Buddhism - Rituals & Rites of Passage!!!!URGENT!!!! (1 Viewer)

[tako]

Hey, i have to do an oral report that disucsses the nature and significane of rituals and rites of pasage within buddhism and so far i have a whole lot of information but i am having alot of trouble in linking it to any concepts.

The concepts to be used are the key and fundamental but more specifically in relation to:

Power and Authority
Change and Continuety
Technology
Globalisation
Westernisation
Socialisation - This is the one i think ties in best as it allows for construction of identity through rituals.

Could some one please help me make relationships between concepts help would much be appreciated. Below is what i have written so far:





Good day my peers today I will outline the nature and significance of rituals and rites of passage in creating identity through socialization, within our chosen belief system of Buddhism.

Rituals and rites of passage make up a large part of the socialization that occurs within the belief system. Since a common ritual established by Buddhists is the chanting of the “three refuges” and the “five percepts” this means that people often participate in such rituals in temples or monasteries.

A rite of passage is a universal confirmatory ritual or event that marks a change of social or religious status, or provides a smooth passage through a life crisis or lift stage.

An example of such a rite of passage is during a stage in there life when many young men from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism take temporary ordination as novice monks for a short period of time, usually about 3 months. This is normally considered to be a rite of passage into adulthood. Other Buddhists such as the Thai Loa and Cambodians often ordain into monk hood for a short time perhaps only a few days following the death of a parent. This is done in order to transfer the result of their good action or merit to the departed parent.


Initiation into Buddhism

In order to become a Buddhist there is no specific initiation process or ceremony although one is often held to uphold the sacred formula of “The Three Refuges” and “The Five Percepts” in order to be considered a Buddhist. After the acceptance of this formula one investigates Buddha’s teachings and puts effort into practicing the suggestions made.



Monk hood

If one wishes to become a Bhikkhu (Buddhist Monk) there is a long process of disciplinary training and education ceremony. This ceremony involves the novice (the name given to a person training to become a monk) the abbot (head of the monastery) and the sangha (the community of monks). Before initiation into the training the novice monk must shave his head and answer questions from the elder monks, if they believe it is satisfactory the novice monk’s proceeds and is admitted to the sangha and there training begins.


Marriage

In Buddhism marriage is not considered a religious ritual rather it is governed by civil law, and those who choose to marry must still obey by the law in the country in which they live.

Meditation

Meditation is a common ritual and perhaps the most widely practiced within Buddhism. This kind of meditation can occupy up to eight or more hours a day. This means that meditation Buddhism can be classified as a fulltime occupation and is practiced especially by monks or nuns. This is one of the largest agents of socialization within the belief system as it is something that people have in common.


Taking Refuge
Initiation
Reciting the Five Percepts
Ordination as Monks
Heads having
Marriage
Ceremonies
Chanting & meditation

 

[G.I.Joe]

No idea.... Any one????
Does any one have any suggestions what so ever... Im really strugling this this one.

 

[Kulazzi]

P&A - these would be the monks who are considered to have a higher status amongst the buddhists

C&C - Compare Buddhism from it's original country (ie India) and talk about how it has been manifested within different countries (mahayan, vajrayana and theravada) and especially the perception of Buddhism in the west

Technology/Globalisation/Westernisation -

Evaluating and identifying the impact of globalisation and technology on the belief system

If we contemplate, in the light of the Buddhist analysis, the dangers that hang over us in our globalised world order, it will become clear that they have assumed such precarious proportions due to the unrestrained proliferation of greed, hatred, and delusion as the basis of human conduct. It is not that these dark forces of the mind were first awakened with the Industrial Revolution; they have indeed been the deep springs of so much suffering and destructiveness since time immemorial. But the one-sided development of humankind — the development of outward control over nature, coupled with the almost complete neglect of any attempts to achieve self-understanding — has today given the unwholesome roots an awesome, unprecedented power that veers ever closer to the catastrophic.

Through the prevalence of greed the world has become transformed into a global marketplace where human beings are reduced to the status of consumers, even commodities, and where materialistic desires are provoked at volatile intensities. Through the prevalence of hatred, which is often kindled by competing interests governed by greed, national and ethnic differences become the breeding ground of suspicion and enmity, exploding in violence and destruction, in cruelty and brutality, in endless cycles of revenge. Delusion sustains the other two unwholesome roots by giving rise to false beliefs, dogmatic views, and philosophical ideologies devised in order to promote and justify patterns of conduct motivated by greed and hatred.

The production, development and consumption of technology have mostly been of a kind which leads people to heedlessness, intoxication and dullness, especially in the present time, when many parts of the world have stepped into the Information Age. If mankind practices wrongly in regard to this information technology, it becomes an instrument for promoting heedlessness rather than an educational aid.

Buddhism with its ancient teaching and cultures must seize the opportunity and adapt itself so that it can make a meaningful contribution to the social and spiritual needs of the inhabitants of this blue planet via this new medium.

While Buddhism is not a religion that proselytes, that is, seeking to win over or convert, it certainly has a sense of its own mission in spreading its message. In the past the Buddha's Teachings spread slowly, not only due to the limitations of ancient communications, but because it needed to make a local adaptation to each new culture it encountered. For example, it took the Buddha's Dharma about 500 years to go from India to China. It is not only the time factor, but also the need to transform itself into "Chinese Buddhism". That is, it had to accommodate itself to the indigenous religions and philosophies: Taoism and Confucianism, before it was acceptable locally. But in the process of accommodating itself to the local culture the Teaching is transformed and can be very different from the original.

The difference in a globalised world is that the acceptance of the Buddha's teachings does not depend on whether it can accommodate itself to a particular culture or religion but the appeal of its core insights. In fact the cultural accretion has to be differentiated from the core understandings before it can be seen to resonate with universal truths. So, in an increasingly secular and globalised world where technology and scientific appraisal is all pervasive, the Dharma or Truth itself stands alone.

In the spiritual vacuum called the Modern World - with its preoccupation with having it all, there is a need to make known the contribution that Buddhist mental culture can offer. The techniques of meditation, for example, can be explained and illustrated very well on the Net through streaming audio and video, with the student being guided by an online teacher. The characteristic of the Internet is its interconnectivity - global interdependence.

These are from my notes in the resource section.

Also, I recommend you check out Buddhanet for more reliable information