Extra Credit Yoga

“Meditation is a practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, visualization, the breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal and spiritual growth.” I have practiced meditation for many purposes. Sometimes I use it to reduce stress, sleep, or just to relax. I find that practicing meditation is very beneficial. It calms and clears my mind from all worries that I may have. I feel connected to myself and it helps me disconnect from things that tend to cause tension within my mind. I am the type of person that constantly worries about things whether it is relationships, school, health and many other issues. Sometimes it can get overwhelming and practicing meditation has helped me relieve tension from those areas. I have downloaded applications on my IPod that focus on meditation with someone speaking in a relaxed tone with relaxed background sounds and music. Attending the yoga class I thought in a sense it would be sort of the same way but instead there would be actual movement involved. I thought that it would be a relaxing way to release tension within your muscles with exercise. I did not expect those yoga movements to be as difficult as they were. Being that I am student-athlete I thought I would be able to breeze through this yoga class. At the beginning we practiced breathing techniques and towards the middle I found it difficult to position my body in some of the movements that the instructor introduced. The instructor seemed so calm and poised as she was demonstrating but when I actually had to perform it I looked the opposite. If I knew how to perform these exercises maybe it would have become relaxing for me. The only thing that was relaxing was the beginning and the cool down at the end. The only question that was raised during this experience was how can you allow yourself to relax in uncomfortable positions. I am glad that I had the opportunity to experience the yoga class but I cannot see myself attending another one.

Buddhish Blog

 

I think this comic is an American stereotype of a Buddhist lay person. This represents a stereotype on how Americans view the Buddhist practice. The comic reads “Oh yeah! First to reach enlightenment… Right here, people! Woooo Baby! Eat my dust, ladies!” The understanding of enlightenment is misrepresented in this comic and I feel as if some of the Americans who practice Buddhism today do not fully understand the practices. Being enlightened does not happen over-night. In fact it takes many years for one to become fully enlightened and even then you have to keep practicing Buddhism in order to remain enlightened. Enlightenment is difficult to reach for many because you have to be able to fully understand the practices and what it means to become enlightened. I think this cartoon depicts how Americans want things to happen immediately without taking the time to actually understand how much time and effort it may require. In Brad Warner’s book he discussed “Buddhist practice is difficult and takes a lot of time, effort, and energy. But if you are ready to face reality, the real practice is there, and the real teachers are more plentiful than you can imagine.” When you are able to accept that you want to face reality, Buddhism will help guide you through the process. Although it may take an immense amount of time to work through the Buddhist practices the feeling of enlightenment will be worth it in the end. He also states that it takes years of practice and even after those years “you begin to accumulate little bits of understanding at some point these little bits and pieces begin to come together.” This cartoon definitely is a stereotype in the other direction. He is shouting with joy of how he has become enlightened quicker than his fellow Buddhists and the others have faces that look angry or envious which is definitely not a practice of Buddhism. This depicts Americans as when they achieve a certain state they tend to think they are higher than the ones who are still learning. This comic is definitely making that statement.

Shinto Blog

The segment of Kurosawa’s film that I chose to watch was titled “The Weeping Demon.” The setting started in a dark condemned world. The environment seemed to look cold as if people, humans did not reside there.  There were two men in the setting one was a human being and the other was a “demon”. They began to converse and the demon talked about how the world used to be. I felt as if the world that the demon lived in resembled something like hell where the condemned live. The demon spoke on how beautiful the world used to be and how it was surrounded by animals, flowers and other things of that sort. Now it appeared to be dark and deserted. Everything was mutated from the flowers to the animals. There is no food and the demons have to feed on each other to survive.  The demons were in pure torture and helpless. This immortality was there pain and suffering, they could not die. The demon also begins to discuss how things were this way because of the nuclear bombs which reminded me of the nuclear bombs that took place in Japan.

I related this to the Shinto scriptures because some of the scriptures told mythological stories about the history of Japan and its people and I felt like this film portrayed that in a sense of the events that happened in the bombing of Japan. Things used to be so beautiful at one point in time to only be destroyed by a nuclear bomb. Not only did they destroy the nature around them but they destroyed the lives of people. The aftermath of the bombing left people in distraught and they lost their since of humanity. I also think it related to the scriptures because they talked about the underworld and I felt that this film depicted the underworld in a sense where people suffer and even when you die you have this demon spirit within you that will forever suffer in the underworld. The main character, the demon committed an unethical sin that lead him to suffer in the underworld.

 

The Tao of Pooh

The book, The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, does a brilliant job of portraying the characters from Winnie-the-pooh to relate to the principles and beliefs of Taoism. The author used a very different and interesting approach to introduce the religion in an easy comprehensible way. I thought that the use of the Winnie-the-pooh story line helped create an atmosphere that allowed me to grasp the concepts of Taoism easily. The most intriguing positive thing that I understood from the book was the way he portrayed the characters in a way that helped me visualize the characteristics that represented the characters.  For example he used the main character “Pooh” as a loveable and likeable character that is not shaped by the society around him. His personality is so easy going and original that he is able to get along with everyone because he does not try to fit in with society. Being himself allows him to do so. My reaction to the critique of America as a culture of “Busy Backsons” was agreeable with how the author portrayed America. I believe that people in society are sometimes unwillingly to accept change and rather focus on themselves rather than the community as a whole. Some people do not want to accept new ideas and change frankly because they rather stick to what they have already been taught. Society today is very fast paced and is always changing but sometimes I feel like we get caught up within ourselves, finances, and the advances of technology and have made it difficult for us to develop new ways of thinking and have also made it difficult for many to just actually live their lives. I also found that the author of Busy Backsons portrayed America’s culture as one that tries to make time for themselves when in all actuality there is no time because we focus on our jobs and other daily things that keep us busy. According to Taoism it is almost as if they believe that things will work out naturally by themselves and not to interfere because no matter what if it is supposed to happen it will. The way he portrayed Pooh was a prime example as a carefree bear that does things effortlessly and he feels like that things happen the way they do if you just let it. Which I think can be the solution to many of the problems that we Americans share.

Source: The Tao of Pooh..by: Benjamin Hoff