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How Power Is Used For Concealing Relations Of Power

Decent Essays

Power is usually described as “bad” and is mostly discussed by others about the abuse of power however this is not true, power can be used to help or protect individuals, which is exactly what the culture I had observed does. In this essay, I will examine the performances of power that is observed throughout the ritual ceremony, “chanting” in the Buddhism culture, displaying how the religion is used for concealing relations of power within this definite culture. Through this examination, I will use the theories of Karl Marx (religion as ideology) and Antonio Gramsci (hegemony being concept of power), to support the display of how the power distributes religion. By relating to the definition of power, I argue that, for the members of this community, ‘power’ is about ease and security- no inequality.
The first observation that I had seen to our visit to the “Fo Guang Shan Temple” that stood out to me the most were the Buddha statues. Inside the shrine, in the prayer room, were five large Buddha statues and each wall in the room was occupied with images of small carved Buddha’s; both female and male. Along the left side of the five Buddha’s, was an image of Male Buddha and on the right-side was an image of Female Buddha. I also noticed that people took off their shoes at the door before they entered. When I entered the prayer room, the first entity I had perceived was that the air was filled with the smell of very strong incense, used for offering the Buddha. People had

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