Boycotting Beijing

A lot has been going on this year. Ever since the Olympic torch was lighted, many boycotters have been tryig to put it out, ruining the tradition that is done everytime the Olympics are coming up. This is happening because of the large amount of human rights activists trying to stop the Olympics from happening because of tehe problems with Tibet and China. This article explains a lot about what it going on, and it helped me realize that the Olympics aren't as wanted as I thought. Anyway here it is.

http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=174

-Josh

Dalai Lama's Myspace

I was looking for some information on the current Dalai Lama, and I found his myspace. It is full of information about Buddhism, includes videos about Buddhism and is very interesting. I haven't read all of the text yet but it seems to be very thoughtful and informative.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=136971865

-Josh

Buddhist Quotes & Sayings

Here is a site that is full of quotes and sayings that are related to Buddhism. Some of them can really make you think about your life. I reflected on some of the things I've gone through, and want to go through after reading some of these sayings. Very interesting. Happy reflecting.

http://www.buddhist-temples.com/buddhism-facts/buddhist-quote.html

-Josh

Information About Yoga

This site is a basic overview of what yoga is all about. I wanted to read more about yoga after the class when we had the guest because I still wasn't sure about what kind of things yoga could do for someone. It interested me because a few of my close friends do yoga at home (the exercise version) and I wanted to see what it was all about. So this is a site that was full of information and helped me realize why so many people do it.

http://americanyogaassociation.org/general.html

-Josh

Links and Video's

5 links related to our topic:

1) http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/terms.html
- This site to related to Siddhartha because it writes about the different terms in Siddhartha which includes the self, losing the self. Also, it describes the Atman, Sanaras, and discusses the issue about Maya.

2) http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/buddhism/beliefs.html
- This site is relevant because its related to Buddhism in general. It discusses the four noble truths and the eightfold path that one must follow in order to end suffering. Also, it talks about buddhist precepts which is kind of like rules that should be followed.

3) http://www.geocities.com/directx_user/gallery/buddha_life.htm
- This site talks about the final steps before the Buddha entered nirvana. It also states what Buddha had done, and how he encourages other buddhists to "seize the day" and achieve enlightenment themselves.

4) http://1stholistic.com/Meditation/hol_meditation.htm
- This site talks about the various forms of meditation, the benefits one can receive from meditation, and even the powers of meditation. Throughout the book, Siddhartha has always been meditating to find his true self, and perhaps using meditation, this can be achieved.

5) http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/Religionet/er/buddhism/BRLIFE.HTM
- This site is about the life of a buddhist. It suggests what a buddhist should do when one is practicing buddhism. It also talks about what one might not know about buddhist as a religion, and what they do throughout their lives.

Video Links:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L7IRYnn1nzM
- This youtube link is a funny re-enactment of the book Siddhartha. Although there are scenes that are different, with different meaning, he has the basic overview of the book. Also, it provides a bit of humour and a cool fight scene in the end.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P2NLQGrbf5U
- This video is about the life of Buddha. It talks about what he went through in order to gain wisdom. Also, it includes a few comments from today's Dali Llama. This documentary also talks about the history of Buddhism, and what has changed about Buddhism.


- Derek

Weird Meditation

Still looking around for some videos on weird things, this time I found a really weird video of some guys describing how to meditatie, only in a manner that seem to make no sense. Anyway it is a pretty funny and random video that even goes as far as saying that meditation leads to possible death. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxlQ-GELCwU

-Josh

Strange Religious Customs

I was just wondering about some weird religious customs I already know about, and wanted to see if there were any more that I could possibly read about. So I googled "different religious customs" and I found a page with customs that are not well known. This can be related to the essay because it discusses the different beliefs of these customs.

http://www.indianmirror.com/strange/stindia2.html

-Josh

Intensity of Religion

Well, I decided to go check out some videos on religious controversies, and well this one stuck out. Religion is obviously very controversal, and this video shows some of the extremes of religious beliefs. This video reminded me of the movie Jesus Camp becuase of how extreme this women is. Anyway, this vdieo is pretty good at showing how much religion has taken over so many people's lives, and pushes them into believing that their beliefs are the truth, even if they are violent and show hatred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5FIMpHbgU

-Josh

Laughing Yoga

Was looking around on youtube, found a type of "yoga" that is fairly questionable, but is pretty funny. I decided to post this because I was thinking about the class we had about yoga, and was wondering if there were any weird ways that yoga was being portrayed out there, and I guess this is one of them. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_0zj1tlSWU

-Josh

Chapter 6

Question 5) "Everyone takes, everyone gives." Hmmm. Very thoughtful statment. It is true that everyone takes. The world is based on taking what you can, whenever you can. Greed is a very basic "quality" that people posses, espeially in western civilization. However even though so many people are always taking, it seems that someone must be giving, or else it would be impossible to take, because it's not like an ipod is created through the idea that if one is bought, a new one will just appear. So, even though everyone does take, everyone also gives. Everyone has done some sort of action that has led to a creation of a feeling, object, or another action. No matter how small an action is, it still has an affect on the world, and it gives something, wheather it be good or bad, to the world. Of course, there is also the idea that everyone gives their life. When a person dies, their life does not just disappear, it is given to whatever is out there. Using this belief, it can then be said that no matter the person, no matter the time or place, everyone will give at least one thing to something that is outside of themselves. As for the question: "If a child who you do not know gives you a flower, who is giving and who is taking?" I'd say it depends on the way that the person answering the question feels about the world. One may say that it is obvious that I am taking the flower, and the child is giving me the flower. There is also the possiblity that the flower is giving, and I am taking, and if this is true than the child is also part of the taking category because they took the flower first. It would definately be hard to say that I gave anything though. I did give the child the ability to give though. I think that even though taking may seem greedy, that if no one took, then who would be able to give? Giving the ablility to give is still giving, even if it does include taking something from someone, or something else.

-Josh

Chapter 5

Question 3) Even though Siddhartha thinks that the ferryman is a childlike person, to me he seems to be very mysterious and important to the novel. The night that Siddhartha sleeps at the ferryman's hut, he has a dream that seems to be very questioning of Siddhartha's choice to leave Govinda. This dream may represent some sort of magical energy that is in the hut because this is the first time that we see one of Siddhartha's dreams, and that the dream was very detailed and questioning. Also later on, when Siddhartha crosses the river with the ferryman, the ferryman tells Siddhartha that they will meet again, and that Siddhartha will bring a gift for the feryman. This implies that the ferryman has some sort of powers, because he is able to predict what will happen. The fact that there was some sort of mysterious energy running through the hut, and the ferryman is able to prophecise something that will be happening in the future, it is very possible that the ferryman has some sort of mystical powers that Siddhartha is not aware of.

-Josh

Siddhartha Chapter 4

Question 4) I noticed that during this chapter, a snake is mentioned many times. Siddhartha seems to compare himself to a snake a few times, which seems to be important. I think that it is mentioned so often because it is a very significant representation of what Siddhartha is going through during this chapter. The most significant reference to the snake in this chapter is when Siddhartha says that he must shed his skin like the snake. This is important because it shows that Siddhartha is going to be going under changes. These changes are the rebirths that he is going be going through. Just like a skin shedding its skin, Siddhartha feels that he must find new experiences, and that he must also "shed" his old self. This symbol can also be connected to the rest of the book because Siddhartha goes through many rebirths, and he "sheds his skin" many times through out the novel.

-Josh

Siddartha Chapter Three

Knowledge Question:

1) The four noble truths are (1) life is suffering. This means that no matter what, people are going to suffer in life because (2) people get attached to certain things and when these attachments are broken, it causes the person to suffer which occurs frequently in life. However, there is a way to fix suffering. (3) If people acknowledge that life is sufering, then they can possibly fix it. (4) In order to stop the suffering, one must follow the eight-fold path.
The eightfold path is a list of certain rules in order to stop suffering. The basic concepts of this path is to respect the body and the environment. Once one follows his path, they can work towards enlightenment.


-Derek

Siddartha Chapter Two

Knowledge Question:

5) To begin, Maya is a point of view where the world is seen as an illusion.
When Siddartha and Govinda are meditating, they discover that the world is an illusion. Meditation also means when one unleashes themselves and notice elements at play. The reason they think that the world is an illusion is because there is so much meaning in life, but what one does in life has no meaning.
I think that the quote means how this world itself is already an illusion, but it's still fooling everyone because they don't realize the meaning of life. When this world "fools everybody", he means how everybody still go about their everyday lives and don't strive to look deeper for a true meaning of what life really is.



-Derek

Siddartha Chapter One

Reading Question:

1) When Siddartha went to his father to ask if he could leave to go to the Samanas and learn about spiritual fulfillment. He remained standing until his father responded an answer to him, because he wished to get a direct response and he didn't leave because he wished to respect his father.
But, in the end, his father has no choice but to let Siddartha go because he has "already left". This means that although his physical body is present, his body mentally is gone and has moved on with the Samanas. His father was very against Siddartha leaving, because it was like leaving his family and religion to understand another, and his father was a religious leader as well.

-Derek