June - religion and spirituality; the story of Buddha

19/6/2015

We started our June session reviewing the homework from our session in May. The discussion included a question about spirituality compared to religious institutions. As a result of the discussion our homework for this month is to define each the following in a single sentence:

What is religion?
What is spirituality?
Are we religious, spiritual, or something else?

We went on to look at a documentary on the story of Buddha. This gave some insights into the background of Buddhism, including some of the myths behind his birth and early life. It was interesting to compare these to the record in the Bible re the birth of Jesus. For example, there was a story of a mother’s dream of a child becoming the Buddha, and in Isaiah there is a prediction of the birth of Jesus. Mike shared some thoughts from his study of the Gospels, bringing together some of the learning from our previous sessions, and also highlighting some similarities between Buddhism and Christianity. This brought in an extra question to look at as part of our homework – what is Gnosticism?

A reminder for students that we are now commencing the session at 1:00pm.

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About Comparative Religion

This program is a systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices of some of the world religions. In order to gain a richer experience of a particular faith, a relevant film will be shown to enhance the understanding of the diverse nature of the religion being studied. Faiths covered will include Pacific Islander/Australian Indigenous beliefs, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity and Judaism. As well as guest speakers and film, we will source material from the internet projected onto the TV via USB stick.

Meeting times

1st Wednesday 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm with the option of remaining until 3.30 pm if required on the day W4

Convenor/s and Contact Details

Mike Larkin 5767 2323 (0428273613 - no reception at home).