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Hoa
Nghiem Pagoda by Kelly Packard |
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For my second encounter I decided to go to a Buddhist place of worship. Since I have been studying Buddhism for my game project, I decided this would be an interesting visit. I decided to go to this particular place because it was closest to my "encounter group". Jen, Tammy and I wanted to go together. So I called first and spoke with a man named Tom who used to live there. He told me that I could probably go by at any time on Saturday, but he gave me the new number of the pagoda just to make sure. He warned me that the two monks who live there do not speak the best English, but they should understand me well enough. So, I called the new number and spoke with the monk. I could not understand his name too well, but he said that we were welcome to come by anytime that day. So we all met there at about 3:30 pm Saturday. The pagoda was a house right off the main road surrounded by other homes. This one was different though, because it had statues outside and parking spots in the back. We parked in the back and went inside. The younger monk who lived there said we could look around and take any brochures that we wanted. Then about 10 minutes later, the older monk came home. He talked to us more in depth. We followed his lead and took our shoes off. He showed us in to a very large room that was very decorated and pretty. It had pretty red Persian carpets and 4 shrines. There was a large shrine to Buddha with fruit offerings and lights all around it. Then there were 3 smaller shrines also with statues and fruit. He told us that the statues represented love and compassion. There were photo boards with pictures of the Buddhists that worship there and vases of ashes of monks who had passed in a display case. It was a very bright room with big windows. The monk was very nice and seemed to be thrilled that we were interested in his culture and religion. He gave us books on Buddhism in English that he got out of his room. We were also given brochures from the pagoda, but there we all in his native Vietnamese, but we thought they were interesting even thought we could not understand them. The monk explained to us that there would be a meditation session the next day, Sunday at 3:30 that would be proceeded by a lunch at noon. He invited us to come and offered us fruit. The kitchen was set up for about 30 people to sit and eat. He said there is an open lunch for anyone interested Sundays at noon. We could not meet at noon the next day, but we did go back at 3:30 for the meditation session. Everyone was very nice. They wore either slippers or no shoes when they went into the large room. They sat on little round pillows with their legs crossed and meditated to the words of the head monk. He wore the traditional brown draped robe and spoke in chants in Vietnamese. We sit on the outside of the room and observed while sitting with our legs crossed and no shoes. It was really rather relaxing, even thought we didn't know what they were saying during this time. We felt very welcome by everyone and it was a nice, calming atmosphere. I am now very interested in learning more about the teachings of Buddha. His people are very warm and open. That really attracts me to a religion. I am glad that I went. This is something I probably never would have done if I was not asked to for this project. It has sparked an interest in me. I will continue to learn more about Buddhism for my own benefit. |
| Created by Laura Ellen Shulman |
Last updated: December 2002
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