I was going back to study in a school in Kentucky. I hurried to the classroom for the first day of class, where I found about 30 students with whom I used to go to school, but whom I hadn't seen in a long time. After I had sat down in my seat, I saw a woman who was also a student walk into the room. When she held up what appeared to be a yearbook, I saw a picture of a boat which appeared to have capsized on a river. It looked as if no one had been hurt in the boat wreck, but the excursion of the people on the boat had been ruined. The woman intimated that the boat symbolized what had happened to this class, and she pointed out this was the type of thing which shouldn't happen again.

For myself I felt good about being in the class again. These were people who liked me and I liked them. I had been away a long time, but now I was back and I felt as if this was where I was going to live. This was where I belonged and I thought I would stay here the rest of my life.

The teacher in the class then spoke up and said that we were going go take a minute of silence. Everyone was supposed to sit quietly and not do anything. I thought the minute of silence sounded like a religious exercise which was prohibited in public schools. But I thought a minute of silence was a good idea and shouldn't be prohibited.

As everyone sat silently, I decided if I were going to sit silently, I was going to do it right. I pulled my feet up over my legs in a lotus position, straightened my back, and closed my eyes as if I were meditating.

I felt quite good. I knew this was a rather backward area, and the other people in the class were watching me because they didn't know how to meditate.

As I sat in the lotus position and meditated, my mind began to clear. But when someone said it was time to stop, and I tried to open my eyes, I found I couldn't; my eyelids were stuck together and they wouldn't open. I had to reach my fingers up to my eyes and pull the lids open.

Once my eyes were open, I saw that three fellow to my left were trying to put their feet on their legs in a lotus position. Seeing them, I decided to again sit in a lotus position. I put my right foot on my left thigh, then my left foot on my right thigh. I sat up straight and began breathing deeply. Since it was obvious that no one else here knew anything about meditating, I thought I might be able to teach them. I recalled that a woman had once taught me. However I feared I wouldn't make a good teacher. But of course these people didn't know how to do much of anything.

Everyone was friendly and the three fellows didn't seem to think what I was thinking was odd. They simply wanted to know how to do it.