activities

I've been brushing up on my Buddhism lately, preparing for World Religions lectures.
I've found occasional (relatively rare) terminological errors in the first edition of Neighboring Faiths already this semester (for example, the term "advaita", which means "non-dualism" is used where "avidya", which means "ignorance" should be on p. 198). I found my first mistake in Dr. Corduan's Pocket Guide Tuesday in the middle of lecture. I had gotten a little ahead of my prepared notes toward the end of class, and was writing the Ten Precepts up on the board from the table in the Pocket Guide. The copy I have has "Do not sleep in high or wide beds" as #8 (observed by monks and laity on special days), and also as #9 (observed by monks only). According to Neighboring Faiths, the missing one is "do not decorate yourself or use cosmetics", and I think that should be in with the laity-on-special-days group instead of the one about beds.
The Fisher text I'm having my class use (which I continue to appreciate because it says things I would probably not) says there are only five precepts, ignoring the other half altogether.
I intend to visit the local Zen center sometime soon...not that I've been good about making time for visits lately! Several students are planning on visiting a Shin Buddhist meditation group that meets in the off-campus interfaith center over the next few weeks. I'm having them make their own plans instead of coordinating official class trips, and I'm also recommending that they communicate with each other to go in small groups. I guess I haven't emphasized the *small* enough. One student told me yesterday that she had thirteen who expressed interest in going with her to the meditation group. I told her that two groups of six--or better, only three or four at a time--would probably be a better idea. Maybe I should have offered to straighten their logistics out for them, but I didn't--I expressed my confidence that they could sort it out among themselves.

I applied for the summer reading teaching job today. I have already gotten excited about it, while processing for my short-answer question (Why do you want to teach at the Institute again this summer?) and looking at some memos about curriculum changes.
I wish I had more emphatically mentioned the importance of love of reading in my essay question, now that I think of it. It probably came across that I was only thinking of reading skills as a pragmatic necessity for succeeding in life. But I can sort that out in a telephone interview, hopefully.
The high school curriculum is going to revolve around reading and discussing one of my favorite books; much more challenging than the novels we've had them reading previous years. I'm really excited about that.

Today is Ash Wednesday. I will probably post some reflections on the significance of Lent, and my own plans for Lenten observance (some of them are rather kooky) this year at a later date. Blessings!

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"He Himself is our Peace." (Eph 2)