1st READING (using reading guide):

• Angkor Wat (ASA: RDR, 118-22)
  & "10 Avatars of Vishnu" (w/ocean churning top center, courtesy of EB)
• "Consecrating the Buddha" (RAP: RDR, 123-27)
• "A Fasting Ritual " (RAP: RDR, 128-39)
• "Buddhist Worlds of Southeast Asia & the High Himalayas "
  

EB articles (for terms marked with * in the reading guide):

"Southeast Asia" (introductory "Article" sections), "Angkor," "Vishnu," "deva," "naga," "Theravada," "dharma," "Buddha" (introductory "Article" sections), "Four Noble Truths," "five aggregates," "bodhisattva," "Wesak," "Tibet" (introductory "Article" sections), "Dge-lugs-pa" "Dalai Lama"

PREPARE to addressu the following scenario:
(<--use optional worksheet if helpful)

Shawna is one of the more enthusiastic participants in OCSS City Repair's youth programs. As a result of her experience with Day of the Dead ceremonies and working on the city’s Urban Design Guidelines, she has come to appreciate the way that rituals and symbols provide both time for reflection and a community of people with whom to reflect. Now she is feeling drawn to find a religious community of people deeply involved in ritual and religious symbols, in order to develop habits of reflection that strengthen her community ties.

[Read the full text describing the context & criteria for choosing between these three contemporary practices:]

A. An art professor whose class she took at Sacramento City College has invited her to be part of a team that will be reconditioning the painted friezes in the Russian Orthodox Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco; she remembers hearing that these paintings show the hierarchy of Earth and Heaven. Browsing the images, videos and audio on the cathedral’s web site, she is fascinated by its architecture and rituals.

B. A classmate of Shawna’s who attends the St. George-Melkite Greek Catholic Church has invited Shawna to the installation of a new icon of Christ, Savior of Souls, which will include stories of Jesus’s parables and teaching, along with blessing of the icon.  Shawna is excited that she could get to see Greek Christian ritual close up in a smaller community and without having to travel so far away.

C. Shawna's uncle attends a weekly Muslim prayer group that is planning several days of intensive prayer during the upcoming month of Ramandan, involving extended sessions of the five customary daily prayers while fasting from dawn to dusk. Hearing of her interest in rituals and symbols, he has invited her to participate to whatever extent would like; she is intrigued by both the physical and spiritual challenge involved.