{"id":6406,"date":"2017-10-12T17:20:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T21:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=6406"},"modified":"2017-10-12T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T21:20:12","slug":"professor-of-religion-asian-studies-inspired-to-expand-teaching-through-inner-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/10\/12\/professor-of-religion-asian-studies-inspired-to-expand-teaching-through-inner-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor of religion, Asian studies inspired to expand teaching through inner peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Peace Through Inner Peace,\u201d a summer symposium at the Swami Sivananda Ashram and Yoga Retreat, on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, gave Jeffery Long more than just an opportunity to share knowledge with other researchers, writers and educators. It helped rejuvenate his passion for teaching on the subjects of interfaith engagement and religions and the ways to connect his lessons to popular culture.<\/p>\n

Along with five speakers from the \u201cSutra Journal\u201d\u00a0team, a group of writers and scholars who cover a wide range of topics related to India and South Asian traditions, Long, a professor of religion and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College, presented three programs to visitors and residents of the ashram \u2013 a place of religious retreat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was humbling\u201d to be among scholars and practitioners who have spent their lives applying their knowledge to the alleviation of human suffering, said Long. \u201cThey are doing a lot for humanity, spreading awareness of Hinduism in the Western world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

We don\u2019t just do our work for knowledge, but to benefit others.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>Hinduism is a belief system that originated in South Asia, but is now practiced worldwide.\u00a0 It is based on belief in one all-pervasive supreme being, an ancient collection of scriptures known as the Vedas<\/em>, karma, reincarnation and the idea no religion teaches the only way to salvation.<\/p>\n

The retreat was established in 1967 by Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati who, noted Long, was the person who gave the Beatles a book on yoga which initially piqued the band members\u2019 interest in Indian religions. The ashram was begun as a place where seekers from around the world could study yoga and learn to train others in this ancient practice as well.<\/p>\n

Focusing on messages such as therapeutic meditation, prison yoga programs, and the connection of Hinduism to popular culture, the speakers shared their messages each day with around 500 attendees. \u201cThere are many who live at the ashram to maintain it and study. There were monks and nuns and people who just happened to come that week for a spiritual retreat,\u201d Long said. \u201cThere were about 100 people there doing yoga-teacher training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interest in the Hindu philosophy came to Long soon after the death of his father. At the age of 13, he picked up a book at a sale in a Methodist church parking lot. There, among the sci-fi novels and comic books, he said, was the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture. The Bhagavad Gita is a small part of the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic that is four times the length of the Bible. It is a source of information on the development of Hinduism between 400 BCE and 200 CE.<\/p>\n

Long said he was fascinated and immediately wanted to learn more.<\/p>\n

His fascination became a lifelong study and practice. Today he is a prolific writer on the subject of Hinduism and interfaith studies, writing 5 books, with 3 more in progress. His most recent is the \u201cEncyclopedia of Indian Religions: Buddhism and Jainism (Volumes One and Two).\u201d He also contributes to numerous journals and story collections and is the series editor of \u201cExplorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical,\u201d published by Lexington Books.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe famous monk who brought Hindu philosophy (Vedanta) to America in 1893 was Swami Vivekananda.\u00a0He established the Vedanta Society, of which I am a member,\u201d said Long. \u201cThe first one was in New York, which he established in 1894.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He spoke there in May on \u201cThe Yoga of Yoda.\u201d http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0V5mp_yVe1E<\/a><\/p>\n

Though his studies, research and teaching techniques \u2013 Long has used the Beatles, Star Wars and Yoda to help open the eyes and minds of his students \u2013 can be perceived as exotic and strange to some, his interests and early workshops helped the College develop its Interfaith Leadership Studies major \u2013 the first in the nation. He now teaches classes in the major.<\/p>\n

Long, who played an indirect role in bringing the Japanese program to Elizabethtown\u00a0 College\u2013the minor in 2004; the major in 2006 \u2013 said he wants to be an inspiration to students and \u201ca therapeutic presence while teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

His students might not remember everything he teaches, he said, \u201cbut they will remember how you made them feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that he is back from his sabbatical, he is \u201cfull of enthusiasm for what I am doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just do our work for knowledge, but to benefit others,\u201d he added. \u201cI sometimes need to be reminded of that, to be grounded in a spiritual sense. It\u2019s energizing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWorld Peace Through Inner Peace,\u201d a summer symposium at the Swami Sivananda Ashram and Yoga Retreat, on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, gave Jeffery Long more than just an opportunity to share knowledge with other researchers, writers and educators. It helped rejuvenate his passion for teaching on the subjects of interfaith engagement and religions and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":6407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[490,1128,209],"class_list":["post-6406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-religious-studies","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6411,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6406\/revisions\/6411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}