Another exciting day in Hawaii filled with events! We first
started our day by attending a Buddhism lecture with George
Tanabe. George Tanabe gave us an insightful background on
the origins of Buddhism and its impact in Hawaii by the
Japanese. We learned that Buddhism started in India and was
brought to Hawaii by Japan who built the temples that we saw
later today. Buddhism has managed to spread throughout the
world taking many different forms and later forms seem to
contract earlier ones. Practices have changed because of
western influences that are depicted in the architect of the
temples we saw today. The most interesting part about the
lecture was when he told us the story of how a prince that
lived in a small kingdom in India named Siddhartha came to
be known as the Buddha which means the enlighten or awaken
one. He grew up having everything one could ever want and
imagine, but still he wasn’t happy. He never used to go
outside so one day, he finally did and was very disappointed
with what he saw –hard labor, illness, old age and finally
death. He thought that this could not be what life is all
about and that the idea of reincarnation was a form of
torture because of this reoccurring cycle after one dies.
From that moment, he began searching for the meaning of
happiness and ways of achieving it. He later discovers that
happiness comes within and that the core of it is to end all
desires because life is not satisfactory and as long as we
keep wanting more, we will never be able to reach happiness.
We spoke about so many other aspects of Buddhism like karma
which is the moral consequence of our actions and thoughts
and how it gives followers a sense of direction to be good.
The best aspect of Buddhism is that it focuses on the
benefit of everyone, and gratitude is extremely important.
We also learned about the pure land and nirvana, and there
different requirements for entry. The most significant
piece of information I will take with me is that when
studying or practicing religions, we cannot take things
literally but know that it has a symbolic meaning because
many records are written years after the events and are told
orally through generations. George Tanabe was a wonderful
speaker filled with so much knowledge and jokes as well.
BACK TO MIDDLE SCHOOL EVERYONE!
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I agree with Stephanie when she said the most interesting part about the lecture was when Professor Tanabe talked about the Prince. Something I also found interesting was the reincarnation part of the lecture. I like knowing that everyone comes back as a new person.
Something that I found really interesting about this day is that we actually got to go see two types of temples which were beautiful. The first temple we went to looked like the Taj Mahol. The inside of the temple was absolutely gorgeous and gold. The second temple we went to sort of looked like the White House and the inside was also a gold color. The last building we went to was I believe called a Shanti. It was so cool to go to because right outside of it was a tree filled with every ones wishes. You either put your wish there and wanted it to come true or you put it there and forgot about it. I am so glad that we got to visit these temples, and the shanti as well as being able to listen to Professor Tanabe's lecture. I learned so much and will take a lot away from Professor Tanabe.
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