Keyterm: Bhikkuni

Holy Cribs: The Vihara

A young Buddhist called Hivin welcomes TrueTube to his Vihara in West London. We’re given the full tour while learning about Buddhist beliefs and worship, and even get to see the monks who live there.

Curriculum Mapping

Component 1: The study of religions - beliefs, teaching and practices: Buddhism - The nature, use and importance of Buddhist places of worship - Temples, shrines, monasteries (viharas), halls for meditation or learning (gompas) and their key features including Buddha rupa, artefacts and offerings.

Area of Study 3 – Buddhism - Section 3: Living the Buddhist Life - Features of Buddhist places of worship: the divergent nature, history and design of Buddhist places of worship, including temples, gompas, viharas, shrines in Theravada, Mahayana and Triratna Buddhism; how and why the places of worship are used, including reference to the shrine room, shrine facing east, and the library, showing the importance learning, including reference to the Kimsila Sutta. Puja: The nature and purpose of puja in the vihara and the home, including reference to Mangala Sutta; examples of the different types; when each type might be used and why; the importance of having different types of worship and their use in different Buddhist contexts.

Component Group 1–Beliefs and teachings & Practices - Buddhism-Practices - Sacred and significant places and spaces for Buddhists •The importance ,features and functions of: •• Temples •• Gompas and viharas •• Shrines •• Sites of pilgrimage •• Artefacts and offerings •• Retreats •The events that take place in different significant places, including Bodh Gayaand the Deer Park at Sarnath •The meaning and significance of key artefacts and offerings made at different significant places,includingthedifferentimages of the Buddha and his hand positions( mudras) • The purpose and form of retreats • The importance of undertaking pilgrimages • Common and divergent emphases placed on significant places and spaces by different Buddhist groups, including the role and importance of retreats •Different interpretations and emphases given to sources of wisdom and authority by different Buddhist groups

2.1 Unit 1 PART A - Part A - Buddhism - Core beliefs, teachings and practices - Practices Places of 'Worship' and Puja  The importance of features and functions of a vihara/home shrine  Diversity of practices in Theravada and Mahayana puja (Buddha, buddhas, bodhisattvas, mudras, mantras, mandalas)  Dana (giving) – opportunity to make offerings of food to monks.  Examples of the work of sanghas in Wales (Swansea, Cardiff, Raglan)

2.3 Component 3 (Route A) - Option 1: Buddhism - Practices - Buddhist places of worship in Britain and elsewhere ➢ The importance of features and functions of temples and viharas; statues, shrines, stupa and meditation area. Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist temples in Britain compared to those in countries where Buddhism is widely practised. ➢ Offerings: food, light, flowers, incense, offerings of food to monks (dana)

Transcript

Holy Cribs: The Vihara

Hivin: Hello and welcome to the London Buddhist Vihara. My name is Hivin and I'm a Buddhist. My religion is called Buddhism and our holy building is often called a temple, but the proper name for it is a vihara. And I'm going to show you around. Come on in. The first thing we do is take off our shoes and leave them on this rack. We do this to keep the inside of the building as clean as possible, as a symbol of purity. A vihara is a Buddhist monastery, a place where Buddhist monks live and we do have monks living here. The proper name for a monk is a bhikkhu. Bhikkhus are people who have decided to devote themselves into a spiritual life of simplicity and meditation. Come with me. This is a shrine room. It's the most important part of a vihara or any Buddhist temple. We come here to do puja, which means worship, and to meditate in front of a shrine which contains a statue of the Buddha. The Buddha is not a god. He was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, a royal prince who lived in Nepal about 2500 years ago. The title Buddha means enlightened one or awakened one because we believe that he discovered the truth about the world, how to live a happier and better life. We follow the Buddhist teachings, what we call the dhamma, and we give offerings of flowers, candles, incense, fruit and rice to a statue to show our respect for him. During puja, everyone sits on the floor as a sign of humility and equality. There might be clean sheets spread out on the floor or mats or cushions for people to sit on, so we are comfortable and ready to begin. We often chant words or phrases called sutras, which come from our holy books. This helps us to get into the right frame of mind for meditation, which is a very important part of Buddhism.

Meditation is concentrating or thinking deeply, and there are lots of different ways to do it. Meditation helps us to learn how our minds work so we can be like the Buddha and see the world for what it is and how to be happier. I can't control what goes on out there, but I can learn to control what goes on in here. We use bells to start or end a meditation and they can come in lots of different shapes and sizes. Like this bowl shaped one here. These are used because if I hit it. The sound goes on for ages, getting quieter and quieter, and I love it. It really helps me calm down and concentrate on my meditation. Buddhism has a lot of symbols to help us remember the dhamma, the Buddhist teachings, and to help us meditate. The eight spoked wheel is probably the most important and the best known. It's called the Dhamma Wheel, and it represents the noble Eightfold Path; eight principles that the Buddha taught us to live by: Right Understanding; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right Mindfulness; and Right Concentration. This is a stupa. Really big ones are put up in places that are special to Buddhists, like where the Buddha was born or died or visited. Sometimes there are holy books or holy objects inside. For instance, things that used to belong to the Buddha, like clippings of his hair. Little stupas like this may also have something inside, but the shape itself has lots of different meanings. The eight rings around the top are another reminder of the Eightfold Path, which points towards the sky to symbolise the journey towards enlightenment. Which is when you know the truth about the world like the Buddha did. Some

Buddhists use a prayer wheel. It has sutras, words from a holy books, written around the outside and you hold the handle and spin it around. As it turns, the words are spread out into the air to bless everyone around. You sometimes get big ones to touch the walls or even turned by windmills or water wheels. Sutras are also written or printed onto flags which are hung up outside so that the wind can carry the blessings away to everyone. And we also have the stripey flag. The colours all have a meaning. Blue stands for peace and compassion. Yellow for the dhamma. Red for blessing. White for purity. Orange for wisdom. And all five together stand for unity. Mandala means circle or centre. Some Buddhists use these patterns to help them meditate. They are full of symbols with lots of different meanings. You see lotus flowers a lot in Buddhist art. Lotus flowers symbolise purity because they grow out of the mud at the bottom of lakes and rivers and float above it all, looking beautiful. It reminds us to be pure in an impure world. Welcome to our library. We have lots of holy books and books about the holy books. The most important are called the Tripitaka because that's where we find the teachings of the Buddha. My favourite is called the Dhammapada. These books were originally written in Pali, which was a language that used to be spoken during Buddha's time. And traditionally they were written on palm leaves. So we get these old odd shaped books with long, thin pages. And this is our meeting hall. We have lots of events here, like festivals and fundraisers for charity. Everything we do in the vihara is to help the Sangha, the community, and to support the bhikkhus who teach us and help us to become better Buddhists. Thanks for coming. You're welcome anytime. Bye.

Holy Cribs: The Vihara

Video length - 06.38

Published date - May 2023

Keystage(s) - 2, 3 and 4

Downloadable resources

A Day in the Life of a Buddhist Monk – Say hello to Manapo. He’s a Buddhist Monk, and TrueTube followed him around with a camera to find out what he does all day.

Transcript

Understanding Denominations: Christianity

Hi. I'm a Christian and so am I. But we come from different denominations of Christianity. A denomination is a branch or group within a religion. I'm a Roman Catholic and I'm a Protestant. We both believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died and rose again and then went to heaven. Jesus left his apostles, his messengers, to spread his teaching and made Peter their leader. And we believe that's when the Catholic Church started. The word Catholic comes from the Greek word katholikos, which means universal because the church was for everyone. But in the year 1054, the Great Schism happened. The church split into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, so called because it was based in Rome, and it became more and more powerful throughout Europe. Then in 1382, a professor at Oxford University, John Wycliffe, argued that it was time for the church to be reformed. But the Reformation Formation didn't really get going until 1517, when a German priest called Martin Luther started a protest against the Roman Catholics and the Protestant Church was born. Or the Protestant churches were born because there are different denominations within Protestantism, right? Yeah. In fact, I wouldn't usually call myself a Protestant. I'd call myself a Baptist, which is the Protestant denomination which I belong to. But there are also Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Quakers. There are lots of them. I get it. So what are the main differences between Roman Catholics and Protestants? Well, let's start with the church itself. The building, I mean, take a look. Roman Catholic churches usually have a lot of decoration and other stuff. The most common symbol we use is the crucifix. Jesus on the cross. It's a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us when he was crucified. Protestant churches tend to be plainer. Our symbol is an empty cross. Sometimes called a Latin cross. It reminds us that Jesus rose from the dead.

A Roman Catholic church is led by a priest. Only men can be priests and they can't get married or have children. They usually wear a white dog collar and put on long robes called vestments during services. We tend to call our church leaders ministers or pastors because we believe in the priesthood of all believers, that the leader of the church is no different to the rest of us. Most Protestant denominations have male and female pastors. They can get married, and they don't usually wear dog collars or vestments, although some do. The priesthood is something special in the Roman Catholic Church, especially the Pope. We believe that the Apostle Peter was the first pope, and the blessing he was given by Jesus has been passed down from man to man until we get to the present day Pope who leads the church. It's called the apostolic succession. We don't have a single leader. There's the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England. But other Protestant churches have their own leaders. The Roman Catholic Church's authority comes from the Bible and 2000 years of tradition. In Protestant churches, authority comes just from the Bible. We both believe in the Bible, which is a collection of 66 books written by different authors over about 1500 years. Reading the Bible and learning from it is really important to Protestants. The main focus of our services is a sermon, a talk given by the pastor to help explain the Bible's teachings. The Roman Catholic Bible has 73 books. The Protestants removed seven of them. Bible study is less important to us. We tend to concentrate on the sacraments, which are seven special ceremonies that were given the stamp of approval by Jesus. Baptism. Confirmation. Eucharist. Confession. Anointing of the sick, holy matrimony, and holy orders. Most Protestants would say there are only two sacraments Baptism and Holy Communion, but we do them differently. Baptism is a ritual wash symbolising the removal of sin and the start of a new life. Yeah, although we would say it's more than just a symbol, it's important that people get baptised so that they can become part of the church as soon as possible, whether they're babies or adults. We do it by sprinkling them with holy water from a big basin, like this, called a font. We have believers baptism, which means we only baptise people who can decide for themselves if that's what they want. Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan, so most Protestant churches will imitate that with baptism by full immersion, which means they go completely underwater in a baptismal pool or baptistry. Like this.

Celebrating the Eucharist, which we do during a service called mass, is central to Roman Catholic life. We're more likely to call it Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, or breaking of the bread. It's when we share bread and wine to symbolise the body and blood of Jesus. He asked his followers to remember his death on the cross in this way. But again, we would say it's more than just a symbol. Roman Catholics believe that while the outward form of the bread and wine stays the same, their essence becomes the body and blood of Jesus who is there again at the mass. The belief is traditionally called transubstantiation. People usually come up to the front of the church to receive the bread and wine from the priest. Although wafers are often used instead of bread, in Protestant churches, it's more usual for everyone to stay in their seats and for the bread and wine to be passed along the rows. The bread is usually actual bread, but a lot of churches use red grape juice instead of wine. You don't believe the bread and wine changed in any way? No, mostly some Protestants believe that the bread and wine are changed in a spiritual way. That they are blessed by God and become holy. But we don't believe that they are Jesus's body and blood. One of the sacraments you don't have is confession. We sit with the priest and tell him our sins, the things we've done wrong, and he forgives us on behalf of God and gives us a penance, which is something we do to show that we're sorry. We usually give him prayers to say. We can go to our pastors for advice, but we pray directly to God for forgiveness. We can pray directly to God as well, but our priests act like go betweens for us.

You also pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus and the saints, don't you? That's right. Saints are people who lived really holy lives. People we can be sure are in heaven. And do the saints answer your prayers? No. It's still God who answers the prayers. It's a bit like asking a friend to pray for you, but a saint has the advantage of already being in heaven and closer to God. It's why we have pictures and statues of saints and the Virgin Mary, which you won't find in a Protestant church. We only pray to God. Our worship tends to be very traditional classical music and prayers from a book. Up until the 1960s. It was all in Latin. But since then our worship has been in the language of the worshippers. Although some churches still like to use the Latin Mass, Protestant worship has always been in the worshippers language, and we tend to have a more modern style of music. Many churches even have their own bands to lead the singing. The mass follows a written pattern called a liturgy, and it's been the same for centuries. Our worship is a bit looser, although our service will still have a structure with singing, prayers and a sermon. You don't use a prayer book? No. Although I should explain the Church of England here, which is a special case. It all started with Henry VIII, famous for having six wives. Exactly. Until the 1530s. England was a Roman Catholic country. But Henry VIII wanted to divorce his first wife and marry his mistress. The Pope said no. So Henry told the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, to create a Church of England that wasn't under the pope's authority. This developed into a church with Protestant beliefs, but a lot of Catholic traditions. So many of them still use prayer books and more formal styles of worship. And they have priests. Yeah, but men and women can be Church of England priests and they can get married. Okay, so what happens when we die? Salvation. We're saved from hell and go to heaven to be with God. It's not quite that simple for Roman Catholics. We believe that salvation is a lifelong process. We're saved by our faith in God and the good works we do. Protestants believe that salvation is by faith alone. You've probably heard us talking about being born again, yeah? Well, we believe that once you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, that's it. You're going to heaven. It's a once in a lifetime thing, so you don't have to do any good works. We don't have to. But we believe that once a person is saved, the Holy Spirit will help them to become a better person. So they'll be doing good things for other people anyway. Roman Catholics believe that after death, really good people go straight to heaven and really bad people go straight to hell. But we also believe in a place called purgatory, which is where most people go to be purified of their sins before moving on to heaven. Protestants just believe in heaven and hell. We've got this life to get saved, and then we go to one or the other for eternity. But in the here and now, would you say we have more in common than differences? I don't know. What do you think?