Study of Religion

This term in Year 11 Study of Religion, we have been given the opportunity to immerse ourselves in not only the study of Buddhist and Hindu religious texts, but also to participate in their religious practices.  We begin each lesson by centring ourselves in a led Buddhist meditation, allowing us to refocus our energy on our breathing and to allow us to have ‘right concentration’ before beginning our studies.  All three SOR classes have been privileged to create a set of colourful Buddhist flags, which are hung on the bridge between Clare and Francis blocks, as our legacy; they will be left up for the next two years. To enhance our understanding, we also hung, from the trees near the labyrinth, Buddhist wishes, which will eventually wash away, to symbolise that everything is impermanent.

We also had the pleasure of interviewing a teacher practising Buddhism and a Hindu Priest, Sailesh Chand Darshan, to further our understanding.  We are lucky enough to have a teacher practising Buddhism at Mount A and we were able to ask him questions surrounding his faith to enlighten us past the textbook understanding, and give us real life insight.  Sailesh also gave us an amazing perspective into his faith and practices.  He taught us the meaning of the aum symbol, A for awakening, U for understanding, and M for merging.  We found out that Hindus start their days by saying 21 aums, so we decided to try centring ourselves by reciting aums during the lesson with Sailesh, who guided us through his meditative process. 

Thanks to these guest speakers and our amazing SOR teachers, the Year 11 cohort has been able to further our understanding of these two world religions and break past the textbook understanding to have real-life insight into practising Buddhism and Hinduism.

Daisy Lacanau