Aphorisms

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.-Buddha

When I read this quote I laughed a little bit in my head, because it reminded me of a truth that didn’t stay long hidden from my mother.  One day I was very angry at my brother and so I threw him my cell-phone, but he dodged it and the cellphone hit the wall and the screen broke. I lied to my mother and told her that I accidentally sat on it, but 4 months later I was in my car with my mom and a friend, and the friend was telling how the screen of his cellphone had broken, and I wanted to tell my story of how my screen broke, so I told it without realizing my mom was in the car, and she looked at me then laughed.

Eurycide and Orpheus

Who are Hades, Fates, Tantalus and Sisyphus? All are gods that leave in the underworld and take chargeof the dead.

 How can Orpheus get Eurydice back? If he doesn’t turn around to see if she is following as they get to daylight

 List the ways we are invited to interpret the story.

One way is from Eurydice point of view: she doesn’t understand what is happening, forgets who Orpheus is. Because death has fulfilled her

The other is the point of view is Orpheus: he is insecure if she is behind so he turns around and then she goes away.

 Which interpretation do you most agree with? I agree with Eurydice interpretation because eventually everyone will die and when they die the suffering will end.

Is this a love story?  Why?  Why not? If so, what kind of love does this seem to be?

This is a love story because it is a man that tries to get his wife after he lost her. But it is also a drama because the man was so impatient to get her that he lost her.

Metamorphoses Script

Why does Erysichthon cut down the tree?

Because he needed the wood, and didn’t believe that anything was sacred.

Define piety. 

Piety is being merciful, or a religious devotion.

How does this term relate to Erysichthon?

Well we could say that Erysichton isn´t piety because he doesn’t do sacrifices or believe in anything holy.
What connections can be made between this scene and this children's story?

What I believe to be the main connection is that the boy and Erysichthon only looked for the usefulness of things and not for the meaning or the love. Like Erisichthon sold his mother, and the boy cut down the tree.
Relate the events in this scene to a specific passage in Siddhartha.

Pg.63 “The world had caught him; pleasure, covetousness, idleness, and finally also that vice that he had always despised and scorned as the most foolish-acquisitiveness” Siddhartha was similar to Erisichton because both wanted resources and acquisitiveness. Both ended on the wrong path.

Siddhartha reading blog#4

This section was the last part of the book. This was the hardest part of all to connect I could only relate it to 2 things one was Avatar the legend of Aang a show I watched as a kid and with the series A Song of Ice and Fire by: George R Martin. In this section Siddhartha's teacher the ferryman decides to take Siddhartha to the river after his son escapes so that he can hear all the voices of the river. Siddhartha loses the notion of time and learns to be happy. Then the ferryman goes and Govinda hears of a wise man in ferry so he goes to visit. When he gets there he doesn't recognize Siddhartha. Then he gives a kiss on the forehead to Siddhartha and gets all his knowledge. Then Govinda gets all the knowledge form Siddhartha.

The reason for which I connected the Legend of Aang to Siddhartha is because I remember that in one episode Aang didn’t want to kill the fire lord that he was the antagonist. Then a giant turtle appears and he meditates on top of it, and after a while the giant turtle touched his forehead and thought him how to take the fire lord's powers. This is just like when Siddhartha makes Govinda kiss his forehead just by touching they pass a lot of knowledge.

The connection with A Song of Ice and Fire is in the fourth book when Sansa Stark is on the run because she was falsely accused for killing the king. She was hidden in her aunt’s castle pretending to be a bastard and not from the royal family. Some lords needed council with her aunt so they came to visit, those lords knew who Sansa Stark was but when they saw it in the castle they couldn’t recognize her. This is just like when Govinda goes to the ferryman, but doesn´t recognize him as Siddhartha.

The last section of the book was good but very confusing, I liked it because I could connect to things I like, one was the touch of knowledge and the other is you won’t find it if you don’t look for it.

Siddhartha Reading Blog #3

In this section of the book there is a lot of reference to the water, and how from the simplicity of it you can learn a lot of things. For this reason is that I am going to connect this part of the book to Tao Te Ching. In the previous quarter in English class we learned about the teachings of the Tao, and it was very interesting it had a lot of paradoxes and it had a lot of teachings of nature. Many of the teachings from the Tao talk about streams about their simplicity and many of the meaning it has. Like that it flows freely without forcing itself.

In Siddhartha it talks how the river is at the beginning and at the end at the same time. There are also a lot of paradoxes in this chapter like when Siddhartha lost everything (kamala) he gained everything (his son).

I think this section has been the most interesting so far because there are a lot of connections to other pieces of literature or other books, but in my opinion the best of all was Siddhartha fail at suicidal in the river. What I find so interesting is that water represents rebirth or simply birth. Because in real life a baby is born after the water brakes, and in Catholicism when water is poured on your head you are being baptize and your sins are being forgiven or simply you are being reborn. In a book I read that is called A Game of Thrones in which there is a religion that they drown you and then do CPR on you to revive you. It is the same with Siddhartha when he goes to the river he wanted to suicide but then he saw the beauty of the world, and as he said he was a child in an old man’s body.

There are patterns in many pieces of literature, between an important and an important or just with a common one. Here we can see between Siddhartha, The Tao, The Bible and A Game of Thrones. 

Siddhartha Reading Blog #2

I am going to make a connection from this section of the book to the children's animated movie Aladin. In this section Siddartha goes to a prostitute named Kamala, and she says to him that if he wanted to be her lover he had to have fine clothes, shoes, and money. So he starts working with a merchant named Kamaswami to gain all those things. When he gains these he goes to the prostitute and learns the art of love from her. She then says to him that he is the best lover that she has ever had.

Aladdin is the story of Hindu beggar that used to rob on the streets for food, and one day he sees Jasmin the Sultans daughter. But he knew that she was only allowed to marry a prince or someone rich so when he falls in a pit with a genie he wishes to be a prince. Then he makes Jasmin fall in love with him.

But the connection to Aladdin and Siddharha is that both see a beautiful woman, then they fall in love and try to do anything to get them. Like Aladdin that was a poor beggar that falls in love with the princess. Then one day when he finds a genie lamp he wishes to become a prince and be wealthy just to make Jasmin (the princess) fall in love, and Siddhartha goes to a merchant and becomes one of the richest men in town and after giving gifts to Kamala he becomes her lover.

But even though in both the man did everything he could to gain the woman there is a big difference in this love story.This difference is that In Aladdin he falls in love with Jasmin, but in Siddhartha he doesn't fall in love he just wanted to learn the art of love.

Sidartha Reading Blog #1

In this blog I will connect Siddartha's restlessness for knowledge with a series I watched as a kid it is called Avatar. Siddhartha at the beginning is described as a great man who has achieved high levels of spirituality. The book also mentions Govinda at the beginning, Govinda is Siddhartha's best friend and he swore to himself that he would follow Siddartha in the path of enlightenment. Siddhartha lived in his father's house with the Brahmins. Everyone was happy and proud of him, except himself. He decides to go and join the Sammanas his father doesn’t allow him. He then remains still all night until his father allows him. He joins the Samanas and his friend Govinda follows him. With the Samanas he doesn’t learn what he wanted so he decides to also leave and the elder Samana doesn’t allow him so he hypnotizes him. Then he goes in search of Gotama or the Buddha from that time to hear his teachings. He doesn’t like his teachings so he decides to learn by himself, but Govinda did like his teachings so he committed himself to the Buddha.

My intention in the first paragraph wasn't to summarize the first section but to show Siddhartha's restlessness for knowledge even if it meant abandoning his best friend. As I already said I Connect this part of the book with a TV series Avatar. The series was about a kid who represented a monk that could control the four elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Air). He was the only one in the world who could do it, so he had a great responsibility. But the reason I connect Siddhartha with this series is that the kid always wanted to be better at mastering the elements and always looked for someone that could train him better than he was, for example: when after learning the basics of water bending he goes to Katara the best water bender in the world to be trained. After Katara she goes to Toph an earth bender to learn from her. After Toph she goes to Zuko a fire bender.

In the end just like Siddhartha he discovers that the best way to learn is by himself, so he starts meditating. Siddhartha is basically doing the same seeking for illumination he goes always one step higher until he discovers that the best way to learn is by himself.

Amazon Prdouct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4yJsqae7hM

The tao of

The Tao of phineas and ferb
THe Tao of  Kung fu panda
The Tao of Monsters Inc.

paradoxes

In English class we are viewing the Tao and its paradoxes. A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself within the statement. During class the teacher showed us multiple examples of visual paradoxes, and for homework he gave us the job to look for our own images. A visual paradox is like the one on top it is an image that shows something impossible or irrealist. Usually it is an optical illusion. The 3 images below are great examples of visual paradoxes: the peel of the heads, the stair in the middle of a path, and the cube.

This image I liked it a lot because it was a paradox in multiple ways. As I see the images it is a peeled head. The first paradox is that it is impossible to peel a head. The second paradox is that the peel doesn't have a beginning or an end; it keeps going around and around. Also it is the head of a man on one side and of a woman on the other so it is impossible. Also the peel is crossed on the forehead of both heads, which is impossible, unless it is a Mobius band.

This 3d animated image is a very funny paradox it has multiple of them. First the path by which this guy is walking is leveled it is parallel to the ground. But suddenly there is a stair that doesn’t lead anywhere but to the beginning of the path, physically this is impossible. I find it clever of the author to place the canal around this so that you can know that the path is really parallel to the floor.

This image is one of the most famous visual paradoxes. It is a cube made only by its edges. But the trick here is that one of the edges is overlapping another. As you can see in the image it is physically impossible. Even though it is a 3d drawing it is physically impossible.

The 3 images on top are great examples of visual paradoxes: the peel of the heads, the stair in the middle of a path, and the cube.

reading blog confucian analects

In English class we had to read Confucius analects. From the Analect we chose we had to write a reading blog about it and give our opinion, for this excercise I will relate an Analect to an image. I chose analect 5.12 that the main idea said: "What I do not wish men to do to me; I also wish not to do to men." What this analect is talking about is about morals. Confucius analects embrace Goodness, gentleman and superior scholar, rites and rituals, government and learning. The analects are words left by Confucius and his disciples.
First of all this analect is the basis of the golden rule. The golden rule states: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself." I have heard this rule my whole life due that CNG embraces it. I decided to do a visual image reading blog, because the image was very clear in my head. I imagined people who you would expect to hate each other being together in harmony and coexistence because they would treat everyone around them well. So I looked in Google for an image and i found this one. This image I believe is very artistic in the way it represents co-existence because there are two guys from different races holding hands one black and the other white. But the thing that is special is that it isn’t showing favor to one side by putting co-existence twice so that in the point of view of both they can read co-existence.
This image is from the artist Lemel Yossi it was first presented in a mexican gallery. The analects have had a daily influence on china I they were written back in 475 B.C with Confucius to make a better society and world. His teachings did not have such an important influence in society during his lifetime, but after his death his teachings strengthened Chinese society.