Field Trip-Buddhist Temple Reflection

Our philosophy went to a field trip to a Buddhist Temple in Fairfax county and everything I thought I learned about Buddhism astonished me when he started elaborating about this religion. The preacher had a funny way of explaining everything and from reading the lectures about Buddhist monks; he just surprised me from his personality and defining everything. He was not that strict while he was explaining Buddhism and when he described his life story, everything was relaxed and calm while he himself was shocked by the different cultures in the United States and Japan. But while one assimilates to the cultures of different nations, one gets used to the new changes, and while in Japan everyone went to the temple daily to pray or talk about their personal problems, the temple like any other religion opens on Sundays. The preacher as well explained how many other Christians from nearby churches go to the Buddhist temple to pray; even after mass. "Christian Buddhist" is the term he used to people following the 2 religions. The most interesting part of his story is when he was explaining Nirvana to us and his demonstration by lighting and candle and lighting it out. At first I was confused but the act that the fire was disappearing showed a correlation between what he was explaining. He explained it in such simplicity how Nirvana is the act of being gone and just blowing out. Our class asked good questions to him and he explained it thoroughly and in great depth. He had a form of elaborating it in every detail possible. What also was interesting was when he described meditation. Everything he said that meditation was depicted on T.V and on people selling tutorials of meditation was wrong and how placing ones hands on their knees crossed is not true meditation and I actually believed in that stereotype of Buddhism. Meditation is only a form of thinking and concentrating on a particular subject nothing fancy or hard. During the 15 minute meditation, I laid back and concentrated on the rest of the school day and on ward. I was engaged for the majority of the time and let the body relax. The use of the bell made it more interesting because it really felt like a true chi meditation and when time was up, it actually didn't feel like it was 15 minutes.