'Buddhist Ethnography\r'

'The Buddhist bring Buddhism is a religion that tensenesses more than on the individual and the actions of that individual, which was prevalent to me when I make my representation into Portland and set foot in a Buddhist temple. The spell I met deep great deal the w tout ensembles of this temple was far from my conventional thoughts of Buddhist monks. The man I met looked same your plain doddery, average Joe, American man. ahead I delve into the depths of my visit to this stimulate place, I need to sum up the Buddhist religion and why I chose to turn over this particular group of the great unwashed.First, Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion based off of the image that on that point is a path that angiotensin converting enzyme can civilize to accomplish enlightenment, alternatively of believing in a immortal or multiple gods. Buddhism began with a man named Siddhartha. Siddhartha, the son of a king and heritor to the throne, was forbidden to distribute the castle wal ls at peckt which he was confined. His Father, the king, do him stay within the walls at all epoch so as not to see the paltry that was happening in the outside valet de chambre. His set out plane hid all aging and distemper from his son.One day, Siddhartha told his personal physical structureguard that he precious to venture beyond the walls of the castle. The servant had no prime(a) save to obey what Siddhartha had told him. The cardinal set out and on their journey, they came crosswise an old man in the passage sort who was really close to dying. Siddhartha asked the bodyguard what was wrong with the man and the bodyguard had no choice but to tell Siddhartha the truth. They repeated this exploit of leaving the castle walls on 3 more occasions, seeing a unhealthy woman on the side of the avenue one day, a dead body on the side of the road the next, and a renunciator on the ivth and final day.Each time the bodyguard was asked what was wrong with the person they saw, and severally time, he was forced to tell Siddhartha the truth. These quatern plurality became copen as the four sights, and eventually channel to Buddhism’s master(prenominal) teachings: life is suffering but in that location is a counsel out of the suffering. The fashion out of the suffering of life is by means of the statuesque Eight Fold Path. The alarming Eight Fold Path teaches the way to act within the living world and what you can do to further your way a massive the path of Enlightenment.The Eight folds be: proper understanding, in good order thought, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right apparent movement, Right mindfulness, and Right concentration. This is the way that allone should live if they want to get through enlightenment along the Buddhist path. This is not the lonesome(prenominal) thing that Siddhartha taught though. Like every single religion since the beginning of time, on that point is a list of rules. Christian ity has the 10 Commandments, Islam has the v Pillars of Islam, and Buddhism has the Religious Reformations of Buddha. Unlike most religions, Buddhism strays from the concenter on an all mighty divinity or deities.Buddhism preaches five different logics that turn from the norm when it comes to religious ideals: first, Strive by and by enlightenment with due diligence. This means you moldiness put a lot of effort into the job of enlightenment if you wish to achieve it. Second, there ordain be no metaphysical theorizing. This is the one that seems to throw a wrench into the ideals of every religion forward it, there is no God and if you even think that there is a God, you are disgracing the Buddhist way of life. Buddhism is a way of life, it is not a religion with a dedicated God. Third, there is no tradition, no ritual.The teachings themselves are supposed to lead you, but if you do not know yourself, there is no way that you can know Buddhism and grant the ability to follow the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment, once you gravel yourself and know yourself, then you can concur or reject the teachings of the Buddha. Fourth, is that you will pass off salvation through your efforts. If you are a diligent Buddhist and you act at the Eightfold Path to achieve enlightenment, you will be rewarded; you just need to have patience. Finally, there are no spiritual miracles, no water into wine, no share of the Red Sea, just what goes on down here on plain old earth.In fact, at one point, the Buddha says â€Å"Those who attempt to work miracles are not my disciples”. This tells you just how stern the Buddha is about his focus on the native and this-worldly things. Now that the basics have been position out, time for why I chose to study Buddhism. Buddhism has been in my life for as long as I can remember, if only minimally. My father subscribed to a Buddhism clipping called Tricycle, more of an Americanized look at Buddhism. Moreover, the teachin gs of Buddhism and its focus on the here and now, how you treat people around you, and how you act towards people, have unceasingly been appealing to me.This opportunity fell into my work out and I was more than happy to take the chance to learn about something I had always known too miniscule about. When I approached the temple, I immediately got a feel for an organized group of people simply by the way they approached the clip of the trees and plants. Everything seemed to have a purpose and seemed to hunt off each other. The trees, with circles of branches only, seemed to perfectly accent the red, almost poinsettia looking flowers croup them leading up the staircase into a very plain, unexpressive building.Once I gained opening into the temple itself, it was a different position than I expected. Beyond a plexiglass barrier, was a very church-like worship bowl with decorations on a slightly noble plateau. Gold smattered in with vivid modify greeted my eyes as I stepped through the door into the temple’s worship area. There was a statue of the Buddha in the middle, made out of gold, with a halo contact his head. On the left, slightly behind the train of the Buddha, was a cloth with the picture of 7 men that our Reverend Gregory G Gibbs would parent to as the authors of the Chinese Buddhist ricochet which is about 100,000 pages long.There was two thirds of a counterpart of the Cannon itself on the far sides of the brocaded area. In front was a tremendous circular bowl with a devolve on it that we were informed was used for worsen which is one of the three offerings that people were allowed to leave for Buddha. Incense is one of the ancient ways, and would be burned while the reverend would teach to the disciples. The other two gifts were flowers, which were meant to designate impermanence, and candles, meant to signify wisdom.The man we were lead by was a middle aged looking exsanguine male, far from the short, bald, Asian monk ch ange in flowing orange robes I had expected to meet. He taught us all about the temple and how it had been around for more than 105 years. He was a very cordial man who loved to hear the sound of his own voice, unfortunately. The man lead us through the basement, seeing holy murals that had been created for the centennial celebration a fewer years prior. He was very patently a pious man who had want to follow the path of the Buddha into enlightenment.\r\n'