Power Point and Buddhism

So this trip wasn’t necessarily to find myself, my identity. It was to grow, yes, but I was not set on coming back fully feeling connected to my Chinese roots. Since I have been here, the whole week of it, I have not felt much different about who I am but do manage to have sporadic moments where I see some part of myself in something broadly stated about the Chinese people. I can’t exactly tell you precisely what examples of these I have to show for myself but perhaps my first “Life and Buddhism” class is an attempt. I know that anyone could take this class from a Western background and seen things in the Buddhist doctrine that matched their personal outlook on life. I realize this. But as I have never been one to attend religious services or really practice any sort of spiritual ritual (I don’t think doing yoga at the gym really counts…) my new teacher, Dr. Guang Xing, gave me some sort of glimpse at a service that I could get into. That I could listen to and not feel cynical or brainwashed. So for all of you who know zero about Buddhism, aside from the fact that it involves some fat man with long earlobes, I will ever so briefly enlighten you as to what I got from my two hour lecture today. I called this segment power point and Buddhism because I couldn’t help but notice the juxtaposition of the robed monk resembling man standing in front of me as he went over the course syllabus on the big screen and told us about power point presentations we could do for our group presentation. I don’t know if any of you think of Buddhism and picture some tranquil green hill with bonsai trees and a modest monastery hidden somewhere in the folds of it…but I do. The other day I had to snap a picture of this really awesome old building in the city that was sandwiched on either side by McDonald’s infamous “M’s”. It just screamed Hong Kong to me. So even though Professor Xing was talking to us about how the material values of the west were corrupting the east (as I can clearly see in the shopping areas in Hong Kong and in the youth culture) he was still using the very modern or material use of a computer as his teaching medium. It just struck me as an odd juxtaposition. I think it is amazing that such old practices and traditions still are around today but are often adapted to fit into the 21st century. Some monks are practicing in those hills while we are inventing cars that parallel park themselves. But, after hearing a basic outline of Buddhist values and attitudes on life, it seems that Buddhism and many other religions I am sure, can still apply today as people are still people ipods or no ipods. So men still strive for happiness and mistake it for pleasure. People still have the ability to act positively or negatively (whether or not the believe in rebirth and karma) and even though I haven’t read the news in a long time, I am pretty sure people are still suffering. I guess the components of Buddhist thought that I appreciated most from lecture today was the emphasis on seeking refuge within oneself, not outside refuges, and, following that mindset, that we have the power to liberate ourselves through effort and intelligence. We have an individual ability to make the most of what we are given in this world for “life is in between breaths”. I felt like he was directly speaking to me in the context of making the most of my time here; I have always appreciated good use of time. So, this is probably more than you wanted to know about Buddhism and my take on it but it was one of the more important things I got out of living this day, today. I will keep you posted on the further progress of my gradual own trek towards some modern form of enlightenment.