When signing up for summer classes last year I was extremely excited to take World Religions, I thought it would give me an amazing opportunity to expand my knowledge of people and religions around the world. When given our very first assignment, to attend and experience a religion that is foreign to our own, if we possessed one, I was instantly filled with nervousness and anxiety however I was also filled with a growing curiosity to explore and intake as much information as possible during this assignment. I myself am a devoted Catholic, so learning about the requirements for this particular assignment instantly had me questioning 'how will I do this without going against my own beliefs?' After being taught about the all the different religions we had the opportunity to choose from, Buddhism particulary stuck out to me.

I learned that Buddhism is a nontheistic religion. A nontheistic religion is characterized as a religion that does not necessarily believe that god is the creator of the entire universe, in other words buddhists do not worship any specific god or godly figure. Nontheism is not to be confused with Atheism, Buddhists don't strictly believe that there is no such thing as god to exist, instead they believe that we, as humans, can not know whether or not a god truly exists. I was instantly relieved to learn this information, for I would not be going against my own faith by participating in their rituals. After deciding to explore and experience Buddhism in action as my religious experience, I researched the nearest monastery, which happened to be very close to home. I decided to ask a close friend to accompany me to the monastery to help ease my nervousness. Once we had both arranged a day that worked for us, I picked her up and we drove down to the temple.

On the drive there my brain was overflowing with questions: What was I supposed to expect? What if they weren't welcoming? What is going to happen? What if I do something wrong or even disrespectful? My friend, Kaila, and I had no idea what to expect as neither of us had ever been to a Buddhist temple before, nor do we have any acquaintances that are of the Buddhist faith that we know of. This was a completely foreign concept to the both of us. I could indistinctly hear the directions of the GPS as we chatted away about what the night could be like, suddenly I heard 'in 500 feet your destination will be on your right.' I looked to the right and saw the sign to the monastery, the entrance was surrounded by statues and consisted of lots of colors, especially reds and yellows, the gate was already open so we drove down the winding road and came to a building. When we pulled up there was a monk cloaked in an orange robe talking to a woman who was gardening near the entrance.

The property was extremely large, already it was nothing like I imagined and I could tell from the look on Kaila's face she was feeling the same way. We walked up to the women, and she greeted us and told us to go inside the door. Following her instructions we saw a sign taped to the door asking us to take our shoes off before entering the room, we did so, and entered the building. Upon entering, I was instantly overwhelmed by the beauty of it, every aspect of the room was intricately decorated, from the ruby red ceilings garnished with what looked to be bejeweled suns to the floors covered with different colorful carpets. When walking in, the first thing I set my eyes on was the giant gold statues that lay in front of me, my nose was filled with the smells of incense, and my toes felt the softness of the carpet beneath me. The statues were placed atop what seemed to be a large table garnished with beautiful tapestries and candles, it consisted of an array of different colors from red to green to gold. Another monk also dressed in an orange robe, similar to the one we had seen outside, soon walked into the room we were in and greeted us, he introduced himself as Bitsu and told us to sit down and that they would be at exactly seven o'clock, after that he disappeared.

After 10 minutes or so the monk who had introduced himself to us as Bitsu reappeared with another monk, however the monk we had seen outside was nowhere to be seen. Bitsu handed each of us a pamphlet with the scriptures they would be chanting so that we could follow along. As seven o'clock creeped closer and closer, I got more and more nervous. Bitsu asked us to take a kneeling position on the carpet, while he and the other monk took a knee on gold embellished mats that outlined the room. The monks then instructed us to bow to the statues 3 times, after we had bowed the monks encouraged us to follow along and began to chant in a language I had never heard before, I learned later it was the language of Pali. We bowed in sets of 3 many times during the chanting of the scriptures, but I was unsure as to why.

After the chanting was finished Bitsu instructed us to sit the way the statue of the Buddha was sitting, the lotus position - we were getting ready to mediate. The lights were then lowered until the room was lit by nothing but the three candles in front of us. Three seemed to be a really important number, however I just couldn't figure out why. What happened next I found quite strange, Bitsu pulled out his iPhone and set a timer, buddhists used iPhones? I gave Kaila a strange look and she reciprocated, shrugging her shoulders. We then went into meditation, I tried extremely hard to clear my mind and think of blank space but then I realized I was thinking about the blank space and got frustrated. I tried to just relax and focus on my breathing but my mind kept wandering all over the place. My foot began to fall asleep and soon enough I couldn't feel it at all, it was crazy to me that buddhists could sit in such a position so long.

Meditation was much more difficult than I expected it to be. After what seemed like an hour, the timer rang, and Bitsu turned up the lights. He asked us if we had any questions but his english was a little hard to understand because he had only been speaking it for three months or so. I was still wondering about the sets of three so I inquired about it, he told me that the three candles represent the 'Three Jewels of Buddhism,' - The Buddha, The Dharma, and The Sangha. When we bowed during the chanting, we bowed three times, once to each of the jewels. He also told us that the meditation usually lasts much longer than it did just then because we were new to the practice. We thanked him very much for letting us experience such a beautiful night, Bitsu invited us to come back soon and we parted ways. To say the least, the night was nothing like I would have ever imagined but it was so beautiful and such an amazing experience. Although I was confused and lost at times throughout the evening just listening and observing them in their spiritual practice was a great experience. I would definitely go back again, but I definitely need to brush up on my meditation skills before attending. The Buddhist Monastery is such a beautiful experience and the monks who live there are extremely friendly, without a doubt I would recommend this to any person looking to be introduced to buddhism.