Peach Orchid

For the Shinto blog assignment I watched the film The Peach Orchard. In this film a young boy is taking a tray to his sister, it appears tat they are having some sort of a Japanese tea ceremony in honor of the dolls in the room (later it is stated that it is Doll Day). He brings the tea and notes that there are only 5 girls in the room, and there were 6 when he left. He notices that the other girl is walking down the hall way. The boy follows the girl to an old peach orchard that has been cut down. There he meets the dolls tat state that they are the spirit of the peach trees but his family has cut them down so they will now longer visit. The boy cries and states that you can always buy peaches but you can not buy the beauty of the orchard in bloom. The dolls perform a ritual dance to allow the boy to see he orchard in bloom ones more, when the trees appear the boy marvels at them and then he sees the girl again. After following her the trees disappear, then the boy notices that the spot where the girl stood is a new peach tree that is growing and blooming. Who doe this story relate to Shinto? Most forms of Shinto practice different rituals so the rituals in the story relate to Shinto rituals. Shintos hold a lot of faith in Kami (gods) and the spirits of the dolls revealing themselves to the boy is a major aspect of this story. The greatest sins in the Shinto tradition is to destroy a shrine, and based upon what the dolls said to the boys, the peaches were a somewhat shrine to the dolls, they were sacred. The boy cried when he realized that they were destroyed with the knowledge of sin. It was also important for the boy to not cry because of selfishness and to be crying because of the beauty 

Tao of Pooh

I loved the Tao of Pooh! I’m currently taking VCU’s Taoism class with Brian Deane, who used to use this book for his class but stopped using it for some reason and I’ve really wanted to read it so I’m glad I found an excuse to fit it in wit all my school readings. After learning most of what was presented in this book earlier this semester I really enjoyed looking at it through another lens. When the book refers to the American Culture as the Busy Backson, I believe that this is a perfect interpretation of western culture. As the Taoist believe in Wu Wei they do view Americans as going against the way of nature by keeping their minds constantly preoccupied with constant tasks, this is concept is also presented in The Writings of Chuang Tzu in Book One, Section Three called “Nourishing the Lord of Life” This view is correct, as if the westerners were to go with the way of nature and become one with the Tao they would be happier with life. Taoism does appear to be the solution to the problem of American life. Americans spend way to much time worrying, ad a very small amount of them actually appear to be happy as we are programmed to be obsessed with work and money. Taoists don’t worry about these things. While Americans fight with nature, trying to control where they go, their lives and how everything works, Taoist work with nature, they go with the flow of things. If something in a pan for the day goes wrong, to Americans the day is ruined but to the Taoist the day is still awesome because obviously it wasn’t meant to happen that day. If more Americans adopt the Taoist point of  view and way of approaching life they would be happier with their lives and wouldn’t consume their lives with work, which when you die is pointless. Americans could be so much happier with their lives if they were to sit back and allow things to happen naturally instead of trying to control everything and everyone around them.

Buddhism Stereotypes

For my blog on Buddhist stereotypes I decided to search for cartoons or comics relating to Buddhism. I decided to go search for comics because I feel that comics, particularly those in the newspaper every day, are an engrained tradition in American culture. Growing up I can remember my parents and grandparents reading the comics every morning after finishing the paper, and this is a tradition that my sister and I have carried on.

                I found two comics that I feel are related and represent  American  stereotypes toward the Buddhist community, but before I share these comic I wanted to share an image that I saw on The Daily What’s website last year. This image became an internet sensation after it showed the google auto fill’s responses when typing in “Why are (Jews, Christians, Muslims or Buddhists)”. These responses show some of the stereotypes that are associated with these religions. I thought it was interesting to take note that the only one that applied to Buddhists was the stereotype that they are always happy.

http://thedailywh.at/?s=buddhists

Now for my comics, The first comic shows some Monks having a contest to reach enlightenment first, and the second comic shows a couple watching “The Amazing Race to Enlightenment”

 http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/this-cartoon-is-into-nirvana/

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhimgHhryw6FN6jc3qcu5DmuwFyarw_HFU7w0JSkk5uS1TcyXKzDRE8wJl7PlWY2V2zS_2IKZV-IeAFV8kRLpLY8FJVnMTBPvOnmK6BGsmKILFQ7rhhY-kmmjE-7g6GG4nDxywBTiM24Q/s1600-h/Cartoon+Amazing+Race+to+Enlightenment.jpg

I felt that these comics represent the stereotypes that achieving enlightenment, and that Buddhism itself, was a fast, easy process that is a joking matter. These comics do not represent a positive stereotype at all. In chapter five of Brad Warner’s book Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, Warner discusses the Westernized Buddhism. Warner notes that the some of the western Buddhists that popped in the United States seemed “Unrelated to anything I had devoted myself to studying and practicing for two decades.”(Page 26). Warner stated that “it seemed like the media were chasing after tawdry fantasies promoted by charlatans in pretty robes…”(Page 26). Warner also states that that one of the worst ideas in western Buddhist practices was “the idea that there are ways to speed a person to enlightenment.”(Page 27). The stereotype westerners have developed that Buddhism enlightenment is something that is easy to achieve and that is something that takes no time at all is not only an incorrect concept but it could also be a dangerous one. On page 30-31 Warner discusses a story he heard of a woman that had a mental breakdown after being pushed by a Zen temple that advertized having the fast way to enlightenment. After discussing this event Warner states “God knows what kind of things some of the victims of those instant-enlightenment seminars are going through now.”(Page 31). While the concept that Buddhist enlightenment takes little to no time at all to complete might be seen as a good stereotype Warner shows that it isn’t because it puts false hopes into the religion and causes people to see the religion as something that shouldn’t be taken seriously. Warner also notes that the more these western ideas about the easiness of Buddhism become popular knowledge the more you have people trying to make a quick buck off the religion. This concept of easiness that is applied to Buddhism is a negative stereotype as it allows the religion to lose some of its seriousness among some westerners and others. 

Hinduism Wealth/Success and Liberation

While researching the aims of Hinduism Wealth/Success and Liberation I found that both aims seemed prevalent. Unlike the last assignment, where I had to go onto youtube to find some songs for Community Service, I was able to find examples of both Wealth/Success and Liberation on my iPod. I think there are some good reasons as to why it isn’t hard to find examples of both and I will start with Wealth/Success. Of course Wealth/Success was an easy find, possibly easier to find the Pleasure because by living in America we live in a Capitalist society that is obsessed with money (Interestingly enough most of my songs are written by people from the United Kingdom, so I suppose they are just as obsessed?). It isn’t difficult to find songs that have to do with Wealth/Success because that is something that most people aim for in life. As far as Liberation goes, I didn’t find it too difficult to find songs that have to do with that. I feel that it is somewhat easy to find examples of Liberation as it is something that a lot of Americans are seeking, whether they realize it or not. Liberation can mean several different things to different people, be it Liberation from social constraints, from oppression, from mental  confines, from a situation. The concept of Liberation is something that has be very prevalent in our society over the last 100 years with the Women's Rights movement and the Equal Rights movement. Liberation is something that our society has been singing and writing about for quite sometime, however this type of liberation isn’t exactly what the Hindu meant when they discussed the aim of Liberation, and finding songs that have to deal with the Liberation of the soul from Samarsa is something much harder to find. The Hindu Aim of Liberation is very different the the idea of Liberation that popular music mostly focuses on. 

Song Choices:

The music I used for Wealth/Success requires some explanation as some of the songs are a bit cryptic. Peter Gabriels‘ “Big Time” and “The Barry Williams Show” don’t really require much explanation, “Big Time” is about a man from a small town gaining wealth and  success and “The Barry Williams Show” is a song about a talk show hosts fame and success. The Sex Pistols “EMI” might require explanation for those who have never heard it, Its a song about the manufactured music group used to gain wealth by a record company. Elvis Costellos’ “National Ransom” and “Dr. Watson, I Presume” does require some explanation. “National Ransom” is a song of Costellos new album that talks about people working hard everyday to pay off the debt and gain their own wealth and success. “Dr. Watson, I Presume” is an extremely cryptic song and the only reason I used it for this assingment is because I have heard Costello explain this song. “Dr. Watson, I Presume” is a song written about a conversation Costello had with Doc Watson, a successful musician, about how to gain success and it focuses on the advise that Doc Watson gave Costello.

The Music I used for liberation might require some explanation as well:

Peter Gabriels cover of Arcade Fires “My Body is a Cage” is a pretty self explanitory song about a man who wishes to have Liberation from his body so he can be free to be with the one he loves. Elvis Costellos “Hidden Shame” is a song about a man trying to tell his love about all the bad things he has done in his life so he can be free from the pain his shame is bringing him. Joseph Arthurs “You Are Free” is another song about personal Liberation and about being able to break free from your former self. XTC “Ball and Chain” is a fun song about breaking free from constraints. Finally Neutral Milk Hotels “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” is an amazing song about being free of this world. 

Hinduism Wealth/Success and Liberation Songs

Songs that go with Wealth/ Success:

Peter Gabriel, "Big Time", Art Rock, 1986
Sex Pistols, "EMI", Punk Rock, 1977
Peter Gabriel, "The Barry Williams Show", Art Rock, 2002
Elvis Costello, "National Ransom", Americana, 2010
Elvis Costello, "Dr. Watson, I Presume", Americana, 2010


Songs that go with Liberation:

Peter Gabriel, "My Body Is A Cage", Symphonic Rock, 2010 (Originally by Arcade Fire) (I know this video sucks, but the song is amazing)
Elvis Costello, "Hidden Shame", Americana, 2009
Joeseph Arthur, "You Are Free", Alternative Rock, 2006
XTC, "Ball and Chain", New Wave, 1982
Neutral Milk Hotel, "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" Indie Rock, 1998

Hinduism Pleasure and Community Service

Out of the two aims in this blog post, I believe that the most prevalent one is the Hindu aim of Pleasure. Finding songs that had to do with pleasure was a lot easier the finding songs about community service for me. I believe that pleasure is most prevalent and the easiest to find examples of because in our society pleasure, and pleasing ones self has become the ultimate goal in our lives. While completing this assignment I was surprised to find that there weren’t that many songs about community service or helping others. I believe that this surprised me because in almost every case of a natural disaster or famous cases of injustice in our society you hear about celebrities and musicians speaking out about these issues and talking about helping with the problems and how we need to help each other. One would assume that with these musicians speaking so passionately about helping others you would find more songs about the subject. I suppose that they have realized that songs about helping people aren’t nearly as profitable as songs about pleasure? I think that the relationships between the Hindu aims and American culture are interesting when you compare the goals of our society. As we learned in class Hinduism has the aims of pleasure, wealth, community service and liberation in order of how ones life, hopefully, would go. In Hinduism it is known that a community service is something that one should strive for to get to liberation, where as in American culture we seek wealth and pleasure as our ultimate goals, and if we do community service then thats great for us. American music reflects our societies need for pleasure and wealth. There are those musicians that write about helping others or give proceeds to organizations that help people, and they should be applauded and looked up to in our society. I hope that more people in our society will see that community service is important as at some point in most of our lives we all could use a helping hand.  

Song Choices: 

The music that I posted for pleasure reflects several different  aspects of pleasure. The Talking Heads(one of my all time favorite bands) “This Must Be The Place” Is a beautiful love song, as is David Bowies “Rock N Roll With Me”. The Talking Heads “Electricity (Drugs)” is a great songs about taking pleasure in doing drugs. XTC’s “When You’re Near Me” is an up-beat song about a man who is so in love with a girl that he shuts down, and he loves it! Finally Peter Gabriel’s “Mirrorball” is an absolutely beautiful orchestral cover of an Elbow song about being in love. 

The music I have posted for community service covers various aspects of community service. John Legend and The Roots’ “Wake up Everybody is an awesome new song about how everyone need to wake up out of their self-absorbed life to help those that need it. Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costellos “Yes we Can Can” is a similar song about how we can make a difference and help people. Elvis Costellos “Whats so Funny About Peace Love and Understanding” is an iconic song about a man who views that world as it is and asks himself why others aren’t at peace and helping one another. Stevie Wonders “A Time to Love” is a song that asks people to realize that theres enough time to be terrible to one another but right now we need to help each other. And lastly Patti Smiths “People Have The Power” is a song proclaiming that society has the power and strength to help one another and change our ways. 

Hinduism Pleasure and Community Service song links

Songs that relate to the Hindu Aim of Pleasure:

Talking Heads, "This Must Be The Place(Naive Melody)", New Wave,1982.
David Bowie, "Rock N Roll With Me", Rock, 1974
Talking Heads, "Electricity (Drugs), New Wave, 1979 (The first song is drugs, the second song starts at 5:20)
XTC, "When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty", New Wave, 1979
Peter Gabriel, "Mirrorball", Symphonic Rock, 2010 (Originally by Elbow)

Songs that relate to the Hindu Aim of Community Service:

John Legend and The Roots, "Wake up Everybody", Soul, 2010

Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello, "Yes We Can Can" Soul, Originally written in 1973

Elvis Costello, "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding", Rock, 1974.
Steve Wonder, "A Time To Love" Soul, 2005
Patti Smith, "People have the Power", Rock, 1988