Session 5 - April 18 morning (Lori Meeks on Buddhism)

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Professor Lori Meeks from USC will discuss Buddhism in ancient East Asia.

Please download and read the PDFs below. The Buddhism pdf is a little blurry, so please do the best you can. You can skim through the other three. 

 

 

[Sandra Flores]

First of all, thank you for taking time and creating these lessons for us.  Thank you for the information provided on buddhism.  I believe that as humans, we would all enjoy a life based on these principles.  I would like to implement the Eightfold Path in my classroom norms.  I would include these on the syllabus and also have a poster.  As a class, we can brainstorm what each of these "paths" looks like and sounds like in the classroom.  I believe that if I implement these correctly, I would create a safe enviroment for everyone and will have better classroom management.  

[Billie Johnson]

As Sandra stated, thank you so much for these presentations.  There is so much information that we could pull from to integrate into our classrooms.  I thought a great opening for conversation and for a lesson in general at the beginning of a unit would be to place two images before students: laughing round buddha; fasting buddha. I would ask students to point to the buddha and share with their table partners why they selected their images.  This would be a great conversation starter that would lead into the story of the historical buddha. With storytelling about history that has a religious aspect and miracles etc., how do you respond to the mythological aspects?  Has this been up for much debate like the story of Jesus Christ for people who do not practice? I'm just curious that as time presses on, if it is the overarching message that is held onto and not so much the origin of the story. I do wish that content was deep like this from the beginning of the school year onward.  When comparing religions, students touched on the broad make up of Buddhism but not much else.  I'm no expert by a long shot, however I think taking the time to learn and going deeper with my students can expose them to the ancient migratory behaviors, geography, and also use this as an opportunity to discuss how religion and ideals were spread in the past.  There is so much that you can do with this. Thanks again!

[Chad Espinoza]

Like Billie, the contrast between the two Buddha's really struck me. I think it is also very interesting that the fat Buddha is much more known than the nearly emaciated version. I suspect the fat Buddha is much more known for the same reason the rich, famous, and beautiful are so well known. Like the people mentioned prior, Buddha has acheived a level of celebrity. In fact, most religious figures do. Their celebrity, which does not have any bearing on the veracity of their claims or lifesyle, caused some people to follow them. This makes me think of celebrity in general. My students love celebrities and are very interested in the finish product of a person's effort and seem to think that success is either immediate or unattainable. I would be very curious to see what my students would produce in an analysis of the two Buddhas. First, I would want them to compare and contrast the images, then I would want them to do explain the cause and effect. It would also be interesting to see my students relate this concept to contemporary celebrities, in an effort to see that one's success in the result of the journey he or she endured. 

[Meghann Seril]

There was a lot of information to digest. Thank you for sharing all of these materials. I can definitely integrate my learning from this week into my 3rd grade classroom instruction. I found the discussion of rebirth in the different forms quite interesting. I can see this working with our standards about character analysis. As we discuss different characters in our reading literature, students could be asked to consider in what form a character would be reborn based on the actions and motivations. Perhaps Goldilocks would be reborn as a ghost or the boy who cried wolf would be reborn as an animal?

One question I still have is about the idea of Anatman. If there is no permanent self, how does this fit with the premise that your actions and motivations would accrue to determine your form in the next life? I would appreciate some clarification on this idea. Also, could you expand on the idea that belief in the self is ignorance and therfore suffering? There were lots of new concepts for me to wrestle with this week. I look forward to our discussion.

[Betsy Ures]

I am interested in discussing the value of oral traditions of Buddhism. Many of the students I work with enjoy the art of storytelling and oral traditions. It seems like Buddhism is somethng to be studied as a world religion and as lifestyle. Like Chad mentioned, many students are interested in celebrities and we can use that type of lens to study the historical representation of the Buddha. Looking at the Middle Path in comparision to the decadant lives of our current celebrities would be beneficial in more than one way.

[Jessica Ng]

To me, the ubiquity of the Laughing Buddha as a symbol for the religion is another example of carelessness and appropriation by those outside of a particular group or tradition. Most of us have probably been to restaurants and bars that have Asian calligraphy meant to elicit a sense of "zen," or seen a Buddha head perched in garden dirt, or seen prayer flags decorating a backyard picnic. All of the above are misuses of these objects and symbols, and ignore the complexity of the religion's teachings, not to mention the many different branches that exist. People simply pick and choose the images and parts they like, along with what they think they symbolize, and toss aside the rest. It's not always so simple or easy to understand what is "right" or "wrong," but asking questions and doing some research is a good start.

For middle and high school students, especially in schools that have a diverse student body, a discussion about respecting cultures could be started with a compare and contrast exercise of the two Buddhas. I would ask students to then work with a partner to research and find out for themselves what each of these images actually depicts, then talk about why one might be more "popular" than the other. With careful guidance, they can start to think critically about respect, cultural appropriation, and the ways symbols are (mis)interpreted.

[Samantha Auerbach]

Thank you for providing these lectures for us! I really like the idea of using buddhist traditions to drive classroom norms and behavior. I think my 4th grade students would really benefit from adopting these traditions as a way to ensure we can all coexist in our classroom respectfully. It would help keep the children accountable for their behavior and would in turn increase productivity. 

[Esther Dupree]

Reading about how influential Prince Shotoku (due to his father's adoption of Bhuddism) was in helping spread Bhuddism shows how influential government leaders have been in creating mass following of a specific religion.  It would be a cool project to do with students to compare different rulers and how their personal religious beliefs being made into state policy affected their governments and ultimately, civilization.  They could do a venn diagram of similarities and differences between the rulers, their beliefs and the effects of their philosophies.  A question I have about Bhuddism is, what is it about Asia that was so fertile for the spread of Bhuddism that wasn't in other countries like in Africa or Europe?  There was a little spread later on, but nothing like the Asian adoption of Bhuddism.

[Alma Ochoa]

Thank you for taking in making the prerecorded lectures for us; there was definitely a lot of information to digest.

The 5 Skandhas stood out to me because according to Anatman there is ‘no-self’ which is somewhat confusing because according to the 5 Skandhas one goes through the different forms from matter, feelings, processing, activities and to consciousness which seems to me that one must be very aware of one’s self to be able to reflect on how things work to understand the processing of the information one encounters in the world in order to take action. 

I also found it very interesting how Buddhism in India it was widely accepted for the Sangha (this may be the wrong term) to wonder the world in search of enlightenment and live off of handouts because fasting and suffering was part of the transmigration process/journey.  Whereas in China they were seen as parasites because they were living off society and not contributing which I found their solution of making the monasteries with land that could be cultivated a great solution and compromise to what they perceived to be an issue.   

[Brigid Schmidt]

Thanks for sharing these PDFs and the videos. Overall, I think I also thought of Buddhism as one the PDF stated as "Modern Buddhism. I knew it comprised of teaching love and compassion and promoting non-violence, however, I just assumed that meditation was part of the origins. It was interesting to read about the origins or Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Buddhism and to realize their differences. This would be really interesting to break my students into three groups and have each group read and research one of the three and have the groups teach the other students about their assigned country's sect of Buddhism. As a class discussion we can compare and contrast the three different countries. I like this idea because I could even do it while teaching online by use of breakout rooms. It could also be a change from writing to oral presenting and discussion. 

A few years ago I traveled to Thailand and Korea with my sister and we saw two very different looking buddhas. I was surprised by this and took pictures to compare them. Looking back at them, I noticed the Thailand Buddha statues are not the traditional "fat" Buddha. Even though the statues had temples that were large and grand, it was not the buddha that I pictured in my mind. However, when I later went to Korea, the buddha looked a little more like the images in my head. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I like your idea about using these traditions to drive behavior in the classroom. I taught 4th grade last year and in our history curriculum we studied Chinese Buddhists coming to California in the 19th century and then Japanese Buddhists laborers coming to work on the railroads. I feel like this could be a good way to connect these traditions to the classroom based on what the students are learning as California grew. 

[Mario Ruiz]

Right Mindfulness was not surprising to see on there as one of the steps. It seems that just recently society has begun to put the idea of mindfulness in the forefront, especially with teaching. I've been to a couple of different trainings where mindfulness was the topic of the training. I had gone to a training that was four hours long and I remember thinking to myself, "How can it take four hours for them to tell me to focus on my breathing?" right as I was going in. I was sorely mistaken. There was so much more to it then just that. Mindfulness creates this sence of balance and tranquility that some of my other outlets, like sports and music, sometimes just can't seem to produce. 

I work with students with moderate/severe disabilities and being able to practice mindfulness in the classroom has worked wonders for some of my students. Some of my students have significant behaviors that range from verbal aggression to physical aggression and teaching them some simple mindfulness techniques has been EXTREMELY helpful. I can recall two students from a previous year who DID NOT get along with each other. The mere sight of each other would cause them both to verbally assault each other. I couldn't take it. I asked one of my classroom aides to run an art lesson so I could have my lunch. When I returned to my class, all was calm and well. I couldn't believe it. I asked her what she did and she told me that prior to the art lesson, she dimmed the lights, played some calming meditative music, and engaged the students in a breathing exercise. I was blown away! All of the students were engaged and the two students who couldn't be asked to sit in the same room with each other were all of a sudden ignoring the other person and focusing on the art activity. 

Mindfulness can have a real impact on the classroom environment and it's great to see that different mindfulness practices are being taken more seriously.

[Sandra Flores]

Hello Mario, I agree with you about the recent introduction of the concept of mindfulness in schools.  I worked for Catholic school for four years and the entire school would meditate on Wednesdays for 10-15 minutes.  I noticed that the younger students would not participate because it was new to them, but the older students or the studnets who attended the same middle school, were open to the idea and would actually be uspet if  meditation was canceled.  Now that I am working for LAUSD, I also noticed that the entire school dedicated a week to Mindfulness and Mental Health.  I believe that this is important because our students have many problems and many of these problems are emotinal and mental. I think we need to focus more on their emotional and mental health because we cannot expect our students to succeed in the classroom if they are not mentally stable. I think the Districts should give the opportunity for more professional development on this topic. 

[Samantha Auerbach]

During our discussion this morning, I found the topic of the spread of buddhism as a religion to be quite interesting. I'll admit, before today I did not know much about buddism and how it came to be. It is fascinating how all religions spread to different geographic areas and to even different cultures and countries. I enjoyed hearing Lori discuss how vastly this religion grew especially since there is no early written record. Through the buddha's teachings and charisma, other cultures and people grew attracted to the ideals, teachings and traditions. It was also able to grow through the idea of transmigration. If a person didn't want to give up their families and ways of life, they could still make offerings to monastry so that they could later be reborn as a monk. Through this ideal, many more people were drawn to the religion and thus created a larger following. 

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