Tony Blair Faith Foundation

This past Monday students from Coopers and Coburn (UK), Duchess High School (UK), and Hillcrest High (USA) schools joined together in a videoconference to speak about the Buddhist faith. Facilitated by Face to Faith teacher trainer Ian Jamison and Munisha, Director of the Education Service at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, the meeting allowed the participating students to address the questions they had about Buddhist practices and beliefs. Sitting in on the conference proved to riveting as discussion frequently delved into unforeseen areas and unexpected subtopics. The quality of the educated questions that the students asked was very valuable! Since the majority of the students had limited knowledge of Buddhism, it was a clarifying experience for them to be able to speak to a practicing Buddhist in real time.

This past Monday students from Coopers and Coburn (UK), Duchess High School (UK), and Hillcrest High (USA) schools joined together in a videoconference to speak about the Buddhist faith. Facilitated by Face to Faith teacher trainer Ian Jamison and Munisha, Director of the Education Service at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, the meeting allowed the participating students to address the questions they had about Buddhist practices and beliefs. Sitting in on the conference proved to riveting as discussion frequently delved into unforeseen areas and unexpected subtopics. The quality of the educated questions that the students asked was very valuable! Since the majority of the students had limited knowledge of Buddhism, it was a clarifying experience for them to be able to speak to a practicing Buddhist in real time.

The conversation began with an overview of popular Buddhist precepts such as karmic theory and the value of speaking truthfully, concepts which the students had likely already been aware of. After a number of questions by the students which addressed capitalism, suffering and enlightenment, one of the students asked Munisha a seemingly simplistic one: “how Munisha’s beliefs helped her to find spirituality and peace?”

At first she explained that peace of mind and a clear conscience came from following Buddhism’s ethical teachings and values. Without fear of judgement Munisha admitted that she often suffered from anxiety. She elaborated upon this by pointing out that most people conceive of Buddhists as peaceful, rid of trappings and tribulations. An ordained member of the Triratna Buddhist Order since 2003, her personal troubles with anxiety demonstrated to the students just how flawed this common misconception is. Similarly, she countered the widespread association of Buddhism with reincarnation. When asked by a student if she recalled her previous lives, she admitted that she did not and further asserted that being a Buddhist practitioner did not require a belief in rebirth. For many of the participants who had read about rebirth in preparation for the conference, this interchange shed light upon the weakness of this commonly made association. And so, another misconception was set right.

The Face to Faith “Being Buddhist” video conference did not disappoint! The uniqueness of the participants’ questions were wonderful and led to a lively debate as well as better understanding for all those involved. In the case of this week’s Face to Faith videoconference, this element of unpredictability was responsible for rectifying commonly held misconceptions about Buddhism. The hope is that through interchanges like these students learned to be open minded and to approach the world with a critical mind, keen interest, and a willingness to learn from one another.

The Face to Faith team