Today we had lunch in a different place - small, rather lavish, room on an upper floor of the monastery. We were joined by the current Abbot of the monastery, as well as two former Abbots of other monasteries. There was an offering ceremony (by a Tulku about the Geshe exam) made to us. The biology instructors are here now, so some of the things I am seeing at the end of my time (this, Saga Dawa) is what they are starting with.
It looks like I will be heading over to the nunnery. Since it is the only nunnery in the area, no one actually calls it by name (unlike the monasteries). I'll try to figure out the name later today. It is still somewhat unclear what will occur. There may be another physicist going who brought more demo equipment than I did. Otherwise, I think I'm going to be lecturing (no slides or visuals or anything) by myself. It also sounds like I'll be speaking in the prayer hall itself...
I'm not quite sure what to teach. The nuns do learn science, but I'm guessing any audience would be made of a variety of ages and education levels. I'm not used to "lecturing" without slides or visual aids. Also, there will be a translator. And I have less than 2 hours to prepare at this point... I'm thinking of trying to talk about some of the basic ideas in science, like conservation of energy. I want to try to hit some topics I'd guess some are familiar with, but then try to draw connections to modern fields of research and unanswered questions: like dark matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment