Activities to get students thinking about Buddhism
After sharing the basics about Buddha’s life, Buddhist practices, and Sherpa culture:
- Remind students about what led Siddhartha to make the decision to leave his material wealth behind and pursue truth. Ask them to think about a time in their lives when they found out something about the world that they didn’t know. How did effect them? – Use the meditation guide to have students practice meditating. Have a class discussion after the attempt. How did they like it? What were the challenges? Connect back to Buddha and the tree. Why is meditation important for achieving enlightenment?
Questions for Deep Thought
– Why did the spread of Buddhism increase after Siddhartha’s death?
-Why do most of the visual representation of the dieties in the Buddhist traditions sit in the same position?
– Why didn’t Siddhartha’s father want him leaving the castle?
- Have students complete a Venn Diagram, comparing and contrasting the Ten Commandments and the 8-Fold Path of Buddhism. (Handouts)
- Read a few Buddhist proverbs together as a class and discuss their meanings and the traits that make them proverb. Then read aloud the definition for a proverb. Finally ask students to try writing their own proverbs.
-Show students the many cartoons that reference various aspects of Buddhism and choose one for students to evaluate, using the Cartoon Analysis Worksheet. |
