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University's Mission Through a Buddhist Lens
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Students in John Nelson's survey course on Buddhism take part in a pilgrimage around campus and nearby areas. The class also included a service-learning component. |
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As John Nelson sees it, studying Buddhism provides students with more than the chance to learn about the religion. It also offers them the opportunity to connect Buddhism with the University of San Francisco's mission: Compassion, service to the poor, and nonviolence are all major parts of Buddhism.
"You'll find a very strong ethic of trying to help people and helping to alleviate suffering in whatever capacity you can," said Nelson, associate professor of theology and religious studies.
To help get that point across, Nelson taught this semester's survey course on Buddhism as a service-learning class. Students had the option of working with various Buddhist-related organizations throughout the Bay Area or spending their time with several groups that are not affiliated with Buddhism, such as the De Marillac Academy, a Catholic school in the Tenderloin, and Glide Memorial Church.
"It doesn't really matter where they go, it's how they go," said Nelson, who is not Buddhist, but who has studied its traditions extensively. "It's what kind of spirit of participation they have."
Although junior history major Krystle Lohmann worked at three non-Buddhist organizations for her service-learning, she found the experiences enhanced her understanding of the religion. On her first day at the Haight-Ashbury Kitchen, for example, Lohmann washed dishes for five hours. Yet instead of focusing on the ticking of the clock and the downsides of such an assignment, she chose to take a more Buddhist-like approach and think about the greater good. Lohmann reminded herself that there are people who do that very job every day and that she should enjoy being in the moment.
"Even when I was finished, it wasn't like, 'Oh great, I'm out of there,'" Lohmann said. "It was like, 'Wow, that felt great.' It was so rewarding."
This was the second time Nelson has taught the class as a service-learning course. Nelson, who recently returned from a sabbatical year that included six months in Japan, aimed to teach students about Buddhism as it is practiced rather than what a textbook says. To do that, he incorporated many practices and customs from Buddhist traditions worldwide and took students on trips to local Buddhist temples.
Students' Buddhist-related options for fulfilling the service-learning component included:
- Serving meals to the homeless. The San Francisco Zen Center prepares and distributes boxed lunches to the homeless populations in the Tenderloin, on Sixth Street and near the Civic Center Plaza. Students assisted with all aspects, from cooking to packaging to meal delivery.
- Organic gardening. The Green Gulch Zen Center has a 5-acre organic garden that provides fruit and vegetables for Greens restaurant, the San Francisco Zen Center, and residents of Green Gulch. Students helped maintain and manage the garden.
- Preparing books about Buddhism. At Dharma Publishing, students prepared books about Buddhism for distribution around the world.
- Assisting the terminally ill. Through the Zen Hospice Project, students participated as assistants to the director of education for seminars and workshops and during 'happy hour' for terminally ill patients at Laguna Honda Hospice.
- Preparing reading material about Buddhism. Students working at the Prison Liberation Project packaged books for those incarcerated and interested in learning about the religion.
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