Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths Essay - 1769 Words

Tilopa once said, â€Å"It is not the outer objects that entangle us. It is the inner clinging that entangles us.† Over 2500 years ago, Buddha outlined the framework for Buddhist thought in which he declared that he taught suffering, its origin, cessation and path. The four noble truths contain the basis of Buddha’s ideas which he attained while meditating under a bodhi tree, which would later become a Buddhist symbol. While Buddhism is not practiced by many, its affect in the world can be seen in the utilization of the four noble truths that Buddha was enlightened with. By accepting the four noble truths, we are able to identify, heal, and be set free from a life of suffering. To begin with, the common bond humans share with each other in†¦show more content†¦The poor man surprisingly walked around peacefully, and this gave the first Buddha the idea of roaming around, abstaining from indulgences, and trying to discover a cure all to end pain and misery. (Chane y, 3.) To continue, the Buddha said in his teaching that life is dukkha, the exact translation of the word to English is unknown, but most believe it is suffering. However, even things such as happiness and success eventually become dukkha. According to Buddha, life is impermanent and is constantly changing. Buddha Gotama said to his disciples, â€Å"Impermanent, subject to change, are component things. Strive on with heedfulness† (Thera, 6). This simply means that life and anything in the world is constantly changing. For example, you could win an award for being an outstanding athlete, but the happiness that brings is only short term. Life is dukkha and the happiness it brings will quickly subside. Buddha wanted his followers to realize the impermanence of life, and the dynamic changes that happen on a daily basis. This learning experience would provide a key into understanding what suffering is, and why every human shares the same common theme of suffering. As humans, we c ontinually push ourselves to reach goals that we set for ourselves. However, the Buddha believes that this thirst for success only disappoints us because we are constantly trying to push barriers that we sometimes cannot physicallyShow MoreRelatedThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism760 Words   |  4 PagesAlyssa Hayes Professor Wayne Knight 2/27/2017 Hum 10 Tuesday Buddhism The four noble truths The Buddhists strongly believed in the four noble truths which are the foundation of Buddhism. The first noble truth, is the truth of suffering or (dukkha). The Pali word â€Å"dukkha† can be described using the term â€Å"temporary†. Things that are painful and things that are pleasurable are considered dukkha because they are temporary and do not last forever. In relation to human life, Buddhists believe that lifeRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism1533 Words   |  7 PagesCritically discuss the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, explaining the reasons or arguments given by Buddhism to support these Truths and discussing at least one objection that could be raised against the first Noble Truth and one objection that could be raised against the second Noble Truth. Buddhism see’s the Four Noble Truths as the Buddha’s way of explaining the truth of the human condition and are described as the essence of His teachings. The Four Noble Truths play an important part in understandingRead MoreBuddhism : The Four Noble Truths859 Words   |  4 Pagesspiritual practices, and traditions, Buddhism. Some of the spiritual practice of Buddhism have largely based teachings today across the world. The teachings consisted of â€Å"The Eightfold Paths,† â€Å"The Four Noble Truths† and some other breathings or meditations. The religion has taught their followers to shadow their own journey in order to assist them in their own lightning way. Some of the practice teachings include meditation and breathing exercise, and chant. Buddhism is a religion that has been aroundRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism1642 Words   |  7 PagesMy Enlightenment Ever since I was a sophomore in high school, I have always had a particular interest in Buddhism. I have embraced the similarities that I have found within myself and the Buddhism religion. A few years ago, I was in a dark state of mind after my father had passed away. During my healing process, I felt that I was awakened in which I found my determination to search for my enlightenment. I spent a few weeks searching for what I thought was my path to end my suffering. I needed toRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism1635 Words   |  7 PagesIn the history of Buddhism, suffering has always remained a key concept as it is the main reason for using Buddhist principles and practices to relieve ourselves from it. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism inform us of the following principles: suffering exists in life, there is a cause to our suffering, there is an end to our suffering, and following the eightfold path can relieve our suffering. Traditional forms of Buddhism suggest that we c an overcome suffering by attaining Nirvana, or the stateRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths of Buddhism1018 Words   |  4 PagesDiscussion 1: Desire. Please respond to the following: Explain what you think your life would be like if you did not make decisions or act on the basis of your desires. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism suggest that suffering is caused by desire, and to eliminate suffering, it is essential to eliminate desire. This concept is so simple, and yet so difficult to achieve. From the moment we wake up, desire consumes our thoughts. Desire can inspire us to achieve great things, but desire can alsoRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism1248 Words   |  5 PagesIn Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the four Noble Truths of Buddhism are revealed throughout the journey of Siddhartha. The Four Noble Truths include: Life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and the path to the cessation of suffering. Siddhartha discovers that in order to reach enlightenment, one must have experiences and struggle through these Noble Truths firsthand. The first Noble Truth â€Å"Life means suffering† is shown throughout Siddhartha’sRead MoreBuddhism: Happiness and The Four Noble Truths1442 Words   |  6 Pagespermanent. Gautama’s renunciation of an unsatisfying existence is a great model for anyone following the Buddha’s path. Gautama himself tried to find a teacher to help him find peace, however; this proved ineffective (Haught 47). Therefore, followers of Buddhism must find the way to peace themselves. No one can help them in this quest. One has to experience life on their own; following the rules of others will do nothing to bring about one’s own consciousness. For six years, Gautama joined a group of monksRead MoreThe Four Noble Truths of Buddhism Essay791 Words   |  4 PagesThe Four Noble Truths of Buddhism #65279; Dukkha is the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism. The word means suffering, but just to state suffering as the entirety of the first noble truth, is not enough because the expression of dukkha is the first truth that is needed for salvation. Moreover, dukkha is the conclusion of a logical chain of ideas that explains the life and death cycle of mankind. Before a person recognizes the truth of dukkha, he lives in a space of ignoranceRead MoreDiscussion of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism2489 Words   |  10 PagesQ2. Outline and discuss the four noble truths: is the Buddhist view of existence optimistic or pessimistic? The question of the Buddhist view of existence being optimistic or pessimistic is one which is many have an opinion on. It could be said that the four noble truths provide the views of the Buddha in the way that life is led and more importantly, should be led. Certainly, the end goal is clearly optimistic, the attainment of spiritual enlightenment, or nirvana. However, the Buddhist view

Monday, December 16, 2019

Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Two Free Essays

I climbed out onto the roof through my bedroom window and looked back at Hickory. â€Å"Hand me those binoculars,† I said. It did – and then climbed out the window with me. We will write a custom essay sample on Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Two or any similar topic only for you Order Now Since you’ve probably never seen it I’ll have you know it’s a pretty impressive sight to watch an Obin unfold itself to get through a window. Very graceful, with no real analogue to any human movement you might want to describe. The universe, it has aliens in it. And they are. (Obin: â€Å"it,† not â€Å"he† or â€Å"she.† Because they’re hermaphrodites. That means male and female sex organs. Go ahead and have your giggle. I’ll wait. Okay, done? Good.) Hickory was on the roof with me; Dickory was outside the house, more or less spotting me in case I should trip or feel suddenly despondent, and then fall or leap off the roof. This is their standard practice when I climb out my window: one with me, one on the ground. And they’re obvious about it; when I was a little kid Mom or Dad would see Dickory blow out the door and hang around just below the roof, and then yell up the stairs for me to get back into my room. Having paranoid alien pals has a downside. For the record: I’ve never fallen off the roof. Well, once. When I was ten. But there were extenuating circumstances. That doesn’t count. Anyway, I didn’t have to worry about either John or Jane telling me to get back into the house this time. They stopped doing that when I became a teenager. Besides, they were the reason I was up on the roof in the first place. â€Å"There they are,† I said, and pointed for Hickory’s benefit. Mom and Dad and my green friend were standing in the middle of our sorghum field, a few hundred meters out. I raised my binoculars and they went from being hash marks to being actual people. Green man had his back to me, but he was saying something, because both Jane and John were looking at him intently. There was a rustle at Jane’s feet, and then Babar popped up his head. Mom reached down to scratch him. â€Å"I wonder what he’s talking to them about,† I said. â€Å"They’re too far away,† Hickory said. I turned to it to make a comment along the lines of no kidding, genius. Then I saw the consciousness collar around its neck and was reminded that in addition to providing Hickory and Dickory with sentience – with their idea of who they were – their collars also gave them expanded senses, which were mostly devoted to keeping me out of trouble. I was also reminded that their consciousness collars were why they were here in the first place. My father – my biological father – created them for the Obin. I was also reminded that they were why I was here, too. Still here, I mean. Alive. But I didn’t go down that road of thought. â€Å"I thought those things were useful,† I said, pointing to the collar. Hickory lightly touched the collar. â€Å"The collars do many things,† it said. â€Å"Enabling us to hear a conversation hundreds of meters away, and in the middle of a grain field, is not one of them.† â€Å"So you’re useless,† I said. Hickory nodded its head. â€Å"As you say,† it said, in its noncommittal way. â€Å"It’s no fun mocking you,† I said. â€Å"I’m sorry,† Hickory said. And the thing of it was, Hickory really was sorry. It’s not easy being a funny, sarcastic thing when most of who you were depended on a machine you wore around your neck. Generating one’s own prosthetic identity takes more concentration than you might expect. Managing a well-balanced sense of sarcasm above and beyond that is a little much to ask for. I reached over and gave Hickory a hug. It was a funny thing. Hickory and Dickory were here for me; to know me, to learn from me, to protect me, and if need be to die for me. And here I was, feeling protective of them, and feeling a little sad for them, too. My father – my biological father – gave them consciousness, something the Obin had lacked and had been searching for, for the entire history of their species. But he didn’t make consciousness easy for them. Hickory accepted my hug and tentatively touched my head; it can be shy when I’m suddenly demonstrative. I took care not to lay it on too thick with the Obin. If I get too emotional it can mess up their consciousness. They’re sensitive to when I get overwrought. So I backed up and then looked toward my parents again with the binoculars. Now John was saying something, with one of his patented half-cocked smiles. His smile erased when our visitor started talking again. â€Å"I wonder who he is,† I said. â€Å"He is General Samuel Rybicki,† Hickory said. This got another glance back from me. â€Å"How do you know that?† I said. â€Å"It is our business to know about who visits you and your family,† Hickory said, and touched its collar again. â€Å"We queried him the moment he landed. Information about him is in our database. He is a liaison between your Civil Defense Forces and your Department of Colonization. He coordinates the protection of your new colonies.† â€Å"Huckleberry isn’t a new colony,† I said. It wasn’t; it had been colonized for fifty or sixty years by the time we arrived. More than enough time to flatten out all the scary bumps new colonies face, and for the human population to become too big for invaders to scrape off the planet. Hopefully. â€Å"What do you think he wants from my parents?† I asked. â€Å"We don’t know,† Hickory said. â€Å"He didn’t say anything to you while he was waiting for John and Jane to show up?† I said. â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"He kept to himself.† â€Å"Well, sure,† I said. â€Å"Probably because you scared the crap out of him.† â€Å"He left no feces,† Hickory said. I snorted. â€Å"I sometimes question your alleged lack of humor,† I said. â€Å"I meant he was too intimidated by you to say anything.† â€Å"We assumed that was why you had us stay with him,† Hickory said. â€Å"Well, yeah,† I said. â€Å"But if I knew he was a general, maybe I wouldn’t have given him such a hard time.† I pointed to my parents. â€Å"I don’t want them getting any grief because I thought it would be fun to mess with this guy’s head.† â€Å"I think someone of his rank would not come all this way to be deterred by you,† Hickory said. A list of snappy retorts popped in my head, begging to be used. I ignored them all. â€Å"You think he’s here on some serious mission?† I asked. â€Å"He is a general,† Hickory said. â€Å"And he is here.† I looked back through the binoculars again. General Rybicki – as I now knew him – had turned just a bit, and I could see his face a little more clearly. He was talking to Jane, but then turned a bit to say something to Dad. I lingered on Mom for a minute. Her face was locked up tight; whatever was going on, she wasn’t very happy about it. Mom turned her head a bit and suddenly she was looking directly at me, like she knew I was watching her. â€Å"How does she do that?† I said. When Jane was Special Forces, she had a body that was even more genetically modified than the ones regular soldiers got. But like Dad, when she left the service, she got put into a normal human body. She’s not superhuman anymore. She’s just scary observant. Which is close to the same thing. I didn’t get away with much of anything growing up. Her attention turned back to General Rybicki, who was addressing her again. I looked up at Hickory. â€Å"What I want to know is why they’re talking in the sorghum field,† I said. â€Å"General Rybicki asked your parents if there was someplace they could speak in private,† Hickory said. â€Å"He indicated in particular that he wanted to speak away from Dickory and me.† â€Å"Were you recording when you were with him?† I asked. Hickory and Dickory had recording devices in their collars that recorded sounds, images and emotional data. Those recordings were sent back to other Obin, so they could experience what it’s like to have quality time with me. Odd? Yes. Intrusive? Sometimes, but not usually. Unless I start thinking about it, and then I focus on the fact that, why yes, an entire alien race got to experience my puberty through the eyes of Hickory and Dickory. There’s nothing like sharing menarche with a billion hermaphrodites. I think it was everyone’s first time. â€Å"We were not recording with him,† Hickory said. â€Å"Okay, good,† I said. â€Å"I’m recording now,† Hickory said. â€Å"Oh. Well, I’m not sure you should be,† I said, waving out toward my parents. â€Å"I don’t want them getting in trouble.† â€Å"This is allowed under our treaty with your government,† Hickory said. â€Å"We’re allowed to record all you allow us to record, and to report everything that we experience. My government knew that General Rybicki had visited the moment Dickory and I sent our data query. If General Rybicki wanted his visit to remain secret, he should have met your parents elsewhere.† I chose not to dwell on the fact that significant portions of my life were subject to treaty negotiation. â€Å"I don’t think he knew you were here,† I said. â€Å"He seemed surprised when I sicced you on him.† â€Å"His ignorance of us or of the Obin treaty with the Colonial Union is not our problem,† Hickory said. â€Å"I guess not,† I said, a little out of sorts. â€Å"Would you like me to stop recording?† Hickory asked. I could hear the tremble on the edge of its voice. If I wasn’t careful about how I showed my annoyance I could send Hickory into an emotional cascade. Then it’d have what amounted to a temporary nervous breakdown right there on the roof. That’d be no good. He could fall off and snap his snaky little neck. â€Å"It’s fine,† I said, and I tried to sound more conciliatory than I really felt. â€Å"It’s too late now anyway.† Hickory visibly relaxed; I held in a sigh and gazed down at my shoes. â€Å"They’re coming back to the house,† Hickory said, and motioned toward my parents. I followed its hand; my parents and General Rybicki were indeed heading back our way. I thought about going back into the house but then I saw Mom look directly at me, again. Yup, she’d seen me earlier. The chances were pretty good she knew we had been up there all that time. Dad didn’t look up the entire walk back. He was already lost in thought. When that happened it was like the world collapsing in around him; he didn’t see anything else until he was done dealing with what he was dealing with. I suspected I wouldn’t see much of him tonight. As they cleared the sorghum field, General Rybicki stopped and shook Dad’s hand; Mom kept herself out of handshaking distance. Then he headed back toward his floater. Babar, who had followed the three of them into the field, broke off toward the general to get in one last petting. He got it after the general got to the floater, then padded back to the house. The floater opened its door to let the general in. The general stopped, looked directly at me, and waved. Before I could think what I was doing, I waved right back. â€Å"That was smart,† I said to myself. The floater, General Rybicki inside, winged off, taking him back where he came from. What do you want with us, General? I thought, and surprised myself by thinking â€Å"us.† But it only made sense. Whatever he wanted with my parents, I was part of it too. How to cite Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Two, Essay examples

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Growing Up as a Restaurant Kid Essay Example For Students

Growing Up as a Restaurant Kid Essay The automatic door bell rings as the front door opens, and customers are greeted with, Hi! How are you? How can I help you today? I welcome everyone who dines in my parents sushi restaurant with this progressively robotic phrase every day. My journey as a restaurant kid started when I moved to America to reunite with my parents after spending a decade in China with my grandma. Ever since then, my home has always been inside of the restaurant, among the countless plates that I have shattered and a pressure cooker that exploded when I was curious about what would happen if I clogged the steam vent with rice. As a boy I would play hide and seek with my little brother, lock myself inside the industrial sized walk in freezer, and sleep in the little storage place under the cash register. I felt like Christopher Columbus, exploring the restaurant with a curious mind, experimenting with foods like a scientist, and making new recipes as if I were Paula Deen. But as I grew older, my parents began to give me tasks to help relieve some of their stress. When I was entering 7th grade, my dad assigned me an important job. He, a restaurant manager, took me under his wing and prepared me as a chef to take his place. My objective was to make and serve sushi to the customers, but the journey was impossible without any proper training. During the summer, my dad directed me to observe him make sushi because this was the way how he learned and became a sushi chef 16 years ago. At first glance, I thought making sushi was a walk in the park, to my surprise, when it was my turn to make the sushi, it was a total disaster. I think you are better off working at Subway and making subs than sushi with me. My dad joked. Making sushi is like an art; it takes time and patience, which took me three years to master it. Although it took me 7 months to get a blue belt, I was still nowhere near the level that my dad was on. However, knowing how to do several simple tasks did reduce some of the work my dad was doing; in fact, he took his first day off of work since the restaurant opened. Eventually, my culinary responsibilities integrated with washing dishes, taking care of customers, and dealing with customer complaints. As I entered high school, I often times found myself trying to straddle being a restaurant kid and a regular student. Every day after school, I had to go to the restaurant and help out, while simultaneously struggling to finish my school work in the kitchen. Sometimes my physics homework would be discontinued by the angry customers impatiently waiting for their order, my study time would be cut short because of chores that my parents didnt have time to do, and whatever I was doing would be halted because of dirty dishes that needs to be washed. By committing everything towards familys restaurant, I couldnt participate in many social events or athletic teams; but I was willing to sacrifice my time for my parents because they sacrificed their lives 18 years ago by immigrating to America and starting a new life with the ultimate goal of increasing the probability of my success. Growing up in a restaurant encouraged me to work harder so I can be the first member in my family to graduate high school and enter college. The best rewards from this experience are the virtues of patience and perseverance I gained from these experiences and this reward will apply to me as a college student and beyond.