Extra Credit

I attended the Tibetan Buddhist Group today at the Ekoji Buddhist Sangha. I mainly chose the Tibetan Buddisht Group because its the last one before Friday, but i'm glad that I went to that one and not the Zen Meditation because I couldn't handle sitting like that with my legs crossed for any longer then we did. I’m not used to sitting with my legs crossed so sitting like that for about an hour was pretty hard for me. I just couldn’t get comfortable and my feet kept falling asleep. But aside from that I thought all the other aspects of the group were really interesting and I would go back again if I could get over the sitting for that long. Everybody was nice about it though and the Lama told us at the beginning that it was ok if we had to move around if we needed to.
I got there about 7:15 and there were two other new people there too so I felt better because I definitely didn’t want to be the only new person there. So we took our shoes of and went up stairs and introduced ourselves to the Lama and sat down. Two other new people walked in soon along with some people who had been there before, all in all I would say it was 10 people in the group. Usually they start at 7:30 but I think since there were several new people the Lama asked us why we decided to attend class and what we already knew about Buddhism and things like that. He also started explain things like the four noble truths and talked about emptiness and he used an example about how Coke doesn’t contain the flavor inside it because if the goodness of coke was inside the bottle then everybody who drank it would have to like but they don’t because the flavor is subjective.
After that he described how we were supposed to sit with our legs crossed and each foot on the opposite thigh, back straight, hold your arms out and let them just fall naturally, and chin tucked a little bit. Then we started the prayer or mantra and he said we could try to follow along or just listen, then he hit this little gong and we began the prayer. Once the prayer was done he hit the little gong again and we started the silent meditation. Before he had told us that if anything pops into your head your supposed to take it as just a thought and think of it as a bubble that you pop with a feather and then go back to your relaxed mind. We did that for about 10 minutes and then he hit the gong again and we started the prayers again. The last prayer we said was the longevity prayers and he said usually you say that prayer in the morning.

The Blizzard

I picked the dream sequence "The Dream" from the Kurosawa film "Dreams". The scene starts off slow but overall I thought that the scene was pretty interesting. This dream sequence is about four mountain climbers that get caught in a blizzard after leaving there camp. After getting caught in the blizzard three of the guys agree they that they need to stop until the storm dies down but the leader of the group wants them to keep going. While arguing it seems like the three guys who wanted to stop just start to faint one by one. The leader shakes them to wake them up but they don't. Eventually he starts to go down to put right before he passes out a woman appears and puts a blanket over him. They never say the woman's name but I think they are implying that she is Izanami.
Izanami and Izanagi are the creators of the land that became known as Japan. So it is possible that she came down to help him out but it is also possible that it could have been the Kami of the mountain that showed up to save then from the storm. She gave the leader a blanket and told him the "The snow is warm", and "The ice is hot". I'm not really sure what she meant but after that the storm cleared and he was able to get up. Then he was able to wake up his friends and and their camp appeared in the background and they were saved. The Kami is the only way i can think of tho relate this particular scene to Shinto.

The Tao of Pooh

I thought that the Tao of Pooh was a very good book mainly because it was an easy read. It was short and Hoffman didn’t try to overcomplicate anything. I think that it was a good idea using a classic American figure to try to explain Taoism in the simplest way that would be assessable to anyone one just wants to know the basic concepts behind Taoism.

In our notes from last class when we were talking about the Uncarved Block Professor Rasnic was saying that you may appear dumb or crazy but you’re not your just acting in your original state. This is another reason why Winnie the Pooh is a good example of Taoism because he is simpleminded and he just goes with the flow, like Hoffman says, “Pooh, the Uncarved Block, is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded” (Hoffman, 12).

The section about the Bisy Backson is about people who are not in Wu Wei and who are trying to keep to busy all of the time. The quote by Chuang-tse on page 92 describe a man who didn’t like his footprints so he started running to get away from them but the running just created more footprints, but if he would have stood still there would have been no footprints (Hoffman, 92). I thinks its like when you keep yourself busy you keep finding more and more things for yourself to do to keep you busy, but if you just take time to relax for a little while you realize that you don’t really need to do anything but get as much done as if you where running around, achieving without doing.

When thinking of Taoism as a solution to the American problem I think the achieving without doing is the main solution that Taoism gives to the American Problem. I think a good example of this was early in the book when Pooh, Rabbit, and Piglet were lost and Pooh said that if they stop trying to look for the house then they would find it because Wu Wei will get you there when your supposed to get there not when you want to get there.

Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. New York, NY: Penguin, 1983. Print.

Buddhism Stereotypes

This picture portrays three monks meditating and pretending to be enlightened for their Zen master. The picture may be accurate on some accounts and there are probably some instances where Buddhist monks actually look like they do in this picture. There are a couple of stereotypes portrayed in this like the stereotypes that the all Buddhists monks have to be bald and that they always just wear those robes. While many may be bald it is not a requirement for the monks to be bald and monks do not always have to wear those robes some just wear the robes for their meditation session and then change afterword’s.

            While these stereotypes may be true in some cases all Buddhists monks and other Buddhists practitioners fit into this stereotype like Warner said, “Authentic Buddhism doesn’t always come packaged the way we imagine it should.” So basically anybody can practice Buddhism without having to try and fit into this mold that stereotypes have created about Buddhism.

Success and Liberation Aims

Liberation
Steve Miller Band, "Fly Like an Eagle,"Rock, 1976
K'naan, "Wavin' Flag,"Hip Hop, 2009
Jimi Hendrix, "Freedom,"Rock, 1969
Outkast, "Liberation,"Hip-Hop, 1998
Rage Against the Machine, "Freedom,"Alternative, 1992

Success
Spoon, "The Underdog," Alternative, 2007
MGMT, "Time To Pretend,"Alternative, 2007
A Tribe Called Quest, "Award Tour," Hip-Hop, 1993
Wale, "Triumph," Hip Hop, 2009
Notorious B.I.G.,"Juicy,"Hip Hop, 1994

This post was for the other two aims of Hinduism success and liberation. I thought that it was easier to find songs for these two aims than the pleasure and community service aims. It took me no time at all really to find the five songs for each of the two aims, and I thought neither aim was more prevalent than the other because I found a lot of songs for both of them. I think thats because of course people like singing about their success but people also like to hear songs with a positive message and about change and people overcoming obstacles. Like I said in my other post I think that the four aims of Hinduism cover just about all of the topics in music. Wavin' Flag by K'naan was used as the song for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the MGMT song that I chose Time To Pretend is a hypothetical story of what they would do if they became popular and successful. 

Pleasure and Community Service

Pleasure
Bob Marley, "Easy Skanking," Reggae, 1978
A Tribe Called Quest, "Bonita Applebum," Hip Hop, 1992
A Tribe Called Quest, "Electric Relaxation," Hip Hop, 1993
The Rolling Stones, "Rip This Joint," Rock, 1972
Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love," Rock, 1969

Community Service
Marvin Gaye, "Whats Going On," R&B, 1971
Matisyahu, "One Day," Alternative, 2009
Talib Kweli, "Get By," Hip Hop, 2002
Richie Havens, "Freedom," Folk Rock, 1969
Bob Marley, "Redemption Song," Reggae, 1980

I thought that both were relatively easy to find songs for, but the pleasure aim is clearly more prevalent in music. But there are a lot of songs about change and revolution that I thought could have been used for the community service aim. I think there are more songs about pleasure because people would rather hear about things that make people feel good then listen to socially conscious songs that make people think about the things that are wrong with the world. The thing that I noticed is that the four aims of Hinduism cover basically all of the topics covered in music, there isn't much else that people can or do write songs about. I tried to incorporate as many genres of music as I could and it wasn't hard because it seems like every genre has a good mix of songs for not just the pleasure and community service aim but for the other two aims as well.