Today we had our last class at UEF on the foundations and ideals behind Buddhism. Coming from a predominantly Christian set of people back home, I knew almost nothing about this religion. However, this class expanded my knowledge by showing me how Buddhism does not focus on a God, but it focuses on becoming more like Buddha. Additionally, it states that life sucks because I want stuff. And if I want my life to be better, I have to stop the desire to acquire material goods and follow the Eightfold path. The Eightfold path is the values that define Buddhism and is what Buddhists try to follow to get reincarnated into a better status in the next life. Some Buddhists can even achieve Nirvana which is a state of complete peace and only really devoted monks can achieve this. If people achieve Nirvana they go to a place with the Buddha for eternity. Overall, I learned a lot about Buddhism and how it focuses on bettering the world through a peaceful mind.

After our class we went to a Buddhist Pagoda which was a really cool experience. It was definitely eye opening to see how other religions worshipped. In this case people could come to pray or to buy oil to help grant their wishes. We also had to remove our shoes and were not allowed to take any photos inside to keep it sacred. It was definitely a unique experience that I am glad I got to experience.

Then we toured the Reunification Palace which was where the South Vietnamese government operated out of during the war. It was a very cool structure and the only downside I could see was that there was no air conditioning in the entire building, so it was very very hot. However, I was fascinated by how they used colors to affect the mood in the room. For example they used gold in the president’s meeting room to represent royalty and green in the decision room to represent calmness. We also got to see the president’s bunker and how many maps of key places around Vietnam were down there. Additionally, we did get to see where helicopters landed on the roof to fly people out of Vietnam when the North Vietnamese army was getting close to the palace.

To end the day, we went to the War Remnants Museum. This was a very moving and eye-opening experience. After crawling through the very narrow Cu Chi tunnels on Sunday it was very hard to imagine how the Viet Cong lived like that for 20 years. I could not even take 30 minutes before I wanted to get into the fresh air. Additionally, we learned about the horrible atrocities committed against South Vietnamese citizens who spoke out against the government. The gut-wrenching fact for me was that the US was involved in these terrible acts. These acts were similar if not worse than the grievances committed by the Nazis in World War II. They left people in iron cages to die, electrocuted people, ripped off fingernails, beat people to death, and many more unspeakable things. Plus the Agent Orange that was deployed creates horrible birth defects that are still there, 2-3 generations later. Personally, this made me feel ashamed of my government, both for committing these war crimes and for supporting a government that committed them as well. However, I realized after speaking to a Vietnamese student that this was all in the past and that the best thing to do is to learn from past mistakes and make the future a better place. That is how something like this never happens again. Additionally, I realized how resilient the Vietnamese people are. They were able to resist the American forces for 20 years is quite impressive.