It was Sunday morning; I woke up in my Apartment in the Dallas Zen Center. I had overslept and felt groggy. I knew meditation was supposed to start downstairs in the Zen Center at 9 a.m., but it looked as if it was already too late for me to go downstairs because it was already around 9 a.m. However, I  stood up, walked into the front room and looked out the window to see if any cars were parked across the street. It looked as if only one old orange car was there. A fellow was crossing the street; I recognized him as someone whom I had recently seen at meditation. It looked as if he were the only person here this morning. Should I go down? I decided to just go back to bed.

After I had lain back down and had become comfortable, someone knocked at the outside door of my bedroom. The door opened and some people began walking into my bedroom. A long line of perhaps 25 men and women (most probably in their late 20s and early 30s) marched into the room. Someone told me that they were new people who had never meditated in the Zen Center before and that they were there to try. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 9:15. No one else was there to introduce these new people, so it looked as it were going to be up to me.

Some walked into the kitchen and living room of my Apartment. Others just hung around here in my bedroom. Finally, I told them that I was going to get up and that it should take me about 10 minutes to get ready.

I was completely nude under the covers; I asked one of them to hand me a pair of beige dress slacks which I thought were lying in the kitchen, but the person I had asked couldn't seem to find them. Finally, I decided to get up myself; I wrapped my blankets around me and went to look for some clothes. I headed through the kitchen into the front room.

The people were milling about all over. The living room was furnished with couch and chairs and people were sitting on them. One older woman had picked up a couple of my dirty plates which I had left in the living room and apparently she was going to wash them. I noticed a box with some pizza in it and I concluded she was planning to warm up the pizza in the oven. I asked her about it and she said that was what she was going to do. I told her to make herself at home.

I was still surprised to see so many people here. I asked one woman where they had come from and she simply said, "West."

I was still looking for my beige dress slacks and finally spotted them. But then I realized those pants weren't really appropriate for meditating and I decided I needed a pair of my more casual pants. Fortunately I had just washed my clothes the day before and should have something clean. I would probably put on a pair of my black pants.

Some people had young children with them; what should be done with them during meditation?

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