marissa

I can't believe this trip is almost over. This has been a
great experience. Today we started the day off with a
lecture on Buddhism by George Tanabi that went from 9:00
until 11:30. He was an interesting speaker and very
philosophical. He told us that Buddha lived 2500 years ago
old. It was very interesting when he told us that there was
a reincarnation and that there was no end to them. He said
there was an end to their body, but their spirit never dies;
it continues to live on. I also thought it was interesting
when he said that soul is an eternal journey and it lives
forever. So when the body dies, the soul picks a new body
and it continues on. But eventually Buddha said that it was
his last life and that he didn't want to relive work,
illness, old age and death because those were not things
that made him happy. He wanted to find total human happiness
but was unable to find it until he went to Nirvana, which
was the perfect place for final rebirth and total happiness.
The way the lecturer spoke about Buddhism was very
interesting. Later we had lunch and then visited two temples
and a shrine and Tanabi spoke about every single one of them
as we entered each one. The first one was very interesting
because it was a Japanese temple that looked like the Taj
Mahal. It was unlike any other temple. It was amazing to see
all the detail inside and out. Then we went to another
temple which also had very interesting details inside. At
the shrine we saw, Tanabi spoke about the different
spiritual materials. They believed in many superstitions.
After I picked my own fortune and tied it around a tree and
it will supposedly come true. It was an interesting day.