Sangha

Be Kind, and Be Yourself Has anyone ever told you that your name doesn’t matter? Has anyone ever told you to move to a different country because of your race or religion? Has anyone ever told you to change? I am Rusna Sangha, and I have been told horrible things about myself that no one should ever have to hear. It started off with students. I was in kindergarten at Robert J. Burch Elementary School. We were cleaning up after a class activity when a girl came up to me. She said this: “You’re Indian, why don’t you go back to your Indian school?” At first, I thought that this is just a little girl at a young age where kids don’t really know what they are saying. The next time something like this happened, was in second grade at lunch. My friend, Gabby, was telling me about her vacation to New York when I heard giggles coming from the opposite end of the table. A bunch of girls and boys were pointing fingers at me and saying, “Hey look, its Rus-nut.” I turned away and tried to ignore the fact that they were making fun of my name, by telling myself that they were just ignorant second graders. The rest of the year was hard for me. Many still called me by that name to poke fun and annoy me. I told my parents, and we moved schools the next year. Now, people…

passage focus on the forest monks as well as the official sangha in Bangkok. Both these styles of Buddhism strive for the same goal, but the path to the goal are very different. Forest monks use mainly meditation and wandering as their main form of Buddhist practice. They also practice fasting as well as adapting to their surroundings in crucial times. The relationship between the forest monks and the official sangha is a complex one in that they share similar views but also differ in many other…

of the sangha but rather potential converts—however it ignores the experience and interpretations of other lifelong Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama as well as potential ramifications from Buddha’s other teachings. First, the Buddha acknowledged the fact that errors would occur in the preservation of his message over time: “...these two things are conducive to the confusion and disappearance of the Good Teaching [dharma]. What two? It is the displacement of words and letters that do not convey…

hundreds of paper lamps, including some shaped like lotus flowers, through the temple grounds and linking every structure. Lay people make a small contribution, in exchange for which the monks will write the names of the household on a worth certificate, which is then devoted to a lamp. That evening, each household will seek out the lantern with their family's certificate attached, place a candle inside, and light it, and monks and lay people similar will amble around enjoying the beauty of the…

Imagine, at the temple on the occasion of the Tet Day, you see a blond girl in a traditional Vietnamese long dress, what your feelings will be like? Surely you are curious and try to find out whether he is actually an American. On YouTube, there is one a girl who wears a long dress and sings Viet Khang’s song. The Vietnamese people feel that it’s an honor because our costumes and music are being highlighted through an American. Why so? Why do we need someone else, not a Vietnam origin to…

Good morning everyone, today’s blog is going to be a bit different; I mean you all might not even believe me. Yesterday I went to visit my parents in Seattle for the holidays; only to come across a laboratory in our attic. Apparently, my brother is this boy genius that everyone failed to tell me about. I came across this machine that reminded me of the freezer that froze Fry on Futurama and then he was thawed out thousands of years later. Crazy how it intrigued me enough to get in, and I did;…

begging beg is part of sangha 's lif style. Women 's menstruation and body strength weaker than men, those cause to bring trouble for sangha 's life. For against social pressure, the Buddha created the eight vows to keep bhikkhu go to worship and maintain the discipline of the sangha ' life. Eight vows was an established agreement at the beginning of women became Bhikkhuni. The eight vows also become rules and tangible or intangible restrict to Bhikkhuni more than two thousand years. Eight vows…

"About Buddhism." About Buddhism. About Buddhism, 2007. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. This website gives a brief explanation about what Buddhism is, its beliefs, its history, and how it is today. It gives an explanation of who founded Buddhism, which was Buddha Shakyamuni. ‘Shakya’ is the name of the royal family, which was where he came from and ‘Muni’ means ‘Able One.’ At the age of 29, he retired and followed a spiritual life of meditation. Later on he attained enlightenment from the Bodhi Tree in…

Buddhism Was the Buddha a God? He was not, nor did he claim to be. He was a man who taught a path to enlightenment from his own experience. Is Buddhism a Religion? To many, Buddhism goes beyond religion and is more of a philosophy or 'way of life'. It is a philosophy because philosophy 'means love of wisdom' and the Buddhist path can be summed up as. What is Buddhism? Buddhism is a religion to about 300 million people around the world. The word comes from 'budhi', 'to awaken'. It has its origins…

My Visit to Albuquerque Vipassana Sangha I decided to take a trip to the Albuquerque Vipassana Sangha to study Buddhism for my religion experiential essay. On August 4, 2016 I found myself in a setting in which I never would have thought I would see because I was raised a Christian Baptist who was once taught that her religion was the only true and accurate religion. As the time for the meditation and dharma talk approached, I began feeling nervous and excited to try something new. As I exited…