Roughly fourteen minutes away from the University of San Diego is the Buddhist Temple of San Diego. This Buddhist temple belongs to the Shin sect of Buddhism, also referred to as Jodo Shinshu in Japanese, a part of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. When entering the Hondo of the temple I immediately noticed that the set up of it was very similar to the set up of most Catholic churches. There were rows of pews all positioned so that they faced the alter and shrine of the Hondo. The shrine, unlike the Metta Forest monastery as well as several other Buddhist temples that I have attended was not enshrined with five-foot tall Buddha statues, pictures or small figurines. This shrine area, which was elevated about three feet from the ground, actually …show more content…
During this meditation he read a verse and asked everyone to meditate on it. After meditating on the verse a lay person, who lead the service asked everyone to rise and recite one of the sutras out of the Jodoshinshu service book. The layperson then asked everyone to be seated and the Reverend shared a lesson for the Dharma school students. In this lesson the Reverend told of a story of a foolish timid rabbit. The rabbit one day was napping under the shade of a palm tree and as he woke up from his slumber he thought what would happen if the world fell apart. As soon as the rabbit thought this he heard a huge noise and thought it was the world breaking up. The rabbit then started running and as he was running encountered another rabbit, and a fox and then a deer and he proceeded to tell all of these animals to run for the world was breaking. All of the animals believing this was true began to run. However, when one of the deer ran into a lion, who was thought to be very wise, and told him to run the lion asked why? The deer responded that the world was breaking and the lion, being wise as he was asked the deer whom he had heard this from. After tracing this all the way back to the first rabbit the lion discovered that the world was not breaking but that there was a fallen coconut where the rabbit had been sleeping and this was what had startled him. After telling this story the Reverend made the point to the children that we as individuals must make sure to investigate the truth for maybe what someone else tells us is true is actually not. What we believe to be true one day is not necessarily what we will end up believing to be true the next day. After giving this talk attendance and announcements were made and the children, after offering incense left the room to go do their activities. The Reverend in the dharma talk for the adult
The first view of the temple, I felt that I have stepped into another culture. Culture is “the way of life a people, including their behavior, the things they make, and their ideas” (Ibid 518). The city of Hacienda Heights is the center of the largest Buddhist temple in North America. There are many Chinese cultures symbols at the temple. From the golden hip and gable roof top to the red pillars holding up the temple. The monks and nuns are the ones organizing the temple events. They wear a light brown robe. I have notice that all monks and nuns have shaved their heads. I believe this is called rites of passage which “are ceremonies that mark c...
The Buddha in the Attic is written to represent the unheard experiences of many different women that married their husband through a picture. They were known during the early 1920s as the pictures brides ranging in different ages, but naive to the world outside of America. Though the picture bride system was basically the same as their fathers selling their sister to the geisha house, these women viewed being bought to be a wife by a Japanese male in America as an opportunity for freedom and hope for a better life (Otsuka, 2011, p.5) For some of these women, the choice to marry the man in the picture wasn’t an option and chose to die while on the boat instead of marry a stranger, while others accepted their fates with grace. The book continues
It is said that history is shaped by the lives of great men. Great men are leaders. They bring about change; they improve the lives of others; they introduce new ideas, models, and theories to society. Most of the world's religions were founded, developed, or discovered by great men. Two particular religions - Christianity and Buddhism - developed in different parts of the world, under different circumstances, and in different social atmospheres. But each religion is based upon the teachings of a great man. When one compares the life of Buddha with the life of Jesus, one finds that the two share many things in common. This essay aims to compare and contrast the lives of Buddha1 and Jesus in two key areas: conception and birth. In these two areas, one finds that the Buddha and Jesus share many similarities.
...in, I highly respect Buddhism and may incorporate some of the beliefs I was taught into my everyday life. I arrived at the temple only in order to complete a school assignment, but I left the temple knowing I will be returning. The incredibly welcoming monks in the temple mentioned that meditation takes time and practice to master, encouraging me to return and practice meditation in their religious hall as they give me lessons on how to improve my focus while meditating. The Wat Buddharangsi Temple is a place that I would recommend anyone to visit. The feeling of relaxation and peace is one that I would love to, and will enjoy, on more than one occasion, as it is now one of my favorite places to relax in.
middle of paper ... ... Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Daisetz Suzuki. Kampolsky, Philip.
Compare And Analysis The Japanese Buddhism And Indo Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy founded by Siddhartha Gautama in northeast India during the period from the late 6th century to the early 4th century BC. Spreading from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, Buddhism has played an influential role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of much of the Eastern world. It is the prevailing religious force in most of Asia (India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet). ‘Buddhism’ is reformulated and re-expressed in different cultures and at different times, adopting and redefining aspects of the cultures in which it has taken root. Today, there are about 300 million followers. (Yamplosky) The Indian religion Buddhism, founded in the sixth century BC, is one of the common features of Asian civilization, and Buddhist institutions and believers are found all over East, South, and Southeast Asia. While Buddhism is now just a minority belief in the country of it’s founding, it remains a significant religious and cultural force in Japan today. Buddhism started in India and made its way to China and Korea. From there, it ended up in Japan. Buddhism went through several different periods before it became Japan's national religion. In indo Buddhism, the temple is the main sanctuary, in which services, both public and private, are performed but Japanese Buddhism is mainly hub of individual activities and services. Similarly to Japanese Buddhism, in Indo Buddhism the monastery is a complex of buildings, located usually in a spot chosen for its beauty and seclusion. Its function is to house the activities of the monks. Images are important features of temples, monasteries, and shrines in both Indo a...
Armstrong, Karen. Buddha. New York: Lipper/Penguin, 2004. 66-98. Print.
On Sunday, September 8, 2013, I visited the Wat Buddharangsi Buddhist temple of Miami in Homestead. Every Sunday, they present a meditation service in English for two hours from three to five in the afternoon. Once I parked, the place of ritual was conveniently located across the parking lot. There was a shoe rack outside of the temple. Before I came to this temple, I read the guidelines from their website. The requirements for new guests are to remove your shoes before entering inside. Therefore, when I saw the shoe rack, I was not in shock. I was relieved to see that the temple provided a neat spot to place shoes rather than having them scattered on the floor.
Throughout the early years in many East Asian countries, there were many people who were looking for answers to this world’s, and otherworldly, questions. When Gotama became enlightened, and began preaching the practices of Buddhism, it came at such a time when the Han dynasty was collapsing, citizens were tired of Confucianism and looking for a new ideology that they could put there hearts and souls into. Over the years, Buddhism proved to be much more than just a religion; it became a way of life. But over time, the powerful orthodoxy transformed, and many different Buddhist sects emerged. One of the more popular sects, Ch’an, or Zen, Buddhism, has become one of the most influential religions in China and Japan, and is still flourishing today.
This course has helped to improve my understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist precepts. It has also showed me better ways to live my life and that Buddhism can be acutely studied under the pretenses of scientific means. Buddhism and Buddhist meditation is scientifically proven to be psychologically changing and meaningful.
Just outside of Goodyear, Arizona lies The Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple. 20 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, this rural farm town was a very quiet community. But on the morning of August 10, 1991, all of that changed in a heartbeat. A temple worker, who was delivering food that morning, felt a strange sense of silence. He investigated the temple to find somebody who was awake. By the time he arrived, usually, the monks were already awake and doing daily chores and activities. But this was no ordinary morning. As the temple worker strolled into the living room, he could not believe what he saw. The six monks who lived there, along with a nun and two teenage servants to the temple lay shockingly still in front of the couch in the middle of the room. He immediately contacted the police and then stood in shock at the massacre scene he had just witnessed.
"You know, my friend, that even as a young man, when we lived with the ascetics in the forest, I came to distrust doctrines and teachers and to turn my back to them. I am still of the same turn of mind, although I have, since that time, had many teachers. A beautiful courtesan was my teacher for a long time, and a rich merchant and a dice player. On one occasion, one of the Buddha’s wandering monks was my teacher. He halted in his pilgrimage to sit beside me when I fell asleep in the forest. I also learned something from him and I am grateful to him, very grateful. But most of all, I have learned from this river and from my predecessor, Vasudeva. He was a simple man; he was not a thinker, but he realized the essential as well as Gotama, he was a holy man, a saint" (141).
Seeing the monks was deeply enlightening to me because it was new to see grown man live in humbleness and peace. They wore an orange robe over their bare upper bodies and a white fabric-pants to cover their lower bare bodies. It was clear to me that these monks were individual men indulged in a simple of life. Fortunately, I was able to make the connection between what we learned in my Introduction to Asia lecture and what was from the temple. In lecture we learned that Thailand was deeply rooted in Buddhism, and often time’s, young lay men would make a temporary journey to leave behind their belongings and possessions to live a life of humility as a monk. Carlos, shared some information about the monks stating they were men from Thailand who decided to take a great leap in leaving behind their families and duties in the Thailand economy to live a simple life that avoided stress and societal troubles similar to how monkhood was referred to in lecture. Eventually I was given the opportunity to speak to one of the monks. He stated that Wat Buddharangsi was a Buddhist community that was home to rotating monks from Thailand travelling all over the world. I asked him the principles that the monks live by, and he roughly gave me an ideas of Buddhist principles of—no stealing, cheating, adultery and rules that would inhibit a life of humility and simplicity. I also learned from the monk that they live their days through the kind hearts of others who donate food. If people did not come to donate food to the monks in a particular day, then they were fine with eating food from the previous day’s left overs. I know understand that Buddhism includes a sense of community and teamwork to support the men who took up the mantle as a
Yukio Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion, set in postwar Japan, gives way to a reflection of the postwar experience both the representation of military aggression and in use of symbolism of beauty, loss, and destruction. A story about Mizoguchi, a young, stuttering acolyte’s obsession with beauty lends itself to the conflagration of the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, based loosely on a true story about the Kinkaku-ji.
After the visitation at the temple, I noticed that the Buddhist people did not only idolized Buddha spiritually but physically too. Buddhist their god and inspiration is Buddha, which is bald male. The temple had different statues of Buddha everywhere, such the craved in walls, shelves, posters, and statues. The interesting thing I noticed was that the Buddhist people wore robs which was very similar to the rob Buddha wears. But, there was a hierarchy difference among the Buddhist people because the monks wore orange with gold robs and the main monk wore red with gold robs, whereas, others wore brown robs. Other than, dressing up like Buddha there was another example of idolizing Buddha, which was that all the monks there had shaved their head just like how Buddha was bald. When any Buddhist entered the holy room where the ceremony was held, they would bow down to the five statues that displayed in the room. They would also sit on the ground with their legs crossed as Buddha had the same po...