Essay about Buddhist Religion Experience: Personal Narrative

The community resides within a Buddhist temple, so Buddhist beliefs in theory lead the monks to treat the children well. Monks traditionally are not, allowed to talk about sex, which made it difficult at first for government to approve them working with HIV/AIDS patients. Nobody wanted this virus to spread so talking to children about this would be the best idea. Gail says, “Vandin told me that in the beginning the Ministry of Cults and Religion did not approve of the monks’ participation in the AIDS training programs. Traditionally, it was not considered proper for monks to talk about sex. So Vandin lobbied district and provincial governors, who then petitioned the ministry to support the project” (Gutradt 126-127). The Buddhist practice offers incense to offer the souls of the dead (Gutradt 14). Wayne makes them go to Saturday services to try to teach them a lesson. He explains, “The chanting is the same each week and it is boring unless you realize the importance of the discipline the monks are teaching. The words have no meaning, the chant has no power, the Buddha is dead… but by doing the chanting we are gaining control of our mind, even if it is for one hour a week, and as we learn to control our life, the Buddha (Universal Knowledge) awakens within us and we begin to realize all that He did, and our life becomes meaningful as a result’” (Gutradt 120-121). After the memorial service, Wayne and Gail

I was indecisive on where to go do my site visit. While I thought about if for a couple of days, I decided I wanted to learn more about Buddhism. I was unaware that there was a temple in Grand Island until my teacher mentioned something about it in class. I also felt more comfortable that the teacher and other classmates were going to be there too. As the time got closer to go, I got a little more nervous and was really thinking about it. I was thinking about how to not be disrespectful in their temple. For instance, remembering to take off my shoes and not to shake the monks hand when I introduced myself. I was aware about Buddhism before I went there, but still did not know a lot about the religion. For example, I knew they meditated and sat on the floor in front of a big statue named Buddha. I thought I was going to see a “fat” Buddha because that is what I have seen in movies.

For this experience, I decided to explore Buddhism in order to enhance my involvement with the religion and build a strong understanding. What intrigued me about Buddhism was the social aspect and diversity that it had to offer. In order to explore this religion from a critical and analytical viewpoint, I decided to attend a weekend service offered at San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin. The San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin main temple is located in the Japantown section of Central San Jose. What made this temple stand out amongst the others was its historical standing in the community. It is one of the oldest temples established in the United States. In order to learn more about the history, environment, and community as a whole, I decided to contact the temple’s staffs. After a brief phone call, I was able to schedule a tour. In preparation, I decided to do a brief research on Buddhism to familiarize myself with the religion beforehand. With all preparations and research necessary, I was ready to visit San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin.

“Buddhism, it can’t be a religion.” one might say. Before getting to understand Buddhism I saw people just meditating calmly sitting in peace, all I thought in my head was, what a boring life they have. I wasn’t open-minded of why they were doing these things. This last year though, I have been told to try meditating to calm my nervous and mind down, since I was having so many problems with stress. After meditating a few times a week I saw results of my anxiety. After the third section of meditation, I looked forward to it, since I always felt at ease after wish a following of wonderful sleep. With experiencing what I did I grew an interest in wanting to understand what Buddhism was. I had known idea what they worshipped but from the point of view of wanting to learn I saw them more know was at peace with themselves. Before I started an interview to find out about Buddhism I looked up and read some things about it. First thing that shocked me over all was that there is no God or gods. I question for a second in my head if I was reading it correctly, but I was. It is a very psychological religion, very mind based.

Buddhism is the path of practicing spiritual development that leads to insight of the true nature of our universe. People that practice Buddhism are called Buddhist. Buddhist practice meditation and other things that are used as a means of changing your inner self in order to develop qualities like awareness, kindness, and wisdom. They say an enlightened being sees the universe for what it is, and this is what they all strive for. Buddhism is seen as an end of suffering for anyone in this world. There practices excludes the idea of worshipping a “creator” god, and some people do not see Buddhism as a religion. The basic

Meatto just a few months back. I remembered the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, and the many things Buddhist people value. All of this was reflected in a small, simple temple. Just by walking around in silence, I’d already learned so many new things about the religion and what it stood for. I walked towards the main display. It had a gold shrine in the middle with a donation box and individually sealed fortunes below. I put my crumpled dollar into the box and grabbed my fortune. It was a mini scroll, rolled up and tied with red string. A woman in front of me had just made an offering and lit up a stick of incense, letting the strong scent travel through the room. I felt more even relaxed now, and even though I’d never practiced Buddhism, I felt intrigued to learn more about it in the future. I didn’t take as many photos as I’d wanted to, simply out of respect. I knew it would be best if I stayed quiet and didn’t try to disrupt the others that had been in meditation. Stepping out of my bubble felt uncomfortable at first, but it let me get a better understanding of my community. Now I also understand a religion that is practiced by thousands around the world on a more personal level. Although I’m not Buddhist, I still felt welcomed and safe in the Eastern States Buddhist

There were these rugs that were put at the front of the service, so people could sit their if they wanted to, but if you did not want to sit their you could sit in the chairs that they provided. Through the whole entire service, they spoke nothing but Thai, so for a person that did not speak Thai it was very hard to understand what the Monk and the people were saying. I also realized that the Buddhist religion are not bothered by anything, an example would be time, on their website where they gave the beginning and the end of their service when it should end but when the service was supposed to end the people were not bother by that fact that the service was running behind

It was a rather casual Wednesday morning when I arrived at the gate of the Fo Guang Shan Hsi Fang Temple. As the dews drip from the tall bush of grass in front of the red gate, I rang the bell to ask for permission to enter the sacred Buddhist Temple. A female monk named Miaozang slowly opens the door to let me and a fellow student in. Having been born and raised in Vietnam, which is predominantly a Buddhist influenced country, yet grew up in the States in a Catholic high school, I did not strongly identify with any particular religion. Thus, I took this opportunity to learn more about Buddhism by interviewing the monk and took part in a guided meditation session. Each small details from the moment I entered such as the sense of the incense, the lion statues, the mild background chanting, and so on are intentionally set up to make sure that I, the visitor, can have the most wholesome Buddhist experience while being inside the temple. Buddhism, through its teachings, which are called Buddha Dharma, and other rituals such as meditations and chanting, strives to set up an environment that helps its practitioners reach the state of enlightenment, where one can see the reality of the world and the truth behind everything.

The speaker started the service by speaking about Buddha as a philosopher, not God. This Buddhist temple practices Theravada, and bows to 3 things: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Theravada is one of the four types of Buddhism. The other three types are Mahayana, Tibetan, and Zen/Chan. Buddhism exemplifies as a very pragmatic religion (The Four Noble Truths). “The followers take joy in a straight-forward approach to life, and they do not indulge in metaphysical speculation about first causes. As most religion have a theology and worship a deity, Buddhists do not have one. This religion believes that it is impossible to make a permanent relationship with anything because the world is constantly changing” (The Four Noble Truths).

The traditions of a Buddhist consist of many different activities, some of which are worshipping, having religious ceremonies, having a certain way to perform funerals, how to pray for the dead, and marriage ceremonies. Most of these are done during a certain time and day depending on when the tradition needs to be done. For example, the way to perform funerals when a loved one, such as a parent or grandparent pasts away, on the death anniversary day of that individual, Buddhists must do an “offering and are able to invite guests for the meals on this occasion.” Another tradition Buddhists have is “in their home, they would have an altar of Buddha and an incense burner where they would face to pray and light incense when they are praying

When arriving to the Buddhist temple, it is not surprising for one to say that this temple looks like an ordinary house from the outside. However, one can tell that they were Buddhist because they had a gazebo looking stupa on the left side of the front yard, which contain the remaining’s of Buddha’s teeth. On the right side of the yard, they had a replica of the Bodhi tree that represented the lifetime of when Buddha achieved enlightenment. As one took off her/his shoes, the house was transformed into a magnificent place where anyone could come to chant, offer puja, and the meditation of the dharma.

I am very excited about this field experience. It has been the one I have been looking forward to all semester. I chose to attend an Introduction to Meditation session at the Vajradhara Buddhist Center. I chose this for my Religious Service because I have always wondered what the teachings of Buddhism are. The Vajradhara Center offers these introduction sessions every Wednesday at 7 p.m. I went to the Week 1 session on November 4th, the first Wednesday of the month. I found out about this session just by googling “Buddhist centers Charlotte, NC”. This center has many great reviews on various websites, so I thought it was a great fit. About to have the experience of going to a Buddhist Center, I think I am really expecting to enjoy this session, mostly because I have always been intrigued by the teachings and morals of Buddha and how they can be achieved through meditation. I have grown up non-religious, which I think makes this experience more interesting because I have nothing to compare it to. I expect this session to be sort of intimidating at first because it is a new experience. I also believe that I will not be very comfortable, at first, while meditating. Through research, I hope to find out ways to adjust and to fully understand why meditation is important in Buddhism. Most importantly, I am excited to attend this session.

Religion is defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Buddhism doesn’t have that. Instead they have the Buddha, which is an enlightened being. The first Buddha was man named Siddhartha Gautama, the prince of the Sakya clan. Key word; man. Gautama was not some super-immortal being that ruled in the sky requiring rituals and faith. He also had no requirements to even follow his teachings, his whole philosophy was about bettering yourself, he did not want to be modeled or idealised. There is no doubt he was prophesied to become either a holy man, or a great ruler, but by no means does that indicate he was a God of

and believed in they are not for the Buddha as a person they are for

One of the ideas I was wrong about Buddhism is that I thought that they worshipped a deity which was Buddha and that Buddhists pray to him just like Catholics pray to God. In the lectures, I learned that Buddhism didn’t have a god which was weird for me to learn because all the religions that we’ve learned before had a type of God. I found it interesting that Buddha was seen as a teacher and was never turned into a God like in Christianity, he was seen as a revered teacher and great influence to look up to for Buddhists. The lectures also taught me that Buddha himself didn’t believe in a higher power but believed that a person could reach nirvana for themselves and not because a higher power was telling them too because that’s why he did it. He did it for himself when he meditated under the tree so that he could learn about himself and how the world works and its secrets. Learning that Buddhism had no God to obey, I felt like