Final trip- Zen Buddhism

I am glad that the Buddhist place was the last place we visited this J Term. It was the sacred space in which, as a class, we most fully participated in the worship service and I feel that our previous three weeks of study and cultural submersion allowed us to be open and respectful to the Zen practice. I know that the Zen meditation was hard for many people in our class but they recognized its importance and were, to the best of their ability, able to respect it. If we had gone to this place first, I don’t know if some people in the class would have been as respectful. However, there are more important reasons as to why I am glad we visited this place last.
Firstly, like I said, we fully participate in their worship service and I thought this was a fun way to end the class. I have meditated before but this was a new experience for me. It was nice having trained individuals who knew a lot about the Zen practices. Their guidance allowed me to get the most out of my time there. For example, we were instructed at one point to “let the sound of the bell enter into us” and I found that to be a moving experience. That sound similar to the striking of the leaders hand on the floor allowed me to momentarily clear my mind.
Secondly, and most importantly, the leaders explained things in a way that was very relatable to real life. Throughout this entire course I have been interested in how closely related all the religions are to each other. All of the religions we have studied present an aspect of a lifestyle rather than just a practice or dogma and I have been trying to see how I can relate parts of each religion to my life. It really impressed me when the one leader mentioned the story about his father dying. At his father’s deathbed he began saying Buddhist mantras until, without even noticing, he began saying the rosary. His dad was a devote Catholic and saying a Hail Mary for his dad was perfectly acceptable at that moment.
Hearing that story and also hearing how the people of this Zen Buddhism take their practices, especially the Koans, and incorporate them into the rest of their life was like the final piece of a puzzle I was trying to solve. After that visit and all the other visits and movies and readings and class discussions the picture was clear to me. Religion exists to help people live their lives and they are so closely related at times because as humans we naturally want certain things such as peace, love, structure in our lives and a connection to God or a higher source. I have learned so much from this course and I know that an understanding of other religions has strengthened an understanding of my own religion and how I should live my life; much like being able to understand the full mirror allows you to understand the empty mirror.

Hindu Temple

The trip to the Hindu temple was our longest of the class. It was about a 3 hours drive one way, however; I still enjoyed this field trip a lot. The extra time allowed for our class to bond more and we were able to hear some more personal stories from the professor. Overall the ride in the van was fun but I can’t forget about the actual time spent at the temple because it was fun as well.
The first thing I noticed about the temple was the size and beauty of it. From an outward appearance this building stands out more than any of the other sacred spaces we have visited as a class. It looks like the largest place we have been to and it has detailed sculptures which rise up in mountain shape structures on the roof. The beauty of this building can be seen from far away and because of this it easily draws people’s curiosity.
When we went inside the temple I noticed how similar it was to the mosque and synagogue in that it is a community space. By this I mean there is a cafeteria and a place to watch concerts and socialize. Both the mosque and synagogue have areas like this that are open to the public as well. For these three religions the socialization and worship spaces are created separately, while for Christians the socialization takes place in the worship space. This socialization aspect of the temple made sense to me because my friend goes to a temple and he will often spend several hours there. Our guide even mentioned to us that families with make a trip to the temple an all day outing by eating, socializing, and worshiping throughout the day. It is not a type of sacred space I am used to but it seems like a fun one.
After we saw the social space downstairs we headed upstairs to the worship space. Upon seeing this space I had to stop and regroup for a second because there were many statues of Gods that were worshiped and I had never seen anything like that before. I was especially surprised because I thought that Hinduism was really only concerned with the gods Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva, but there were many more Gods than that. Not only are there many statues of God that are praised, but Hindus believe in one higher power. Needless to say I struggled between the practices of polytheism and the belief of monotheism, but I don’t expect to fully understand after one visit to a temple. Hopefully I can grow in my understanding of the faith as I continue to study.
I had the awesome experience of participating in a short worship process that Hindus do. It includes covering your eyes with incense, drinking holy water, receiving a blessing from Vishnu and receiving almonds. Unfortunately I don’t know what everything means but I still found it to be inspiring. I was impressed as to how open they are to letting people of other faiths participate with them. I really enjoyed the temple; I felt welcomed in and I plan to go back in the future.

Mosque in Cedar Rapids

I found the trip to the mosque to be very educational. Firstly, the similarities between Islam and Christianity continue to surprise me. I knew threw our readings and class discussions that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and they believe in the virgin birth and they believe in one God. Despite all of these similarities it still shocked me when I found out that Muslims believe in the return of Christ as King for the final judgment. At first that idea seemed to “Christian” to be part of the Islam faith. However, I quickly realized my ignorance and began to be more open to what I was learning.
One thing that helped me understand the Islam faith more was the idea or term “People of the Book”, the Book being the Torah, Bible, Qur’an or other writings from the Jewish, Christian or Islam faiths. The people then are obviously the people of those faiths. To Muslims all of these people worship the same God and their holy books have similar origins and content. I had never heard Islam compared to Judaism or Christianity this way before but it made a lot of sense to me. Now I can see that these three religions are more like siblings rather than distant cousins, which is what I thought when I first started studying them.
Another thing that surprised me was the simplicity of the building. While the outside was architecturally different, I found the inside to be far more barren then I expected. I was even more surprised by this when I was told about the artistic nature of Arabic writing. Seeing some of the writings and hearing the language spoken was beautiful however, there were only a few images of Arabic writing in the building. One particular piece I did enjoy was the Arabic prayer written in the shape of a person praying on their knees.
This field trip was very beneficial to me because it was the first time I had been in a mosque and it was an educational experience that helped me bridge the gap between Islam and other religions, especially Christianity.

Judaism

At the synagogue today I found several things interesting. First and foremost being the Torah. The actual size of the scroll was very impressive especially considering the entire scroll was handwritten. This gave me a new appreciation for the importance of the Torah to the Jewish people. Although it was foreign to me, I found the Hebrew letters to be quite beautiful. It was magnificent to see the written words and to also be able to hear the words recited by a member of the Jewish community. It was a unique experience that I wish I get to encounter more often.
I was also amazed to see how intense of a ritual it is to keep kosher. Their kitchen was huge and they had two sets of everything including pots, pans, utensils, etc. All this was in order to keep dairy products separate from the meat, which I did not know was part of kosher ritual. Keeping kosher is a hard part of the Jewish lifestyle and I respect them for staying faithful to that.
Lastly, something that surprised me was learning that Chanukah is not a major Jewish Holiday. It’s the one I know the most about, but I found out that it is published so much because of its proximity to Christmas. In America it has been made out to be the Jewish Christmas which is not the case at all. It makes me wonder about a lot of things I “think” I know about. I really enjoyed learning more about Judaism and like a said before, I hope I get to experience more sometime soon.

Today, I had the great opportunity of visiting two sacred Christian spaces as part of my World Religions class. We traveled to the St. Francis Xavier Basilica in Dyersville and the New Melleray Abbey Monastery in Peosta. The Basilica was a visually stimulating place to visit. As soon as you walk in your eyes are almost overwhelmed by the fantastic décor. Everything from the vaulted ceilings with beautiful paintings to the vibrant stain glass to the enormous high alter made of marble lets you know you’re not in an average chapel. Obviously, part of the uniqueness is that by being a Basilica this Chapel is a home for the Pope if he were to ever visit Dyersville. By that I mean a Basilica is a Chapel in which the Pope can celebrate mass. Not only is the Basilica visually symbolically impressive, but it also has a lot of history. I really enjoyed the little things such as parts of the floor from St. Peter’s Basilica and the four bricks from the Holy Doors. Items like that are rare and make the church even more unique and special.
Unlike the vibrant Basilica, the monastery was very plain. It had a simple design as to keep from distracting the monks. While the design is simple it is not boring. I really enjoyed the stone walls which were not in a specific pattern. It gave a natural, comfortable feeling to the building. While both buildings were unique in their own ways I enjoyed the trip to New Melleray Abbey more than the Basilica because of the interaction with Father Stephen, our guide at the monastery. As a Catholic, I found much of what he said to be inspiring and spiritually uplifting. I liked when he was talking about his life of pray and stated, “Prayer is loving awareness of God”. That really helps put in perspective how close to God these monks are. They live a life centered completely on God and I think that is awesome. One other quote that really struck me was when Father Stephen was referring to the struggle of giving up sex, a wife and therefore a family. I was moved when he said, “Those things are so abused in our society that we need people who are willing to give those things up.” That inspires me to live a holy life and be grateful for what I have.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed traveling to both places. Both locations revealed a lot to me about the Christian faith and I feel that I have a better understanding of multiple ways of living the Christian life.