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Need help on my research paper
Hey,
I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I am currently taking a class on ethnographic research methods and I need to write a research paper for that class. I chose to do my paper on the teachings of Buddhism and how these teachings influence people's perspective and if they incorporate these teachings in their daily lives. I actually joined another forum asking these questions but only one person responded so I joined this forum in hope that I will get more responses. My paper is due Tuesday, March 10th, so if you could reply before then, that would be great. Here are some questions that I want to know for my paper.
What type of Buddhism do you follow? What are the teachings of Buddhism that you follow? Why have you chosen to follow this type of Buddhism versus other types?
What is it about Buddhism that interests you? Why have you chosen to follow the teachings of Buddhism? What do you hope to gain?
Do you attend the services at the temple? Why or why not?
Considering the fact that some people go to the temple and some people don't, what do you feel is the significance of the temple?
What do you feel it means to be a true Buddhist? Do you consider yourself to be one? Why or why not?
Do you incorporate these teachings into you daily lives? If you do, how do you incorporate them? If you don't, why not?
Have you learned anything about yourself and about others from these teachings?
Do these teachings have any affect in your daily life? How?
Anything else you want to tell me about your experience with Buddhism.
Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I am currently taking a class on ethnographic research methods and I need to write a research paper for that class. I chose to do my paper on the teachings of Buddhism and how these teachings influence people's perspective and if they incorporate these teachings in their daily lives. I actually joined another forum asking these questions but only one person responded so I joined this forum in hope that I will get more responses. My paper is due Tuesday, March 10th, so if you could reply before then, that would be great. Here are some questions that I want to know for my paper.
What type of Buddhism do you follow? What are the teachings of Buddhism that you follow? Why have you chosen to follow this type of Buddhism versus other types?
What is it about Buddhism that interests you? Why have you chosen to follow the teachings of Buddhism? What do you hope to gain?
Do you attend the services at the temple? Why or why not?
Considering the fact that some people go to the temple and some people don't, what do you feel is the significance of the temple?
What do you feel it means to be a true Buddhist? Do you consider yourself to be one? Why or why not?
Do you incorporate these teachings into you daily lives? If you do, how do you incorporate them? If you don't, why not?
Have you learned anything about yourself and about others from these teachings?
Do these teachings have any affect in your daily life? How?
Anything else you want to tell me about your experience with Buddhism.
Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
0
Comments
I'm not sure who, here, follows Pure Land teachings. Unfortunately, like Hindmost, this is not my own path so I am not able to help, although I am able to outline the fundamentals of the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the theory of dependent co-arising.
Devotional Buddhism is quite fascinating. I have known quite a few Chinese who follow Pure Land. Usually they combine it with other practices. The flavor of such amalgamations is well presented in The Secrets of Chinese Meditation by Charles Luk. On a personal level I have found Pure Land teachings to be one more part of a fascinating Buddhist journey.
thegrackle
I noticed you've changed your post to make your questions apply to Buddhism in general rather than just Pure Land. So I will PM you with my answers to your questions. PM is short for Private Message in case you don't know. If you have any problems just PM me back or you can also write a message on this thread.
I follow Vajrayana Buddhism (AKA Tibetan Buddhism, though the Mongolians might beg to differ). I can't really say I chose to follow this type of Buddhism over other types. It's more like it chose me. I was stationed in Japan in the Air Force and saw a vajra (or dorje) in one of the displays in the Japanese Imperial Museum, amongst all the other wonderful Buddhist art there. For some reason, that resonated with me, and when I got back to the States I felt compelled to find out all I could about the vajra. Now I'm a monk. Guess there was a connection there.
What is it about Buddhism that interests you? Why have you chosen to follow the teachings of Buddhism? What do you hope to gain?
I like Buddhism as I never felt comfortable with the whole god thing. No one could ever explain to me why there even needed to be a god! I also like it because it's very logical and simply because it makes sense to me. It doesn't really matter so much what type of Buddhism it is, it's all the same teaching. One teacher and one teaching. Just looks different. What do I hope to gain? The end of suffering, not just for myself, but for every sentient being in all three thousand myriads of universes.
Do you attend the services at the temple? Why or why not?
Yes. It's kind of expected that monks and nuns do that. I also like to do it.
Considering the fact that some people go to the temple and some people don't, what do you feel is the significance of the temple?
The temple functions as a support for one's practice. It is always much more powerful to engage in group practice that solo practice (with the exception of solitary retreat, which is a whole other ball game). The temple also serves as a place for new people to enter the path, which would be very difficult without a temple.
What do you feel it means to be a true Buddhist? Do you consider yourself to be one? Why or why not?
A true Buddhist is one who feels compassion is the greatest virtue and the impetus for enlightenment the greatest vocation. I hope I'm one. At least I try to be. But habitual tendencies take a long time to overcome, so it is necessary to develop patience.
Do you incorporate these teachings into your daily lives? If you do, how do you incorporate them? If you don't, why not?
If you don't incorporate the teachings into your daily life, there's not much point. I try to do that in every way I can, whether by developing patience for others, helping sentient beings when I can, or engaging in practice so that I can attain enlightenment, which is the only way you can truly be of ultimate benefit to sentient beings.
Have you learned anything about yourself and about others from these teachings?
Sure, I'm always learning new things about myself, and I have to tell you, it isn't always (or even usually) pleasant things. You really have to get into your mind and dig if you're ever going to change, and when you do that, you discover many unpleasant things about yourself. I look at others as my teachers, even those who seem to be evil or who choose to be my enemies. In fact, the Dalai Lama said that the Chinese were his greatest teachers because they taught him compassion.
Do these teachings have any affect in your daily life? How?
Yes, my life is very different now than before I became a Buddhist, and extremely different than what it would have been if I had never become one. I'm much more relaxed about life in general. I've learned to take the hard knocks that life comes up with at random times. I am heavily involved in many aspects of our temple, which I find very satisfying and rewarding. I also feel I have learned much about what life is really about, and that also contributes to feeling at peace.
Anything else you want to tell me about your experience with Buddhism.
Only that for me this is the only life that makes any sense. I can't imagine doing anything else.
Palzang
I follow no specific type, tradition, or sect. of Buddhism. I read all of the teaching that I find by the Buddha regardless of tradition. I follow the path in this way because Buddhism was never broken into different sects. and traditions while Buddha was alive and I see no need for it now. Besides it’s just a label and nothing more, all paths eventually lead to the same goal.
What is it about Buddhism that interests you? Why have you chosen to follow the teachings of Buddhism? What do you hope to gain?
Truth is what interest me and has brought me to Buddhism. It’s this truth that cuts through the delusions of these problems we feel we are faced with on a daily basis and allows us to be free, to me this is the greatest reward for practicing. To be free from and to help others be free from suffering is my goal.
Do you attend the services at the temple? Why or why not?
I do join a group to meditate and to discuss the Dharma and occasionally join my ordained friend Menla at their center. I feel its of great benefit to be around like minded people to help with furthering ones own understanding of the dharma and to help maintain the right mindset.
Considering the fact that some people go to the temple and some people don't, what do you feel is the significance of the temple?
No real significance at all other than for practice. If one tries to meditate in a place they would tend to be conversing or be active it is much harder to focus but, if you create a space just for focusing the mind and meditation then when you enter this space that is all you will want to do.
What do you feel it means to be a true Buddhist? Do you consider yourself to be one? Why or why not?
A Buddhist in my mind would be one who has a desire to find the truth behind their suffering and a will to destroy it. I do consider myself a Buddhist mainly because I believe in the Dharma that Buddha Taught and I try to live my life by it.
Do you incorporate these teachings into you daily lives? If you do, how do you incorporate them? If you don't, why not?
I do incorporate the teachings into my daily life. How I do such could be quite a lengthy discussion but, the main thing is I attempt to be mindful during the day. By being mindful I do not become stressed, angry, annoying and so on. By being mindful I can see how others are suffering and attempt to lessen this for them if I am in a position to do so.
Have you learned anything about yourself and about others from these teachings?
We all create our own suffering and we all possess the key to ridding ourselves of it.
Do these teachings have any affect in your daily life? How?
This would be basically the same as the incorporation of teachings question presented before. They have taught me to be mindful of everything and in turn affects my life by removing suffering and allowing peace to reside in place.
Anything else you want to tell me about your experience with Buddhism.
Not that I can think of.
By changing your question and widening your scope, you may be like the child Augustine tell of who is trying to empty the sea with a bucket! Good for you!
Others can (and have) outlined some of the aspects and effects of Buddhism in their lives. They may even identify themselves, like Palzang, as Buddhists who have Taken Refuge in a formal sense.
This may be all that you need for your project. You may, however, be interested in looking beyond your initial questions. Indeed, your first question is the one that I find engrossing. I hope that my comments below do not confuse you: if they do, please ignore them and go on to get a good grade. After that, you can investigate how diverse and multi-cultural Buddhism can be.
The last couple of centuries, with the spread of information and translations, Buddhism, as a group of disparate, overlapping sets, has acquired new dimensions, particularly as regards effect on personal and interpersonal lives. What is more, there are now individuals and groups which have adopted Buddhist practice and incorporated it into their own 'collection of stories'. Don Cupitt, in an interview with Tricycle, a Buddhist quarterly, said:
Not all current Buddhist groups and individuals can describe themselves as part of any specific Asian tradition. Some of us have a different view of the Dharma as essentially non-cultural and thus available to us from within our own traditions.
My own 'label', when I am cornered about it, is "Christian Buddhist" (or "Buddhist Christian" as I am not sure which is the noun and which the adjective). I have known a group of Orthodox Jewish Zen practitioners for many years. My guess is that, probably within the Sufi population, there are Islamic Buddhists.
We discussed this particular problem with HHDL when he was kind enough to give us an audience, the problem of the notion of "Almighty God". His attitude could be summed up as being that, as we can only solve the problem by an act of personal faith, it is eminently unprofitable to debate it. It is not what the Dharma is about nor is it relevant to the teaching of the Buddha and his successors.
Of course, I cannot deny that holding that the heart of the Dharma and of Christ's message presents problems. Some of them have revealed themselves as entirely imaginary: is it more absurd to assert the Immaculate Conception of the BVM than the voluntary rebirth of Tibetan tulkus?
In effect, both sets of teachings aim at liberation and the end of suffering. Because the Jesus texts come out of a monotheistic tradition, that is the 'story' they wrap around the words. Buddhism arose in a completely different culture and so uses different 'stories'. Compare the Indian, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese accounts of belief and practice and you quyickly see how the Dharma takes on local colour.
Christianity used to do this, too, but that's another story. Modern, mono-cultural and monolithic Christianity is an historical anomaly. If you are interested, Vincent Cronin has written a couple of books about Christian missionaries in India and China who became 'Indian' and 'Chinese' over many years in order to share their teaching in local terms. This is far more than just translating scriptures: it is a recognition that culture and context are transitory and without any abiding 'self', whereas the messages of escape from suffering reveal that which is permanent and unchanging. It is also deeply respectful of the prevailing culture, avoiding the sort of cultural imperialism that forces one system on another.
Another problem that arises from an amalgam of practices is that of community. And, should you be interested, this is an area which has troubled me for a long time. Christianity stresses the Church and, in Buddhism, the Sangha is one of the Three Jewels of Refuge. Those of us who practice a 'mongrel' way (sometimes called 'Pick'n'Mix') will walk alone for a lot of the time, unless we are lucky.
There's so much more to learn.
Les