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A student slams a piece of paper down on the front desk at Elliott Hall.
“Who started this?” she demands.
“I did,” replies Ryan Shanabarger from behind the desk.
The paper extrapolates on the First Amendment — particularly as it pertains to religion. While Shanabarger is not entirely sure if it was posted somewhere and if so, who posted it and why, he has an idea that it might be in response to the fliers he put up in Elliott Hall on Tuesday night.
His posters are a call to debate, as he says, about theism and atheism. One of the fliers equates Jesus, Allah and God to Harry Potter. But unlike Harry Potter, the poster reads, these imaginary characters are mean and divisive.
The student wants to help. She empathizes with the disapproval Shanabarger has encountered since posting his fliers. Like Shanabarger, she is an atheist. But Shanabarger is a somewhat unconventional atheist: He is also a Buddhist.
Shanabarger, a sophomore philosophy and religious studies double major, grew up Catholic in Kokomo, Ind. As a teenager, Shanabarger wanted to devote his life to the Church. In fact, he wanted to be a Franciscan monk.
But that changed after what Shanabarger describes as a personal event in his life.
“That was a time of true emotional upheaval and I began to look for other systems of belief that might work better with my new lifestyle,” he said. “I was attracted to Asian culture — especially Japanese culture — when I was a kid. So being interested in religions and Asian culture, obviously Buddhism was one that immediately came to mind.”
After graduating from high school, Shanabarger went to Paris for a year where he worked as an au pair. There he met a group of Buddhists who helped solidify his belief in Buddhist teachings.
Shanabarger’s atheism stems from his Buddhist beliefs, though he said atheism is not a central focus of Buddhism. Shanabarger said it was not until three weeks ago that he realized his Buddhism made him a de facto atheist.
“The majority of Buddhism, at least to a Christian, would seem atheist,” he said. “In Zen Buddhism, it [the existence of a god] is not necessarily negated, it’s just kind of ignored.”
No form of Buddhism believes in a creator or god, Shanabarger explained, although Tibetan Buddhism is a pantheistic belief. Zen Buddhism, which is what Shanabarger practices, does not believe in any form of god.
Ball State University professor emerita of religious studies Julia Corbett-Heyemer describes herself as a Buddhist-Unitarian Universalist-religious humanist-mutt.
Heyemer said although there are different forms of Buddhism, they all adhere to the same basic tenets know as the Three Refuges: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Samgha.
The Buddha, both the actual man, (Siddhartha Gautama), and the “indwelling Buddha nature” as Heyemer calls it, signify enlightenment.
“Because the Buddha was a human being, not a god or god-human, every human has the capacity to become enlightened,” she said. “The Buddha isn’t a savior; we’re responsible for our own enlightenment.”
The Dharma is the path one ought to follow, as taught by the Buddha and the Samgha is the community of those who follow that path.
Shanabarger said the Samgha is one of the most difficult parts of being a Buddhist in Muncie.
“In Paris, I was able to have an actual Samgha — an actual grouping of people who get together regularly to mediate or to do things together,” he said. “In a place like Muncie there aren’t many resources and you have to be a bit more creative.”
Shanabarger said the Internet is one of the best resources for Buddhists.
“You can study Buddha, Dharma and Samgha. You can actually have a Samgha online. You can create your own; you can have chat rooms and forums and things where you interact with other people.”
Muncie Buddhists can also attend Muncie Mediation and Dharma on Sundays at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Muncie or they can take part in dialogs at Interfaith Fellowship meetings every fourth Monday of the month at the Ball State Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Although there are meetings for Buddhists, Shanabarger said Buddhism is very much individualistic which is why many people are more apt to call it a philosophy than a religion.
The ultimate goal for a Buddhist it to reach nirvana: the freedom from all worldly concerns. For Shanabarger, that has practical applications to his life.
“In any situation, you’re going to have how you take things — how things appear to be,” he said. “Just the other day I got a ticket. I was racing down I-69 trying to get back for work and I got pulled over.”
He’d never gotten a ticket before but rather than being upset, Shanabarger said his Buddhist mentality helped him to perceive the situation rationally.
“I sat down and I was like ‘Fine.’ I drove back to work, I was completely cool about it,” he said. “I saw that it was about $115 and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a lot of money but I don’t really care.’ I did something that was against the law and now I’m getting punished for it and it’s OK.”
“Buddhist morality or ethics focuses on skillful behavior,” Heyemer said. “That is, behavior that enhances connection makes for peace and is in accord with reality.”
Shanabarger said this allows people to practice Buddhism along with any other faith they may adhere to.
“We’re talking about specific practices like yoga or exercise, you don’t have to change your core belief system to benefit from what Buddhism has to offer,” he said.
Fellowship
Muncie Buddhists can also attend Muncie Mediation and Dharma on Sundays at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Muncie or they can take part in dialogs at Interfaith Fellowship meetings every fourth Monday of the month at the Ball State Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Most of your comment did not make sense. You repeated phrases and made your "argument" hard to follow. To top it off, you ended your comment with a ridiculous statement about Japanese religion and culture, leading me to believe that you are blaming them for death and destruction that happened in WWII. Of course the Nazis had nothing to do with that at all, or the rape and pillage of the Japanese that caused them to be persuaded to enter the war in the first place.aspu-
Flying Spaghetti Monster ftw.Annoyed-
The "argument" is about him being Diversity Chair, which has nothing to do with the article. The article was simply about him being Buddhist, which you don't hear about much in the MidWest, if at all.
While he is being very immature with his comments and reactions towards those commenting here, he was told by his Hall President that the information was acceptible. Personally, I think it should have been done with better taste, but it was approved. Coming back later and saying it was never approved and changes need to be made shows unwillingness of the people and the Hall to take responsibility for their actions. While a right @$$, Ryan is not solely to blame.
So, now we have cleared up that matter, we can move on to the substance of your post.How was Ryan abusing his position? He was expressing his opinion on a specific matter, he was exercising his freedom of speech, yet you call that abuse? He has not prevented anyone from practicing whatever religion they so choose, he has not prevented anyone else from expressing their opinions on any matter, and he has not taken away anyone's beliefs or religion. Do you actually think that being in the position of Diversity Chair means that one is not supposed to express their opinions on a particular group of mythological deities?You talk about Ryan being offensive and inappropriate, but still have not explained how Ryan was being offensive or inappropriate. The infamous poster that has gotten people all bent out of shape pertained to specific religious deities, people have consistently called it "offensive," people (including you) have called Ryan "offensive," yet you insist that the issue is not about religion?
Then what in the world are you insisting it is about?If you insist that the issue does not have anything to do with religion, what in the world are you or anyone else so offended at?
The issue is about Ryan abusing his position as Diversity Chair. He was out of line posting clearly and purposefully offensive material with the intention to "piss people off." It was inappropriate for someone in his position to do this. This argument was NEVER about religion, dumbass.
Where did Ryan insult you or anyone else? You and others seem to have taken this flyer as a personal insult, which is quite strange.To "Blake"--
Why do you think anyone cares who you mumble to the ceiling about? You certainly have some wild delusions of grandeur going on.To "not a follower, just a learner"--
You exposed your own ignorance on this topic, and good job at that! You claimed that "the original intent was for [Buddhism] to be different from Catholicism and Hinduism, the other two popular religions of the time."
I'll give you a bit of learnin'. When Buddhism started, Catholicism did not even exist, silly.
So, you are claiming that the original intent of Buddhism was to compete with something that did not even exist?!
You went on to call a religion that did not exist at the time (Catholicism) "popular"! How could Catholicism be popular at the time when Buddhism began, when Catholicism didn't exist?
You are very odd.To "Elliott Fan"--
Again, why would people get so bent out of shape about this poster if their faith in this religion was so strong? It makes no sense to get bent out of shape at someone being critical about one's religion if their faith in said religion is so strong. I think it goes to show just how fragile and uncertain these folks' faith really is.It also seems that people have gotten bent out of shape at the poster simply because they understand the parallels between the mythological beings of the Abrahamic religions and any other fictional character, or with any other of thousands of mythological gods that have been worshiped at some point in history.Zeus, Jehovah, Thor, Mithras, Enlil, Apollo, Perseus, Jesus, Horus, Osiris, Wotan, Aphrodite, Attis, Enki, Tiamat, Siva, Hera, and Heracles all share a similarity: all have as much evidence as the next (none). One can add the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the list if one likes.
I support diversity and the topics at hand, but Ryan shouldn't be encouraged to "spark" it this way.
Being offensive is the LAST thing a Diversity chair should be.
I understand that Ryan isn't the "lets all get along" chair, but that doesn't automatically give him the right to be disrespectful. (Those aren't the only two options, Ryan)
Ryan did not spur on an academic discussion within the hall. The discussion that has been going on since he first did these things was what is he going to do to make this right or should he be removed from the diversity position. If anyone reading this thinks that the way he went about “starting a discussion” is acceptable, something is wrong with you. There is no classroom on campus where a professor would try to start a discussion the way Ryan did. His ascorbic attitude would never start a free and open minded debate. His lack of maturity in understanding this makes sense to the majority of those that that live with him. For those of you out there that think that alienating and insulting people is the way to have a discussion just think about the talking heads on TV. They yell and never say anything and everybody else knows it. So many other people have no idea what this is about. It is not about free speech, and very little to do with religion. It was an atheist that voiced their disgust in the Hall as they read the slanted and inaccurate Daily News article. On top of this Ryan had been shooting his mouth off saying things that were not true about this whole situation. He is probably going to be impeached and it is his own fault.
It makes no sense why you or anyone else would get so bent out of shape.