In a little bit, I’m going to get some vegan ramen and head off to the Obon festival at Gardena Buddhist Church. No doubt, I will (be trying to) dance.
This video is from last year’s Higashi Honganji Obon. Check out all those young Buddhists! I’m somewhere in there. If you’re in Northern California, check out the Buddhist Church of Oakland, which is holding its Obon Baazar this weekend.
This week began with Asalha Puja, the holiday commemorating Lord Buddha’s recitation of the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta. Below I’ve collected links of some other bloggers who have written related thoughts.
For this Vassa, I’m committing myself to sitting at least an hour a day. I usually fail to make time for sitting every day, so we’ll have to see how well this goes. Hopefully I can maintain this habit for all of Vassa—and onward too…
I started posting too late on Obon to mention the festivals out in the Eastern United States. And by “Eastern,” I’m talking about anything East of the Mississippi. Below are the dates of Obon festivals that have passed. I believe there was also an Obon festival at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, but I couldn’t find the past date online.
The past few posts on Obon have been a bit carried away over the dance and festivities. The other (and for many, the primary) side of Obon is that it’s a memorial occasion. If you happen to look up “Obon” on a local temple calendar, it’s probably a good idea to find out first whether you’ll be attending a party-like festival or a more somber memorial occasion.
This study really has little to do with Buddhism or the Buddhist community prima facie. Regardless, as it’s about anger and people of (East) Asian ancestry, I feel obliged…
The first study with 63 participants of European ancestry and 67 of East Asian ancestry involved a hypothetical negotiation situation. The students read a transcript of a negotiation between a salesman and client and imagined they were the salesman. Half the students read a version in which the client was described at one point as speaking in an angry tone. The key measure was whether the students said they would agree to add a warranty into the deal or not. The effect of anger was opposite for the two cultural groups: the Western students were more likely to add the warranty (i.e. make a concession) if the client got angry whereas the East Asian students were less likely to add the warranty in this situation.
To increase the realism, a second study involved another 67 European-ancestry students and 88 East Asian-ancestry students taking part in computer-mediated negotiations in pairs, in which they played the role of mobile phone seller. The whole affair was actually fixed by the researchers and computer-controlled but the students were tricked into thinking they were playing with another student. Another twist to the set-up was that the students were occasionally given a ‘sneak insight’ into their negotiation partner’s typed intentions, for example ‘I think I’ll offer X’.Replicating the first study, the key finding here was that when these insights contained an expression of anger (e.g. ‘This is really getting on my nerves, I’m going to offer X’) the Western-ancestry students were more likely to make a concession to their negotiation partner whereas the East-Asian ancestry students were less likely to do so.The final study provided a rather crude test of one possible explanation for the results – that the effect of anger has to do with what’s considered culturally appropriate. Dozens of European and East-Asian-ancestry students took part in a replication of the computer-mediated negotiation task, but this time half the students were told in advance that most people express anger in negotiations and that it was acceptable to do so in this study, whereas the other half were told that expressions of anger were rare and it was not acceptable to get angry in the current task. With these instructions in place, the effects of cultural background disappeared. Instead, regardless of students’ cultural background, anger was beneficial following the ‘anger is ok’ instructions whereas it backfired following the ‘anger is unacceptable’ instructions.
Adam H, Shirako A, & Maddux WW (2010). Cultural variance in the interpersonal effects of anger in negotiations. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21 (6), 882-9 PMID: 20483822
A friend took this photo and forwarded it to me. I really hope those aren’t Buddha-shaped yoghurt receptacles.
Last year, I blogged about the photo on the left. The second image I yanked from Danny Fisher’s blog, associated with Tricycle’sChange Your Mind Day.
The way we depict ourselves in abstractions tells worlds about how we see ourselves prototypically. When I think of a meditator, I would draw a stick figure one more like the one on the right. I wonder if those two images tell something about different ways that meditators relate to the simple act of sitting…
Covering Obon in Hawai‘i is the Let’s Bon Dance! website. You can look up the 2010 bon dance schedule for the whole state. If you’re in the islands, this weekend is a great opportunity to attend dances at…
Check out the photos and videos too!
In a few hours I’m heading up to Northern California, which reminded me that my last post was exclusive to Obon festivities in the Southern California Shin network. Unlike most of Southern California, temples Northern California seem to schedule their events separately.
This weekend, you can catch Bon Odori at the Buddhist Temple of Alameda and the Buddhist Church of San Francisco. (If you’re in Southern California, you should check out the party at Higashi Honganji this weekend!) I’ll post more about Obon happenings elsewhere in North America after I get back.
The Tricycle editors beat me to it. It’s Obon season! Last year I posted a quote and link to Rev. Patti Usuki’s explanation of the Obon holiday. Below is a list of the remaining Obon festivals in Southern California.
If you’re in Southern California, you should check out festival celebrations in Orange County and Guadalupe today. Remember that you can always buy your kachi kachi at Marukai!