Temple Tour

OPS Name

temple tour

Why this OPS?

People in the school and the Buddhist Student Association wanted to experience more of the religious places, and I knew more of them in the city than most people, so it made sense for me to take on most of the organizing

Objectives

Since the majority of the people in the student organization and the school are Mahayana Buddhist - and most of them from Chinese culture, I wanted to show them what some other forms of Buddhism were like as well as some of the dominant religion of the country, Christianity. I have heard of, read about, and experienced many misunderstandings not just between religions, but also between branches in Buddhism. So I also think getting to know and talk with people from different traditions is not just interesting, but helps engender understanding between people, prevent animosities, and create valuable memories for people to rely on in situations where they would otherwise have no background with the "other"

How to implement it?

I set up tours and Q$A at a Vajrayana temple in the Shingon tradition and at Wat Thai in downtown LA, along with a tour of the oldest Church in LA and its surrounding Hispanic area. I mapped out the travel plans and went to every place beforehand to check it out as well.

Benefits

Well, I think the first benefit is people who don't have cars were able to get out and have fun :) But it was also a valuable experience for people to meet others from different cultures and different ways of practice than they are used too. They got to have long talks with a priest from Japan and a monk from Thailand and had many questions throughout the day, so to me, that showed the participants gained a lot. As an added bonus that I did not expect, Wat Thai had recently received a special robe from the king of Thailand and were holding a special festival for it on the day we had our tour and meeting with the monk. It made parking and finding each other much more difficult, but the added experience was well worth it :)

Well some of this will be copy and pseted from the benefits section:
Well, I think the first benefit is people who don't have cars were able to get out and have fun :) But it was also a valuable experience for people to meet others from different cultures and different ways of practice than they are used too. They got to have long talks with a priest from Japan and a monk from Thailand and had many questions throughout the day, so to me, that showed the participants gained a lot. As an added bonus that I did not expect, Wat Thai had recently received a special robe from the king of Thailand and were holding a special festival for it on the day we had our tour and meeting with the monk. It made parking and finding each other much more difficult, but the added experience was well worth it :) I think doing all of this in one day might have been a little exhausting for people, but from what I heard it was exhausting in a good way and people enjoyed it, so that's good

The area with many Mexican cultural shops outside the Church