This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
The first thing you’ll notice isn’t the silence — it’s the stillness. A different kind of quiet. Not the kind that looms in libraries or weighs heavy on mountaintops, but one that breathes with you. A sacred pause just off the road, tucked quietly in the woods of Centre County, where the sun filters through the trees like a beacon of tranquility.
This is O-An Zendo, a nonprofit meditation space near Julian that feels less like a building and more like a breathing organism. And here, among the deer, cicadas and wind-chimes of your inner monologue, I met Meido Barbara Anderson: a Dharma teacher, philosopher and living reminder that maybe it’s OK to stop chasing everything.
I came here chasing a story, of course. A quest to find out if silence still meant anything in a world of buzzing cell phones, streaming services and AI technology. The joke, it turns out, was on me.
Meido didn’t laugh. She nodded, smiled and offered me a seat.
“This is a place where you can just be yourself,” she said. “And know that others will support you in that. Practicing peace. Practicing self-acceptance. Practicing liberation from the inessential in life.”
Meido talked about the ego, the noise, the sadness, the Western obsession with productivity and the gentle chaos of the human mind. We talked about how the brain will do everything in its power to drag you out of the moment and how Zen doesn’t try to shut it up. It just asks you to listen without losing yourself in the screaming.
“Sit as if your hair is on fire,” Meido said. “That’s not about relaxation. It’s about presence. Full, burning, untamed presence. To be here now, not floaty or calm or asleep. But aware. Awake.”
And yet, tucked inside all this mystical simplicity is a very real, very researched truth: meditation is good for your health.
Numerous studies have shown that a regular meditation practice can reduce blood pressure, ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, sharpen focus, improve sleep and lower stress hormone levels.
According to the National Health Interview Survey, an annual nationally representative survey, the percentage of U.S. adults who practiced meditation more than doubled between 2002 and 2022, from 7.5% to 17.3%.
Meido was clear: Zen is not a substitute for medical care. But for many, it’s a vital supplement. A clearing of the mental static so you can better hear what your body, your spirit and your life are telling you.
It’s hard to explain what it feels like to hear that from someone who’s actually done the work. Not just read the books. Not just posted the quotes. But sat in the fire. Taught others to do the same.
Meido discussed the people who come through her doors: the stressed, the grieving, the lost, the curious. Most aren’t Buddhist. They’re just looking for a pause. A refuge. A place where nobody asks you to produce, perfect or perform.
“This practice isn’t a therapy,” she said. “It’s not about becoming better. It’s about becoming who you really are. And that, just as you are, is already perfect.”
That line hit me like a clap of thunder as a person who’s lived in their head for decades. Written from it. Worried in it. And here she was telling someone like me to stop fighting it. To stop trying to win some war against the thoughts and instead open the hand. Let go. Trust the process.
“No mud, no lotus,” she said. “The problems, our fears, our anxieties that’s the mud. And we don’t throw that away. We work with it. Because it’s from that mud the flower grows.”
She’s not wrong. I left the Zendo lighter. Not because anything had been solved, but because in that moment, I stopped trying to fix it all. I went home to sit with myself. No headphones. No keyboard. No breaking news. Just breathe and breeze and the slow realization that maybe stillness isn’t the absence of movement, but the presence of grace.
If you’re meant to sit on that cushion, you will. And if you do, Meido will greet you the same way she greeted me: with calm eyes, a deep breath, a gentle bow and a reminder that this world doesn’t need another winner. It needs more people who are willing to stop.
O-An Zendo holds in-person meditation services every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in rural Centre County. For those farther away or just dipping their toes in the practice of meditation, they also host Wednesday evening Zoom sits and Thursday evening study sessions, open to anyone with a curious mind and a willingness to learn.
You can find more about the Sangha, schedules and how to join at oanzendo.org.
