Visit to the museum consisted of a tour about tribal religions (in Africa) and Indian religion (Hinduism). Tribal religion reflects the traditions and beliefs of tribal people, for example, the tradition of wearing different types of masks and hats in different occasions. These outfit usually symbolizes something, for example, Chiwara hat represents the idea and development of cultivation and presence of both male and female Chiwara represents fertility. Tribal people also believed that a bird gave birth gave birth to first human and also believed in ancestor myth. Tribal people usually have 'secret celebration' and only few members of society were permitted to witness and be a part of these celebrations. People believed that ancestor give suggestions in these celebrations. In the Asian religion section, we took a tour about Hinduism- which is one of the oldest religion and has more than 3000 deities but there are three main deities- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is the creator of universe but is not worshiped in temples. Vishnu is the maintainer of this universe. Shiva is the main god of Hinduism. His Nat-raga position symbolizes his role in creation and destruction of every thing, forming a cycle, for example, life and then death and then rebirth. This reflects Hindus belief in reincarnation. Except these three deities, Ganesha and Krishna are other main deities. Hindus did not have to worship all these gods, they can choose to worship any one or more gods.
The visit to the museum included a tour where the tour guide explained about African tribal religions and a bit about Hinduism. After that we were allowed to go about the exhibition by ourselves, looking at what interested us and what we could possibly use in our oral presentations. What I found most interesting about the exhibition was probably the Africa room. The different kinds of masks were very interesting and beautiful. Also, the thought that Helinä Rautavaara collected all those objects was quite astonishing, because some of the objects were very large and probably very heavy. All in all, it was an interesting exhibition and something I hadn't seen before, and very enjoyable.
The Buddhist temple meditation was not really what I expected. The guide didn't really teach us how to meditate, she just talked to us about how we were supposed to wish happiness on everyone and everything around us. We meditated for a whole hour straight, took a break, then meditated for another hour in silence. It was quite long in my opinion and while I found it interesting it wasn't as informative as I had hoped it to be.
The visit to the buddhist temple was quite interesting. We meditated for an hour and then we drank some tea. The meditation was very different from what I had thought: I didn't know that meditation is partially guided. The guide gave us instructions how to meditate and what to think during meditation. I found the meditating calming despite the fact that my legs went numb and in the end it got very painful. The visit to the museum was fascinating and it taught me a lot of new things. I had never been to the Emma museum before. We had a guided tour where the guide told us about Hinduism and African tribal religions. There were lots of masks, statues and other kinds of religious items from all around the world. After the tour we had the opportunity to find some material for our presentations.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was an eye opening experience. We had a long meditation during which the priest guided us to wish happiness to our family, friends and also to our enemies. The meditation took an hour and at the end it got really hard to concentrate because my legs fell asleep, as the sitting position got quite uncomfortable after being in the same position the whole time. We decided not to continue to the other meditation which was going to be after the tea break but all in all it was nice to visit a real Buddhist temple. I think it was positive that they didn't push their religion to us and didn't try to recruit us or anything like that.
The visit to the Helinä Rautavaara museum was interesting, and it really got me amazed how she had collected all the artifacts from all over the world as some of them were really big and looked heavy. At the beginning of the visit we had a guide telling us mainly about African tribal religions and Hinduism. The tour was nice because we only got through a few things and the guide presented them thoroughly. After the tour we had time to find information for our presentations and go around the exhibition.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was quite different than I expected. First, the guide guided us to concentrate on our body and feel and focus on our body processes such as breathing. Then she told us to think of people (a good person, a neutral person and then a person whom we dislike) and then asked us to pray for their happiness. First, I didn't get the whole point of it but in the next class, when we studied the concept of Brahman and Atman, I got a clear picture. I realized that they pray for other happiness to overcome feeling like hatred, as it is a process of nirvana. It is based Buddhist believe that to attain 'Moksha' they should overcome desires, delusions and hatred.
In the museum visit in WeeGee, we got a tourguide to explain a bit about the objects Elina Rautavaara has collected. We mainly looked at the african artifacts. We were then allowed to roam around the exhibit, viewing the different artifacts from around the world. I really enjoyed all the african atrs because there was so much meaning behind each one.
The buddhist temple was an interesting and new experience. The guide didnt really tell us the way to meditate, but she told us to wish happiness upon the people and things you dislike. We meditated for about an hour and then i left. It was different but a new thing to try.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was interesting. First we meditated for a while and to focus on our breathing. Then the 'guide' told us to pray happiness on a few people - someone who you like, someone who you are in different to and someone who you dislike. This was interesting because you had to put a side any unpleasant feeling or baggage. I think this represents overcoming desire, delusions and hatred.
At the Helina Rautavaara museum there was a tourguide explaining different artifacts around the world. It was pretty interesting. I enjoyed looking around at differen things and finding out what they represent.
Synagogue visit was pretty interesting. The prophet tried to gave us a basic idea of his religion Judaism. He started by introducing the Helsinki community which consists of about 1500 people and it is very small. He explained how in the synagogue, the Jews come together and read Torah. He explained the difference in their calendar and the holidays. What I found interesting was how they spend their Saturday. They are not supposed to do anything than pray, eat and study. The idea is to have a rest and thanks god and pray for future. He also told us how men and women pray separately and are not allowed to sit together. He also told that it is difficult, though not impossible, for a person to convert to Judaism and if a person is born Jew than he is a Jew for his entire life.Then he encouraged our questions and also showed us the Torah and told us that they keep extra copy, in case one of them is damaged.
Buddhist "temple" was maybe the least religious place I've ever been to. Since I did participate only in the first third of the night, the meditating with some guidance, it reminded me of a basic pilates lesson without the moves and stretches. It's actually great how Buddhist rituals don't include (at least in most cases) any worshiping. That's nice variation to the religious rituals I, or we, usually witness. When I looked around in the room I wondered how many of the participants were actually Buddhist or interested in buddhism and how many of them -us- where there only to relax or out of pure interest. But on the other hand there's not that big of a difference between these two groups. And that's the weird part about Buddhism. It's quite easy to name the religionists from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, even Hinduism. But you can think that in Buddhism every single one who walks on this planet is a Buddhist. Or if that's too dramatical, at least everyone who tries to live the best life possible for themselves and others. Anyway, there was a few stereotypes too. The members of some brotherhood (I didn't quite get their introduction. There was a man who was part of something and a woman who would become part of that thing soon, I guess?) were just like the Buddhists in movies and TV. And there was tea. But that was about it. We didn't mutter anything while meditating or sat in that legscrossedhandsonknees position. I got to say, I don't think the experience brought me any closer to peace or enlightening but it was a nice moment of relaxation. Not uncomfortable like I think it would be to participate to any other strange religious ritual.
Visiting a mosque was an interesting experience for me. First, we were asked to cover our heads. Then we got a presentation about the basics of Islam, Islamic society in Finland, main teaching and values of Islam, concept of Halal and Haram and misconceptions about Islam. We were also told about the role of mosque, such as, in marriage, it initiating people to become a Muslim, and the certificate that the mosque offers. What I found interesting was that you need an Islamic marriage certificate to stay in the hotel in Muslim countries. We also talked a lot about Quran, their sacred book. I learned that translations are no longer considered Quran, only the original text written in Arabic is considered Quran. The presentation also covered the Islamic fasting and pilgrimage called Hajj. Then there was call for the prayer and we all went to see how they pray. During the prayer, 'Allah ho Akbar' was repeated a lot of times which again shows their belief in god. After that, we also took a look to their small bookshop and then left.
The visit to the buddhist temple was rather interesting. I thought the meditating would be in a quiet and dark room, or with some quiet music playing in the background. I also thought we'd be sitting cross legged, with our hands on our knees with our thumb and forefinger touching, saying ummmm. However, this was not the case. There was a person in the room talking and telling us to concentrate on sharing happiness with everyone we love and hate. There was no ummming going on, and I didn't find myself very relaxed for the whole time. Meditating is known to be very calming and stress relieving, but I just suffered from immense leg numbing and back pains the whole time. Probably because it was my first ever time mediating, and because it was for such a long time. Anyhow, it was an interesting experience, despite not being very relaxed.
The visit to the synagogue was interesting as it began with a security check. The priest first told us about the community in Helsinki which consists of over 1000 members. Then he told us about the religious life of a Jew and also about their everyday life, such as their sacred day of week Shabbat which is observed from sunset on Friday until Saturday night. He also told us about the process of becoming a Jew, which from his speech could be understood as quite difficult. At the end of the visit we got to see the rolls of Torah which really looked magnificent.
I enjoyed the visit to the Helinä Rautavaara-museum even though it was pretty short. All the objects were amazing, especially the traditional African wooden masks, and somehow it seemed like they were each telling a story. It was interesting to compare the differences and also notice some sort of similarities in religions through the objects.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was interesting, because I didn't know that a place like that even exists in Helsinki and that it's actually a quite big community according to the number of the participants at the meditation-session. I've tried meditation before and honestly I didn't really enjoy this one. I found it a bit frustrating for some reason and felt like my mind was not calm at all. Maybe it was because I kind of felt like a stranger there and there was really too much people for me to actually concentrate.
The visit to the synagogue was interesting because I really got a lot of new information and it made me understand Judaism more. It's always nice and interesting to hear about a certain religion by its real follower.
I don't know what I expected from the buddhist centre but I certainly didn't realise so many people would turn up.
We were sat in a small, dimly lit room with no air-conditioning. There were pillows and blankets and all kinds of people everywhere and the air was thick with exotic smells. The candles burning and the intense, intimate atmosphere were apt to create a spiritual dimension into the meditation.
In my case there was nothing too spiritual because being a newbie I found it extremely hard to concentrate for an hour or so on the meditation. Besides both of my feet were on pins and needles after five minutes.
One particular part about the meditation I did find extremely relaxing and beneficial, which was the body relaxing through mind by going through each body part in mind.
THE SYNAGOGUE
The man who guided us was a very charismatic speaker and made Judaism sound logical and simple. And in my books Judaism isn’t at the top of the most logical religions. The cantor gave us a tour there and explained us the main principles of Judaism.
He explained us the simple reason why in communal synagogue worships and prayers women and men are separated to be sat in two different sections of the prayer room: they want to be near God and concentrate on the prayers and the presence of attractive representatives of the opposite sex can interrupt this action.
This seems pretty logical to me but I really had difficulties understanding why it is so hard to convert to Judaism. A Jew will always remain as a Jew but a person who doesn’t have this specific cultural background and wants to become a Jew has to do an immense amount of work to achieve it. If Judaism really is the one and only religion, the oldest and boldest, why do so few get to participate?
The cantor also told us how Jews believe God is present in everything that happens in this world and tried to explain us the difference between man’s action and God’s action. For example, I can choose to go for a walk but if I find a hundred euros on my way that’ll be because God wanted me to find it.
The Buddhist center was interesting and very small. Going there I felt like an intruder, but the people in the center were clearly used to visitors and it was impossible to tell that they are Buddhists. Maybe it’s the fact that Buddhists think that everyone living a good life is a Buddhist. When the meditation started, the leader was positively surprised of the amount of the people; the room was so full that some people had to be in the room next to it. The whole meditating part was really just a way to relax. We were told to concentrate on our breathing and at the same time think happiness for everyone and everything. In the first part that lasted about 15 minutes, the meditation felt really relaxing, I felt like I could fall asleep, not in a bored way. In the end my legs got quite soar and my concentration didn’t last the whole hour. We felt that it’s better to leave on the tea brake than stay there restless and bored. The leader was expecting people to leave then so he wished us a good week and wasn’t bothered at all. I could do the 15-30 minute relaxation every day and wish good for everyone, but being a lively person, I don’t feel that Buddhism is my religion.
SYNAGOGUE
The visit to the synagogue was eye opening and probably the most interesting thing of the whole course. Before I had some kind of idea about Judaism, but really just a scratch. Okay, our religion has the same base, but it’s still different. The cantor of the synagogue/congregation was very sympathetic and made the religion sound quite clear and simple. Well of course if you know the Old Testament well, it’s not that hard to understand Judaism, but I thought it would be much more difficult. Jews believe that God has planned everything for them, but they have an opportunity to choose what they do. Like the cantor told, he can choose to go downstairs, but if he falls in the stairs and breaks a limb, God planned it to happen. So he like has several options what will happen, and randomly chooses the limb break instead of founding 2 euros. I was quite surprised that the point in women and men sitting separately in different services isn’t only because a man could be distracted between his communication with God if an attractive woman would be near him. The other point was that men are more straight thinking and not as sensitive as women, which makes it harder to them to remember God. That’s also the point why only men are allowed to read the Torah in services. Obviously, it’s not always that way, but it’s a much better explanation than only the distraction thing. Judaism is one of the oldest religions and it has really had nice discussions and compromises with the modernizing world and locations. Especially with what comes to Sabbath, it was funny how the cantor wasn’t so sure about the months and days, because they have to adapt to the time in Jerusalem and the Jewish calendar. The cantor was well prepared for every question we had, and at least I think every one of them was clearly answered. The whole visit, as I said was very teaching and some way gave me good vibes.
The visit to the mosque was nice because I got to refresh my memory about the lifestyle of Muslims. The concepts that we went through in the presentation were things that I have experienced, such as Ramadan and the big celebration that came after it was done. Also the carpet was similar to that of the floor in the mosques in Malaysia, showing which direction to pray to. It was also interesting to see the praying take place with its many different positions and stages. All in all, it was fun to visit the mosque.
I couldn't but compare the two visits to the synagogue and the mosque. I felt like the cantor at the synagogue was a bit more at ease as he spoke very openly and impulsively.
Of course I didn't suspect the imam's sincerity either but I felt like he was constantly trying to prove something. I thought it was a shame how much he concentrated on clearing the misconceptions about Islam and thus our time was very quickly off and we didn't get to cover thoroughly the other topics he had in his slide show. Our visit left missing the synagogue-like interesting and in-depth discussion. On the other hand, the imam was a good, passionate speaker as well and he gave us a good all-round knowledge about islam.
Just like the cantor at the synagogue, the imam explained us why men and women are to do the prayers in separate rooms. He told us about the difference between man and woman, how the first mentioned believes with his brain and the last mentioned with her heart. The imam at the mosque might've emphasised the physical difference a little more: a woman isn't allowed to lead the prayers so men wouldn't get distracted about the beautiful curves that women have under their clothes.
Right after having arrived to the mosque our group was asked to cover of heads or our entire bodies with these big pastel coloured gowns. It felt super odd at first and a few giggles escalated amongst us but later on I realised how much odder it would've been if we had been in our normal clothes. When in Rome...
The imam spoke a long time about The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, how it isn't the same book after translating it into some other language. He had drawn this kind of chart to demonstrate:
Language 1 (the original Arabic version of the Qur'an) --> translation --> language 2 --> translation --> language 3 --> translation back to Arabic --> The Qur'an has changed so much between the translations that it isn't comparable to the original version.
According to the imam this causes wrong interpretations and conflicts between Muslims. I think it its interesting how much both Islam and Judaism are connected with these ancient languages, Hebrew and Arabic.
At the end of the visit we got to see the Muslims do one of their five prayers a day which I found extremely interesting as the participants were of all ages, very normal people huffing and puffing and finding difficulties in stretching so much doing the prayers. I think it also gives you perspective, seeing normal people just like you practising their religion, especially if there are a lot of misunderstandings about it like there are with Islam.
It actually just hit me how great opportunity it is for us to visit these places. This arrangement where we can simply walk in to a mosque or a synagogue isn't something you can find all around the world. In both of these visits the atmosphere was great - I didn't feel like anyone tried to shove their opinions of beliefs down my throat but we were welcome and allowed to ask anything we wanted.
Synagogue - In this visit the importance of charisma and credibility really opened up to me. I have always found Jewish culture, history and community interesting and had quite bit of expectations for the visit. I wasn't let down at all. The guide, the cantor of the synagogue, was a right-on-target choice for this case. He was open to our questions and didn't hesitate to differ from the plan he had made for the visit. He got the fact that we can read anywhere about Jewish holidays or the finnish community, but it's way rarer to be able to ask about personal belief or worldview.
After the visit I was considering whether I should convert to Judaism. Okay, maybe not, but I was quite impressed anyway. There was some certainty in the way the cantor spoke and presented his beliefs. He didn't apologize or rationalize too much anything he said, but still wasn't arrogant or superior to us. That's the attitude I wish everyone had or even tried to achieve.
Mosque - This visit was really a overall experience with the robes and everything, not just any lecture. It was more practical than the one we had in synagogue since here we got to witness the prayer. I don't think one was better that the other and it might have been boring to just sit an hour in the poorly air-conditioned room knowing there was other things to do and see in the mosque. It was interesting to see the pre-made presentation and think about who it is made for and what are the things that they want to point out about their religion. It was even a bit sad to realize how many explanatory parts there was. Personally I have understood that the negative images that we get from the Islamic world over the news aren't the everyday reality of every single Muslim. Just like the extreme Christians don't represent the whole Christian world or even their beliefs. It would've been super interesting to skip that part or squeeze it up to a few sentences and find out, what are the parts of Koran that some think "justify" f.ex. terrorism or honor killing. Maybe that's something you would need more than a couple of minutes for...
It was even a bit funny how eager the imam was to give us all the brochures and books. I would've wanted to know who all this stuff is for. School groups and students like us, of course, but who is the target audience of those brochures and presentations? And what do they base on the topics of the and books.
Overall it was a positive surprise how easy it is to get information about other religions. It maybe wouldn't work like that for a individual, to just pop to a Mosque and ask about Islam. Still the visits were the core of the course and concreted the things we learned in class.
It actually just hit me how great opportunity it is for us to visit these places. This arrangement where we can simply walk in to a mosque or a synagogue isn't something you can find all around the world. In both of these visits the atmosphere was great - I didn't feel like anyone tried to shove their opinions of beliefs down my throat but we were welcome and allowed to ask anything we wanted.
Synagogue - In this visit the importance of charisma and credibility really opened up to me. I have always found Jewish culture, history and community interesting and had quite bit of expectations for the visit. I wasn't let down at all. The guide, the cantor of the synagogue, was a right-on-target choice for this case. He was open to our questions and didn't hesitate to differ from the plan he had made for the visit. He got the fact that we can read anywhere about Jewish holidays or the finnish community, but it's way rarer to be able to ask about personal belief or worldview.
After the visit I was considering whether I should convert to Judaism. Okay, maybe not, but I was quite impressed anyway. There was some certainty in the way the cantor spoke and presented his beliefs. He didn't apologize or rationalize too much anything he said, but still wasn't arrogant or superior to us. That's the attitude I wish everyone had or even tried to achieve.
Mosque - This visit was really a overall experience with the robes and everything, not just any lecture. It was more practical than the one we had in synagogue since here we got to witness the prayer. I don't think one was better that the other and it might have been boring to just sit an hour in the poorly air-conditioned room knowing there was other things to do and see in the mosque. It was interesting to see the pre-made presentation and think about who it is made for and what are the things that they want to point out about their religion. It was even a bit sad to realize how many explanatory parts there was. Personally I have understood that the negative images that we get from the Islamic world over the news aren't the everyday reality of every single Muslim. Just like the extreme Christians don't represent the whole Christian world or even their beliefs. It would've been super interesting to skip that part or squeeze it up to a few sentences and find out, what are the parts of Koran that some think "justify" f.ex. terrorism or honor killing. Maybe that's something you would need more than a couple of minutes for...
It was even a bit funny how eager the imam was to give us all the brochures and books. I would've wanted to know who all this stuff is for. School groups and students like us, of course, but who is the target audience of those brochures and presentations, because that defines what they want to share in them.
Overall it was a positive surprise how easy it is to get information about other religions. It maybe wouldn't work like that for a individual, to just pop to a Mosque and ask about Islam. Still the visits were the core of the course and concreted the things we learned in class.
If someone says the word mosque, a massive temple in the Middle East pops into my head, not a property in a yellow apartment building in the center of Helsinki. When we stepped in to the ladies’ entrance of the mosque, you knew you were in one. A red wall-to-wall carpet with spots to pray filled the room, and we were handed either scarves or abayas. Silly looking we sat down to listen our presentation given by the imam. He was as sympathetic as the cantor of the synagogue, and was sorry for the fact that we didn’t have more time than 45 minutes. Just like Christianity, Islam is a religion of various interpretations, because of various translations of original scriptures. The imam told, that Muslims should know, that only the original version is 100% the truth, but the problem is always the question of translation and understanding. Muslims want to believe in the translations they feel are right, but not knowing whether it’s right or wrong, it causes loads of conflicts. Muslims have a similar way of thinking with Jews, when it comes to separating men and women during prayers: head versus heart thinking and distraction. What was interesting, is the fact that when people pray on holidays in Mecca, women and men are randomly next to each other, differing from the regular basis that they are in different rooms. Seeing the men perform their praying ritual was an excellent thing. It was cool to see men rushing to the mosque, probably from work or school, and then relaxing and concentrating to the prayer. You really saw the mosque as a time off from basic life and rush. For a religion student like me it was incredible to receive all the brochures and booklets from the library. The imam (and the librarian) was so nice when he continued to chat with us after the tour, and answered our questions about Quran. It was lovely to see how happy he was to explain things, but well, it’s his job really.
The visit to the Buddha center was pretty weird in my opinion. The place was pretty small and it wasn't really a religious place at all. We meditated there an hour. This "meditating" meant sitting on a pillow for 1 hour. That's right, 1 hour... We should had wished good things for everybody; including family, friends, enemies and to the whole world. Unfortunately all I could think about was the pain in my legs. There was a tea-meditation (or something) after we had sat, but I didn't participate in it.
I found the visit to the synagogue very educational. We had to go through a security check before we could enter the synagogue. The cantor of the synagogue who guided us told us some information about Judaism and the synagogue. He seemed to really know what he was talking about since he had been a Jew all of his life. The man knew how to explain quite complex thing to us by simplifying them into a popularized form. I feel that I learnt so much more by visiting the synagogue than reading information from a book or the internet.
Visit to the synagogue was probably the most important thing on the whole course. Before we could enter, there was a security-check, just for making sure that nobody had handguns or grenades in their backpacks. The cantor there was very professional and could quite easily answer even to the hardest questions concerning Judaism. I learned a lot of new things about Judaism, such as the role of women, history of Judaism and last but not least the commandments.
The visit to the mosque was quite interesting. The building itself didn't look like a mosque, but once we got inside, you could feel the culture floating. I learned more about Islamic culture, also the differences between Christianity and Islam became clear, which was fantastic. The rules there were a bit more strict than the rules in a basic Christian church.
I visited the mosque with Kuura and Hilla on our spare time. Seeing a real mosque and the Islamic items it had inside it was genuinely interesting. Muslims separate women and men inside the mosque just like the Jews usually do. Women and men can not pray in the same room. We had to cover our heads and other parts of our bodies such as shoulders and knees when we went in.
We visited the mosque with Kuura and Monica. The mosque was a bit difficult to find as the building did not look like a Islamic center at all. The Islamic culture, which had been always quite unknown to me, opened up. There were separate sides for men and women and me and Monica had to wear scarves. There were extensive selection of brochures off all kinds but didn't take any.
During the visit to Helinä Rautavaara musem, unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore every exhibit presentred due to limited time, but I still enjoyed the visit and learnt new information.
Firstly, we were told about Helinä Rautavaara herself and her collections. After that we went to the room with African tribal exhibits. We learnt about Chi Wara, an antilope which told a secret about agriculture in exchange for its life. Then we looked at some masks, costumes and other exhibits used by tribes in different rituals.
After the African section, we went to the room with Hindu exhibits. We were told about main deities: Brahman, the main creator of the universe, usually not represented in works of art, Shiva and Vishnu. We also learnt that in Hinduism there is a vast deity selection and every person can choose individually, though it also depends on the place in India (what city you live in) and family traditions.
After that we had time to go around by ourselves. I looked at some clothing of different religions and found out that I haven't seen some of that before.
To summarize, the visit to Helinä Rautavaara museum was quite informative though I already knew some things that the guide was telling us.
A visit to the Buddhist temple was quite a strange event which I fortunately went to with my friends.
First of all, when we came to the place, I was a bit surprised that the "temple" was actually a flat. As we walked in, a nice woman asked us whether it was our first time there and showed us the way into the big room where people were already sitting and preparing for meditation. We sat on the pillows and meditation started. The woman that met us in the hallway before turned out to be an instructor. She was telling us to relaz our muscles and clear the mind. We wished happiness on everyone: on our family, friends, strangers, enemies. We also wished happiness on people who were meutral to us which seemed a bit strange but satisfying as well.
Even though I enjoyed meditation for the first 10-15 minutes and was looking forward to doing it, an hour was too long and already in the middle of it I wished it would end soon. Every 10 minutes a Buddha statuette made sounds so at least that was giving hope. After a whole hour of meditation, we had a break and were supposed to have an hour more, this time without any instructions, but we decided we could not meditate any more and left.
Altogether, I liked the beginning of the meditation but unfortunately it's long lasting ruined my overall impression.
A visit to the Synagogue was a very interesting and informative experience and I'm really glad we went there.
I think there is no point in listing everything we learnt there because that would be too much, but in general, we were told the basics of Judaism: beliefs, traditions, holidays. Personally, I found everything very interesting, but there are a couple of things that amazed me the most.
First of all, I was a bit surprised by how strict the limitations on Saturdays are. I knew before that Shabbat is a day off for Jewish people but I never knew that ideally you are not even allowed to carry a bag with you because that would mean you'd work.
Second of all, I found especially fascinating their concept of God and how life is organized: the freedom of choice between good and bad, following the Torah for a better life, not only for God. I also felt like the comparison that God is like a father who can and cannot give you money is really clear. I really like the idea that people understand that, and don't ask and get help only from God, by also from themselves.
Overall, I learnt a lot about Judaism during this visit. I feel like everything I wanted to know was very clearly explained and I understand Judaism a lot better now. I was interested in learning about it a long time ago but I never did that on my own, so I'm glad that we went through it in this course. I think that the visit to the Synagogue might be the best visit in this course.
After we visited the Mosque, I couldn't but compare it to the visit to the Synagogue. I feel like in the Synagogue the cantor explained the basics of Judaism very clearly to us. However, in the Mosque I didn't quite understand some of the things. I felt like the man who guided us didn't explain some vital things which might have seemed obvious to him, but not to me. Maybe that was just because we didn't have enough time though. Nevertheless, he was still a great speaker and you could see that he is passionate about what he's talking about.
One of the things which I remember the most is his explanation of how the meaning of Quran changes with every translation made. In addition, even in the original it can be interpreted in many ways; that is why, as in other religions, in Islam people sometimes disagree on things.
It was also interesting to see how Muslims pray, especially keeping in mind that there are Muslims at our school and they do the same. I was a bit surprised, though, that Muslims pray 5 times a day, but I guess it's a lifestyle for them.
Overall, I think that we had an informative visit to the Mosque and it was interesting to see the prayer.
The synangogue visit was really interesting. Our guide had so much to say and he knew the answer to all of our questions. The synangogue was very beautiful and the torah's were so interesting. I was surprised at how many rules jews have to follow.
The trip to the mosque was unique and interesting. I liked that we got to experience some things like the robs. I compared it to the synagogue which i think lots of people did because in the Mosque, i didnt understand some main points like in the synagogue. i still enjoyed the visit and learned new things. i thought it was interesting to see the prayer style and how many times muslims pray in a day. The overall experience was an enjoyable one!
In the Synagogue we got to see the art and the torah and the structure of the building but what I found really interesting was how the religion was in the perspective of the guide he told us about the Jewish community in Helsinki and in Finland and the ceremonies and customs they had. He also told us that they have shabbat and like muslims many of them learn their holy book by heart and read it regularly. It was an insightful visit.
Visiting a mosque is almost different as much as it is the same with each mosque. The overall basis is the same and the concept is the same ( a place to worship and find community) but you meet so many different people with different backgrounds. Islam is such a vast religion and to see a glimpse of it and see people uniting is a reflection of the principles of the religion. Rabita is different to other mosques I've been to because it doesn't look like the traditional mosque however I learned that a mosque is any place a Muslim can worship. Some mosques around the world are historical figures but are still used to pray and join muslims. For example the blue mosque I have been to in Turkey is a tourist attraction and a historic building but also a mosque in practice.
I think HR museum nice, although it wasn't that "religious" really, because even the spiritual stuff was seen from an art/culture perspective. But that aspect is interesting too, so it doesn't matter.
Meditation was relaxing and I hope it taught me patience or something. It's also good to know how millions of buddhists practise their faith concretly. I would've thought that they would have given us some kind of deeper introduction to it though.
It was a pity that there was so little time in the synagogue. Jews are a pretty invisible part of the society in Finland, and because the security checks etc. it's not easy to get to know judaism outside books or internet. Listening to the dude made me understand the religion much better.
Visiting the mosque was also a great experience. The people there were really friendly and glad to share information. In a way it's also good that we didn't go to the tatar mosque because at least to me it's (mentally) easier to go there by myself, and to Rabita I would've never gone if not on this course.
The visit to this museum was, simply put, amazing! Knowing that one person collected all those artifacts was quite awe-inspiring because some artifacts looked intricate and fragile and some looked sizable and hefty. Our visit began with a quick look into a living room of one of Helinä Rautavaara's apartments which was lavishly decorated with all kinds of objects. We were told a bit about her life and her travels and we continued onto the section where objects of African tribal religions were displayed. We learned about the importance of masks in tribal culture and religion, as well as that they all symbolize something, like fertility or prosperity for example. Masks are used in rituals and prayers. Usually, only 'special' people, like tribal priests, have access to the masks and rituals. Also, in other regions, there is a practice of ancestor worship. Each family has their own outfit, or a 'puppet' of some sorts, to represents their ancestors. Each year, they consult their ancestors to get from them messages and guidance on how they should act in the future and to get a reflection on the passed year. An interesting thing I never knew before, is that some tribal people believe a bird gave birth to the earth. After that, we continued to the section of Asian religions. We concentrated on Indian Hinduism. The tour guide told us about the three main gods in Hinduism; Brahma, the creator; Shiva, the destroyer; and Vishnu, the maintainer of the universe. Besides these three, Hinduism has many other (thousands) gods of which one can choose to worship just one or many. Hindus believe in reincarnation and the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Our tour concluded there and we were free to ask the tour guide, who herself had been to India many times, any questions we had. Then, we were free to look around the exhibits to find information we could use for our presentations. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and would revisit, to be able to spectate more carefully, any time.
I visited the temple alone and I have mixed feelings about it. Although the atmosphere there was calm, I was not. There were quite many people there. The woman guiding the meditation explained how to breathe but didn't go into further explanations about meditation. (Perhaps I didn't understand everything very well because it was in Finnish.) Our 25 minute meditation was divided into four sections, each supposedly more and more difficult. However, to a novice (me) in meditation, it all seemed confusing. The objective was to clear my thoughts, which I found very difficult after a busy and stressful day. The seating position we were in was at fist pleasant but soon turned into a lot of pain. In order not to disturb others, I maintained it. After we finished, we drank very tasty tea. The meditation did have positive aspects to it, though. Although I was not able to 'clear' my mind and still had a thousand worries in it, I calmed down. I found it much easier than usual to fall asleep that night, and I was even very calm and relaxed the next day. I especially liked how meditation was not necessarily connected to religion, but rather a utensil to facilitate the strengthening of one's connection with oneself. That was made clear to me by the fact that many people in the room wore crosses, and one woman wore a hijab. I can see how Buddhism and meditation might be appealing to some as it even calmed the hyperactive me down. However, even though meditation is beneficial, I feel I am not 'passive' enough to make it a daily ritual.
I entered the synagogue with already pre-made, somewhat biased opinions. While my appreciation and an inclination to liking the Jewish community did not fade, some of the fallacies I had in my mind about Judaism did. That was greatly due to our very charismatic, friendly guide, Mr. Zylberman. He was so open and diligent in answering our questions. I appreciated how, instead of just telling us facts about Judaism which, like he said, we can find anywhere, he told us what Judaism is for the follower and what it means to be a Jew. Also, I enjoyed how he spoke to us without even a slight condescending tone. That showed me that he sees us as equals even though we might not be a part of the same religion. He spoke from a very personal standpoint and was not trying to prove of disprove anything, nor was he trying to convert us. One of the most important things for a Jew, I learned, is family and community. Also, each Jew has a personal connection with God and they get closer to the deity by doing good deeds and following the commandments of the Torah. Mr. Eli said that nobody actually knows how important each commandment is, but they do assume they know a couple 'big' ones that bring a Jew closer to his/her God. For example, respecting one's parents and not working on Sabbath. I did not know how strict the rules of Sabbath are. Before, I was not truly aware how important Sabbath is for Jews and I didn't realize people actually took it seriously. Now I have a new appreciation for the dedication Jews have to what they believe will make them a better person. Another interesting thing I didn't know about is how Jews count days. The day ends when the sun sets, and the new one begins. The architecture of the synagogue was beautiful. Although it was moderate and simple, the building emitted a certain sense of importance about it. Inside, I was constantly distracted by the intricate gold details on the walls and the altar was spectacular. The scrolls of the Torah that the Jew re-read each and every year, were also quite the sight especially when I found out they are printed on leather. I left this visit with an even more positive view of the Jewish community.
First of all, I hope nobody takes offence in this comment as it is not meant to offend but criticize. I am well aware of the time-limit of our presentation and understand that it did put limitations on the amount of information we were to receive. I did not particularly enjoy the trip to the mosque, and I felt I did not learn nearly as much as I had hoped to. Although, no doubt the robes I had to put on were clean, I still felt uncomfortable in them (germaphobe). I also felt that it was not my responsibility as a person not of Islamic faith to show submission to that value of theirs and I felt I had already purposefully dressed very modestly for the occasion. But, out of respect I decided 'just do it'. I had hoped I would find out more things about Islam I didn't know, however, our guide seemed to focus strongly on proving to us that what Islam preaches is true and is the right way, rather than telling us what it is that Islam actually teaches. He spent too much time on his slide called "Misconceptions". As religion class students, I feel we all have pretty unbiased, nonjudgmental minds. None of us think that all Muslims are terrorists and we are all well aware that the actions of extremists that define themselves as belonging to a certain religious group, do not define the whole community. Perhaps he was not aware of that so I still appreciate him defending himself and his fellow Muslims with passion. Throughout the presentation, he was very passionate about Islam. I was left unconvinced by the guide's argument that polygamy would solve problems of the Western society. Not because I automatically discarded the argument's possible validity, but because it was presented without any evidence as to why that might be true. It was only a claim that it is so. Another weak point of our guide, I felt, was the fact that he was not open to discussion. He seemed sure that he was right, and, to me, didn't seem very open to questioning. Maybe becoming more skilled in arguing and debating would help him make more interesting presentations. To claim I did not learn anything, would be false. I was glad I was able to witness prayer. That was something I had never seen before and had always been interested in. The discipline with which these men prayed was remarkable. One could clearly see how important it is to a Muslim to maintain the connection with Allah. I also saw the Qur'an live for the first time. Getting the brochures and the books made me really happy because I could individually study them and expand my knowledge about Islam further even after the visit to the mosque. I would not mind re-visiting if that meant more time to go into depth about the traditions and teachings of Islam.
Kirjoittaja on poistanut tämän kommentin.
VastaaPoistaVisit to the museum consisted of a tour about tribal religions (in Africa) and Indian religion (Hinduism).
VastaaPoistaTribal religion reflects the traditions and beliefs of tribal people, for example, the tradition of wearing different types of masks and hats in different occasions. These outfit usually symbolizes something, for example, Chiwara hat represents the idea and development of cultivation and presence of both male and female Chiwara represents fertility.
Tribal people also believed that a bird gave birth gave birth to first human and also believed in ancestor myth. Tribal people usually have 'secret celebration' and only few members of society were permitted to witness and be a part of these celebrations. People believed that ancestor give suggestions in these celebrations.
In the Asian religion section, we took a tour about Hinduism- which is one of the oldest religion and has more than 3000 deities but there are three main deities- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahma is the creator of universe but is not worshiped in temples.
Vishnu is the maintainer of this universe.
Shiva is the main god of Hinduism. His Nat-raga position symbolizes his role in creation and destruction of every thing, forming a cycle, for example, life and then death and then rebirth. This reflects Hindus belief in reincarnation.
Except these three deities, Ganesha and Krishna are other main deities.
Hindus did not have to worship all these gods, they can choose to worship any one or more gods.
The visit to the museum included a tour where the tour guide explained about African tribal religions and a bit about Hinduism. After that we were allowed to go about the exhibition by ourselves, looking at what interested us and what we could possibly use in our oral presentations.
VastaaPoistaWhat I found most interesting about the exhibition was probably the Africa room. The different kinds of masks were very interesting and beautiful. Also, the thought that Helinä Rautavaara collected all those objects was quite astonishing, because some of the objects were very large and probably very heavy.
All in all, it was an interesting exhibition and something I hadn't seen before, and very enjoyable.
The Buddhist temple meditation was not really what I expected. The guide didn't really teach us how to meditate, she just talked to us about how we were supposed to wish happiness on everyone and everything around us. We meditated for a whole hour straight, took a break, then meditated for another hour in silence. It was quite long in my opinion and while I found it interesting it wasn't as informative as I had hoped it to be.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the buddhist temple was quite interesting. We meditated for an hour and then we drank some tea. The meditation was very different from what I had thought: I didn't know that meditation is partially guided. The guide gave us instructions how to meditate and what to think during meditation. I found the meditating calming despite the fact that my legs went numb and in the end it got very painful.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the museum was fascinating and it taught me a lot of new things. I had never been to the Emma museum before. We had a guided tour where the guide told us about Hinduism and African tribal religions. There were lots of masks, statues and other kinds of religious items from all around the world. After the tour we had the opportunity to find some material for our presentations.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was an eye opening experience. We had a long meditation during which the priest guided us to wish happiness to our family, friends and also to our enemies. The meditation took an hour and at the end it got really hard to concentrate because my legs fell asleep, as the sitting position got quite uncomfortable after being in the same position the whole time. We decided not to continue to the other meditation which was going to be after the tea break but all in all it was nice to visit a real Buddhist temple. I think it was positive that they didn't push their religion to us and didn't try to recruit us or anything like that.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the Helinä Rautavaara museum was interesting, and it really got me amazed how she had collected all the artifacts from all over the world as some of them were really big and looked heavy.
At the beginning of the visit we had a guide telling us mainly about African tribal religions and Hinduism. The tour was nice because we only got through a few things and the guide presented them thoroughly. After the tour we had time to find information for our presentations and go around the exhibition.
The visit to the Buddhist temple was quite different than I expected. First, the guide guided us to concentrate on our body and feel and focus on our body processes such as breathing. Then she told us to think of people (a good person, a neutral person and then a person whom we dislike) and then asked us to pray for their happiness. First, I didn't get the whole point of it but in the next class, when we studied the concept of Brahman and Atman, I got a clear picture. I realized that they pray for other happiness to overcome feeling like hatred, as it is a process of nirvana. It is based Buddhist believe that to attain 'Moksha' they should overcome desires, delusions and hatred.
VastaaPoistaIn the museum visit in WeeGee, we got a tourguide to explain a bit about the objects Elina Rautavaara has collected. We mainly looked at the african artifacts. We were then allowed to roam around the exhibit, viewing the different artifacts from around the world.
VastaaPoistaI really enjoyed all the african atrs because there was so much meaning behind each one.
The buddhist temple was an interesting and new experience. The guide didnt really tell us the way to meditate, but she told us to wish happiness upon the people and things you dislike. We meditated for about an hour and then i left. It was different but a new thing to try.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the Buddhist temple was interesting. First we meditated for a while and to focus on our breathing. Then the 'guide' told us to pray happiness on a few people - someone who you like, someone who you are in different to and someone who you dislike. This was interesting because you had to put a side any unpleasant feeling or baggage. I think this represents overcoming desire, delusions and hatred.
VastaaPoistaAt the Helina Rautavaara museum there was a tourguide explaining different artifacts around the world. It was pretty interesting. I enjoyed looking around at differen things and finding out what they represent.
VastaaPoistaSynagogue visit was pretty interesting. The prophet tried to gave us a basic idea of his religion Judaism. He started by introducing the Helsinki community which consists of about 1500 people and it is very small. He explained how in the synagogue, the Jews come together and read Torah. He explained the difference in their calendar and the holidays. What I found interesting was how they spend their Saturday. They are not supposed to do anything than pray, eat and study. The idea is to have a rest and thanks god and pray for future. He also told us how men and women pray separately and are not allowed to sit together. He also told that it is difficult, though not impossible, for a person to convert to Judaism and if a person is born Jew than he is a Jew for his entire life.Then he encouraged our questions and also showed us the Torah and told us that they keep extra copy, in case one of them is damaged.
VastaaPoistaBuddhist "temple" was maybe the least religious place I've ever been to. Since I did participate only in the first third of the night, the meditating with some guidance, it reminded me of a basic pilates lesson without the moves and stretches. It's actually great how Buddhist rituals don't include (at least in most cases) any worshiping. That's nice variation to the religious rituals I, or we, usually witness. When I looked around in the room I wondered how many of the participants were actually Buddhist or interested in buddhism and how many of them -us- where there only to relax or out of pure interest. But on the other hand there's not that big of a difference between these two groups. And that's the weird part about Buddhism. It's quite easy to name the religionists from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, even Hinduism. But you can think that in Buddhism every single one who walks on this planet is a Buddhist. Or if that's too dramatical, at least everyone who tries to live the best life possible for themselves and others.
VastaaPoistaAnyway, there was a few stereotypes too. The members of some brotherhood (I didn't quite get their introduction. There was a man who was part of something and a woman who would become part of that thing soon, I guess?) were just like the Buddhists in movies and TV. And there was tea. But that was about it. We didn't mutter anything while meditating or sat in that legscrossedhandsonknees position. I got to say, I don't think the experience brought me any closer to peace or enlightening but it was a nice moment of relaxation. Not uncomfortable like I think it would be to participate to any other strange religious ritual.
I couldn't agree more.
PoistaVisiting a mosque was an interesting experience for me. First, we were asked to cover our heads. Then we got a presentation about the basics of Islam, Islamic society in Finland, main teaching and values of Islam, concept of Halal and Haram and misconceptions about Islam. We were also told about the role of mosque, such as, in marriage, it initiating people to become a Muslim, and the certificate that the mosque offers. What I found interesting was that you need an Islamic marriage certificate to stay in the hotel in Muslim countries. We also talked a lot about Quran, their sacred book. I learned that translations are no longer considered Quran, only the original text written in Arabic is considered Quran. The presentation also covered the Islamic fasting and pilgrimage called Hajj. Then there was call for the prayer and we all went to see how they pray. During the prayer, 'Allah ho Akbar' was repeated a lot of times which again shows their belief in god. After that, we also took a look to their small bookshop and then left.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the buddhist temple was rather interesting. I thought the meditating would be in a quiet and dark room, or with some quiet music playing in the background. I also thought we'd be sitting cross legged, with our hands on our knees with our thumb and forefinger touching, saying ummmm. However, this was not the case. There was a person in the room talking and telling us to concentrate on sharing happiness with everyone we love and hate. There was no ummming going on, and I didn't find myself very relaxed for the whole time. Meditating is known to be very calming and stress relieving, but I just suffered from immense leg numbing and back pains the whole time. Probably because it was my first ever time mediating, and because it was for such a long time. Anyhow, it was an interesting experience, despite not being very relaxed.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the synagogue was interesting as it began with a security check. The priest first told us about the community in Helsinki which consists of over 1000 members. Then he told us about the religious life of a Jew and also about their everyday life, such as their sacred day of week Shabbat which is observed from sunset on Friday until Saturday night. He also told us about the process of becoming a Jew, which from his speech could be understood as quite difficult.
VastaaPoistaAt the end of the visit we got to see the rolls of Torah which really looked magnificent.
Kirjoittaja on poistanut tämän kommentin.
VastaaPoistaI enjoyed the visit to the Helinä Rautavaara-museum even though it was pretty short. All the objects were amazing, especially the traditional African wooden masks, and somehow it seemed like they were each telling a story. It was interesting to compare the differences and also notice some sort of similarities in religions through the objects.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the Buddhist temple was interesting, because I didn't know that a place like that even exists in Helsinki and that it's actually a quite big community according to the number of the participants at the meditation-session. I've tried meditation before and honestly I didn't really enjoy this one. I found it a bit frustrating for some reason and felt like my mind was not calm at all. Maybe it was because I kind of felt like a stranger there and there was really too much people for me to actually concentrate.
VastaaPoistaThe visit to the synagogue was interesting because I really got a lot of new information and it made me understand Judaism more. It's always nice and interesting to hear about a certain religion by its real follower.
VastaaPoistaTHE BUDDHIST TEMPLE
VastaaPoistaI don't know what I expected from the buddhist centre but I certainly didn't realise so many people would turn up.
We were sat in a small, dimly lit room with no air-conditioning. There were pillows and blankets and all kinds of people everywhere and the air was thick with exotic smells. The candles burning and the intense, intimate atmosphere were apt to create a spiritual dimension into the meditation.
In my case there was nothing too spiritual because being a newbie I found it extremely hard to concentrate for an hour or so on the meditation. Besides both of my feet were on pins and needles after five minutes.
One particular part about the meditation I did find extremely relaxing and beneficial, which was the body relaxing through mind by going through each body part in mind.
THE SYNAGOGUE
The man who guided us was a very charismatic speaker and made Judaism sound logical and simple. And in my books Judaism isn’t at the top of the most logical religions. The cantor gave us a tour there and explained us the main principles of Judaism.
He explained us the simple reason why in communal synagogue worships and prayers women and men are separated to be sat in two different sections of the prayer room: they want to be near God and concentrate on the prayers and the presence of attractive representatives of the opposite sex can interrupt this action.
This seems pretty logical to me but I really had difficulties understanding why it is so hard to convert to Judaism. A Jew will always remain as a Jew but a person who doesn’t have this specific cultural background and wants to become a Jew has to do an immense amount of work to achieve it. If Judaism really is the one and only religion, the oldest and boldest, why do so few get to participate?
The cantor also told us how Jews believe God is present in everything that happens in this world and tried to explain us the difference between man’s action and God’s action. For example, I can choose to go for a walk but if I find a hundred euros on my way that’ll be because God wanted me to find it.
*in my book
PoistaBUDDHIST CENTER
VastaaPoistaThe Buddhist center was interesting and very small. Going there I felt like an intruder, but the people in the center were clearly used to visitors and it was impossible to tell that they are Buddhists. Maybe it’s the fact that Buddhists think that everyone living a good life is a Buddhist.
When the meditation started, the leader was positively surprised of the amount of the people; the room was so full that some people had to be in the room next to it. The whole meditating part was really just a way to relax. We were told to concentrate on our breathing and at the same time think happiness for everyone and everything. In the first part that lasted about 15 minutes, the meditation felt really relaxing, I felt like I could fall asleep, not in a bored way. In the end my legs got quite soar and my concentration didn’t last the whole hour. We felt that it’s better to leave on the tea brake than stay there restless and bored. The leader was expecting people to leave then so he wished us a good week and wasn’t bothered at all.
I could do the 15-30 minute relaxation every day and wish good for everyone, but being a lively person, I don’t feel that Buddhism is my religion.
SYNAGOGUE
The visit to the synagogue was eye opening and probably the most interesting thing of the whole course. Before I had some kind of idea about Judaism, but really just a scratch. Okay, our religion has the same base, but it’s still different. The cantor of the synagogue/congregation was very sympathetic and made the religion sound quite clear and simple. Well of course if you know the Old Testament well, it’s not that hard to understand Judaism, but I thought it would be much more difficult.
Jews believe that God has planned everything for them, but they have an opportunity to choose what they do. Like the cantor told, he can choose to go downstairs, but if he falls in the stairs and breaks a limb, God planned it to happen. So he like has several options what will happen, and randomly chooses the limb break instead of founding 2 euros.
I was quite surprised that the point in women and men sitting separately in different services isn’t only because a man could be distracted between his communication with God if an attractive woman would be near him. The other point was that men are more straight thinking and not as sensitive as women, which makes it harder to them to remember God. That’s also the point why only men are allowed to read the Torah in services. Obviously, it’s not always that way, but it’s a much better explanation than only the distraction thing.
Judaism is one of the oldest religions and it has really had nice discussions and compromises with the modernizing world and locations. Especially with what comes to Sabbath, it was funny how the cantor wasn’t so sure about the months and days, because they have to adapt to the time in Jerusalem and the Jewish calendar.
The cantor was well prepared for every question we had, and at least I think every one of them was clearly answered. The whole visit, as I said was very teaching and some way gave me good vibes.
The visit to the mosque was nice because I got to refresh my memory about the lifestyle of Muslims. The concepts that we went through in the presentation were things that I have experienced, such as Ramadan and the big celebration that came after it was done. Also the carpet was similar to that of the floor in the mosques in Malaysia, showing which direction to pray to. It was also interesting to see the praying take place with its many different positions and stages. All in all, it was fun to visit the mosque.
VastaaPoistaTHE MOSQUE
VastaaPoistaI couldn't but compare the two visits to the synagogue and the mosque.
I felt like the cantor at the synagogue was a bit more at ease as he spoke very openly and impulsively.
Of course I didn't suspect the imam's sincerity either but I felt like he was constantly trying to prove something. I thought it was a shame how much he concentrated on clearing the misconceptions about Islam and thus our time was very quickly off and we didn't get to cover thoroughly the other topics he had in his slide show. Our visit left missing the synagogue-like interesting and in-depth discussion. On the other hand, the imam was a good, passionate speaker as well and he gave us a good all-round knowledge about islam.
Just like the cantor at the synagogue, the imam explained us why men and women are to do the prayers in separate rooms. He told us about the difference between man and woman, how the first mentioned believes with his brain and the last mentioned with her heart. The imam at the mosque might've emphasised the physical difference a little more: a woman isn't allowed to lead the prayers so men wouldn't get distracted about the beautiful curves that women have under their clothes.
Right after having arrived to the mosque our group was asked to cover of heads or our entire bodies with these big pastel coloured gowns. It felt super odd at first and a few giggles escalated amongst us but later on I realised how much odder it would've been if we had been in our normal clothes. When in Rome...
The imam spoke a long time about The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, how it isn't the same book after translating it into some other language. He had drawn this kind of chart to demonstrate:
Language 1 (the original Arabic version of the Qur'an)
--> translation -->
language 2
--> translation -->
language 3
--> translation back to Arabic -->
The Qur'an has changed so much between the translations that it isn't comparable to the original version.
According to the imam this causes wrong interpretations and conflicts between Muslims. I think it its interesting how much both Islam and Judaism are connected with these ancient languages, Hebrew and Arabic.
At the end of the visit we got to see the Muslims do one of their five prayers a day which I found extremely interesting as the participants were of all ages, very normal people huffing and puffing and finding difficulties in stretching so much doing the prayers. I think it also gives you perspective, seeing normal people just like you practising their religion, especially if there are a lot of misunderstandings about it like there are with Islam.
It actually just hit me how great opportunity it is for us to visit these places. This arrangement where we can simply walk in to a mosque or a synagogue isn't something you can find all around the world. In both of these visits the atmosphere was great - I didn't feel like anyone tried to shove their opinions of beliefs down my throat but we were welcome and allowed to ask anything we wanted.
VastaaPoistaSynagogue - In this visit the importance of charisma and credibility really opened up to me. I have always found Jewish culture, history and community interesting and had quite bit of expectations for the visit. I wasn't let down at all. The guide, the cantor of the synagogue, was a right-on-target choice for this case. He was open to our questions and didn't hesitate to differ from the plan he had made for the visit. He got the fact that we can read anywhere about Jewish holidays or the finnish community, but it's way rarer to be able to ask about personal belief or worldview.
After the visit I was considering whether I should convert to Judaism. Okay, maybe not, but I was quite impressed anyway. There was some certainty in the way the cantor spoke and presented his beliefs. He didn't apologize or rationalize too much anything he said, but still wasn't arrogant or superior to us. That's the attitude I wish everyone had or even tried to achieve.
Mosque - This visit was really a overall experience with the robes and everything, not just any lecture. It was more practical than the one we had in synagogue since here we got to witness the prayer. I don't think one was better that the other and it might have been boring to just sit an hour in the poorly air-conditioned room knowing there was other things to do and see in the mosque.
It was interesting to see the pre-made presentation and think about who it is made for and what are the things that they want to point out about their religion. It was even a bit sad to realize how many explanatory parts there was. Personally I have understood that the negative images that we get from the Islamic world over the news aren't the everyday reality of every single Muslim. Just like the extreme Christians don't represent the whole Christian world or even their beliefs. It would've been super interesting to skip that part or squeeze it up to a few sentences and find out, what are the parts of Koran that some think "justify" f.ex. terrorism or honor killing. Maybe that's something you would need more than a couple of minutes for...
It was even a bit funny how eager the imam was to give us all the brochures and books. I would've wanted to know who all this stuff is for. School groups and students like us, of course, but who is the target audience of those brochures and presentations? And what do they base on the topics of the and books.
Overall it was a positive surprise how easy it is to get information about other religions. It maybe wouldn't work like that for a individual, to just pop to a Mosque and ask about Islam. Still the visits were the core of the course and concreted the things we learned in class.
Oops I published this twice... and for some reason I can't delete this
PoistaIt actually just hit me how great opportunity it is for us to visit these places. This arrangement where we can simply walk in to a mosque or a synagogue isn't something you can find all around the world. In both of these visits the atmosphere was great - I didn't feel like anyone tried to shove their opinions of beliefs down my throat but we were welcome and allowed to ask anything we wanted.
VastaaPoistaSynagogue - In this visit the importance of charisma and credibility really opened up to me. I have always found Jewish culture, history and community interesting and had quite bit of expectations for the visit. I wasn't let down at all. The guide, the cantor of the synagogue, was a right-on-target choice for this case. He was open to our questions and didn't hesitate to differ from the plan he had made for the visit. He got the fact that we can read anywhere about Jewish holidays or the finnish community, but it's way rarer to be able to ask about personal belief or worldview.
After the visit I was considering whether I should convert to Judaism. Okay, maybe not, but I was quite impressed anyway. There was some certainty in the way the cantor spoke and presented his beliefs. He didn't apologize or rationalize too much anything he said, but still wasn't arrogant or superior to us. That's the attitude I wish everyone had or even tried to achieve.
Mosque - This visit was really a overall experience with the robes and everything, not just any lecture. It was more practical than the one we had in synagogue since here we got to witness the prayer. I don't think one was better that the other and it might have been boring to just sit an hour in the poorly air-conditioned room knowing there was other things to do and see in the mosque.
It was interesting to see the pre-made presentation and think about who it is made for and what are the things that they want to point out about their religion. It was even a bit sad to realize how many explanatory parts there was. Personally I have understood that the negative images that we get from the Islamic world over the news aren't the everyday reality of every single Muslim. Just like the extreme Christians don't represent the whole Christian world or even their beliefs. It would've been super interesting to skip that part or squeeze it up to a few sentences and find out, what are the parts of Koran that some think "justify" f.ex. terrorism or honor killing. Maybe that's something you would need more than a couple of minutes for...
It was even a bit funny how eager the imam was to give us all the brochures and books. I would've wanted to know who all this stuff is for. School groups and students like us, of course, but who is the target audience of those brochures and presentations, because that defines what they want to share in them.
Overall it was a positive surprise how easy it is to get information about other religions. It maybe wouldn't work like that for a individual, to just pop to a Mosque and ask about Islam. Still the visits were the core of the course and concreted the things we learned in class.
MOSQUE
VastaaPoistaIf someone says the word mosque, a massive temple in the Middle East pops into my head, not a property in a yellow apartment building in the center of Helsinki. When we stepped in to the ladies’ entrance of the mosque, you knew you were in one. A red wall-to-wall carpet with spots to pray filled the room, and we were handed either scarves or abayas.
Silly looking we sat down to listen our presentation given by the imam. He was as sympathetic as the cantor of the synagogue, and was sorry for the fact that we didn’t have more time than 45 minutes.
Just like Christianity, Islam is a religion of various interpretations, because of various translations of original scriptures. The imam told, that Muslims should know, that only the original version is 100% the truth, but the problem is always the question of translation and understanding. Muslims want to believe in the translations they feel are right, but not knowing whether it’s right or wrong, it causes loads of conflicts.
Muslims have a similar way of thinking with Jews, when it comes to separating men and women during prayers: head versus heart thinking and distraction. What was interesting, is the fact that when people pray on holidays in Mecca, women and men are randomly next to each other, differing from the regular basis that they are in different rooms.
Seeing the men perform their praying ritual was an excellent thing. It was cool to see men rushing to the mosque, probably from work or school, and then relaxing and concentrating to the prayer. You really saw the mosque as a time off from basic life and rush.
For a religion student like me it was incredible to receive all the brochures and booklets from the library. The imam (and the librarian) was so nice when he continued to chat with us after the tour, and answered our questions about Quran. It was lovely to see how happy he was to explain things, but well, it’s his job really.
The visit to the Buddha center was pretty weird in my opinion. The place was pretty small and it wasn't really a religious place at all. We meditated there an hour. This "meditating" meant sitting on a pillow for 1 hour. That's right, 1 hour... We should had wished good things for everybody; including family, friends, enemies and to the whole world. Unfortunately all I could think about was the pain in my legs. There was a tea-meditation (or something) after we had sat, but I didn't participate in it.
VastaaPoistaI found the visit to the synagogue very educational. We had to go through a security check before we could enter the synagogue. The cantor of the synagogue who guided us told us some information about Judaism and the synagogue. He seemed to really know what he was talking about since he had been a Jew all of his life. The man knew how to explain quite complex thing to us by simplifying them into a popularized form. I feel that I learnt so much more by visiting the synagogue than reading information from a book or the internet.
VastaaPoistaVisit to the synagogue was probably the most important thing on the whole course. Before we could enter, there was a security-check, just for making sure that nobody had handguns or grenades in their backpacks.
VastaaPoistaThe cantor there was very professional and could quite easily answer even to the hardest questions concerning Judaism. I learned a lot of new things about Judaism, such as the role of women, history of Judaism and last but not least the commandments.
The visit to the mosque was quite interesting. The building itself didn't look like a mosque, but once we got inside, you could feel the culture floating. I learned more about Islamic culture, also the differences between Christianity and Islam became clear, which was fantastic. The rules there were a bit more strict than the rules in a basic Christian church.
VastaaPoistaI visited the mosque with Kuura and Hilla on our spare time. Seeing a real mosque and the Islamic items it had inside it was genuinely interesting. Muslims separate women and men inside the mosque just like the Jews usually do. Women and men can not pray in the same room. We had to cover our heads and other parts of our bodies such as shoulders and knees when we went in.
VastaaPoistaWe visited the mosque with Kuura and Monica. The mosque was a bit difficult to find as the building did not look like a Islamic center at all. The Islamic culture, which had been always quite unknown to me, opened up.
VastaaPoistaThere were separate sides for men and women and me and Monica had to wear scarves.
There were extensive selection of brochures off all kinds but didn't take any.
During the visit to Helinä Rautavaara musem, unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore every exhibit presentred due to limited time, but I still enjoyed the visit and learnt new information.
VastaaPoistaFirstly, we were told about Helinä Rautavaara herself and her collections. After that we went to the room with African tribal exhibits. We learnt about Chi Wara, an antilope which told a secret about agriculture in exchange for its life. Then we looked at some masks, costumes and other exhibits used by tribes in different rituals.
After the African section, we went to the room with Hindu exhibits. We were told about main deities: Brahman, the main creator of the universe, usually not represented in works of art, Shiva and Vishnu. We also learnt that in Hinduism there is a vast deity selection and every person can choose individually, though it also depends on the place in India (what city you live in) and family traditions.
After that we had time to go around by ourselves. I looked at some clothing of different religions and found out that I haven't seen some of that before.
To summarize, the visit to Helinä Rautavaara museum was quite informative though I already knew some things that the guide was telling us.
A visit to the Buddhist temple was quite a strange event which I fortunately went to with my friends.
VastaaPoistaFirst of all, when we came to the place, I was a bit surprised that the "temple" was actually a flat. As we walked in, a nice woman asked us whether it was our first time there and showed us the way into the big room where people were already sitting and preparing for meditation. We sat on the pillows and meditation started. The woman that met us in the hallway before turned out to be an instructor. She was telling us to relaz our muscles and clear the mind. We wished happiness on everyone: on our family, friends, strangers, enemies. We also wished happiness on people who were meutral to us which seemed a bit strange but satisfying as well.
Even though I enjoyed meditation for the first 10-15 minutes and was looking forward to doing it, an hour was too long and already in the middle of it I wished it would end soon. Every 10 minutes a Buddha statuette made sounds so at least that was giving hope. After a whole hour of meditation, we had a break and were supposed to have an hour more, this time without any instructions, but we decided we could not meditate any more and left.
Altogether, I liked the beginning of the meditation but unfortunately it's long lasting ruined my overall impression.
A visit to the Synagogue was a very interesting and informative experience and I'm really glad we went there.
VastaaPoistaI think there is no point in listing everything we learnt there because that would be too much, but in general, we were told the basics of Judaism: beliefs, traditions, holidays. Personally, I found everything very interesting, but there are a couple of things that amazed me the most.
First of all, I was a bit surprised by how strict the limitations on Saturdays are. I knew before that Shabbat is a day off for Jewish people but I never knew that ideally you are not even allowed to carry a bag with you because that would mean you'd work.
Second of all, I found especially fascinating their concept of God and how life is organized: the freedom of choice between good and bad, following the Torah for a better life, not only for God. I also felt like the comparison that God is like a father who can and cannot give you money is really clear. I really like the idea that people understand that, and don't ask and get help only from God, by also from themselves.
Overall, I learnt a lot about Judaism during this visit. I feel like everything I wanted to know was very clearly explained and I understand Judaism a lot better now. I was interested in learning about it a long time ago but I never did that on my own, so I'm glad that we went through it in this course.
I think that the visit to the Synagogue might be the best visit in this course.
After we visited the Mosque, I couldn't but compare it to the visit to the Synagogue. I feel like in the Synagogue the cantor explained the basics of Judaism very clearly to us. However, in the Mosque I didn't quite understand some of the things. I felt like the man who guided us didn't explain some vital things which might have seemed obvious to him, but not to me. Maybe that was just because we didn't have enough time though. Nevertheless, he was still a great speaker and you could see that he is passionate about what he's talking about.
VastaaPoistaOne of the things which I remember the most is his explanation of how the meaning of Quran changes with every translation made. In addition, even in the original it can be interpreted in many ways; that is why, as in other religions, in Islam people sometimes disagree on things.
It was also interesting to see how Muslims pray, especially keeping in mind that there are Muslims at our school and they do the same. I was a bit surprised, though, that Muslims pray 5 times a day, but I guess it's a lifestyle for them.
Overall, I think that we had an informative visit to the Mosque and it was interesting to see the prayer.
The synangogue visit was really interesting. Our guide had so much to say and he knew the answer to all of our questions. The synangogue was very beautiful and the torah's were so interesting. I was surprised at how many rules jews have to follow.
VastaaPoistaThe trip to the mosque was unique and interesting. I liked that we got to experience some things like the robs. I compared it to the synagogue which i think lots of people did because in the Mosque, i didnt understand some main points like in the synagogue. i still enjoyed the visit and learned new things. i thought it was interesting to see the prayer style and how many times muslims pray in a day. The overall experience was an enjoyable one!
VastaaPoistaIn the Synagogue we got to see the art and the torah and the structure of the building but what I found really interesting was how the religion was in the perspective of the guide he told us about the Jewish community in Helsinki and in Finland and the ceremonies and customs they had. He also told us that they have shabbat and like muslims many of them learn their holy book by heart and read it regularly. It was an insightful visit.
VastaaPoistaVisiting a mosque is almost different as much as it is the same with each mosque. The overall basis is the same and the concept is the same ( a place to worship and find community) but you meet so many different people with different backgrounds. Islam is such a vast religion and to see a glimpse of it and see people uniting is a reflection of the principles of the religion. Rabita is different to other mosques I've been to because it doesn't look like the traditional mosque however I learned that a mosque is any place a Muslim can worship. Some mosques around the world are historical figures but are still used to pray and join muslims. For example the blue mosque I have been to in Turkey is a tourist attraction and a historic building but also a mosque in practice.
VastaaPoistaI think HR museum nice, although it wasn't that "religious" really, because even the spiritual stuff was seen from an art/culture perspective. But that aspect is interesting too, so it doesn't matter.
VastaaPoistaMeditation was relaxing and I hope it taught me patience or something. It's also good to know how millions of buddhists practise their faith concretly. I would've thought that they would have given us some kind of deeper introduction to it though.
It was a pity that there was so little time in the synagogue. Jews are a pretty invisible part of the society in Finland, and because the security checks etc. it's not easy to get to know judaism outside books or internet. Listening to the dude made me understand the religion much better.
Visiting the mosque was also a great experience. The people there were really friendly and glad to share information. In a way it's also good that we didn't go to the tatar mosque because at least to me it's (mentally) easier to go there by myself, and to Rabita I would've never gone if not on this course.
Helinä Rautavaara Museum
VastaaPoistaThe visit to this museum was, simply put, amazing! Knowing that one person collected all those artifacts was quite awe-inspiring because some artifacts looked intricate and fragile and some looked sizable and hefty. Our visit began with a quick look into a living room of one of Helinä Rautavaara's apartments which was lavishly decorated with all kinds of objects. We were told a bit about her life and her travels and we continued onto the section where objects of African tribal religions were displayed. We learned about the importance of masks in tribal culture and religion, as well as that they all symbolize something, like fertility or prosperity for example. Masks are used in rituals and prayers. Usually, only 'special' people, like tribal priests, have access to the masks and rituals. Also, in other regions, there is a practice of ancestor worship. Each family has their own outfit, or a 'puppet' of some sorts, to represents their ancestors. Each year, they consult their ancestors to get from them messages and guidance on how they should act in the future and to get a reflection on the passed year. An interesting thing I never knew before, is that some tribal people believe a bird gave birth to the earth. After that, we continued to the section of Asian religions. We concentrated on Indian Hinduism. The tour guide told us about the three main gods in Hinduism; Brahma, the creator; Shiva, the destroyer; and Vishnu, the maintainer of the universe. Besides these three, Hinduism has many other (thousands) gods of which one can choose to worship just one or many. Hindus believe in reincarnation and the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Our tour concluded there and we were free to ask the tour guide, who herself had been to India many times, any questions we had. Then, we were free to look around the exhibits to find information we could use for our presentations. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and would revisit, to be able to spectate more carefully, any time.
Buddhist Temple
VastaaPoistaI visited the temple alone and I have mixed feelings about it. Although the atmosphere there was calm, I was not. There were quite many people there. The woman guiding the meditation explained how to breathe but didn't go into further explanations about meditation. (Perhaps I didn't understand everything very well because it was in Finnish.) Our 25 minute meditation was divided into four sections, each supposedly more and more difficult. However, to a novice (me) in meditation, it all seemed confusing. The objective was to clear my thoughts, which I found very difficult after a busy and stressful day. The seating position we were in was at fist pleasant but soon turned into a lot of pain. In order not to disturb others, I maintained it. After we finished, we drank very tasty tea. The meditation did have positive aspects to it, though. Although I was not able to 'clear' my mind and still had a thousand worries in it, I calmed down. I found it much easier than usual to fall asleep that night, and I was even very calm and relaxed the next day. I especially liked how meditation was not necessarily connected to religion, but rather a utensil to facilitate the strengthening of one's connection with oneself. That was made clear to me by the fact that many people in the room wore crosses, and one woman wore a hijab. I can see how Buddhism and meditation might be appealing to some as it even calmed the hyperactive me down. However, even though meditation is beneficial, I feel I am not 'passive' enough to make it a daily ritual.
The Jewish Community of Helsinki/ Synagogue
VastaaPoistaI entered the synagogue with already pre-made, somewhat biased opinions. While my appreciation and an inclination to liking the Jewish community did not fade, some of the fallacies I had in my mind about Judaism did. That was greatly due to our very charismatic, friendly guide, Mr. Zylberman. He was so open and diligent in answering our questions. I appreciated how, instead of just telling us facts about Judaism which, like he said, we can find anywhere, he told us what Judaism is for the follower and what it means to be a Jew. Also, I enjoyed how he spoke to us without even a slight condescending tone. That showed me that he sees us as equals even though we might not be a part of the same religion. He spoke from a very personal standpoint and was not trying to prove of disprove anything, nor was he trying to convert us. One of the most important things for a Jew, I learned, is family and community. Also, each Jew has a personal connection with God and they get closer to the deity by doing good deeds and following the commandments of the Torah. Mr. Eli said that nobody actually knows how important each commandment is, but they do assume they know a couple 'big' ones that bring a Jew closer to his/her God. For example, respecting one's parents and not working on Sabbath. I did not know how strict the rules of Sabbath are. Before, I was not truly aware how important Sabbath is for Jews and I didn't realize people actually took it seriously. Now I have a new appreciation for the dedication Jews have to what they believe will make them a better person. Another interesting thing I didn't know about is how Jews count days. The day ends when the sun sets, and the new one begins. The architecture of the synagogue was beautiful. Although it was moderate and simple, the building emitted a certain sense of importance about it. Inside, I was constantly distracted by the intricate gold details on the walls and the altar was spectacular. The scrolls of the Torah that the Jew re-read each and every year, were also quite the sight especially when I found out they are printed on leather. I left this visit with an even more positive view of the Jewish community.
Mosque
VastaaPoistaFirst of all, I hope nobody takes offence in this comment as it is not meant to offend but criticize. I am well aware of the time-limit of our presentation and understand that it did put limitations on the amount of information we were to receive. I did not particularly enjoy the trip to the mosque, and I felt I did not learn nearly as much as I had hoped to. Although, no doubt the robes I had to put on were clean, I still felt uncomfortable in them (germaphobe). I also felt that it was not my responsibility as a person not of Islamic faith to show submission to that value of theirs and I felt I had already purposefully dressed very modestly for the occasion. But, out of respect I decided 'just do it'. I had hoped I would find out more things about Islam I didn't know, however, our guide seemed to focus strongly on proving to us that what Islam preaches is true and is the right way, rather than telling us what it is that Islam actually teaches. He spent too much time on his slide called "Misconceptions". As religion class students, I feel we all have pretty unbiased, nonjudgmental minds. None of us think that all Muslims are terrorists and we are all well aware that the actions of extremists that define themselves as belonging to a certain religious group, do not define the whole community. Perhaps he was not aware of that so I still appreciate him defending himself and his fellow Muslims with passion. Throughout the presentation, he was very passionate about Islam. I was left unconvinced by the guide's argument that polygamy would solve problems of the Western society. Not because I automatically discarded the argument's possible validity, but because it was presented without any evidence as to why that might be true. It was only a claim that it is so. Another weak point of our guide, I felt, was the fact that he was not open to discussion. He seemed sure that he was right, and, to me, didn't seem very open to questioning. Maybe becoming more skilled in arguing and debating would help him make more interesting presentations. To claim I did not learn anything, would be false. I was glad I was able to witness prayer. That was something I had never seen before and had always been interested in. The discipline with which these men prayed was remarkable. One could clearly see how important it is to a Muslim to maintain the connection with Allah. I also saw the Qur'an live for the first time. Getting the brochures and the books made me really happy because I could individually study them and expand my knowledge about Islam further even after the visit to the mosque. I would not mind re-visiting if that meant more time to go into depth about the traditions and teachings of Islam.