Study and Spiritual Practice Project World Religions -­‐ Schmidt Name: ____________________ One of the great gifts of Hinduism and Buddhism is the sense of exploration. There are many different types of spiritual paths. In this project you are going to study about a particular religious path, while at the same time evaluating if it has some spiritual significance to you personally. This project, then, involves both study and spiritual practice. Goals for your presentation: 1. Create a thesis, a one-­‐sentence summary of the point you want to make through your presentation. What have you learned through the combination of your study and practice? Make sure everything connects to this thesis. 2. Tradition's Background: First, what is this religious traditions pathway to the divine, and how does it bring about personal peace/inner aliveness? Half your project should be the academic study of what you have learned about the tradition, and the other half should be about your practice. • Quotes: Include quotes from your research 3. Personal Reflection on your practice: More personally, what do you find attractive and/or unattractive about this traditions' approach to the spiritual life? How effective or ineffective was your spiritual practice? • What practice did you choose and why? • Share high (and possibly low) points of your practice. • Did you feel that your experience verified what the tradition said about a spiritual practice or not? 4. Finally, be interesting! I would like to see you do something creative to demonstrate the skill of spiritual inquiry. If you really want to find out that value of this teaching and practice, what should you do? You can visit a local temple. Due dates: Wed, April 15 Best place to start: What kind of spiritual practice would you like to do? • Prayer • Devotion (singing, dancing) • Meditation: 21 breaths, body scan, using a mantra, walking meditation. • Loving Kindness Meditation • Chanting (on rosary beads) • Prostrations or bowing • Reading of Sacred Scriptures or spiritual books • Drawing • Calligraphy (of sacred names) • Pilgrimage: preparing for or visiting holy sites in Hong Kong • Creating a piece of art or a spiritual tool (e.g., mandala, a prayer wheel, a painting). Then I want you to link this practice above to something you can STUDY related to Hinduism, Buddhism or some other Asian faith. I've listed some ideas below, but don't be limited to this list. NOTE: YOU NEED TO turn in your spiritual practice log with your presentation. Hinduism's Four Paths Toward Liberation I want you to propose a spiritual practice which: • Can be done regularly over the next several weeks. • Can be done primarily alone (service could be an exception, but I expect you to do it with the minimum of words). • Involves creativity on your part in designing the activity. • Can be identified as at least one of the four paths below. There are four traditional schools of Yoga: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Raja Yoga. For the vast majority of practitioners of Yoga, a blending of the four traditional types of Yoga is most appropriate. One follows his or her own predisposition in balancing these different forms of Yoga. Jnana Yoga: Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge, wisdom, introspection and contemplation. It involves deep exploration of the nature our being by systematically exploring and setting aside false identities. • Read a book, including scriptures • Watch a video • Walking a labyrinth (even a hand labyrinth) • Walking meditation • Journaling • Visit to a holy site for the purpose of reflection. Bhakti Yoga: Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion, emotion, love, compassion, and service to God and others. All actions are done in the context of remembering the Divine. • Singing/chanting/listening worship songs • Art: drawing of a deity • Visit a holy place for the purpose of worship Karma Yoga: Karma Yoga is the path of action, service to others, mindfulness, and remembering the levels of our being while fulfilling our actions or karma in the world. • A service activity for someone or to do something useful for others • Listening to someone • Building an altar or sacred space • Visit a holy place for the purpose of service Raja Yoga: Raja Yoga is a comprehensive method that emphasizes meditation, while encompassing the whole of Yoga. It directly deals with the encountering and transcending thoughts of the mind. • Silence, Centering Prayer (Christian meditation), kundalini yoga, loving kindness meditation, Vipassana meditation or other types of Hindu/Buddhist meditation. • Visit a holy place for the purpose of meditation • Martial arts, tai chi, yoga, martial arts, qi gong • Calligraphy * You can change a rather ordinary practice (e.g., writing a journal, watching a video, talking a walk) into a spiritual practice by doing it mindfully. I suggest doing a 21 breaths meditation first to calm your mind and center yourself. Then do your activity. Providing some type of ritualized action (same place, same beginning, middle, and end) will help the activity gain more power and insight, and move your ego off its primary place in your consciousness. Source: http://www.swamij.com/four-­‐paths-­‐of-­‐yoga.htm For spiritual practice ideas, see the Tree of Contemplative Practices: http://www.contemplativemind.org/images/2008_Web_Practices_Tree2.gif You can also see these two blog entries from last year's class for ideas: http://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/from-­‐two-­‐to-­‐one-­‐teaching-­‐
about-­‐non-­‐dualism-­‐in-­‐a-­‐world-­‐religions-­‐class/ http://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/exploring-­‐student-­‐spiritual-­‐
practices-­‐in-­‐teaching-­‐about-­‐hinduism/ Buddhist Art and Spiritual Practice Buddhist Art The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to help the follower reach nirvana, or enlightenment. For thousands of years, Buddhists across Asia have used various art forms to help followers move from ordinary awareness towards spiritual awareness, or enlightenment. In contrast to secular art that oftentimes draws attention to the artist, Buddhist art focuses the mind, body, and heart on the sacred world. In fact, the goal is to help the artist and the viewer move up the staircase into spiritual awareness -­‐ to help everyone get in touch with that tug for nirvana. Buddhist artists keep in mind the need to empty themselves, which is called sunyata. The reality of life is that there is no God, no soul, no eternity; all is Emptiness. Whereas fullness is always changing and is unstable; emptiness is the truth of existence that must be understood by the mind and the heart. Paradoxically, enlightenment emerges out of emptiness. In realizing the wisdom of emptiness, followers see from the perspective of wholeness, seeing everyone as equal and interconnected to oneself rather than separate from oneself. Rather than seeing the world through the small lens of the self sitting in a classroom, imagine looking back at the world from the "emptiness" of outer space. Seeing from outer space changes your perspective so that you see from wholeness or oneness. In-­‐class Presentation: Introduction to Buddhist Topics In pairs: Using this website www.exoticindiaart.com to prepare your presentation. Questions to consider: 1. How does this art form help you the artist and viewer understand wisdom (understanding the nature of reality, which is emptiness) as well as compassion (care for all)? 2. How does this art form help the artist and viewer move from ordinary to spiritual awareness? 1. The Mandala • Why do Buddhists pour the mandala into the sea after they finish this long project? • How does the mandala maker prepare for this task? • Possible practice: Create something of beauty and then destroy it to remove the temptations to your ego. (For the sake of the project, do document what you do.) 2. The Bodhisattva Ideal (June, 2002): Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Maitreya • Make sure you understand that this is the ideal of Mahayana Buddhism, and in contrast to the arhat of Theravada Buddhism 3. 8 symbols of Buddhist art (October, 2003) 4. Buddhist Wheel of Life (Sept, 2000) 5. Buddha and Christ similarities (Nov, 2003): • You may want to show how both of them "empty" themselves on their path to bringing salvation/enlightenment to all. 1. 5 Meditating Buddha (July, 2003)(challenging, may be better as a project -­‐ see Mahayana Cosmology below) 2. The Stupa (Feb, 2003) 3. Sanchi Stupa http://www.art-­‐and-­‐archaeology.com/india/sanchi/san0.html 4. Healing and the Buddha (not as strong) (July, 2002) 5. Colors in Buddhist art (Feb, 2002) 6. Kuan Yin 7. Wrathful Guardians of Buddhism (Feb, 2001) 8. Mudras of the Great Buddha (Aug, 2001) 9. Ritual Implements in Tibetan Buddhism (June, 2001) 10. Feminine Ideals in Buddhist Art: Green Tara and White Tara (Nov, 2000) Other possible choices: • Prostrations: Some Tibetans may do this for months at a time; Rabten is completing 100,000 -­‐ he does 400-­‐500/day. • Prayer wheels and prayer flags in Tibetan Buddhism • Buddhist sites in Asia: Borobudur in Indonesia, or Angkor Wat in Cambodia • Make a "pilgrimage" to various Hindu/Buddhist holy sites in Hong Kong: visit the Kadampa Center where Rabten teaches; the Hindu temple in Happy Valley, etc. [buddhist art project] General Criteria of an Oral Presentation: Synthesis of ideas: 1. You provide some focus to the presentation (e.g., some question to be answered, some “angle” that gives interest in the presentation, some explanation of how your project can help us learn something new and valuable about Eastern religions) 2. How did your study impact your attempt to do a spiritual practice? What were the results? (Do you want to lead us in your spiritual practice as part of the presentation?) 3. You are able to refer to or make connections with ideas that we have already covered in the class. Preparation/content: 1. You know your material well without having to refer too much to notes. 2. Your presentation is organized (introduction, body, conclusion) 3. You provide details, elaboration, examples and explanations to support your topic. 4. You stick to your topic and complete your project in a timely fashion (8 minutes). 5. Outside research supports your presentation. 6. Creative spiritual inquiry helps you get answers to your questions. 7. Knowledgeably answer questions posed to you by the listeners. Effective Presentation Skills: 1. Your voice is clear and strong and can be heard and understood by everyone. 2. You make eye contact, show warmth, and make your audience feel comfortable. 3. You smile and show interest/enthusiasm in the topic yourself. 4. You stand confidently during your presentation. 5. Students are able to take notes on your presentation. Presentation tips: • Length: Approximately 8 minutes • Visually attractive, with pictures and symbols to capture viewers' eye and "religious imagination" • A minimum of words, so that you are presenting to us, not reading to us. • Try to include a video clip, if available and useful. • Demonstrate considerable critical thinking, where you analyze what you read, make connections between other religious traditions and this one, reflect on your beliefs through this project. From Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple 1. The Nun's Tale (1-­‐28): Prasannamati • Possible practice: giving up some food or practice for the time of the project, and replacing it with some kind of spiritual practice (e.g., meditation, prayer, chanting, etc.) 2. The Dancer of Kunner (29-­‐55): Hari Das • Possible practice: do some kind of dance that is dedicated to God/the spiritual world. 3. The Singer of Epics (78-­‐111): Mohan in Rajasthan • Possible practice: Singing or storytelling of religious stories; create a song or story to share with others; but it must have a spiritual practice component, not just creation of the story (one of my students last summer did a rap). • Conclusion: we can appreciate how they learned to find the sacred in their culture; but we can't believe -­‐ how can we find the staircase? 4. The Red Fairy (112-­‐145): Lal Peri in Sind, Pakistan • Possible practice: Some type of movement (including dance) that involves meditation. 5. The Maker of Idols (176-­‐204): Srikanda Stpathy in Tamil Nadu Possible practice: (1) Do some form of meditation before you do some kind of artwork, especially if the theme is religious or spiritual in nature (e.g., some years ago a student drew a picture of Kwan Yin as a meditation -­‐ it was beautiful) (2) Like we learned at ISKCON, you can wake up, greet, feed your deities in the morning. This is called darshan. 6. The Song of the Blind Minstrel (234-­‐260) • Possible practice: Do 21 breaths before you listen to Bauls music. Listen on a daily basis. •