RECOGNIZING
THE BUDDHA GEM
INSTRUCTION GUIDE
| Learning Objectives: |
| Illustrate the Buddha’s practice state of the triple awakening. Explain and advocate the idea of everyone having the ability to become a Buddha to motivate students to learn from the Buddha. |
| 1. Explain the idea behind the Buddhist “Triple Gems. |
| 2. Explain the practice states of “self awakening,” “awakening others,” and “complete awakening.” |
| 3. Use the idea behind “Seven Buddhas’ General Teachings” to illustrate how one can follow the Buddha’s teachings in daily life. |
| 4. Introduce the idea behind “everyone can become a Buddha” in order to motivate students to strive to be like the Buddha. |
| Notable Points: |
| 1. Draw examples from a youth’s daily experience that would illustrate the concept of “self awakening,” “awakening others,” and “complete awakening.” For example, in Brainstorming (4) – when one has a conflict with his/her parents: |
| * “Self Awakening” > Through contemplation, one can understand his/her own thoughts and feelings, and one can also put him/herself in their parent’s place to understand their parent’s thoughts and feelings. |
| * “Awakening Others” > Express to your parents the recognition gained from “self awakening,” and attempt to reach a consensus and compromise. |
| * “Complete Awakening” > To follow the above two steps in all confrontations with your parents. |
| Instructional Activities: |
| 1. The instructor can utilize role playing activities with the students. Two students can perform the role of parent and child in the Brainstorming (4) situation, reenact the conflict and find a resolution. After their performance, the whole class can discuss the various ways of resolution possible in this scenario. The instructor should encourage students to share similar experiences and thoughts in their past. |
| 2. The Buddhist Song portion of the instruction can be carried out with different genre of music such as rap music It can also be done with accompanying activities such as passing the ball during the song, and the person holding the ball when the song finishes is asked a related question. (i.e., ”How is the Buddha great?” “Explain self awakening.”) |
| Instructional Evaluation |
| 1. In correspondence with the learning objectives, use many different yet related questions to stimulate student interest and thinking, and evaluate learning outcomes to be sure that the instructional goals are accomplished. |
| 2. Discussion of the questions in “Braistorming.” |
| 3. Homework assignments. |
| 4. Randomly select students to recite “Seven Buddhas’ General Teachings” |
| 5. Parent’s comments. |
Buddha's
Light International Association, World Headquarters
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