Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Vinaya Studies that is drawn directly from Sutra texts is a research pathway not fully tapped into. Moreover, the youth’s perspective as they engage with vinaya resources is also limited. This paper focuses on the Seven Parables in the Lotus Sutra (Reeves, 2008). It documents a scholar-teacher and seventeen youths in a California Buddhist Studies high school class reading and analyzing the seven parables in the Lotus Sutra. The paper begins with a summary of the seven parables with its core teaching explained. A delineation of the hermeneutical lens follows, in which the group draws from Nagarjuna on the Six Perfections (2009), primarily the section on the morality perfections. From this exploration, the following questions are addressed: What precepts are illustrated in the parables? How do the youths conceive the precepts within the parables? How could this relate to developing connection with the natural world in the youth? What insights does this exploration bring to the scholar-teacher-practitioner in teaching the precepts to the youth in relation to becoming environmental stewards of the world? Through this sutra textual analysis, more information on the expansiveness of vinaya teachings is revealed. It involves the scholar-teacher-practitioner in contemplating about the vinaya as curriculum and pedagogical strategies to engage youth in constructively exploring the precepts and its application in the modern context.