Session 2 (July 30) - Lori Meeks, USC

[Rebecca Blankenship]

This is exactly what I have been looking for thank you so much.  I am really looking forward to better understanding the story so I can share with with my students.  Have you read American Born Chinese or the Epic Crush of Genie Lo both are modernized retellings of the Monkey King tale for American audiences.  They are both wonderful and really great for young adults. 

[Maria Cardenas]

Since I will be teaching 6th and 7th grade history for the first time. I am also glad I am taking this course in order for me to have a better understanding about Buddhism. I can use some of the resources provided by the professor and sources our peers have been providing. It make sense how the Buddhism religion was able to spread in Japan because it was able to maintain or keep its own.

[Cheryl Watson]

I beg to differ with one opinion from Lopez's interpretation about a New Testament story regarding John the Baptist. In the USC East Asia forum, this reading claims that the story of John the Baptist, as well as the Gospels of Mark and John were plagerized from Buddhist encounters in Asia. There may be multiple stories citing a John, Mark, or John the Baptist type or figure, but that does not mean that these New Testament events were "borrowed" from a previously written Buddhist text or oral history.

[Marina Forbes]

Each nation has its own myth of the arrival of Buddhism.

 

Page  46. Each nation has its own myth of the arrival of Buddhism. In the case of China, it is said that the emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty (who reigned from 58c.e. to 75c.e.) had a dream in which he saw a golden spirit outside of his palace, emitting rays of light from the top of his head. When he told his ministers about his dream, they reported that they have heard about the sage called "Buddha" who was able to fly. The emperor dispatched a party of envoys, who journeyed westward into Central Asia and the eastern end of the vast and vague region that the Greeks called "Scythia", returning with a copy of the Scripture in Forty-two Sections (p. 496).

I found a wonderful 16th centure woodcut map titiled "Queen of Europe", showing Scythia.

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[Jiaxing Weng-Zhang]

Rebecca,

Yes, I read the American Born Chinese with my kids.  Will check out the Epic Crush of Genie.

[Jiaxing Weng-Zhang]

Cheryl,

Thank you for sharing the article, I found the site for learning more about Buddism.  It was great being in the seminar with you.  My email is [email protected] if you want to keep in touch and have more crossing boarder culture discussions!

 

[Jessica Ng]

I heard an interview on NPR today, with both the author and subject of "The Buddhist on Death Row," published just this past week. It's lovely to read stories of people who turn their lives around, whether it's through religious/spiritual transformation or not. Mr. Masters seems not to have just found comfort in Buddhism, but has been actively using what he learned to better the lives of those around him in meaningful ways. It's going on my list!

[Brigid Schmidt]

Maria, this course seems like it will be very useful for 6th/7th grade history standards and teaching them. While I teach 6th/7th grade English, we often do cross-curricular projects. At first I felt so unsure about helping teach history standards I wasn't familiar with, however, I am feeling more confident after this course. Your idea of having groups of students research each countries' different schools is a wonderful way for the students to see the connections to each other and how they branched off on their own. Comparing/Contrasting is part of our ELA standards so this is a great way to incorporate that. Thanks for the ideas. Now to tweak them to virtual! 

[Brigid Schmidt]

Natalie, thanks for sharing your story. It is so interesting to me that your family incorporated Buddhist practices in their lives at the same time being avid Catholics. As a Catholic myself, I am starting to find this not as unique or rare as I once thought. Both religions have monks that meditate or pray and this is practiced by the followers. The time for meditation and prayer is what reaches me most often. My mind needs that time to reflect and detatach from outside technologies and stressors. I often have my students meditate or do mindfulness breathing for a similar reason. Perhaps this is an example of crossing boundaries I didn't even realize I was doing. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

When I think of Buddhism, I often think of China or India. I am fascinated reading the origins of Buddhism because I know a lot about the spread of Christianity, but not as much about the spread of Buddhism. The Silk Road (part of our 6th grade standards) was a major east-west trade route that linked Persia to China. My students study this (in History-I teach English) and I am embarrassed that this year I have been actively trying to learn more about it. The Silk Road enabled Central Asians to actively export Buddhism into China. Prior to this, China already had strong traditions/beliefs in Confucism and Daoism. So it is easy to see why some people resisted Buddhism at first. On the other hand, there were some similarities in that Daoists value harmony and nature and Confucian values of human perfecting and social harmony. These ideas correlate to Buddhist teachings and seemed to be a way for Buddhism to grow in China.

With the emergence of the 3 kingdoms of Ancient Korea, there were diplomatic and cultural contacts that increased, allowing Buddhism to make its way to the Korean peninsula. Buddhism in Korea has influences from China, but it is different. During the Silla period, 5 Buddhist school emerged and 3 of them derived from Chinese schools, yet 2 were unique to Korea. Japan also adopted Buddhism with Chinese influences but has 6 schools of Japanese Buddhism. They also use 4 types of meditation practices to foster inner purity of one’s Buddha-nature. What I wasn’t too familiar with was the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1910. This control also had an impact on Korean Buddhism. I am interested to read more about this and what the relations are like currently. After reading these articles and listening to the lectures, I do have a better understanding of how I can relate this to my students in English class. Comparing and Contrasting Buddhism in each of the 3 countries would be an interesting group activity. Additionally, I think it would help my students better understand the Silk Road and how religion spread through Asia and the world.

[Alma Ochoa]

Tom, I agree with you.  I like the idea of examining the schools, the time periods and the area.  As a math teacher I’m always trying to come up with ideas I can tie into math so that the numbers students work with have some mean to them.  Examining these topics gives me an idea of tying it into a graphing math lesson.  It would be interesting to see the relationship over time.  Having students do research to see the data on population within each school, period and area and then graphing that data to see if there is a decline or increase within each category as well as see what the relationship is within each: is it continuous or a discrete relationship.      

[Alma Ochoa]

Jessica, I agree with you.  I think a gender roll discussion would be interesting.  I really like your idea on having students examine religious figures they may be familiar with and list their attributes and see how and if their gender impacts their perceptions of them.  Really neat idea, thank you for sharing.        

[Alma Ochoa]

Ray, I wonder if there are other symbols that actually originated having a positive origin and now we attach and have a negative connotation and perception to them.  Like Professor Dube mentioned the Swastika became a negative symbol after the Nazi's hijacked it.  As a math teacher I am not much of a historian and don't know too much about symbols and their meaning but it would be interesting to learn about how the meaning of symbols change over time.  It would be an interesting discussion of how and why meanings change and how we can learn from those changes.     

[Natalie Lau-Chien]

I really enjoyed the lectures about Buddhism as well as the correlated readings.  I was particularly interested in this topic because my dad's parents were Buddhists and my mom's parents also incorporated some Buddhist practices into their lives while also being regular attendees to Catholic mass.  I grew up seeing my paternal grandmother bowing/praying to an altar of incense and a statue (perhaps kuanyin?  or the larger bellied buddha?) in her patio every morning.  When she passed away in her home, my grandfather had Buddhist monks come to the home and they continously chanted next to her body--I think to keep her spirit there until they took her body away.  When we sat in the room around her body, we had a phrase to repeatedly chant.  If we felt the need to cry, we needed to leave the room because they said that would cause her spirit to want to stay and follow us.  I am curious if this practice is one that is unique to Chinese Buddhism or if other Buddhists around the world also follow a similar practice. 

It was fascinating to hear about the different origin stories for Buddha as well as the spread of Buddhism through Asia over time.  It was also interesting to hear how Buddhism varied in northern and southern India, as well as how it was received and adapted to the different cultures and religions in China, which already had Confucianism and values of filial piety, or Japan, which allowed followers to maintain  kami as their local gods.  

[Maria Cardenas]

When I went to college I never took a history course about Asia it was the U.S. History or European history. I have been learning about things I have basic ideas as to what they are. I am a history teacher that has taught 8th grade history for 4 years and this year I will be teaching 6th-8th grade geography courses. I will be working closely with the history and science teacher. So I believe the more informed I am about different content that my students learn the better prepared I will be. 

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