Movie, Carol, Scripture reflection

Jesus is described at a very special baby. It is obvious to those who see him that he is holy. The movie, scriptures, and song all claim that he is the son of God, and the Holy Spirit in human form. In the Christmas carol “Silent Night” one verse talks of baby Jesus and describes him as “Holy Infant so tender and mild.” The verse describes what Jesus looked like right after his birth and how the Holy Spirit looked so tender and mild even though he is so powerful. In the story, what was necessary from Mary was the motherly care, from Joseph what was necessary was the protection of a father, the shepherds were the first worshippers who truly believed in Jesus, and the three wise Persians were the first to give something for their worship.

Why did God come to Earth as a baby? I believe it was because he wanted to come humbly, just as a baby, not through some awesome flash of light and fire and he descends from the heavens in whirlwind of good and angels flying around him. Also, him coming to Earth as a baby helps him understand his worshippers better and understand what suffering they go through. It lets him understand the sins that we face as humans. An understanding God would come as a baby so that he could understand his worshippers better so that he can be a more understanding God of what we go through.

CNN U.S article on 9/11/2010 Burning of The Quran
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-29/us/florida.burn.quran.day_1_american-muslims-religion-cair-spokesman-ibrahim-hooper/2?_s=PM:US
The article talks about a pastor in a Florida church that very strongly believes that “Islam is of the Devil.” The pastor has disturbingly strong feelings against the religion of Islam and is planning a book burning at his church on September 11, 2010. The entire article goes on about National Committees that are against the event and opinions of other Americans on the event.

http://www.daily.pk/the-quran-burning-sign-of-things-to-come-21781/

The Pakistani article also talks about the burning that the pastor plans to do. However, instead of focusing on the National Committees that are against it, the article focuses on the impact it will have on the Islam world. The article talks about the pain it would bring to Muslims and how it would sear their hearts. It doesn’t show any hostility towards the pastor however and merely says how he was “misguided” but compares the plans for burning the Quran to the book burnings that occurred right before the holocaust.

The articles approach the news very differently. The U.S article talks strongly about how many people condemn what the pastor plans to do. The U.S article also goes into more depth about what the pastor said about Islam, whereas the Pakistani article does not go into as much detail about what major committees think, or what the pastor plans on doing but it focuses more on how the idea of burning the Muslim’s most prized possession will affect the Muslim world. It talks about the impact it will have on the Muslim children who grow up listening and reciting Islam sayings. Then the Pakistani article recites phrases from the Quran about tolerance and patience with other people. I found it interesting how the Pakistani article brought religion into its article whereas the U.S article made sure it kept religious points of view out of it.

Commemorative Celebration

My commemorative event is Graduation.

The end of first semester is near and after that; it’s only one more semester until our high school careers will be over (unless we get held back). The celebration will be a party, much like a toga party only we wear our graduation gowns and caps. The party lasts 12 hours to signify the 12 years of schooling we have been put through. We celebrate every year and the party starts at 3pm. seeing as that is the exact time school officially ended for us at SFS. The party then goes on until 3am. At the party there will be a lot of party games, ranging from kindergarten games to high school games to signify the transformation of being kindergarten students, to seniors. At the start we play the graduation procession song and show a slideshow of all seniors and what they looked like at graduation and what they look like presently (this will be fun several years after graduation to see how we’ve changed). There will also be a caption saying where we are in life including where we live, what our job is, whether we’ve gotten married, children, and other accomplishments. There is no commemorative food seeing as we pretty much ate anything during high school. The clothing is graduation gowns as previously stated. To start each party off, the valid Victorian will mention a memorable part of his/her valid Victorian speech that they said during the graduation ceremony.

Cupid and Psyche

Aphrodite puts psyche through three impossible tasks for a human to perform. Cupid helps her out in every task but in the last task Psyche ignores Cupids advice and she is put under a spell. Cupid gains the help from Zeus and gets Psyche to come back to life. Psyche becomes immortal and a servant of the gods, so that she may live with her love, Cupid, for ever.
The story is trying to teach us that love overcomes many things. Love and the freedom to love is a virtue that the Greeks regard highly. The story tries to teach that nothing should inhibit the ability to love and that through the power of love, anything is imaginable. Readers can take from the story that it is important to follow their heart, despite what other people might tell them.

Buddhist Tempel/Hike Reflection

                Humans tend to turn to religion to answer difficult questions such as, “where did we come from, where do we go after death” etc. When going on a nature hike there are many things that prompt questions like these. We look at flowers growing along the path and while others might neglect their presence, others ponder how these delicate and beautiful species came into existence. At the Buddhist temple, there was a tree that was 500 years old. To me, it is fascinating to think that a tree manages to survive over 5 times the lifespan of average humans. A tree, though not very capable of moving anywhere or doing anything extremely exciting, is still a very complex organism. Such complexity sparks the desire to know how it came about and how it evolved to be what it is today, and while science often explains how it evolved to become what it is, science can never explain from where everything originated. And, when science fails to explain things, people turn to the supernatural and religion. I believe that people spend their lives seeking our religious truths and nurturing faith or worshipping religion for many different personal reasons. A Buddhist might try to seek religious truth such as “nothing is permanent” in order to be able to attain Nirvana. I believe many people worship creation out of a slight fear of the unknown. After all, whatever managed to create our world as we know it, probably has the capability of destroying it just as easily. A Taoist might nurture faith in order to find balance in nature, or Tao. Religion is a very important cultural aspect that not only answers some tough questions, but also gives hope and faith to everybody living in a sometimes not so beautiful world.

Meditation reflection

For my time of meditation, I went into the guest bedroom and sat on the bed there. The room has a very nice view over the city of Seoul and is very peaceful and quiet. As I sat in the room I just looked over the city and tried to forget about everything going on around me. When I closed my eyes and tried to think about obtaining right mindfulness, right thoughts and right concentration but it was a lot harder than I expected. There were a lot of random noises that I would hear and they would distract me from obtaining right concentration. It was hard to really distinguish which thoughts would be considered “right thoughts.” A lot of the time I would get distracted by thoughts about what I was going to do tomorrow, how much fun I had yesterday, and a lot of thought went towards things I had to do for school. I couldn’t get my mind concentrated enough on figuring out any of life’s truths. As for inspiration, I guess I was inspired to get a head start on some other homework due this week, but I wouldn’t really call that a great inspiration, it mainly came to me because I figured I wanted an easier week this week. The main problem I have with meditation is disciplining myself to having a hundred percent focus on concentration, right speech, and right thought. The whole experience was very relaxing however despite my mind wandering about randomly going from thought to thought.

Ghandi Movie Reflection

                Ghandi believed very much in the Hinduism because he grew up as a Hindu. Ghandi had lived abroad for most of his life and thus, he had very different views than traditional Hindus. At the time, India was faced with the caste system which was law to the Indians. However after Ghandi had witnessed the equality in London, he found the caste system useless and he opposed it quite strongly as seen in the scene where he tells his wife that she will clean the bathroom if it is her turn. Ghandi’s religious views were very much influenced by those around him. He had Muslim friends, studied in a predominantly Christian country, and yet was technically Hindu himself. Ghandi believed in a very open form of Hinduism. In South Africa when the group of white workers confronts him for walking on the sidewalk with a white man he simply states, “We are all children of God.” He does not believe in boundaries between religions and believes that everybody is equal, a view quite contrary to the Hindu belief in the caste system.

                Ghandi stated in the movie that one should “’Love they neighbor as thyself’ is not something we Hindus prescribe to, but it is something we could learn from.” As stated in the previous paragraph Ghandi clearly opposed the idea of the caste system because he believed in equality. The quote says that Hindu’s don’t prescribe to the idea of loving their neighbor as themselves. The caste system prevents Hindus from loving their neighbors as themselves because of the separation between castes and ideas that castes lower than you are bad and sometimes considered as “untouchables.” Ghandi believes that the Hindus could learn from the Christian belief of loving thy neighbor as thyself because he believes it would help abolish the caste system and unify India as a whole so they can fight (non-violently of course) for their independence.