Gabriela Diaz

Professor Bandara
Final paper reflection
November 29, 2016

Like most in the public school system I learned about the ancient history of civilizations
across the world and the religions and social values that shaped them. A basic run through of the
tenants of the major world religions led me to the understanding of who Siddhartha Gautama was
and his main teachings such as the four noble truths, samsara the middle path, rebirth and
nirvana. Prior to this class these were the basic concepts of Buddhism that I had knowledge of
and during the semester I was able to learn much more about Buddhism as well as the elements
that made it possible for it to succeed as a religion and the social values and norms of the time. I
was able to learn how Buddhism was formed and how it was ultimately a reactionary movement
in response to the Buddhas experiences as a wealthy high caste Hindu and then a Jain monk
engaging in self mortification. This spread of Buddhism and kings Ashoka's role in it along with
the regional variations and cultural mixing that occurred as Buddhist teachings were distributed
across the Asian continent were also discussed. More complicated Buddhist concepts such as the
doctrine of emptiness and Anatman and the five aggregates gave a deeper viewpoint than I was
able to learn in my middle school and high school classes. The various branches and schools of
teachings as well as Buddhist art and contemporary world issues from a Buddhist view point
rounded of the semester and moved towards the current state of Buddhism as opposed to its past
history.
Another way we were able to get a better view of contemporary Buddhism was by
attending a Buddhist temple and experiencing a service. I attended the Buddhist temple of Salt

Lake City that was part of the Japanese Jodo Shinshu Honganji Ha sect. I really enjoyed the site
visit as it gave me a chance to move away from the past and into the present as modern American
Buddhists celebrate and practice their religion within Salt lake City and its suburbs. The
Buddhist temple had a very family orientated feel about it and had a casual and relaxed service
and involved the children and what they were currently learning from their dharma classes. It
was interesting to see how Buddhist art and teachings were incorporated into the service such as
with pictures and wood cuts of bodhisattvas and many old and delicate ceremonial objects that I
unfortunately do not know the name of. During the sermon the reverend as they are called in this
specific school of Buddhist thought gave a sermon on a very relevant topic in todays life, his
sermon was about disagreement and conflict and how to deal with it from a Buddhist
perspective. Overall it was interesting to see both very old Buddhist concepts and art mixed with
a very relevant discussion and sermon that show how the followers of this ancient religion use
their Buddhist principals to deal with current day problems.
As opposed to final exam we were able to choose an alternative in the form of an essay
about a topic presented in our text book. I choose to write about female ordination in various
Buddhist countries and denominations with a focus on nuns of Asian countries as opposed to a
worldwide overview. The book had a short section on the history and beginning of female nuns
starting with Gotami, Buddhas aunt and step-mother. Gotami was the first female to become
ordained and was the individual that first brought the idea to the attention of Buddha. Buddhas
reactions and his reasoning along with the general history of female ordination was the subject of
the first paragraph in my essay. I initially chose this topic as it wasnt covered too much in class
but had a decent amount of Info related to it in the book. The text book also had a larger section
on the current state of Buddhist nuns in todays world. I was most surprised about the how the

views of female ordination varied from country to country based on the major school of thought
present in the region. Mahayana, common in China and Korea held female nuns to high
standards and gave them full ordination, education and leadership roles while the more
conservative Theravada often had only novice ordination with some countries having no female
monastic lineages available at all. The views of lay people and monks as well as efforts to
increase the opportunities for nuns and how it mirrors our secular world it how I ended my final
paper. I chose to end my paper on the future because it was chronologically the most logical but
also because our class has also ended with discussing contemporary world issues from a
Buddhist standpoint.