The Buddha Matta Phaaphayaram Lao Buddhist Temple

How in the world did a baby blue, one-story Buddhist temple ever end up in the heartland of Sonoma County, surrounded by cows and vineyards? This is the question I 've asked myself for years, every time I 've driven past this odd looking complex.

It goes without saying that I learned so much in Religious Studies 101. I was introduced to multiple world religions that were foreign to me prior to taking the class. I never felt the need to explore any other religion besides Christianity because I was content with my faith. However, after learning about different religions and interacting with people that are not Christian, and grew up with different beliefs and values, I now find myself questioning reconsidering my beliefs. By being exposed to the rituals and ideas of cultures and religions across the globe, I find myself wondering what it would be like to follow some of these principles or to try some of these practices for myself. I find myself trying to follow the moral guidelines and principles of the traditions I learn about all the time. It has helped me ask even more questions and broadened my horizons. It 's helping me shape my beliefs and find out who I want to become. I was especially fascinated with Buddhism and have grown a huge admiration for it. In my learning portfolio I will examine what I learned about Buddhism and what about it is so appealing to me. I will also briefly summarize that I learned that Buddhism – just like any other religions, is not flawless and cannot provide a perfect view of life that would be influential enough for me to devote my faith to it. However, there are certain

Upon arrival, I was given a brief history about of the Buddhist temple. The San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the United States. Although it was established in 1907, construction wasn’t completed until 1937. During World War II, it was served as a home to many Japanese-Americans released from internment camps. Today, the temple continues to play an active role in the lives of their descendance

I am the minority of the usual church; typically I am one of four white people who attend the 8am service. I first went with a friend’s family after she had pass away. I was never nervous about going to a predominantly African American church. Everyone welcomed me. The family I went with had me stand up when they called for new people to the church. It then took me 30 extra minutes to get out of the church because everyone gave me a hug. Going into part two of this project I was actually very nervous about going to the Korean church. I think being by myself had a lot to do with it along with not know the language. I was very nervous about not understanding anything that was going on. Additionally I was worried they would not want me there.

I visited Red Clay Sangha (Atlanta) (https://redclaysangha.org) on February 19th. Red Clay Sangha is a young Buddhist community which offers meditation, chanting, study and fellowship. Around 100 people belong to the community. This community is dedicated to bringing the compassion and wisdom of Buddha's teachings and practice to all without disparagement. Their organizational and spiritual leaders are chosen their own to represent the values of RCS as a whole. Their policy is that all members should feel that their voices are heard. They are dedicated to consensus as a process of decision making.

I visited the Mid-American Buddhist Association, they are a part of the three schools in Northern Buddhism. These schools are Elder teaching, modern Buddhism, and Depant, or strict Buddhism. They are different from other Buddhist communities because they all speak different languages and they all have different cultures which coexist peacefully. I went to Mid-America Buddhist Association with a classmate Angelique Failor, and the address is 299 Heger Lane Augusta, MO 63332.We went on November 12 and we got there around 11:00 a.m. and we stayed until about 12 p.m. We also went back on Sunday, November 13 and we got there around 10 and stayed till 12. Before we entered the Meditation Hall we took our shoes off , and then Master Jiru greeted us. He took us to a sitting area where we could ask him questions. He talked a little bit about their history, and let us ask what we needed. He told us that the land was cleaned in 1995 and the first structure that was build was the Meditation Hall in 1997.The Buddhist community is 15 minutes away from Saint Louis and it is now 17 years old. The community built around the Buddhist have been there at least 10 years based off of the Victorian style homes. Theses Buddhist are funded by a Buddhist community started on Washington University’s- St.Louis campus. Master Jiru actually is from Thailand but lived in New York before coming to Missouri. They believe they are the most diverse Buddhist community because they have many different

On March 11th, I went to the Touro Synagogue for my religious visit, which is located at 4238 St. Charles Avenue. The Touro Synagogue is a part of the Judaism religious affiliation. The Judaism religious group practice their religion on the Sabbath day, which meant that they service I attended was on Saturday at 10:30. The Touro synagogue is a more reform synagogue. When first arriving at the Synagogue I was nervous and scared about not being received by everyone. Also, I think I acted off these feeling because I thought I would feel out of place because of my race; however, while I was standing outside I evaluate that I was just using race as an excuse not to try to try something new. After I was able to confront my fears, I turned around and became even more nervous when I realized that it was a

Buddhism is a religion that focuses more on the individual and the actions of that individual, which was prevalent to me when I made my way into Portland and set foot in a Buddhist temple. The man I met within the walls of this temple was far from my stereotypical thoughts of Buddhist monks. The man I met looked like your plain old, average Joe, American man. Before I delve into the depths of my visit to this inspiring place, I need to sum up the Buddhist religion and why I chose to study this particular group of people.

The Hsi Lai Buddhist temple is located in Hacienda Heights and is the largest Buddhist temple in the West. The building was constructed to be a religious site by a Buddhist organization in Taiwan. The first thing that catches the attention, is the Chinese architecture of the temple and all of the Chinese words on the outside of the temple. The words on the four pillars of the gate, represent the four bodhisattva vows the Buddhists take to complete

Sometimes getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing something different can be very interesting. For Anita Houck’s World Religion and Dialogue class, every student is required to visit a worship service of a religion other than their own. So, for my out-of-class experience, I visited the Hindu Temple and Community Center in South Bend. I recommend visiting the Hindu Temple because you will get to experience Hindu rituals and the diversity of the religion.

On Thursday, April 21st I went to the Zen Buddhist fellowship meeting. It starts at six, but me and fellow classmate arrived a few minutes late and members were still in the living room of the house talking among themselves waiting. There were five of them and later during the meditating another woman shows up. I am thinking they were waiting on her to start, but after fifteen minutes decided it was time to start meditating. While we waited, we all did introductions and one of the members explained we will go upstairs and meditate for about twenty to thirty minutes then we will come back to the living room of the house for the informal part of the ceremony and have tea. As we were waiting for more people to arrive an older member named Paul started to ask questions and explained to us the proper way to sit and if it is uncomfortable to change until we are comfortable because being comfortable is one of the most important things. He also

I took the opportunity to visit Karma Thegsum Choling Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center (KTC), located at 1000 Armeda Ave, Irving, TX 75061. The meditation center had recently moved from their Dallas location to Irving. After going through the course material on Buddhism, it got me curious to learn more about the culture, experience live worship ritual, meditation, and architecture of the temple. To understand the religion and culture better, I requested a friend of mine to visit the temple along with me. Since he practices Buddhism and also is a Tibetan, he acted as a personal guide during my visit to the meditation center. With little knowledge about Buddhism, he helped me understand the meaning of different symbols, prayer flags,

My aspiration for the trip was to reclaim my heritage, and unmask a part of me that I had little knowledge about. Before this trip, I felt that I had pending parts of me, waiting to divulge themselves completely. And I was right. From visiting my early life orphanage, to participating in the life and tasks of a villager, to receiving a blessing from a monk, to attempting to find my birth mother, to being a bystander to hundreds of teenage girls pouring out from a Nike sweatshop with no windows, no air conditioning, no space, and no breaks and being paid $1 a day, I have certainly gained an understanding of what my life could have been like if fate had sent me the other way. Beautiful and

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.

One of the reason I took this class is to learn more about religions and their origins but I was specifically interested in Buddhism so I was excited that it was a religion that the class was going to cover. I had little prior knowledge of Buddhism but I didn’t know the origin, important figures and important teachings but I learned that what I thought was inaccurate. This class deepened my interest of Buddhism more because I learned what it really is about and their teaching while also correcting the ideas I had of Buddhism that were wrong.