During this visit you will need to pay close attention to your surroundings, be able to explain what happened during the service and how it felt during your time there. If you get a sense of the sacred at this service, try to describe what it was like. This report should be two pages, double spaced. Pay particular attention to the use of sacred books and how they are used in worship and ritual.
Visiting a Buddhist Meditation
1. Denomination of Faith - Which branch of Buddhism are you exploring during this visit?
2. Architecture and Interior Organization - Where is the meditation taking place? Are there benches, chairs, bulletin boards, artifacts, incense, ect.?
3. Style of Worship - Ritualistic, order of service, bulletin, formal, informal? How long was the session?
4. Music - Is it classical, contemporary, or another style? Do you see a choir or instruments?
5. Sacred Texts - What translation? Which texts? Who reads the text?
6. Prayer/Meditation - Is it recited, personal, or silent? This can include meditation, chanting, walking, ect.
7. Form Service was Given - Was it guided meditation, sermon, homily, spoken word? Were there different elements?
8. Theology - What ideas were presented?
9. Posture in Meditation - Are you standing, sitting, kneeling, touching?
10. Authority - Hermeneutics, who interprets the scripture and how?
11. Intangibles - Is there a sense of the sacred? Explore, in as much detail as possible, the thoughts that arose in your time there.
*Keep in mind these questions: What did you expect? What was different from those expectations?
Ashlee Godwin, revised 3/28/2013
faisal11992
buddhist_visit.docx
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