yoga mania

I must admit that yoga is truly harder than I anticipated. Remembering to breathe and stretch correctly is a difficult task. I also didn’t realize that stretching could be so PAINFUL. Participating in the yoga class helped me to realize I do have muscles that I don’t stretch nor did I realize that they were even there. It helped being in a class with others because it forced me not to give up because I honestly really wanted to. I agree with the articles that we were supposed to read before attending the class. The main focus of my class was the stretching and not the breathing. While teaching the poses the instructor of course mentioned the proper breathing techniques but never really concentrated on making sure it was done right. In my opinion the breathing aspect is equally as important as the stretching itself. Without the proper breathing techniques the stretching is not as effective. The most interesting thing I learned from the “westernized” yoga was some of the true health benefits. Some of the exercises help with speeding up ones metabolism. I personally find this interesting because I didn’t realize that certain movements could in prove a person’s metabolism. Yoga has become a common form of exercise in America and because of this I once agree with the article. Westernized yoga is based on stretching and the occasional breathing. However the true purpose of physical yoga is to obtain tranquility and spiritual insight through stretching and breathing. In other words physical yoga is a form of meditation. As Americans we have altered the true nature of yoga and used it as a means of creating physically healthy citizens. My instructor failed to emphasis on the importance of the stretching coupled with breathing to produce a time of tranquility and spiritual insight. Aside from it all, as a beginner I don’t see how I would have received tranquility or spiritual insight because I was too busy concentrating on the pain that I was in! I too wish that we Americans would stop reducing ancient traditions of other cultures to “nothing but a hollow shell of their true selves.”

Weeping Demon

Weeping Demon was my clip of choice. In the first five minutes of Weeping Demon the wanderer did nothing but wander in darkness and fog. I was so tempted to change my choice but then the demon came along. It appeared at first that the demon was disappointed that the wanderer was a human. (It was almost as if he was expecting someone else.) And the wanderer seemed a little frightened when he realized that standing in front of him was a demon. After they got over the initial shock of each other the demon began to talk about his life. He tells the wanderer that the desert that they are standing on was once a beautiful field of flowers. Nuclear bombs and missiles changed it to the desert. Due to radiation, the people became horned demons, the dandelions were huge and the stems of the roses grew from the flower. The demon also tells the wanderer that when he was human he was a farmer. As a farmer, he used to pour lots of milk into the river to keep the prices up and used to bury vegetables with a bulldozer.

The biggest connection that I made with Shinto and the Weeping Demon is the characteristic of being grateful for the blessing of Kami. When he was a farmer the demon did not appreciate the blessings of beautiful flowers, fresh milk, or his crop. Now that he lives in a desert and has nothing to eat but other weaker demons he is resentful of what he has done in the past. What was once a blessing to him was quickly snatched away at the hands of another man and now he is to live with worst conditions than he did before. I also feel as if it is implied that the demon is thankful that he is a one horned demon instead of a two or three headed demon. As a one headed demon he may be eaten by a two or three horned demon but he does not have to live with the cancer-like pain of the multiple horns. The two and three horned demons horns hurt them worse than cancer and they have to endure this pain for eternity because they can’t die.

The Pooh Way!

        The Tao of Pooh was an excellent read! I thoroughly enjoyed how Hoff put the work together. As I child I honestly despised Winnie the Pooh because I considered him to be very slow and strange. His co-character Tigger was more of my favorite because he was always on the go. Overall, the book was refreshing to say the least. Benjamin Hoff used a childhood character that most people can relate and basically reiterated the important lessons that we were supposed to learn as a child that we may have missed. This was definitely one of the easier reads this semester!
        The book calls our culture the BUSY BACKSONS and well I totally agree. The American Culture is so busy that we barely even have time to eat; we are always eating something from a fast food restaurant or a frozen dinner/meal. “It’s not surprising, therefore, that the Backson thinks of progress in terms of fighting and overcoming. One of his little idiosyncrasies, you might say. Of course real progress involves growing and developing, which involves changing inside, but that's something the inflexible Backson is unwilling to do." I agree with this quote from the book. As Americans we believe that to get anywhere in life we must work hard and fight to obtain the American dream. Any small change that may occur may offset or delay this goal and put us back which we don’t want because most of us are working on a time frame to begin with. As Americans we rarely get to enjoy the simple things (unless we are on vacation) because we attempt to move at the speed of light; which is basically what Hoff suggests when he basically says that we’ve created an unhealthy cycle in order to not waste time.

        The more I read about Taoism the more I think to myself that I should be Taoist. As an American (especially as a college student) I’m used to being satisfied with getting anywhere from 4 to 8 hours of sleep on a good day, living off of McDonalds for Breakfast, and all the other factors of the American life. Taoism does appear to be the solution to the American Problem. We (Americans) put so much pressure on ourselves to succeed that when we fail it seems as if all is lost. Taoism teaches us that we should let things happen as they may and that we shouldn’t rush to save time because time can’t be saved anyway. I wonder how different the world would be if everyone lived the Pooh way!

Buddhism

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1451950361/

The clip that I chose is the trailer from the movie The Cup that came out in 1999. The movie is about a couple young students at a monastery school in India. The main character loves soccer and wants to see the world cup being played. He wants to rent a TV set for the monastery so that everyone can watch the World Cup. The young monks have to travel into town and collect money to rent this TV set. The overall plot of the movie is about trying to maintain the tradition of the monastery in a changing society.

                This clip definitely defies the stereotype of monks. I think one of the largest misconceptions that people have of monks is that they are extremely serious individuals. They are not supposed to smile or have any enjoyment. Buddhist can have enjoyment but they are supposed to do so without attachment. In this movie the little monk absolutely loves soccer and has an obvious attachment to it.

Brad Warner himself defies a lot of stereotypes. He’s a priest, author, and a bass guitarist. He also has a blog and his head isn’t bald. Warner to me represents Buddhism meets new world. He does not let his religion control his life but he allows it to be a guide on how to live his life. 

His book  Zen: Wrapped in Karma dipped in Chocolate he speaks on several stereotypes. He also talks about the difference between Buddhism and Buddhism in the secular world. In places where Buddhist don’t have support systems they have to interact with the secular world because they have to work. In places like India where the movie The Cup takes place the monks have support systems so they don’t have to work or interact with the secular world. The young monks in the movie go into the city , which for the monks in India that’s not a regular outing. Another stereotype expressed in the movie is the fact that the monks did not have a television. In his book Brad Warner talks about the traditional Buddhist and their lack of possessions. By having possessions traditional Buddhist feel as if this represents attachment and a form of responsibility.

Pleasure and Community Service Aims

Pleasure

Twista Ft. Chris Brown,"Make A Movie," hip-hop/R&B,2010                                                                    

           Trey Songs,"Juniper Love,"R&B,2009                  

                       Juniper Love                             

                Jamie Foxx,"Storm (Forecass),"R&B,2005                     

             Storm                     

Musiq Soulchild,"Love,"R&B,2000

Love

Ginuwine,"Differences,"R&B,2001

Differences             

                     

Community Service

 K-Ci & JoJo,"Momma Song,"R&B,1999                                                                      

Village People,"Y.M.C.A,"Pop,1978

YMCA

Super Group,"We Are The World: 25 for Haiti,"Pop,2010

We Are The World:25 for Haiti

John Lennon,"Imagine,"Pop,1988

Imagine

Michael Jackson ft.Akon,"Hold My Hand,"Pop,2010

Hold My Hand

Without even attempting this assignment, if someone asked me which topic in the music industry (community service or pleasure) is most prevalent my answer obviously would be pleasure. Every time I turn on the radio or tune into a video majority of the songs are about pleasure. Pleasure is such a wide aim because pleasure basically constitutes anything that makes one happy. Most artists sing or rap about money, cars, sex, and drugs which give them pleasure. So when I had to name 5 songs that depicted pleasure I simply wrote down the name of the songs that were floating in my mind at the time. It’s not surprising that most songs are about sex, drugs , and money because every other aspect of the media make millions of off producing movies and TV shows that are about sex, money, and drugs. Basically if the characters are not having sex, doing drugs, or dealing with money in the work it probably won’t do well.

            When deciding songs for both aims, community service and pleasure, the process in which I decided was different. It was almost three times as hard to produce a list of songs for the community service aim compared to that of producing a list for the pleasure aim. Not saying that all community service oriented songs are created this way but it seems as if most community service songs arise after a tragedy. It’s almost as if we as a society are saying forget about helping other people on a daily basis but wait until a natural disaster, etc. occurs to want to help out your fellow man. So after these tragedies artist (usually a group of artist) create songs about the tragedy to raise money and then the artists usually don’t produce another community service oriented so until another tragedy.

            The Hindu understanding of the pleasure and community service aims expose the true nature of the American society once coupled beside American pop music. It’s almost as if the Hindu understanding and the American pop music portrayal of the American culture are exact opposites. In the Hindu understanding of the pleasure aim is basically saying it’s ok to enjoy pleasure but don’t think that having pleasure is simply enough. In American pop music if one has achieved pleasure they are usually content and that’s all that they need. For American pop music community service songs come far and between or usually correlate with a national or global tragedy. Whereas with the Hindu understanding it’s more important to help out and be a part of the community than it is to be self-absorbed.