Make your own zafu

A previous survey of zafu prices found the average online price to hover around $47. This is a lot of money, so I wanted to find out how much it costs if you make your own zafu. Sadly I don’t have that kind of time. Fortunately I have a friend who wanted to make her own zafu. I sent her these zafu making instructions, and asked her to keep track of the cost and time spent making it. She went out and bought $11 of fabric from Joann, which was twice the necessary amount. I went out and bought three pounds of kapok ($20), enough for more than two zafus. My friend took out her sewing machine and while watching Star Wars, sewed together the cushion (about two and a half hours). She packed in the stuffing this past weekend. So I’d say a reasonable estimate is $16 for making this zafu from scratch. Compared with the $47 you’d pay for a meditation cushion online, that means these zafu sellers are making an outrageous profit! If you feel crafty enough, I’d say that you should go make your own meditation cushion. You save money and you walk away with a greater sense of accomplishment!

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The Cheap Zafu

In a much earlier post, I briefly mentioned cheap zafus. I imagine a few websurfers were lured to that article because they were searching for cheap meditation cushions. How they must have been disappointed to find a rant on Buddhist student conferences (or the lack thereof)! So here I am making it up to them (or you).

Sadly, I couldn’t find anyone who knew where to find the best zafu deals. Most of the temples I talked to had received them as donations years ago. Of course if you’re the crafty type, you could always make one (see also here or here). Imagine the satisfaction!

Searching all on my own, I turned to the one friend who I always turn to when I need an answer: Google.

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Buddhist Youth Conferences

I was looking over Dharma Forest and on the top was a mention of the recent DRBY conference. Back when I was in college, we had always hoped to make a national Buddhist youth conference. I did attend one, in fact, for the Student Buddhist Network in Boston.

The SBN conference was a tradition that died before it took off. The conference was not really national (I was the only one not from the Northeast), not well planned (I remember spending the night in the Brandeis University library) and no one really stayed in touch afterwards (although I did get to meet Sumi Loundon). Anyway, running across this site made me begin to wonder about what’s going on with Buddhist student groups across the country. Are there conferences going on that I’m completely unaware of?

I couldn’t find many. I found a few conferences overseas, including Mitra (Australia), and ANZBYC (Australia & New Zealand). There was also ARBYC (Hong Kong), but that looks like it was really for kids. Too far for me.

In the US, I know of few such recurring conferences. One of the biggest conference organizers is the Buddhist Churches of America, the Shin Buddhist group. At least of a year ago, their Young Buddhist Association (YBA) was headed by Rev Fumiaki Usuki (or just Rev U). There is also the conference of Gia Định Phật Tử Việt Nam (Vietnamese Buddhist Family) held every year, but needless to say, it’s oriented towards Vietnamese. Aside from these two organizations, the only one I know of is DRBY.

It’s a bit sad to look at all these conferences, and then realize that I don’t really fit in. For one, these are all Mahayana Buddhist conferences. I doubt they’d ever reject me, but I really lean more towards the Theravada. Plus, I’m not really Japanese or Vietnamese either (maybe DRBY is the safe bet then).

If anything, I’m really looking for a conference that has a more general Buddhist theme to it: ‘What does it mean to be a Buddhist American?’ I guess I’m looking for something like an Asian American student conference, but for Buddhists. I’m still interested in the same questions as ever. Where do you go to temple? Where can I buy a cheap zafu? (Or show me how to make one!) Of course, I most want to know about other people’s questions and stories.

Guess this means I won’t be going to any conferences soon, but do write me a little note if you know of any that I didn’t mention here.

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