MRE final project: 8 fold path

1.    Right view

For right view I decided to go for a walk along the Han river for a couple of hours to clear my mind of troubles in my head related to things such as school, friends, and family matters. During my walk I tried to think of matters around the world that I was aware of, I tried to think of myself in their shoes and the daily struggles they have to face on a daily basis. This made me realize how privileged I am living in a time and place where all basic amenities are available to me.

2. Right intention

For my right intention, I decided to plan a trip to a animal shelter outside of Seoul in asan with a friend. We planned our trip for the 20^th of June to go and volunteer our service to help animals that have been abandoned or mistreated. We will spend a whole day walking, grooming, and feeding these animals and help with getting them adopted.

3. Right speech

For right speech I made it my mission to spend two days talking to as many people as I could, only talking about positive things, not complaining about anyone or talking about people behind their backs.

4. Right action

For my right action I spend a few days in school and over the weekend helping various students and family. I helped students with work and other school related projects and such. I spent some time with my sister and dad, overall I think my dad appreciated me spending more time with him rather than my friends.

5. Right livelihood

The Buddha said that one must not work in the slaughtering and butchering of animals. Me being who I am, am not working in that field of work, but what I decided to do to discourage this action was to go a whole day without eating any kind of meat product that came from and animal that is slaughtered or butchered.

6. Right effort

For right effort I decided to help my sister and dad at home once again, I helped my father with cooking dinner for us, and I helped my sister tidy and rearrange her bedroom.

7. Right mindfulness

I sat down in my room against a wall in loose fitting comfortable clothing and sat in quiet darkness with my door locked for 20 minutes. I made sure nobody was to interrupt me during this time.

8. right concentration

For right concentration I decided to block all webistes that I usually visit in order to procrastinate, i.e. facebook, reddit, youtube. And concentrated on researching Buddhist 8 fold path and creating this project.

In the end I gained an appreciation for the Buddhist way of life, this took a lot of effort on my part to achieve all these goals, I respect those who live like this on a daily basis.

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOHH6pxYi8A watch up until 1:26

Ghandi movie quote

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”

In this quote Ghandi means that the people and their actions represent the country of India. This is demonstrated in various scenes in the Ghandi movie, when Ghandi has to constantly tell his followers to rally peacefully and to not fight back when they are abused. This is to represent India as a peaceful, and calm country who is not afraid to fight back

“Action expresses priorities.”

This means that to show that you care about something you need to get up and do something about it. This is represented throughout the movie when Ghandi fights for India’s freedom. For example, when Ghandi walks to the coast of India to harvest salt from the sea.

From this film I gained insight into what the people of India were facing from the British, I learned about the discrimination put upon coloured people in various other British colonised countries such as south Africa and such. But most of all I gained insight into how one man, standing up to a whole system that has been established for years prior can make such a difference to the world. I think Hinduism, with its different social classes can really drive a person like Ghandi to want to experience it all, such as spending some time in the lowest social status to gain appreciation for those people and I think this is what also drives him to fight for his cause.

passion week

The theme of second chances in this song is highly appropriate since The lord God forgave this “wretch” of a man. This shows what kind of God the Christian God is, it shows how forgiving he is and this gives people hope for their pasts. When Jesus died on the cross for the people, God gave him a second chance and made him resurrect from the dead.

SHEMA

­­My God does not use fear to drive people to do his bidding. My god does not ask to be worshipped instead, just appreciated in the minds of people. My God does not affect or interfere with the lives of people, he lets people make their own mistakes and suffer the consequences.

My everyday life has shaped this understanding

Something I do to show appreciation for my god is to simply think of him during daily life.

MY SHEMA

My god is modest, he does not ask for daily praise. He is present in my daily life and watches me. In my daily life I shall think of him regularly and he will be satisfied with it.

Sacred poetry

AVEBURY

Avebury is the most impressive remaining pre-historic times. While Stonehenge was dedicated to the sun and the moon, avebury seems to have been dedicated to more human themes, the strong sexual symbolisation that is evident in the placement of the triangular and columnar stones, along with the elaborate funeral celebrations show us that the life and death cycle was important in Neolithic times. Some suggestions on why this location was chosen, some reasons are that this area was already well populated; it was located on a lowland plain and in the surrounding areas, was important burial sites.

Avebury

This place we worship our gods

The gods of weather, death and disease

Where we bury our dearest loved ones

Among the triangular stones of our masterpiece

Surrounding graves of our loved ones

Remind us that death is nearby

We appease these gods to provide us

With protection we need daily

These stones that protect us

These graves that remind us

The gods that watch over us

In this masterpiece we built