Wearing the Shoes of an Ancient Hindu Story Character

I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never, even though never late is better. I'd like to elaborate and blog about the subject of indecisiveness, such as the indecisiveness in the Bhagavad-Gita that Arjuna faces. Now, you think you have a dilemma when you don't know whether to choose the Cookie Dough ice cream or the Chocolate Fudge ice cream in Shoprite? Yeah, there is absolutely no comparison to Arjuna's dilemma. This guy is hesitant to fight in this important war because, well, he kind of DOESN'T want to kill his respectable family members who happen to be on the opposing side. When we learn about ideals such as dharma and read these kinds of stories in English class, it's easy to say "He needs to get over himself and fulfill his dharma and kill who he needs to kill, gosh", but if we really sit and think about what is going on in his mind, I suppose we should get kind of a stomach-churning feeling inside of us, because I think you are all asking the same question: What would I have done? Someone asked me (I don't even know how we started talking about this? Haha)  and a bunch of people if they would slap their mother for a million dollars, and trust me, you don't even want to hear the answers my poor ears had to listen to. But this connects to Arjuna and his concern for his dharma, and if killing his elders and family is really worth the outcome in the next life if and when he fulfills his dharma and when he is reincarnated. So when in class you think Arjuna is being a wuss puss for not fulfilling his dharma, stop and evaluate yourself and try to put yourself in his shoes. Peace in the middle east! ;) Enjoy my decision-making face below

Forever and Ever

While sitting in class and listening to the Indian's belief of reincarnation, I could not help but connect their belief to the death of my Great-Grandmother. The Indian's believe that as long as you fulfill your dharma, you shall be reincarnated into another body of a higher rank. How does this relate to my Grandmother? Although she is no longer here physically, I feel her presence through my younger brothers. While alive she tried her very best to give each and every one of her grandchildren all the love she could possibly give. After her passing I felt terrible because I was unable to spend as much time with her as I wish I could. I believe because of that, she shares her love through my brothers so I do not have to feel guilty. With this idea I was able to find closure for my own sake.

I am not part of the Indian culture, but it is so fascinating how two cultures can be completely different and yet share the same values. My great-grandmother is no longer physically present on earth but her spirit will live on for eternally.

Changing things

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear  "No one has the power to change the Changeless" (177).  To me it mean that no matter how strong someone thinks they are, they don't have enough power to change something that can't be changed. People fight everyday to change the world but yet things are still the same. It's hard to change something or someone that does not want to be changed. Just like in the story "The Bhagavad-Gita" when Sri Krishna tries to convince Arjuna to fight in the war by telling him it's his dhrama. Its hard to change Arjuna, because he's to worried about fighting against his cousin instead of fulling his dhrama. Or what about the struggles our president Obama goes through to change the U.S? We have to realize that we live in a world were the "people up top" are greedy for money,and don't really think about the people underneath them.

Dharma.

So we've been talking about our duties in class. Our dharma. Long ago, our dharmas were already decided for us based on your position on the caste system. Theoretically, the caste system still exists but you may rise and fall as you please. Now you may be asking 'where is she going with this?' or something along those lines. Well before I answer that question, let me ask you some of my own. What is your dharma? Will you rise above or fall under the position you’re in now? Is your dharma basically to succeed in life? Or is there more to it? I say this because after the writing prompt we had in class on Thursday, I realized I did not know what my dharma is. I thought it was to basically succeed in life and prove those who doubted me wrong. But really, is that all there is to a dharma? Honestly, I think we'll never know what our duty in life is. You might think you do but realize that later on, near the end of life, your purpose was far different than what you thought it would be. Food for your thought.

What does mercy mean to you?

(Mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.)

One of my favorite examples of how mercy should be shown was in a tale called The Fisherman and the Jinnee. The Jinnee was furious because he's been locked up in a bottle, that the fisherman found by chance, for 1800 years. Even though the Fisherman set him free from the small, cramped bottle, he was ready to kill him without any hesitation because no one else freed him over the years. The poor Fishermen begged for mercy "Spare me, mighty Jinnee, and Allah will spare you; kill me, and so shall Allah destroy you!" (130) but the Jinnee refused to show him any pity for something he did not do. So the fisherman found a clever way to trick the Jinnee, by asking him how could he fit in the bottle. The gullible Jinnee fell for it and was put back into the bottle and begged for mercy so that he would not be put back in the ocean. Now you see that's where I became dumbfounded. How could you ask someone to show you mercy when minuets prior, you refused to show you any? As Hilda said in her blog the other day, "Mercy is when forgiveness is given to someone/something that does not deserve it",and the Jinnee definitely does not deserve any form of mercy from the Fisherman. So in the end he's thrown back into the ocean to await Judgement day.


As the golden rule says: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I understand that letting go of grudges can be hard, I have a hard time with letting them go too, but we have to learn. WE CAN LEARN. Showing forgiveness/mercy may be hard at first but I'm sure we all can do it. 

So before I go, I have a question. Mercy, to me, means to give the benefit of the doubt; to forgive and or let go. What does mercy mean to you?

"Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better."

"Anything you can do i can do better. ."

This week we spoke about the Persians. We noticed how during that time women were not seen as equals to men just like how society is today. However, these views are different from how the Egyptians viewed their women. In the ancient Egyptian society, women were seen as being equal to men with equal roles. They also had the same rights as men. I found this to be extremely ironic! Think about societies before ours and then think about how society is today. 

In the old fashioned days, women were just stay at home wives, only good enough to bare children. Now we as women are able to go out and be successful and have careers. However, in our society today men and women are still not seen as equal no matter how equal our rights are. Men still have that mentality that women are too emotional and sensitive to handle certain jobs. Even the term, "you hit like a girl!" is another way of implying women are weak. Am I the only one that thinks this is "b.s"? Women can be just as strong and assertive, even more, than men. Our roles and contributes are just as important. If the ancient  Egyptians could realize this so long before our becoming, why can't our society view male and female the same? 

"I can do anything better than you!"

The Golden Rule

    This week and a little bit of last week, we were assigned to read 1001 nights. I just want to say that out of all the cultural stories we've read so far, this is by far my favorite! (: I just love the way there is a big story that's framed around a bunch of little stories. It's like putting pieces of a puzzle together, each little story is related to another part of another story. Also, just like a puzzle, when you piece everything together it reveals one big picture. 

     My favorite story within 1001 Nights was the story about the king and the physician. The physician cured the king of his leprosy and the king rewarded him with riches. The vizier was jealous and sought out to ruin the new friendship. When he approached the king, the king was angry because the vizier was speaking bad about the physician who saved him, so he told the vizier the story of the "king and the bird". Later, the vizier managed to get the king to turn against the physician  The king sentenced the physician to death. Long story short, the physician got back at the king by tricking him into turning pages in a book that gave him poison ivy. I like how from this one little story, you can learn a general life lesson. The lesson being "do on to others what you want done to you", meaning treat others as you would like to be treated. (:

 This also reminds me of this lifetime movie I watched called "girlfight". In the movie, there was this group of girls who we're mean. This outsider girl who wanted to be in their group really bad because they were popular and she was an outcast that no one liked. So, the girl (i don't remember her name so I'll just call her Sammy) made fun of her own friend so the group would notice her and make her apart of their group. So after Sammy did this, the popular girl of the group was impressed by her dissing her friend and allowed the Sammy to be apart of the group. After a while, the popular girl started to like Sammy better than all her friends. So the other friends got jealous and told the popular girl that Sammy was trying to get with her boyfriend (which was a lie they made up to sabotage the friendship between the popular girl and Sammy). So of course the popular girl got mad and the whole group decided to attack her and video tape it and post it online. Sammy tried to reason with her and explain that she didn't do those things but the girls still attacked her anyway. Long story short, Sammy ended up getting the girls arrested for online bullying. I feel like this relates to the physican and the king because the popular girl listened to her friends lies instead of believing the Sammy. And just like the king, the popular girl was punished, with the exception that she received jail time rather than being poisoned. I feel like this also goes well with the quote I posted above because if the popular girl would of showed MERCY to Sammy and not been so quick to judge based on what her friends said, she would not have had to go to jail! 

(Btw I'm sorry it's so long, I tried to summarize my thoughts as small as I could!) 

MERCY

The word mercy means "kind or forgiving treatment of someone who could be treated harshly". 

Let us ponder that for a brief moment.

Mercy is when forgiveness is given to someone/something that does not deserve it. We could treat them harshly, but because of the mercy we hold in our hearts, we choose not to. We choose to let them off of the hook. We choose to not punish our trespassers.

Forgiveness and mercy are two very hard and complicated concepts. From small children, aging seniors and everything in between, we have all held a grudge now and then. In some cases, holding a grudge can be healthy. If someone in your life is causing you constant worry and headache, it would seem rational to keep your distance and acknowledge the conflict that said person is causing in your life. I am not against holding grudges as long as there can be a time of admitting personal failures and, yes, forgiveness. If a grudge prolongs enough that it interferes with your mental, social and psychological health, that is when you may need to do some self-analyzing.

In general, showing someone mercy after they have done you wrong is hard. We all have to learn the skill, myself included. We should look to the fisherman in "The Fisherman and the Jinnee" for inspiration and guidance if we have trouble doing so. It is not easy, but I think it makes us stronger people - accepting those who wrong us.

Open To Interpretation

        In 12S, we have spent the past couple of classes discussing pastoral poetry, which, surprisingly, I enjoyed. They were so cute! All about the ups and downs of being caught up in a passionate relationship, from the happiness of being newly committed, as in The Voice of the Swallow, Flittering, Calls to Me, to the possible theme of heartbreak and betrayal in I Think I’ll Go Home and Lie Very Still. Despite references to a lifestyle much different from the present day, the poetry carried within it themes that are still very human and relatable, even after all these years. It is interesting to realize that even people, who lived thousands of years ago, in a time much different from my own, still felt and acted in ways much similar to myself and people that I know in the present day. But besides being cute and relatable, the thing I most enjoyed about reading the poetry was hearing the different interpretations that we all had. For example, the poem I Think I’ll Go Home and Lie Very Still, I interpreted to be about a person who was heartbroken, staying in bed out of sheer bitter and depressed disappointment, and his love gloating knowingly over his heartache. Kimoy, on the other hand, felt that the man was feigning illness in order to be able to see his beloved, who smiled knowingly because she knew the real reason behind his false illness was to see her, and she appreciated the gesture. Two very different interpretations, the same exact text, and both had textual support! I thoroughly enjoyed being able to think about a reading from multiple perspectives. Also, Mrs. Whitley’s genuine encouragement to make our own interpretations, even if they were contrary to each other’s and even her own, as long as we had support, made the class a lot more engaging and enjoyable.

Then vs. Now

Throughout our first month in Mrs. Whitley's english class, we have spent a majority of our time discussing ancient civilizations and the cultural values of the time. From Gilgamesh and the Mesopotamians to the Egyptians, we have continuously compared one era to another. All the talk about past societies made me realize that there are many parallels between those ancient times and the present

Another example is the pyramids which reflected the social ladder for the Egyptians. This can also be compared to our own society. For the Egyptians, the top of the pyramids represented the Pharaohs, the bottom represented the slaves and peasants, while the middle was the working class. Our current social ladder has almost the exact structure. The only difference is that instead of a Pharaoh at the top we have powerful CEO's and members of the government at the top.

We know that the past can teach us about the present and even our future. However, we rarely get to study the history of such ancient civilizations, we never get to notice how different or similar today's society is to the past. But since studying these different eras, I've been able to see some of the connections between the past and present.

Happiness or Misery ?

Like most people, I went to a catholic elementary school and I go to church every Sunday. I never thought of The Creation and The Fall as the basis of our society today. We live in a patriarchal society as Mrs.Whitley stated earlier in class. Ever wondered what would really happen if Adam and Eve never ate the red fruit? Where would we be and how would our society be like ? Well, I thought of those questions after class. I've been told that we would still be in the garden of Eden living a very happy and carefree life. But I believe that it wouldn't change so much. I mean Adam and Eve would've still found a way to bring pain and a disappointment to our lives today.

Which brings me back to the patriarchal society. I am a feminist so I am all about equality. But after Adam and Eve's sin, women had to bear children with excruciating pain and they must stay and take care of the house and children. Women are also considered inferior to men (I don't agree with it at all) as God had stated. Men has to work endlessly to provide for their family and be the head of the household. I think this is applied in today's world. Women aren't getting paid equally no matter how hard they work and Men are judged harshly if they dare go outside the box. Both males and females have it bad due to Adam and Eve's mistake.  Without Adam and Eve committing their sin we wouldn't have specific jobs for each gender and everything would be equal, unlike today.   :)

Let's Be Real

Today, in class, we spoke about what we learned from Chapters 2 and 3 of the Genesis story. Mrs. Fraiser pointed out how we acknowledged Eve's punishment for eating the red fruit; she was going to suffer and feel pain when she gave birth. However, we never acknowledged the punishment Adam received for sinning. His punishment was that he will have to work really hard to get bread for his family. If you think about it, the jobs that were created for men are not easy at all. They usually require lots of hard work and sweat. I relate this to our daily lives. We usually ponder about how much a woman goes through, from monthly periods to the pain of child bearing. However, we never think about how much a man has to suffer. Yes, woman may have it harder, but we never think that a man can suffer just as much. Giving birth to a child is not a daily task for a woman unlike a man has to work hard each and everyday to be successful and provide for his family. I believe that men should receive their recognition once in a while. Don't get me wrong girls, I know we go through a lot but I am just trying to be fair and realistic.