it up part of your process? Are the lights dim or bright? <\/p>\n<p>How do you set the stage?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m in the midst of searching for a new apartment in New York City, a task I do not look forward to. In the back of my mind is the dream that one day I could make a separate space in my home for meditation &#8211; a space that is not the room I sleep&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-right-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Setting the Stage - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Setting the Stage - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;m in the midst of searching for a new apartment in New York City, a task I do not look forward to. In the back of my mind is the dream that one day I could make a separate space in my home for meditation &#8211; a space that is not the room I sleep&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-07T09:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Herzlin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Setting the Stage - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Setting the Stage - One City","og_description":"I&#8217;m in the midst of searching for a new apartment in New York City, a task I do not look forward to. In the back of my mind is the dream that one day I could make a separate space in my home for meditation &#8211; a space that is not the room I sleep&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2009-07-07T09:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg"}],"author":"Emily Herzlin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html","name":"Setting the Stage - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg","datePublished":"2009-07-07T09:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-07T09:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/60ceefaf4f60083515d6b0a03fd5e3ef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/brandeis%20peace%20room-thumb-768x576-6221.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/07\/setting-the-stage.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Setting the Stage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/60ceefaf4f60083515d6b0a03fd5e3ef","name":"Emily Herzlin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/233\/23312275747e2eadb402e574469b865cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/233\/23312275747e2eadb402e574469b865cx96.jpg","caption":"Emily Herzlin"},"description":"Emily Herzlin graduated New York University with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature and Creative Writing in 2008. She is a freelance writer for the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s International Perspective, and her writing has been published in Sentient City, the ID Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s online literary magazine. Emily is also a playwright and winner of the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwrighting Competition for her one-act play \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Assemblage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Her writing is influenced by art, artists, psychology, and spirituality. She has run drama and arts workshops in schools in NYC and Long Island, and teaches children with autism. Emily is working on her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. Emily has been attending classes and workshops at the ID Project since 2005.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/eherzlin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}