Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."

When any human being thinks about being good, they think of many things. It is virtually impossible for any human to keep all of these "holy" attributes in check all of the time. We tend to focus on just one, like with a New Year's resolution, for example. The most mind boggling thing about Jesus in my opinion is how he has all of those perfect personality traits, and keeping all of them at the utmost level of holiness doesn't even faze him. In the carol "Silent Night", the first verse says that the night is silent, but also that "all is calm" and "all is bright". Babies are meant to cry. Birthing a baby is no quiet endeavor, either. But the fact that this night of the Savior's birth is so chill and so quiet says something about the infant in question. Maybe it doesn't occur to him to whine and want and pine after things. Or perhaps he simply understands that crying is futile and the mother will take care of him. In the end of this verse, it says that the baby will "sleep in heavenly peace", showing that this baby isn't miraculous on his own. A much bigger thing is cradling the baby. A thing that would send an incarnate version of himself as a child, to show that he is there for the long run, and will endure life as any other human might (if not worse). A thing that makes any day worth celebrating. God.

Temple Visit to Wat Chalong in Phuket

Article Comparison

http://pawst.com/post/578679-girl-10-says-husband-raped-abused-her

(U.S. Source)

However, there was not a single link even mentioning the name of Nujood Ali, and nothing on the topic of early marriage. This not only shows the attempt of the government to cover up these cases of child abuse through early marriage, but also demonstrates the heavy influence of the Islamic faith on the Yemeni government. The Muslims accept early child marriage, and hence the government covers it up, despite increasing pressure by Western influences to deal with such abominations.

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7: "Think of an event in your life- past, present or future. You are going to create a commemorative ritual for this event. First, describe the ..."

My 5 day event will commemorate all of the places I've lived up until now. This is important because traveling the world has been a key part of my existence and identity. The first four days will commemorate each of the locations I've lived in chronological order (Swaziland, Japan, South Africa, South Korea), with the fifth day commemorating my homeland of America.
The commemorative lines should be read every day before the festivites begin:
"From hemisphere to hemisphere,
From coast to coast.
From traveling the world, we experience the most."

The festivities include music from that region, dancing, and food from the local restaraunts.

Greek Mythology & Morality: Athena's Gift

Athena's Gift

Back when the gods on Mount Olympus were rolling dice to decide which god would get to be honored with which city, one particular city with much promise was being argued over by two gods: Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Poseidon, god of the sea. Zeus proposed a contest, whoever presented the best gift to the city would win. Poseidon conjured up a magnificent warhorse, whereas Athena brought forth an olive tree. The gods agreed that Athena's gift was thoughtful and would not bring anguish upon the people like a warhorse might. Therefore, the city was called Athens.

Explanation

The moral of this story is one that exhibits not only what a person should do, but what attributes are considered favorable in this Greek society. Poseidon's gift represents how war can often be alluring (like the magnificent warhorse), but in the end only brings pain and suffering to the people on both sides. Athena's gift may not be as flashy or active, but this olive tree represents the opposite of Poseidon's: the finer things in life, peace and prosperity, the arts and sciences, etc. By Athena winning the contest, this shows how the gods feel about these different views, and the path that they think humans should follow. This story also explains why the famed city of Athens came to be called so.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk: "After visiting the Zen Buddhist Temple, Bongwonsa and attempting to see nature as a Taoist, answer this question: What is it about creation,..."

As I walked through the trees, Carlee made a comment to me about how Seoul was often like this: beautiful trees everywhere, and then just beyond, skyscrapers and highways and taxicabs. I'm not used to city life, but a good chunk of people are and have lived in cities their entire lives. I started thinking about the city, and how the buildings are built and designed for functionality and sometimes aesthetics. These buildings and structures that take sometimes DECADES to plan and then more years and months to build, and either get torn down or fall apart in sometimes half the time. But then how can a tree know how to grow, to be beautiful and functional, and last ten times longer than it took to reach its full height?
I think that this question and ones similar to it make people turn to religion. The constant wonder of how nature is so effortless, and humans have to put forth such effort to even attain a likeness to what the forces beyond our control have created. In Shintoism, they explain it through kami, the forces within everything in nature. InTaoism, they explain it through the Tao, the "life essence" that flows and conducts life on earth. Eastern religions have an intense focus on creation and life, which I experienced on this walk, and was led to many of the questions I'm sure people on quests of spiritual discovery have been on before me.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #4: Buddhist Meditation: "Spend 20 mintues in a silent meditation; a place you won't be disturbed, your own 'fig tree' as was Buddha's inspiration. In those 20 mintue..."

Meditation is difficult for me for many reasons:
1. I get sleepy very easily
2. My mind wanders like crazy
3. I only remember 4 of the 8 folds in the Path

Throughout the ages, particularly in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism and others, meditation is regarded as a very important practice, essential to heightening a person's religious experience. Meditation is the pathway to nirvana in Buddhism, and is one of many aids used in Hinduism to achieve either nirvana or a higher reincarnation.

In my personal meditation experience, i started out by breathing, which made me very drowsy. Then i moved on to clearing my mind of all extraneous though processes. This was unsuccessful, because my mind is insanely scattered. Finally i tried to reflect on the eightfold path: Right thought, right concentration, right conduct, right mindfulness, Right.... I blanked out. I went over the meanings of the four i could remember.

I feel like this meditation exercise may have worked better when I didn't have a play coming up in a week, and there were not a thousand things related to that stressing me out. I feel like my thoughts were pure of heart and not sinful, but were just scattered and unrelated to the tenets of the Buddhist faith. I think that meditation would be easier for me during the summer, or maybe Christmas vacation, when i'm just lolling around the house with not too many thoughts on my mind.If there was less to clear out of my mind, it would be easier to empty, right?