Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation: "Spend 20 mintues in a silent meditation; a place you won't be disturbed, your own 'fig tree' as was Buddha's inspiration. In those 20 mintue..."

Trying to sit still and trying to minimize all distractions around me was a lot harder than I thought it would be. For twenty minutes I sat at my desk chair, with my bedroom door closed to try and concentrate on meditating. When I thought about how I could attain "right thoughts", I thought about the people who gave up almost everything they had to try and follow all of the right steps. Just thinking about discarding everything I own made me realize how much these people gave up to achieve nirvana. I didnt exactly have the "right concentration", because even though I was alone and in a quiet space, I distracted myself from concentrating by concentrating too much on things that didn't even relate to this assignment. I found it hard to control my mind to stay focused on only one topic at a time without wandering off. I didn't really have any kind of inspiration, because I wasn't able to stay focused 80% of the time, but what I learned was that meditation is really time consuming, and only really works when you are willing to concentrate and let yourself relax.

Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist

    Ghandhi had many good values like non-violence, acceptance, and peace. Since he was a Hindu, he had mostly Hindu values too, and his idea of Hinduism was probably based off his values. I think that the way Hinduism allows you to accept many other religions and the way karma shows that if you do good, good will come back to you influenced Ghandi to make him think of non-violence. In the movie, there was a scene where Ghandi told the group of people that he was a Hindu, Muslim, Jew, and a Christian, which shows that Ghandi appreciated all of the different kinds of religions, and that he knows that there can be peace between all different types of cultures and people. In his little village, he tried to create equality between the different castes so there wouldn't be so much separation and differences with the people there.
    Non-violence was what Ghandi showed that he mostly wanted that to spread throughout India. "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." This quote shows that Ghandi knew that revenge wasn't the best way to go against the British, and if they fought back violently, it would just go into a cycle of trying to get even with each other, which would end very badly. Ghandi lived this out by telling lots and lots of people not to fight back with violence, and that non-violence was the best way to go because it would make the British realize what they were actually doing to the Indians. 

Assignment #3 - Sacred Poetry

Ancient statues carved from stone
created by the Rapanui people alone

eight hundred and eighty seven statues stand

without many decorations, some think they are bland.

Looking out to the sea, and gazing in towards the land

resting upon the island's sand

hard work and effort of transporting and crafting is shown

with a mysterious purpose that is unknown.

Nobody knows why they are there

they could have been chiefs, decoration, or representing something

but the people of Easter Island handle them with care

so many tourists can visit them, and call them interesting.

information:

- created between 1250 and 1500 CE.

- they are monolithic human figres carved from rock.

- their heads are 3/5 the size of their bodies.

- they are on the Polynesian island of Easter Island in Chile, and in Ahu Tongariki.

- some people believe they could have been embodiments of former chiefs or important lineage symbols.

- there are about 887 moai statues.

- they were created by the Rapanui people, the Polynesian people in Easter Island.

- the creation and transportation of the moai statues is considered a phyical and remarkable feat.

- the average sized moai statue weighs about 20 tons.