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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2000)
Hindu perspective on death discussed ■A Hinduism discussion marked the second part of a five week series on cultural traditions and perspectives surrounding life, death and interpretations of the afterlife By Beata Mostafavi Oregon Daily Emerald Professor Veena Howard’s spe cial discussion Wednesday, “Life and Death from a Hindu Perspec tive,” emphasized that traditional ideas about death aren’t explored and discussed enough in Western culture. Howard and about 20 other indi viduals spoke about Hindu tradi tions and perceptions of life and death in the second part of a five week series titled “Living, Dying and Bereavement,” introduced by the Lane Institute of Faith and Edu cation (LIFE). LIFE launched the series last week so that it would fall as a fol low-up to Bill Moyers’ September PBS series about death. During the five-week period, LIFE aims to present the same issues from Inter faith viewpoints and to expose people to lesser-known traditions of Western culture. Howard, who teaches religion and philosophy at Lane Communi ty College and has taught summer courses at the University, empha sized her belief that although there are countless different traditions in the world, they all have an under lying unity. “Whether we live in India, Africa or China, we’re all trying to answer the same questions about life and death,” she said. “We’re all trying to understand the nature of the self and soul, something that is eternal and lives on even after we die.” Howard mentioned that just as some believe in heaven and hell, every tradition has a theory about life after death. She spoke specifi cally about the Hindu belief that the soul continues its life through reincarnation. She did a chant in Sanskrit, which described the soul’s transition from one life to an other. Howard said that Hindus rarely use the term “died” but rather “he left his body” or “she has gone to another world.” She spoke of the Hindu belief in a perpetual life cy cle that seeks to achieve nirvana, unity with the divine, and said the body serves as the “chariot” of the soul. She said it could take some people thousands of years to attain this goal. Whetherwelivein India, Africa or China, we're all trying to answer the same questions about life and death. Veena Howard professor religion and philosophy Lane Community College^ “In Hinduism, this life is a small piece in the continuous immortal life of the soul,” she said. Howard also described Hindu rituals performed after someone dies. She said that the body is al ways cremated unless the person was a child or holy person, and the family of the deceased mourns and celebrates for 13 days after the death. This is the transition period when the soul Jeaves the^P..dy,and isn’t ready to leave his or her fami Dan Brunell Emerald Veena Howard speaks about issues of life and death in the Hindu tradition Wednesday. ly. The family also has numerous discussions about its lost loved one. Howard also spoke about the various ways different traditions approach the topic of death. She believes Western culture tends to avoid the issue, which forms a bar rier to meeting death with peace. “Death is a reality we cannot run away from,” she said. “It’s a transi tion to another place.” LIFE co-founder Barry Nobel said that because death is a sensi tive topic, it is not discussed enough in American culture and a general lack of knowledge exists about what it means and what tra ditions it incorporates. “Death is an important part of life but somewhat taboo in this cul ture,” he said. “People don’t like to talk about it.” Beth Eldridge, a senior language student at LCC, said the discussion was enlightening. “In India, death seems to be a part of life,” she said. “People get to discuss it beyond what we know in the Western world.” The series will run at 7 p.m. Wednesdays at the First Christian Church, located at 1166 Oak St. The next three sessions will cover issues on death from Buddhist, Is lamic and Baha’i faith perspectives on Nov. 15, Dec. 6 and Dec.13, re spectively. Vida Ellins, a member of the LIFE steering committee, said the purpose of the Interfaith series isn’t to persuade anyone to believe the traditions presented, but to encour age people to be open-minded about different ideas pertaining to death. “In the education system we have little opportunity to touch on spiritual aspects of what we learn,” she said. “[LIFE] hopes to offer a broader perspective and a forum of ideas that we can explore.” Calendar Thursday, Nov. 9 —Veterans Day Display: Honors all UO students, faculty and staff who are veterans of military service. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Business Affairs Lobby, First Floor, Oregon Hall. Free. — Sociology Colloquium: Bert Bur raston, Sociology graduate student, discusses "Modeling the Effects of Older Siblings’ Academic Growth on Younger Siblings’ Academic Perfor mance.” 4-5:30 p.m. Room 127 Chiles Business Center. Free. —Center for the Study of Women in Society Teaching and Tea: Stephanie Wood, History, presents "Using the Gender and History Database to Teach Aztec Culture. ” 4-5:30 p.m. Room 330 Hendricks Hall. Free. — Fall Social: The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans gender Concerns hosts a mid-term break to mix and mingle for LGBT students, faculty, staff, family and guests. Food and beverages served. 4:30-6 p.m. Alumni Lounge, Ger linger Hall. Free. —Solar Lecture: Steven Strong, So lar Design Associates, Inc., presi dent, gives a slide-illustrated pres entation on “Photovoltaics in Buildings.” Named by Time maga zine as an environmental "Hero of the Planet,” Strong is an interna tional pioneer in the integration of solar electric systems with environ mentally responsive building de sign. 7-9 p.m. Room 177 Lawrence Hall. Free. —Author Event: Doug Lorain, au thor of “Backpacking Oregon,” presents a slide-illustrated discus sion of the 27 hikes outlined in his book. 7:30 p.m. 100 Willamette Hall. Free. to Sy a <3peciaf[7Utematiue: Acupuncture ^x Treatment for Smokers who want to quit 010635 Celebrate the Great American Smoke-out! Thursday, November l6d’ from 4:30-6:00pm University Health Center Library (Basement) RSVP by calling 346-4456 or by visiting http://liealthed.uoregon.edu EPD continued from page 1A summer, but said he could not speak about the details of the earli er investigation. Former employees and those close to DPS allege that as the orga nization’s management moves for ward with its plans to create a more professional security force with many of the same rights as the police, conflicts are arising be tween DPS and EPD about who has authority on campus. ( { The relationship is a good business relationship, but are there frictions? Yes. Tom Fitzpatrick director Department of Public Safety Oregon Public Employee Union steward Anthony Hensley, who deals with OPEU employees, in cluding DPS officers, said DPS of ficers are using more police equip ment. He said the equipment and new uniforms are resulting in con fusion and conflicts. “There are reasons police carry weapons and there are reasons se curity guards don’t,” he said. “When they look like each other, there are going to be problems.” Fitzpatrick, however, said there were no serious problems between the two departments, which he said enjoyed a “professional rela tionship.” He said at times small conflicts may arise at the officer level be tween police and DPS about the seriousness of situations on cam pus, but he said this did not signi fy a serious rift between police and public safety personnel. “The relationship is a good busi ness relationship,” he said, “but are there frictions? Yes.” Fitzpatrick said some of the fric tion arises from the fact that police officers come to campus expecting the demands of the detail to be less strenuous than the city patrol. This leads to disagreements be tween officers from the two de partments on how best to respond to incidents on campus. EPD Chief Jim Hill also said re lations between DPS and EPD have remained good. He said that some of the con flicts or “rubs” between the de partments came from the fact that police officers are often spread too thin and can’t get to every DPS call for assistance. Hill added there has been some conflict about incidents that the two departments perceive differently. Because of public safe ty’s security role on campus. Hill said DPS officers often believe that police should take more action than is warranted. “There can be some misunder standing about roles,” he said. Despite the occasional disputes between the two departments, Hill said that overall relations are sta ble between the police department and DPS. An example of this was the fact that Hill has not had to step into any of these conflicts. “It hasn’t been at such a magni tude that it has required my inter vention as a chief,” he said.
