The Free School

The Free School

The Faces of Faiths: A Journey through World Religions

Mondays 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/23
Instructional Building #5, Room 114

BUDDHISM

This fall, The Free School continues The Faces of Faiths: A Journey through World Religions with an in-depth exploration of one of the world’s most influential and diverse religious traditions: Buddhism. What does it mean to be a Buddhist? What can Buddhism teach us about suffering, compassion, wisdom, and the possibility of human transformation? And how have Buddhist teachings taken different forms as they have traveled across cultures and generations?

Rather than approaching Buddhism as a single, uniform tradition, this series will introduce participants to several of its vibrant living expressions. Over the course of the series, representatives from Theravāda, Mahāyāna , and Zen Buddhism will guide us through the distinctive teachings, practices, histories, and communities that shape their traditions. Along the way, we will explore both what these traditions share and the fascinating ways they differ in their understandings of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

Designed for the curious rather than the expert, the series invites participants into a respectful conversation with living Buddhist traditions. Whether you are interested in religion, philosophy, meditation, history, or simply in how other people understand the world, join us as we explore the many paths of Buddhism and consider what their ancient teachings might have to say to our lives today.

November 2: Introduction to Buddhism (featuring TBD)
We’ll explore the origins of a tradition that would transform the religious and philosophical landscape of Asia and eventually the world. This opening session introduces Siddhartha Gautama, the historical and cultural world in which Buddhism emerged, and the teachings that became the foundation of Buddhist thought and practice. We will explore the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, karma, rebirth, impermanence, and nirvana, while tracing how an ancient Indian path of liberation developed into a remarkably diverse global tradition.

November 9: Mahāyāna Buddhism (featuring Dr. Jongbok Yi)
In Session Two, we’ll enter the extraordinarily diverse world of Mahāyāna Buddhism, a tradition that transformed Buddhist thought through a bold expansion of the meaning of enlightenment itself. At its center stands the bodhisattva, the figure who joins wisdom with radical compassion and seeks awakening for the benefit of all beings. Through ideas such as emptiness, interdependence, and Buddha-nature, Mahāyāna traditions developed some of Buddhism’s most sophisticated philosophical reflections on the nature of reality, the self, and our obligations to one another.

November 16: Theravāda Buddhism (featuring Bhante Revatha)
Next, we’ll learn about a living Buddhist tradition deeply rooted in the teachings preserved in the Pali Canon, the oldest complete Buddhist canon still in existence. TheravādaBuddhism offers a rigorous path of ethical discipline, meditation, and wisdom directed toward seeing reality more clearly and attaining liberation from suffering. Its teachings on impermanence, craving, mindfulness, and the absence of a permanent self have shaped Buddhist communities for centuries and continue to influence contemporary conversations about meditation and the cultivation of the mind.

November 23: Zen Buddhism (featuring Kevin LeBlanc)
Our series concludes by having us journey with one of Buddhism’s most distinctive and influential traditions. Zen places meditation and direct experience at the center of Buddhist practice, challenging practitioners to move beyond habitual ways of thinking and encounter reality with greater clarity. From zazen and koans to the cultivation of attention in ordinary activities, Zen brings Buddhist philosophy into the texture of everyday life and offers a striking vision of awakening not as an escape from the world, but as a different way of being fully present within it.

Registration is free, but space is limited. For more information, please email Dr. Mark William Westmoreland at mwestmoreland@ocean.edu

Dr. Christopher Ruth and Dr. Mark William Westmoreland founded The Free School out of a desire to serve Ocean County beyond what happens in our classrooms. This is a community-focused personal enrichment program. There are no assignments and no grades; rather, each session is a lively conversation facilitated by a faculty expert.