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Student Reflections

Beyond the Classroom: Five Questions with a Major

Students and teachers who took part in the Woodenfish Foundation’s 2017 Humanistic Buddhism Monastic Life Program at Xinyin Temple near Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China/ photo courtesy of Clara Jones, '18.

Clara Jones, ’18: Woodenfish Foundation’s Humanistic Buddhism Monastic Program, China

1. Tell us a bit about the Woodenfish Foundation program that you attended. What is Woodefnish and what activities did you participate in there?
   
   
   • Clara: Woodenfish is a foundation that provides the opportunity for students to learn through experience. Woodenfish encourages learning about Buddhism through engaging with the Chinese Buddhist community. This meant that for a month I had the opportunity to live at a Chinese Buddhist Monastery alongside the monks and nuns, amazing professors, and students from all around the world (70 students from 28 different countries!). The days were long and rigorous, beginning around five in the morning. Besides traditional Chinese Monastic meals, the days consisted of around five hours of classes about Buddhist Philosophy with three professors who themselves had participated in the program when they were students. The classes were really enriching, and in fact for an extra fee you can receive three college credits for participating in the program. We had time during the day to hand wash and dry our laundry, then we would spend two hours learning about Chinese culture (tai chi, tea, and art) and then learning about Buddhist philosophy from a lecture given by a monk. We also spent an hour a day meditating, since that is such an essential component of Buddhist practice.
     
     
2. How did you hear about this experience?
   
   
   • Clara: I didn't get the chance to spend a semester studying abroad, so I was determined to find an opportunity to travel and study that wasn't too expensive. A professor suggested the Woodenfish program!
     
     
3. How did learning within the classroom transfer to what you experienced at Woodenfish?
   
   
   • Clara: The classes and experiences I've had at Skidmore really helped me while I was in China. Because of my Religion and Philosophy double major, I was prepared for the course material. Mostly, I was prepared to completely submerge myself in the Chinese culture while simultaneously remaining critical in my scholarly approach. I felt comfortable discussing the material outside of class and confident in any questions that I had for professors. Learning within the classroom at Skidmore prepared me for this mentally challenging, hands-on experience in China.
     
     
4. What was your most memorable experience or most valuable takeaway from participating in the Woodenfish retreat?
   
   
   • Clara: I can't even articulate how much I learned from my month of studying in China and how much I feel like I took away. Studying Buddhism inside the classroom, you learn a lot about practices and philosophy; but when you actually do the practices alongside the monks, it's a completely new way to learn. I was blessed to learn not only so much about Chinese Buddhism but also about myself as a consequence of the intense meditation practices, for which I am forever grateful. I didn't realize how beneficial meditation is as a self-help technique until I really gave myself over to it. My most valuable take away from the entire trip has to be that meditation is the healthiest thing that you can do, and will consequentially aid you in all aspect of life. One of the nuns, Venerable Yifa (a Harvard graduate) said to us in our beginning weeks that "you can read all about swimming. You can talk to amazing swimmers, learn everything there is to know about the physical movements. You can know everything about swimming, but you won't know how to swim until you get in the water. It's the same with religion. You can know everything there is to know about a religion, but until you practice it and study it alongside disciples, you'll be missing a piece of the puzzle. That piece is true understanding about how what it is religion does for people."
     
     
5. If other students would like to be part of this experience, how would they do so?
   
   
   • Clara: I encourage anyone who's interested in religion or philosophy or even anyone aching to study Chinese culture to apply for the Humanistic Buddhist Monastic Life Program for this upcoming summer at Woodenfish.org!