Life of the Buddha Unit Essay Review: Week 11

The reading unit I chose to read this week was “The Life of the Buddha” by Andre Ferdinand Herold. Overall, I thought this unit was a good read. It was way easier to start and finish this reading assignment since it had a shorter length than the book reading assignments and the stories were split up into sections. The sections gave a note about what it would be about at the beginning and I thought this was nice and kind of like the reading guides from the Epics class. Although I did not write my storytelling post this week I think it would be easier to write based on a section of the reading. I was able to structure my reading diary around the stories so my thoughts were both more organized and useful than earlier reading diaries.

I have heard of Buddha the monk throughout my life so picking this unit was out of curiosity about his life since I did not know much other than his big belly and smiley face appearance. I was really surprised after reading this unit because I did not expect him to have a different name, be seen as godlike by many who passed him, or leave his family without much compassion. I think his state of mind throughout his life leading up to him becoming the Buddha was perplexing at times because he seemed distant from the truths of the world seeing death and sickness as something he could conquer. My impression before reading about his life was that the Buddha was all about peace and serenity. My favorite story from this unit was ‘Siddhartha’s first meditation’ because it really showed him sitting and the world understanding his deep thought (with the unmoving shadow over him) and the passing people gawk at his peaceful state. Then I thought it was crazy that after awakening from this state, he simply says to his father the must stop working in the fields, I was hoping for more insight into what that meant or why it was important. My least favorite story was the one where everyone in the kingdom found out of Siddhartha’s departure and was stricken with such great grief. The horse dying was a total shocker since Siddhartha was leaving to conquer this happening in the first place. I would like to read more about where Siddhartha's life goes from when he became the Buddha and I was please to see there were numerous links I could visit to read more about certain parts of his life (his marriage to Gopa for example). The fact that he has a son and was still more passionate about becoming a monk than leaving him is weird to me when I compare the love that Siddhartha's father has for Siddhartha even when he knew from his birth he would never stay in the kingdom.

I really like the ability to choose the stories from the Mythology and Folklore option. This gives me a lot of freedom to choose what I want to read about and I can gain more knowledge outside of just Indian Epics.

'self control' of Siddhartha from wikispaces

 

Reading Diary (The Life of Buddha Unit): Week 11

From The Life of Buddha Unit

Maya's Dream:
-do all dreams mean something?
-what a cool way to find out you will have a child, a special one
-king was intuitive to his emotions
-Brahmins description of Buddha is angelic and perfect
-The king began to do what Buddha would as he gave food to hungry etc. (shielding him from bad in the world and leading to his ultimate monk hood)
Birth of Siddhartha:
-Maya was not scared of childbirth, only remembering what would come from it
-Birth in such a beautiful environment
-how easy a birth like that would be! I wish I could smile and pop out this baby...
-songs of merriment, praise to his future
Asita's Prediction:
-Son bore marks of omnipotence?
-All bad things will come to an end basically and Asita is overwhelmed with joy and sorrow as he won't be alive to witness this era of greatness
Siddhartha at the Temple:
-is royalty more important to the king than the greater good?
-Maya's death with Siddhartha being a week old is sad because everything was so perfect at his birth
-Even jewels were outshined by his presence
-Arrival at the temple--> reminded me of Hercules movie
Siddhartha's First Meditation:
-Was he in a trance, not aware of the people passing by and saying things about him?
-the shade did not move, time stood still in his area of meditation
-Stop working in the fields? This is the message he was pondering on??
First Encounter:
-Why would the Gods want to trouble his mind?
-Oh, the old withered man is used as a humbling truth to Siddhartha to make him see the real world
-scared of old age destroys his peace in the presence
Two More Encounters:
-sees sickness, but used to perfection so this troubles him more
-the gods are playing with his mind
-has only half an image of the world
The Fair Maidens:
-are they trying to seduce him?
-but he ignores them because he is fixated on death
-does not see the beauty in life it seems
-Gopa's dream is interpreted by the prince instead of a dream interpreter like Siddhartha's mothers dream was
-scary dream= pleasant response and smile out of prince...
The Great Truths:
-Monk from Gods led prince to true purpose and what he was seeking
-the promises his father must make for him to stay and not leave kingdom: his life won't end in death, won't get sick, won't get old, and won't become misfortunate
-world is a prison
-were they really asleep or dead? (Gopa's companions)
-------------------------
Siddhartha leaves:
-Kanthaka understood the princes need to leave
-Chandaka is conflicted with loyalty to king and universal urge to let prince leave
-the prince is a great orator, persuasive
Siddhartha the hermit:
-Chandra does not want to be the bearer of such bad news, he facilitated this as well
-shedding of his robe is symbolic, finalizing his departure
-he is stubborn and determined to conquer death and sickness
Gopa and Suddhodana grieve:
-Gopa really loved Siddhartha, I wonder how deep his love for her went
-What a bad wake up call
-the king (his father) is also super upset, he shuts down the city even though he knew this day was to come
-the death of the horse is equivalent to the death of Maya for me, he had to take the prince to his destination and come back to face the sad kingdom that is empty from Siddhartha
Arata Kalama:
-Arata's teachings were hermit like but he did not have a purpose or a mission to their suffering
Siddhartha and King Vimbasara:
-I wonder if he was actually begging in the streets
-the king Vimbasara saw the hermits light that shone, and wanted him a part of his kingdom
-like a trophy? Companion? What is his strategy to get him to his kingdom and adorn him with earthly things he obviously had no intentions of delving in?
-so his presence and meeting of this king results in a friendship (peace) between that kingdom and his fathers kingdom
-Rudraka, son of Rama is in this story, has followers but five start to follow Siddhartha
Siddhartha deserted by his first disciples:
-seems dead because of such fasting and malnourishment
-Maya comes to see her son, suggests that no one really 'dies' in a concrete way but Siddhartha thinks of the circle of life as being an awful cycle when he thinks of this later on.... logical?
-his followers are not as patient, do not see the good in his nourishment that he is being given, and leave
The tree of knowledge:
-gets clothes from dead slave, washes with help of a god
-Mara attempts to kill him with rising water... must be close to his awakening as a Buddha and defeat of Mara since he sees him as a threat
-five dreams. Whole body laying on top of earth, reed growing from belly button to sky, worms covering legs, birds flying from all directions toward head and appeared gold as they got closer, covered in filth and ascended mountain but filth did not defile him
-Realized from dreams that he would become a Buddha
-given bowl with food, throws bowl into river from knowledge of other Buddha doing same thing
-Grass obtained and made into a seat under tree, bowed to tree before sat
-bowing is a major sign of respect in this time
Mara's defeat:
-Mara's dream in relation to Buddha's transitioning phase
-his son urges him not to fight this, see the good in Siddhartha's transition
-the army he got looked like a Halloween costume party that was gruesome
-trying to frighten Siddhartha but end up frightening army because nothing is working to change his state of mind or surroundings
Siddhartha becomes the Buddha:
-three phases of enlightenment / realization
-death-birth-existence-ties-desire-sensation-contact-six senses-name/form-perception-impression-ignorance.
-ignorance
-realization, 12 times the earth shook and ends in song

Famous Last Words: Week 10

This week I kind of took a break from this class, resulting in not doing the reading diaries or the storytelling assignment. I think this was a much needed break because I have been so stressed out (there were multiple projects due in other classes this week). Thankfully this class has less points given to each assignment so extra credit opportunities like this save my grade and in turn, my sanity.

Outside of school stress I had a great home life week! We were able to take Brady to get pumpkins and carve them for his first time and mine which made it extra special. He did NOT want to touch the gunk in the pumpkin and kept calling it 'gross' or 'yucky' lol so that was hilarious. We also took him to the Red Ribbon Parade yesterday morning then safe trick or treat night in Old Town Moore in the evening. I was glad that he wasn't as interested in getting candy as he was looking at all the 'scary pumpkins' :) The longer I can hold him off from cavities the better. Then last night we got to watch spooky movies on Netflix and ate popcorn and baked cookies, I am beginning to love Fall! I think we will take him to haunt the zoo this week sometime, his dad and I never went as kids ourselves but I have heard great things about it. Halloween on Friday should be fun as well for us, Brady is Spiderman (he loves Spiderman) and since I am a big pregnant lady I think I'm going to be a pumpkin (which is another of Brady's favorites).

Info about Haunt the Zoo found here : http://www.okczoo.com/haunt-the-zoo/?preview=1

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT WEEK AND HOLIDAY!

Personal photo, Brady&Daddy carving pumpkins

 

 

photo found from sggmom.blogspot.com

(like this but without the bow, since its a boy)

 

Storytelling Post: Jealousy. week 9

Cards from wikimedia commons

 

There was a large housewarming party for five brothers that had just built a home to live together in. At the party were friends, neighbors, and family that brought countless gifts and warm wishes. Everyone had a great time at this event, all except one man. The eldest cousin of the brothers, son of their uncle Dhrit, was Dury. Dury sat outside on a bench and had sulking thoughts to himself.

“My cousins are useless, why do they get all these awesome gifts? I did not get gifts as awesome as these at my party…ahhh and this house, it is so glorious I can’t help but to love it and adore the open spaces and grand construction of it all! They have delicious food served to them every day and my cooks at our house are not as great as theirs. I am pretty sure my television is smaller as well, either that or the picture on it has less pixels…something about their tv makes me loathe my own. WHY do they get all they would ever want and I get things that are less than what is theirs? We come from the same family and our fathers are brothers. Why do I get stuck with a blind king for a father and theirs is dead? I love my dad but he does not understand the agony I am put through by these brothers’ existence! Maybe it is perhaps he cannot literally see the difference of our two worlds, since they feel the same to him he does not side with me on this. I must do something to bring shame or embarrassment to them so people will look at me and think more highly of me and I will be favored with the greater gifts and adoration! But what can I do?? I could challenge them to a game I know I can win. I will make them gamble everything away to me. Of the brothers Yud, Arju, Bhim, Nak & Saha the weakest would have to be Yud since he was horrible at games growing up, he would always lose. Aha! I must go make this game of poker happen right now in front of everyone here.”

Then Dury told his friend that was there of his plan and asked him to use his best tricks to win everything from Yud in the poker game, since he himself was not the best. Of course he agreed since he was just as jealous of the brothers as Dury was. The grand poker game was arranged and all surrounded to watch. Yud was engulfed in arrogance and thought he could win so he kept gambling away his belongings. Pretty soon, everything he owned or loved was gambled away to Dury’s sit in player and the last thing was his wife’s most precious wedding ring. Since the rules stated that anything under the house of Dury or Yud could be gambled, it was fair game. Sad story. The end.

Author’s note: I chose to retell a spin-off of the story with Duryodhana and challenging Yudhistira in a game of gambling. This is taking place in modern times and at a house warming party instead of after the celebration of the Pandava brothers for their city. I shortened Duryodhana’s name as well as the rest of the character’s mentioned here from the book. I wanted to emphasize his crazy feelings of jealousy toward the brothers and not focus so much on the actual game that made Yudhistira lose all his stuff. It’s a bit different than the book but the core concept of family ties and jealousy is here which is what I wanted to keep the same. I could’ve went into more detail but am feeling sick and lacking creativity unfortunately :\

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata

Reading Diary B: Week 9

-          Why stress over power if no plans to do anything with it? At least Pandu’s sons are going on conquests and expanding their knowledge of the land

-          This book has a different tone than the Ramayana, lying is more common with ordinary characters not just demons, moral standards are different

-          The brothers are kind of bad if willing to set up a fire to kill innocent people in order to fake own death, but may have saved their own lives as well

-          Their host family is fighting over who will get to sacrifice their life for the town? Why? Honor?

-          Bhima = courageous

-          Bhima reminds me of Rama and Hercules when he taunts the demon and defeats him

-          The swayamwara of Drupadas’ daughter reminds me of the ball in Cinderella but reversed in gender and not a ball but an exercise of skill to win her hand in marriage

-          Draupadi doesn’t seem to like this act being done for her hand in marriage, I guess she would rather get to choose her suitor herself which is reasonable, and more independent in thinking, less submissive

-          Karna was sweet to not go through with launching the bow after hearing of the princesses discomfort with him

-          She watched with apprehension when watching Karna and watched anxiously when watching Arjuna

-          She has to be shared even though the mother of the brothers had no idea what she was ordering them to share? Why is Arjuna insisting his bride be shared with his brothers? Does he really feel this way or is it because of the past life described to be causing of her getting five husbands?

-          The past lives of your children in these times could be useful to know when you got the child or at least early on in their life so you can know what to expect from their  future

-          Women empowerment shown in Draupadi knowing what she wants and having five husbands

-          “The kauravas are evil incarnate” pg.58

-          Bhishma is wise in advising Dhritarashtra to restore to Yudhistira what is his and stop the fighting, I wonder how much is absorbed by him

-          I think these men in this book are just too scared of what COULD happen due to skills and connections of other men

-          Karna says the wisest course is to destroy Pandavas and their father in law and no other course is open to them?? DISAGREE, listen to Bhishma

-          Ownership taken of people and name sake is important in this book

-          Glad they could divide the land and build a beautiful city ‘indraprastha’

-          Arjuna exiled for 12 years, this is very Rama-esque. He married different women while exiled, sad for him since he was exiled for walking in on his own wife he won first

-          Duryodhana is jealous of the Pandavas, and feels they should have something degrading happen to them and they are worthless….what makes them so worthless?

-          King Dhritarashtra has come to his senses, but is still persuaded by his son against the Pandavas in some way

-          Is this just a battle of who has more splendor? More skill? Is more adored? Gets the most gifts? The pandavas don’t seem to mind nor want to wreck havoc on their cousins

-          Yudhistira should have stuck to his first feelings about going to the crystal palace

-----stopped at page 72

 

Reading Diary A: Week 9

·       The intro does a good job of letting the reader know this epic is originally very very very long and he has simplified the version. Also, the story of the real author is cool since he indicates he is just a translator not the author of the original text

·       Drowning babies = satisfaction for mother?? ….Later realize the mother is justified in her actions according to this world’s terms

·       Devavratha raised in the river without his father for some of his life then handed to him to live with after raised by mother and having to part with his mother is weird

·       The king could accept the first wifes conditions of no questions asked but wont for this wife as her fathers request of their son be successor? Eventually he gets his way due to his river sons actions and praises

·       Firm vow of devavratha to celibacy causes vow to the girls father of her children being successor to his fathers throne

·       Bhishma = Devavratha

·       “issue” term is used as children or child in this book

·       Why would Vichitravirya (son to satyavathi) be married so long to his wives (7 years before dying ill) and not try to bare children if this seems to be very important in this story?

·       When was this son of Satyavathi born? Before she met her husband (Santanu)? Vyasa

·       Ambika forced herself to lay with her dead husbands eldest brother for what? She seemed to be in a trap to me which is sad

·       Stealing a cow led to celibacy vow as well as killing a mating deer, I wonder if celibacy is related to the maltreatment of animals in a way?

·        Satyavathi is acting like a female pimp(what is that word again?) to her son’s widows for her eldest son born without a father in order to retain the family name. his seems like a character trait that makes her selfish

·       Vidura born without purpose of his conception between parents, not forced, since the maiden was the one who Vsaya found in the bed of the woman he was supposed to be mating with (again)

·       Hard to tell which characters in this epic are central to the rest of the story and who to focus on because with so many names it is difficult to follow the connections between characters

·       Women are having a lot of boy babies and with gods?

·       The blind king had a lot of sons – setting up family/cousin conflict

·       Passionate death to Pandu and Madri, each separately with different actions but for eachother

·       They seemed to live well together as a family after madri and pandu die but then they get annoyed with eachother and one side tries to kill the other? To think if families were like that nowadays instead of having to accept who your family members were lol

·       The ceremony to show off skills of weaponry and fight remind me of roman times with the coliseum

·        Arjuna vs karna -----brothers, but they don’t know this, hardly anyone does but their mother does

·       Duryodhana made karna a king of anga so that there could be an equal fight?

·       “…time changes everything” –what king drupada says to Drona when drone comes to him to ask for milk for his son since his mother had died and they used to be friends… pg.38-39

Famous Last Words: Week 8

This has been a more relaxed week in this class since we do not have to really read anything or be very creative, there is a lot of responding and I like these assignments because I don't second guess my abilities as much! The craziest night happened on Wednesday night though that I just HAVE to remember down the road (so I hope this post is revisited by my future self). After a crazy day at work (which is at a daycare so this was kind of normal), I came home with all my homework done for the day and no test to study for the next day so I decided I would plan a double date night with my boyfriend, and our friend couple and go see Annabelle! I have been wanting to see this movie since I saw a preview in theaters. Our friends live in Shawnee so it would be a long drive to Bricktown to see it but they agreed since they had been wanting to see it as well. Waiting for my boyfriend to get off work at 7, I got ready and was rushing to find a sitter and such. Well the moon was full and teasing because it had that glow... you know that glow. I had to get Brady in the car and he had my phone and dropped it so I had to pick it up while holding him and being very pregnant, I got frustrated and put the phone on top of my car..and left it there. Drove off to my next destination and came back to find it after realizing what I had done and lo and behold it is a disgrace. Found part of my otterbox piece by piece down the road leading to my phone. I found it and my heart sank. I had so many pictures and memories on it, I did my homework on it and it was my first iPhone ever.. little emotional about something so menial I know.

personal photo R.I.P. iPhone

Getting to the movies, I found my friend and then my boyfriend went and got drinks. He did not know where we were and we played a game of hide and seek hypothetically and ended up getting frustrated that we wasted half the movie going up and down aisles taking turns looking for one another. So we went to fuzzy's to eat and they give you these cups to go home with you and before I could even fill mine up I was putting it to my forehead thinking "how can this night get any worse?" and then the cup broke. Thanks for answering my thoughts universe. Then I got a new styrofoam cup this time and drank that. Second drink in, I spilled soda all over myself. Woo. Then we left to go sit in front of the movie and wait for our friends so we could apologize for leaving early and making them come all the way out. At the end of the movie nobody came out, so we waited and waited and then we went inside and found out that there are outside exits that most people use. Ugh! So we missed our friends and left to get our son. Brady had a good time at his sitters but came out with a glow stick and halfway down the road I noticed his face was glowing, by his mouth. He had chewed this thing. Of course I panicked and didn't have a phone to check to see if this stuff was toxic or not so we had to go all the way back to the sitters to see the packaging, luckily it was not harmful. :) still a minor heart attack though. While driving, almost got in numerous accidents, almost. Get home and when exiting the car I almost step on a scorpion. Freaked out, I walk away and see a gecko scurry across the wall. Then getting to the door there's a large praying mantis by the handle. What a trio in such a short distance! And I live in the city so it is very weird. Anyways, I blame this night on the full moon and its mocking nature. It got to me but it could have been way worse ! Now to figure out a phone situation..... and survive the rest of the week.

full moon from pixabay









Reading Diary Assesment

I have used numerous methods of composing my reading diaries. There was focus on characters, comments on major events with respect to the reading guide, note as I go along with the reading, go back in the book and write what I remember thinking in bullet points, paragraphs about the entirety of the reading assignment, thoughts separated by plot and characters/beginning and end of assigned reading pages... there's a lot. I think that I started to use the bullet point method a lot though and it was helpful to just write my thoughts in this way without having to adhere to a certain topic or constraint such as character or event. This next part of the course I think it would be beneficial to write in the actual book or underline things I felt were worth going over in my notes AS I read. When I tried to read the book and type up my notes as I went along, this took a longer amount of time, interrupted my thoughts, and was less accessible to do because of technology (having my phone out at work with a book was difficult, or having my tablet at home while reading was more difficult than simply the book and pen/pencil). Also, typing my notes after I read the passage would allow me to understand things or connect things that happen in succession of each other and then note that connection in my reading diary.
I would say I have been doing a sufficient job at keeping up with the readings, but it is harder to do when there are things due everyday so I focus on those things first instead of alleviating the reading assignment on Mondays and Tuesdays. For example, if I could read a little everyday instead of 50 pages all in one night plus making a reading diary for it, I would probably be more likely to get the whole reading assignment finished with little stress. There have been a couple times I was not able to finish the whole reading assignment but thought that since I read most of the pages that I could make a sufficient reading diary post based on what I did read then go back and review the reading guide so I know what happened for the rest of the section of reading. I like the reading guides in this respect. Managing my reading throughout the week would be a better bet of me finishing and not just rushing through though, which causes me to lose a lot of important detail and essence of the whole book.
All in all, I use the reading diaries to set up my storytelling posts but do not go back and look at them otherwise. Since there are a lot of assignments during the week that pertain to the book, it is easier to remember the content in the book than it would be by just reading it and making notes and being done with.

Reading Diary B: Week 7

-          Rama and Sita are reunited and it is so sweet of Rama to point out all that he encountered on the land while they were away from one another

-          I wonder just how many nights Rama had to live off the land on his own and did not indulge on the gifts of others who adored him for food

-          Hanuman meeting Bharata was weird, since they both loved Rama I am glad they can connect and be friends

-          The front cover of the animals and Rama sitting around in a circle makes more sense at this point, I can point out who everyone is !

-          Is this point of view where things are “I” in the eyes of the Revel master? It’s a weird transition from the rest of the book

-          Ayodhya seems to be blossoming and coming to life at the return of Rama

-          Reunion time, it is mentioned that Queen Kaikeyi made the right decision to exile Rama because it led to the defeat of the demons  and a better world
-      It is nice that Manthara apologizes to Sita and acknowledges it is partly her fault that they were sent away in the first place

-          The different kings, animal and demon alike, get along now and it is nice to see harmony

-          Awful that Rama wants to abandon Sita because of what some low life people think, after all he has been through in order to get her love back Rama cares what SOME people may think even though everyone follows him and adores him and the city is fine and dandy, he has no reason to send her away into the forest for this reason. The fire even told of her true heart and thoughts !

-          Finally the story in full of Dasartha and Kaikeyi and the two wishes that set all this in motion
-      The curse makes the separation of Rama and Sita more understandable, and goes to show that not even a god like Rama is safe from karma

-          I like how the story continues with Sita in the forest and does not immediately follow Lakshmana back to the city, this means she is still a major character and important to the story

-          Ugh ! and I forgot sita was pregnant and Rama knew this , what a jerk.

-          Rama didn’t even check on Sita????

-          So many festivals..
-      it is odd that king janaka wants Rama to step down from his throne
-      Sita was obviously innocent if taken by the earth, and Lakshmana's death is horrible :(
-      Having Hanuman there at the end of Rama's story makes him a very loyal friend and even though he cannot die, he does not seek power or wealth