Grace’s Reflection (01/25)

During dinner with my host family this week, we chatted about my history field trip to Todaiji and Horyuji in Nara on Saturday. My host father immediately identified Todaiji as the place with the “big” Buddha. Shortly after that, my host father, sister and brother began arguing over the position of the Buddha’s hands — about whether it was the left or right hand raised up and whether or not the lowered hand was an open hand or had some fingers curled. This was interesting to me because even though Buddhism seems to be present in Japan’s everyday life, my host family did not know much more about Buddhism than I did. Furthermore, they treated the discussion of Buddha’s hand positions as a playful discussion, rather than a serious religious topic, which is different from religious discussions which are generally seen as a more sensitive topic in the US.