Sunday, April 24, 2011
SHINTO
I watched the “Peach Orchard” section of Kurosawa’s film “Dreams” and I actually thought it was pretty entertaining. Although the actual acting was pretty bad in my opinion (as expected) I thought that the one point that really sold it to me was when the child said to the spirits of the peach trees “Peaches can be bought… But where can you buy a whole orchard in bloom?”
There were a few areas that in which I thought that the video lines up with the lecture in class. The first one was that “Everything is spiritual and therefore there is a continuity between humanity, nature, and the spirits/gods” and this is depicted in the video because the video is about the spirit of the peach trees that were cut down in the orchard and how the spirits and the boy were unhappy about it.
Another area that I saw relation to the lecture and the section in the film was when professor stated: “This is not pantheism (not all of nature is kami), instead this recognizes what is powerful or amazing in nature and that is kami.” I got this idea from when the boy replied to the peach tree spirits by saying “Peaches can be bought… But where can you buy a whole orchard in bloom?” because he recognizes that the beauty of a blooming orchard of peach trees cannot be amounted to money or any other material possession in this world.
Because the orchard of peach trees had spirits I would consider the orchard a sacred object which leads me to the last relation between the lecture on Shinto and this particular section of the film. In the notes Professor Rasnick stated that “Gravest sins are sins against sacred objects or places” which is why in this film the spirits of the chopped orchard trees were so distraught. To simplify my reasoning: the trees had spiritsàspirits are sacredàand because those spirits are sacred the trees should not have been cut down.
Overall I think that this section of the film actually helped explain Shinto in relation to nature very well but I did not really get a big picture of Shinto.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
"The Tao of Pooh"
I think “The Tao of Pooh” was a great book for mainly one reason which was: the comparison to Winnie the Pooh was terrific because Winnie the Pooh is familiar with Americans that grew up in the Unites States. Hoff’s comparisons and examples he uses for the different topics like “The Cottleston Pie Principle” (38) and “Wu Wei,” which was excellently described by the pickle jar incident with Tigger (75-76) and the Very Small Beetle (78-80), are examples of some of the simple but effective analogies that he used which is what makes this book so great for people that don’t have any previous knowledge about Taoism.
Hoff describes the lifestyle of Bisy Backsons, which are basically people that are constantly active, as always trying to get “around the next corner” or “above the next step” (99). He also mixes some clever wordplay into the book that you wouldn’t catch on to if you didn’t read the rest of Bisy Backson chapter. Hoff starts off the chapter with a quote “GON OUT BACKSON BISY BACKSON” (92) which is just gibberish but then later in the chapter he switches it to “GONE OUT BACK SOON BUSY BACK SOON” (96) and then says the most accurate version is “BACK OUT GONE SOON BUSY GONE SOON” (97). I interpret this whole issue by thinking that the first quote is a result of the lifestyles of Bisy Backsons in the sense that they are so busy and don’t have enough time to even write a correct note. Personally I believe that Americans tend to have this lifestyle and even being a first generation American I can see that trait in myself.
When it comes to the “solution” of the Bisy Backsons “problem” I think that Taoism could be a possible solution for it but to me it seems a little too extreme because some issues in Taoism, like the lack of exercise, are possibly harmful in today’s society. In my opinion something a little less simple would be a better solution to the problem. One solution of this problem in my opinion could easily be fixed by just taking a certain amount of time each day just for yourself and not really doing anything.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Buddhism 1
This is a cartoon that was made from the American point of view about Buddhists. Obviously it is a negative stereotype which basically portrays Buddhists as people who don’t think about “important” things in life and focus their attention on frivolous issues. The problem lies with the definition of “important” because focusing on meditation and trying to get to the point at which you are enlightened is really important to Buddhists and not necessarily important to normal everyday Americans. On the other side of the spectrum Buddhist monks probably wouldn’t think that Americans that worry about money every second of every day are “thoughtless” in the sense that it has no purpose in the long run.
In the book in the chapter about Buddhism in the west Brad Warner further explains the practice of zazen which relates to this stereotype. To explain zazen he wrote:
“There’s a story in which a Zen master hears about a wandering monk who says, “If a clear mind comes, let it come. If a cloudy mind comes, let it come.” The Zen master grabs him and yells, “What if neither a clear mind nor a cloudy mind comes?” The monk says, “I hear they’re having a big sale on underwear at JC Penny” and wanders off. The master says approvingly, “I thought this was no ordinary monk!””
This story confirms the stereotype to a certain extent. It confirms that people practicing zazen do actually sit and focus on nothing that Americans seem to think is important. However, the stereotype does not confirm that they focus unimportant issues according to the Buddhist themselves.
This certain stereotype in my opinion is all a matter of values. Personally, I think that the practice of zazen that he mentions in the book seems to me to be just as important, if not more important, than the thoughts that most Americans burden themselves with. Also, I feel that the religions that Americans are most familiar with have a lot to do with their perceptions of religions such as Buddhism. In Christianity everything is so concrete and the proper ways to follow are laid out for you that I think that they have difficulties imagining that someone can reach their goal (enlightenment or heaven) in their own way.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Success Aim and Liberation Aim
Success Aim:
Kevin Rudolf Ft. Birdman, Lil Wayne, and Jay Sean, “I Made It,” Rap, 2010.
Kanye West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” Rap, 2007.
Jay Z, “Encoure,” Rap, 2003.
Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith, “Never Say Never,” Pop/Rap, 2010.
Drake and Trey Songz, “Successful,” Rap/R&B, 2009.
Liberation Aim:
Eminem, “Not Afraid,” Rap, 2010.
Mark Wonder, “Liberation Song,” Reggae, 2009.
Outkast, “Liberation,” Rap, 1998.
Nas, “Heaven,” Rap, 2002.
Nelly Furtado, “I’m Like a Bird,” Pop, 2000.
For the success aim I chose the song “I Made It” by Kevin Rudolf and it features Birdman, Lil Wayne, and Jay Sean in it as well. This is the perfect song for the success aim in my opinion because it is all about making it in the music game and going for what you want in life. In class when we talked about success we were never really talked about having fortune and fame but that is considered success so overall I think that this song fits in very well with the third aim of Hinduism. I found this song because it was very popular last year and as soon as we talked about having this assignment in class this song immediately came to my mind. Overall the other songs for this aim were pretty easy to find which was expected because most artists who made it big have made a song about success and most that haven’t have made songs about wanting to be successful.
The song I chose for the final aim which is liberation was a bit of a stretch. I chose “Not Afraid” by Eminem because it is about liberation but it does not mean liberation in the same way as the aim in Hinduism. In the song Marshall Mathers is talking about being liberated from his addictions he had with many different drugs and staying sober therefore being able to see clearly and “liberated.” The aim in Hinduism differs because the aim is talking about liberation from this world and the life cycle which stops you from reincarnating once you have died. For this aim I had to look for a long time to find all of the songs. Until I thought about how this song could be fit into this aim (depending on your interpretation) I had to end up googling about songs about liberation and I got a lot of reggae songs but I could not understand them so had no idea what they were really about.
Overall I thought that these songs were good to compare today’s pop culture to the aims in Hinduism because of the fact that one fit perfectly and the other had to be stretched to relate to the aim.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Pleasure songs: the video is what some people would call R rated
Wiz Khalifa Ft. Too Short, “On My Level,” Rap, 2011
Kesha, “Tik Tok,” Pop, 2010
Bei Maejor Ft. Trey Songz, “Drinks On Me,” Rap, 2010
Chromeo, “Bonafied Lovin,” Lovers' Funk, 2007
Trey Songz Ft. Nicki Minaj, “Bottoms Up,” Hip Hop, 2010
Bright Eyes, “Bowl of Oranges,” Indie, 2002
Jonathan Boulet, “A Community Service Announcement,” Indie, 2009
MGMT, “KIDS,” Contemporary, 2007
Five For Fighting, “World,” Contemporary, 2006
The Black Eyed Peas, “Where Is The Love,” Hip Hop, 2003
The first video is the song “On My Level” by Wiz Khalifa and Too Short and it is basically about partying and smoking weed. This relates to the pleasure aim in Hinduism. In class we talked about how the pleasure aim can be about intoxicants which is basically what this song is all about. For this song and video nothing really surprised me because if you have ever heard of Wiz Khalifa you have to know that weed is all the he is about. I think that the major difference in the point of this song and the aim of Hinduism about pleasure is that the aim encourages that you gain pleasure intelligently and morally instead of just going and smoking up every chance you get. In the video it makes it seem like he is high all day every day and doesn’t really think about anything else (I am sure that is not true but the video portrays that kind of vibe). Overall I think that this would portray about half of what the pleasure aim was about.
The song I chose for the third aim was “Bowl of Oranges” by Bright Eyes. I am not familiar with this band and I found them by googling (typing into google) about a song that is about helping others but once I heard the song I knew that I was going to pick it for the one that represents the community service aim. The song is basically about a man who ran into a sick doctor on the street and the man not knowing anything about medicine says to the doctor that he cannot do anything to help him and the doctor replies by telling the man to just sit with him. After listening to the song I was surprised by how well this fit into the aim and it portrayed it very well (in my opinion). In class we talked about how it is considered a duty to help other and be committed to others and those are the two points that I feel that match this song really well.
Monday, January 31, 2011
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