Ceremonies

When doing the reading for this chapter I wanted to learn more about the ceremonial traditions. I learned about the ceremony of introducing a newborn into the shinto community. This ceremony is called Hatsumiyamairi. The baby is placed under the protection of the kami. The thirty second day after a boys birth and the thirty third day after a girl is born is when the ceremony takes place. Traditionanlly the grandmother took the child to the ceremony because the mother was seen as unclean after having a child. I also read about Shinto weddings, they are now much less popular than they used to be. They are very private weddings, just family and close friends attend the weddings. The bride wears a white Kimono to symbolize purity. These kimonos look nothing like a typical white wedding dress. There are prayers about protection from the Kami. There is a ring exchange and sake drinking.
Oshogatsu is the name of the Shinto New Year, which is one of the most important Shinto ceremonies. Theses are popular to shrine visits and it is part of a lunar calendar. The festivities last from five to six days. On new years eve temples ring there bells 108 time to remember Japans hardships.

Buddhism

The Eightfold Path describes the way to end suffering. Siddhartha (Buddha) laid out the eightfold path after learning what suffering was. It is a guideline to mental and ethical development. To free people of attachments is one of its goals. The last of the four noble truths is the eightfold path, this in turn ends suffering. It is through practice that one can reach a higher level of existence. This allows a person to finally reach nirvana. Following the eightfold path only to reach nirvana will not work because you can't have that as your only goal. The eightfold path is not a sequence of single steps, instead the principles are seen with a relationship with each other. 

Steps to the Eightfold Path:

1. Right way to understanding (of the world) –four noble truths—understand the world this way

        Early- faith, confidence in the Buddha’s teaching

        You believe it because you have experience

       2. Right thought –don’t attach to them/give up thoughts of greed or desire

·            Give up anger

·            Give up malice

·            Think not lustful thoughts

·            Cultivate loving kindness

·            Cultivate compassion

3.     Right speech

4.     Right action

5.     Right livelihood

6.     Right effort—try to eliminate unwholesome thought

7.     Right mindfulness

8.     Right concentration—meditation (like raja yoga-control of the mind)

I really enjoyed the field trip that we took the other day as a class. I enjoyed trying to meditate and watching how meditation is done. It was interesting listening to our host talk about Buddhism and the different ways to practice. Before going on the field trip i didn't know about standing after meditating and walking around the room for a period of five or ten minutes.

Siddhartha

We started by reading about Siddhartha being born already walking. He is born into a pleasure palace and lives their for the early part of his life. In class we discussed what it would be like to live in a pleasure palace. Personally I wouldn't like it because that would mean I wouldn't know anything but pleasure. When Siddhartha left the palace he started to see what real life was like. I don't think he over reacted to what he was seeing, sick people, death, elderly people. This is something he had never seen before and he wanted to try and make all of these terrible things go away. 

Karma Yoga

To me karma yoga means, work done for work sake only. Work that is done without rewards. Work that is done for Brahman. Karma yoga is done without worrying about success of failure. All actions are performed sacramentally, and be free from all attachments. To do your duty but without any kind of attachment. To do work without anxiety. Performing all your work with you heart fixed on the Supreme. To be even tempered in both failure and success. Its not that you can't have success of be wealthy, but I couldn't do work to gain wealth of success. If I did karma yoga I would try to help others.

To me jnana yoga means, the path of knowledge. 

Hinduism

The other day in class we discussed the "laws" that are to be followed if you practice the Hindu religion. I am aware that as in all religions not everyone follows these rules. Reading a list of just some of these rules I started to think, how does one even remember all of these rules? How does one live a life with so many restrictions? I guess that among all the rules that we all learn through living life, Hindus learn what rules to follow for there religion, just like I have learned the different rules of keeping kosher. As for the restrictions, if he/she believes so strongly in the Hindu religion and it is important for one to follow these set of rules I can see how even though it seems like a long list of 'do's and don't s' to me it is just part of the tradition for religious Hindus. Even though I might think these rules seem like a hassle to follow all of them, I understand that for the Hindu religion it is part of the tradition to abide by them.

This image here is of a lady in 2004 who traveled to Mumbai India for a 10 day festival held annually from late August to early September honoring the elephant headed god. The festival commences with the making of a Ganesha statue. A priest conducts rituals while followers offer flowers and food to the idol and sing and dance. The last day culminates with a procession escorting the statue to the nearest body of water, where it’s immersed and released, symbolizing a journey toward Ganesha’s abode on Mt. Kailash in Tibet.

 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/03/discovering-gan.html

Hinduism

I am posting on the reading from Huston Smith, The World's Religions. The section that struck me most was the section labeled 'what people want.' After I read this I started thinking about what I want in life. The reading read, "People want four things." They want pleasure- Kama, success- Artha, Duty- Dharma, "liberation" from Samsara- Moksha. I started thinking in my life what I want most. Everyone wants pleasure and success. Yet at the same time Moksha and Dharma seem to be less selfish. The book reads, The reason everyone eventually come to his discovery is not because pleasure is wicked but because it is too trivial to satisfy one's total nature." Sure pleasure is nice, but it doesn't compromise for everything else. When the time comes for an individuals interest to shift to the second major goal in life, which is success. Success consists of wealth, fame and power. The satisfaction of success lasts longer than that of pleasure. In the end, success also has its term. Success can become competitive and unpleasant. Fame and power can't be distributed equally among everyone in the way that mental and spiritual values can be shared. With success you never know when one day the success might be taken away from you. I would want something in my life that is more meaningful than just being successful. With Dharma- Duty, I feel like I could have that. With duty there is the opportunity to help others. Duty bring respect and gratitude from one's peers, but more important however, it is the self-respect that come from doing one's part. In life I think that all four of the goals should be met. With the four of these goals life would be more balanced and not only focused on one part of life.

Living Religions Reading

I am posting on last nights reading about mystical intermediaries because I really enjoyed reading it. To start with I had never heard specifically of a "shaman", and thought that being between the physical and non physical world for purposes such as healing is so interesting. Reading about the different ways of healing, brought theses ancient methods to my attention. It is most common for the world now, to just go to the doctor when we get an injury or get sick, but these shamans used so many different techniques to heal. I also thought that because the treatment is not only given to the body, but rather to the body, mind and spirit that the group healing that was often used is such a different way of healing, something that I had never heard of. Reading about shamans experiencing physical death and rebirth really made me think. I don't even know if this kind of healer is possible. I thought the story about Uvanuk, an Inuit shaman being struck by a lightning ball and after receiving great power was a great story, but hard for me to believe. I also really enjoyed reading the interview with Nadezhda Ananyevna Stepanova. Reading about when she started to get  very sick because she was not following her steps to become a shaman and then learning how to heal through different rituals and prayers helped me to understand how strongly the belief in the shaman is.