fandomhigh | World Religions, Wednesday, 2nd Period [10/11]

Another night making friends with Mr. Miller and Mr. Daniels has left Jesse a bit less than exuberant this morning. He's standing by an open window when the first student enters and might possibly have flicked a cigarette away like a guy caught smoking in the boys room.

The handouts are waiting with the sign-in sheet and Jesse starts up as soon as everyone has taken a seat.

"When you think about religions, you probably think about a god or gods. Thing is, we've talked about more than one religion in this class that doesn't have that. Buddhism¹ is another one. Buddha's not a god, he's an enlightened person. Anyone has the potential to be a Buddha, if they just wake up and see existence for what it really is. You could argue that Jesus was a Buddha. And Mohammed.

"Siddhartha Gautama² is the guy most folks are probably thinking of when they say 'Buddha.' He's a Buddha, but he's also the Buddha, since he's the guy behind the religion we currently call Buddhism."

"Buddha said, 'I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering.'

"Unlike religions that want you to go strictly on faith, Buddhist teaching encourages individuals to practice and verify the Buddha's teachings based on their own personal experience, and also after consulting with 'the wise'. If they find the teachings are true - leading to more happiness and less suffering - they can apply these teachings in a practical form into their daily life if they so wish. There's no hellfire and brimstone in the teaching and no insistence that there's only one way to get from here to there."

Jesse then goes on to discuss the various sects and approaches within Buddhism, concluding with Zen Buddhism³.

"Today I want y'all to have a look at koans⁴. Get together with a partner and either talk about one of the example koans. Or, and I'll give extra credit to anyone who does this, come up with a koan of your own."

Handout links:
¹Buddhism at Wiki
²Gautama Buddha
³Zen Buddhism
⁴Koans

Syllabus

[ooc: My thanks to wikipedia for the parts I cribbed verbatim.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I just... I dunno. It's too... impractical, for me," Cally said.

Nadia nodded. "It's probably nice, to not have anything better to think about than what sound it makes if one hand claps."

Cally held up a hand, and proceeded to do that one handed clapping thing people can do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Q1nLwYK6E).

"Not that interesting, either."

Nadia grinned, despite that Cally had probably completely missed the point. "Okay, but what about the dog having Buddha nature?"

"Okay, that, I have no idea. Though that's mainly because I only learned about this Buddha guy today for the first time," Cally said.

"Fair enough. Do you guys have any religions like this where you're from?"

"We really only have the one," Cally said. "And we're kinda all 'yay lots of gods' about it."

"Nobody believes anything different?"

"Well, you either believe the scrolls or you don't," Cally said. "That's about it."

"See, that seems weird to me."

"Cultural differences," Cally said, shrugging.

"Definitely."

"Are we done?"

"If you want. Unless you want to try to make a koan up,"

"Do they all have to be weird little stories?"

"I don't know. Most of them seem to be, but maybe they can just be questions?"

"Cause, like, I dunno... 'How is a six when it fries?'" Cally said. "Is that good?"

"Sure. But I would answer 'a frying six'."

"D'oh. They aren't supposed to be able to be answered, though, right?" Cally asked.

"I don't know. But probably not one that you think of that quickly."

"These are weird," Cally said.

"I think they're kind of neat."

"I like dealing with definites," Cally said.

"I've noticed."

Cally raised an eyebrow. "You have?"

Re: Koans

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