Jesus' Birth

The christmas carol I chose is "What child is this". 

In all stories (Bible, movie, and carol), Jesus is described as the son of God and/or a human form of God. He is also described as the Messiah, because he was the people's savior, sent by God. The day on which Jesus entered this human world is the day which we celebrate on Christmas. 

In the verse:

"This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary."

The part of Jesus' birth which is most emphasized is its impact upon others; the way the shepherds guard him and angles sing to him. It expresses his importance to ordinary people (like shepherds) who saw him as their king, due to their belief. Even more than for the shepherds, however, was it important for Mary and Joseph to believe God, as he sent Gabriel to tell them they would be expecting His son. After all, it mustn't be easy to be told that as a virgin one will be to carry a child, and at once the one of God. The Persian Astrologers too showed immense belief and trust in God, as they walked the long way, in oder to follow the king-promissing star.

Jesus' rather unspectacular entrance to our world leaves many questions. Why would he chose such a way to join his people. Well, considering that one of Jesus' major achievements was to show to human kind that He is greater than death. And that so are we, when we believe. He demonstrated this by arising from the dead. To show us that we too can do this, it was important for Jesus to be human and to have lived a human life, just like we all do.

Two Perspectives

(http://ajc.af/english/news-archive/1-politics/167-the-herat-held-a-demonstration-in-protest-of-burning-holy-koran-last-night)The Afghani article is about a demonstration which the Muslims there were having against the burning of the Koran (which had been planned by a pastor in Florida) as a commemoration of the incident of September 11. Their signs and screams protest for the right of Islam and the decision to build a mosque close to the original location of the twin towers. The article admits that the pastor who had planned the burning of the Holy Koran had changed his mind and was not planning on going through with this, however the Muslims in Afghanistan felt the thought was disturbing enough and that a protest had to be made.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/world/10react.html)

The New York Times article talks about the protests which have been made in Afghanistan and does not fail to mention the pastor's canceling of the project. It then talks about Obama's comment on the issue, saying that the burning of the Koran is of course anything but right and that it would provoke anger towards the United States of America. At last, it compares recent relationships between the US and the Islamic world and how these have been suffering from the Afghan and Iraqi war and provocations such as the burning of the Koran. 

The difference between the two articles is not so great since there are not many facts which could possibly be argued upon. However, it is obvious that the Afghan article repeatedly talks about the protesting of the people and how right they are with what they are saying. The American article instead makes sure to mention Obama and his wise perspective on this and also repeatedly talks about how the Islamic people are protesting even though the project had been cancelled (implying that there was really no need for protest whatsoever and that the Afghan folk is exaggerating the issue). It is clear that the Islam plays the major role in this story and it is perfectly understandable that Muslims felt directly offended and attacked by the intention of burning their Holy Scripture. It showed disrespect and naivety  from the people involved in the planning of this action.

Commemoration

My great-grandmother died on July 20th 2009, ten days before her 99th birthday. We were on summer vacation visiting her (like every other year) when one morning we heard the news. She has always been a role model to me, mostly due to the amazing things she did for us, even at such an age. She went through so many tough years but still lived a great life, and I am sure that it was her will to go. Having seen us a last time, she must have felt so accomplished and ready to leave forever. She deserved to life the long life she was given, and never gave up on anything.
So, my event is her death - simply because it represents the accomplishment of a long, successful lifetime.
"Till the end!" is the phrase to represent the struggle through which we go, until we finally feel accomplished. It also conveys never to give up and to do things fully.
I remember going for a long  run, that day, in the noon sun, between the tobacco and corn fields and found determination in the cloudless sky. So, as a commemorative event, i go for such a run, on her day of death, where ever i may be on vacation, and all my thoughts lead straight to her and to what she means to me.

Daedalus and Icarus Play

(Icarus and Daedalus building their wings. (In our play, my character was Daedalus, the father of Icarus))

One day Daedalus, a famous inventor who had also designed the great labyrinth of Crete, upset the King who then asked for Daedalus and his son Icarus to be locked up in the highest tower. Daedalus, inspired by birds, asked his son to help him construct wings using wax, feathers and thread. Daedalus warned Icarus to maintain a moderate hight for flying too low would allow the vapors and fogs to weigh his wings down, and flying too high would cause the sun to melt his wings. However, Icarus ignored his father's advice, and was so thrilled by flying, that he rose closer and closer to the sun, until the wax in his wings melted and caused his death. Daedalus made it home, but chose to never fly again.

It is hard to say which mystery of life this myth answers but, as our group agreed, it may be an explanation to the fact that we cannot fly on our own, the way birds can. Because Daedalus hung up his wings and chose to never use them again, and so flying was not practiced for another many hundreds of years, until Otto Lilienthal was the first person officially recognized for flying.

This story certainly teaches one to listen to and follow the advice given by wiser elders. It also coneys the idea of the 'noble middle path', in this case, not flying too high nor too low, but instead to find the ideal middle. And it is often the case that young, unexperienced people will make mistakes instead of listening to the wise words of their fathers and advisors. 

Buddhist Temple Visit

Every religion offers answers to some of the unanswerable questions. Religion resolves mysteries and explain the unknown. Some religions do this more than others. In Buddhism, however, the big question 'Where do we come from, what gave life to us' remains unanswered, since they have no God, or creator to whom this credit is given. However, Buddhists believe that religion is the reason and purpose of living, and that therefore, life should revolve around it. Buddhists spend their lifetime trying to find themselves, to be enlightened. I personally ask myself what they wish to be enlightened for, since by the time they achieve this, life is over. To Buddhists, however, life is not the important part of their journey. The achieving of and arriving in Nirvana is what one is to seek and be enlightened for.

Nature obviously plays its part in life. And and our more industrialized, technological times much less so, but back in the days when religions like Taoism were founded, nature was of such vital importance, that it is what they learned to love and worship. Trees, plants, animals, rivers and seas have allowed the human along with everything else which is still alive on planet Earth, to survive. It used to mean everything to humans and (even though we've started to hide ourselves behind our computer screens and televisions) it's still a life signifying resource for us, and we use it in our everyday lives. We need nature. Nature, however, doesn't need us. - I think its this life importance and reliance which we have upon nature that forces us to wonder why we're here and what our propose is, and which then again leads us back to our way of thinking and explaining mysteries. 

Meditation

During my first couple minutes of meditation, i tried to focus on my breathing, on my day, what I had done, and what was still do be done. Shortly after, I began to drop all these thoughts and started to feel like my mind was switched off, almost like I was sleeping, just not quite. I was able to remain this focused and thoughtless for around 7 or 8 minutes until I started to think about life, which then brought me to my great-grandmother. I thought a lot about how she died last year, and where she is now, and how she is doing. It made me remember the great things she's taught me and the incredible life I was told she had lived.  Before starting my meditation i thought i would lose the concentration after a while, yet the contrary happened. I found myself very much more into the right thoughts towards the end of my 20 minutes and kept the same thought throughout. I was inspired by myself, my own thoughts. I was inspired by the idea of feeling the way I assume my great-grandma felt when she passed away - completed. I want to feel like I have done what I was to do, and I have seen all I wanted to see. Being young and unwise, I currently want to keep living for all these experiences I haunt been through yet, but I felt inspired towards the idea of this feeling being gone, and simply, contently leaving. Satisfied.

Gandhi Reflection

In Hinduism, it is key to connect mind with body. To find, maintain and polish the relationship between thoughts and actions, between beliefs and deeds, between the mental and the physical. At one part in the movie, Gandhi says "A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks; he becomes". This saying, often overseen or underestimated by people, represents more than one might think at first. It is quite habitual for people to control themselves in terms of what they do, say and how they behave themselves. In hinduism, however, that is not all. According to Gandhi's words, the thoughts are what make up a person's character. Therefore it is not sufficient to control one's deeds and manners, instead, thoughts and ideas are what need to be controlled and censored in a person's mind. People who therefore have positive, constructional and joyous ideas and thoughts, will be balanced persons. At another point Gandhi speaks, "Action expresses priorities". Setting priorities is a mental procedure in which we learn to sort in order of importance our goals, objectives, and desires. Everyone makes priorities, consciously or not, and then acts accordingly. Here again, Gandhi proves how important the relationship between mind and body is, and that, in some sort, a correlation between the two is inevitable.

Gandhi is known to have said "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind". 'An eye for an eye' was an expression that has been used since much longer before Gandhi's times, meaning that what one does to others, i exactly what will be done back to one. So, if one were to kill someone else, one would have to be killed. Many people used to think of this as fair but Gandhi certainly didn't. He used the metaphor of eyes to label the result of 'An eye for an eye' as 'blind'. Really, what he was conveying was that in the end, the results will turn out negative for everyone and peace will never rule. As the soldiers were blocking the road from the protestors they all just kept lining up to let the guards beat them down instead of fighting back. This was not only effective because the whole world was talking about it, but also because it made the soldiers themselves feel ashamed and helpless and caused reconsideration for Gandhi's idea of an independent India.