What Sparked the Human Interest in The Divine or The Supernatural?

On Thursday April 17th, I visited the Hue Quang Buddhist Temple in Santa Ana, CA for an evening prayer service at 7:00 PM with a fellow student. This is a Vietnamese Buddhist temple, and we were the only people at this prayer service that did not speak vietnamese. Shoes were to be removed before entering the temple. The temple is an open room with a large white central buddha statue and two white statues on either side. One of a man, and one of a woman depicted touching her thumb and middle finger with her right hand, and pouring water out of a vase with the other, she is depicted with a child. The statues were lit with changing colors. Incense was burning and apples and oranges were stacked very carefully as an offerings. Upon arriving early, we observed a woman in a blue robe bowing and praying to the woman figure, and another person in a yellow robe striking a giant bell with a large suspended wooden beam. An older gentleman with a very thick accent approached us and became our unofficial guide for the evening. He suggested that we make a prayer to what he called the “lady buddha”, and that she will bring us good luck and happiness. He then taught us to say an important phrase that we should say during the prayer when everyone else recites the prayers in Vietnamese. He taught us to say, “A Di Đà Phật,” which I would come to learn is the name for the bodhisattva Amida, and that the recitation of his name is very important. For the prayer service, square cushions were placed on the floor of the temple, and books were placed on wooden stands in front of each cushion. Our guide instructed us to stand around the edges of the room, and when the monk struck the bowl at the front of the room, we were to bow to the people across from us...

... middle of paper ...

...ions. In examining the foundations and purposes of religion, we can begin to understand the ‘human condition’. The idea that religion was created to serve a shared purpose, or to help solve a problem that is shared by all of humanity is fascinating. Instead of continuing to squabble over who has the right idea, or who is going to Hell, we should start looking at why we have religion. What sparked the human interest in the divine or the supernatural? What problems were presented to early humans that lead to the need for some greater power? How did these ideas spread and change, and why is there so much disagreement and hatred between so many of these groups now? At this point, it’s no longer a matter of who’s right.

Works Cited

Oxtoby, Willard G, and Segal, Alan F. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. 2nd ed. Ontario: Oxford UP Canada, 2012. Print.