Reflection

It comes to the end of the semester, and we are supposed to write about what we thought about the course and what we learned.  Now, there are many positives that came out of this semester.  I was able to increase my vocabulary, and I am reading more.  However, it still seems that I am struggling to write at the level I am at quantitatively.  I am taking the final essay exam in a week, and I am scared of taking it knowing that I have to do very well in order to get the grade I would like to get.  It is just really tough to write a great paper with lots of detail when you write in a method to leave out all lots of detail in other subjects.  Hope I do well.

The class has been great.  It is just another class of how Augusta State takes care of their students and encourages them to learn.  It was interesting learning about all these new cultures and being able to connect them back to the knowledge we already know.  We can connect why things are the way they are because of the culture.  With the Middle Ages, we see art evolve and become more complex.  We see the competition of artwork throughout the Renaissance, and we even get to learn about other religions that are much different than the Christianity we are used to.  We learned about other religions as well such as Hinduism and Islam.  This begins to question your understanding of the world in which we live in as each religion has a valid point into the reason the world spins as it does.  It is interesting how Europe has evolved over the course of time, but I think it would be even more interesting to have a history class to go along with it so that we understand some of the outside reasons of why the art, literature, and music are evolving in the way that they are.

Now time to vent.  I think the class should be a core requirement as we need an appreciation of the cultures around the world.  However as a core requirement, every major has to go through the class in order to graduate.  I do not have a problem in every student taking the class.  The problem I have with the class is that you are primarily graded through the way you write about each culture.  With someone who is not great in language arts and is in a major where writing is not a necessity, this class has been very difficult for me.  I think that it would be more fair if the department graded in a test taking manner instead of using essay exams. I know that writing this will cause no change, but I feel that students who are majoring in writing or literature have a huge upperhand in taking a class where the ultimate goal is to not improve your writing but to improve the knowledge you have of humankind.  I understand that people should be able to write well after taking your English core, but it seems to still be very difficult for me in these essays.  We will see how the final goes, but I am sure that I will not perform as well on it as I have in other classes.  Just seems like there are other ways to test a class on learning about mankind than an essay exam where a great writer has a huge upperhand, even if someone else has a better grasp of the cultures.  Just venting because the class has been hard for me since I have avoided every major and class that has to do with writing being a math major.

Preparing for the Final Essay

We find that for the final essay, we are now only having to write on two cultures where before we were writing on four.  Each essay will consist of writing on one culture, where the first paragraph opens the essay and presents to the reader my thesis.  It also will connect any period concepts we will use and probably will still focus on one theme.  However, I think that I will connect this theme into my thesis and write about that throughout the essay.  This way I am writing about my understanding of the way of life of that culture, but I am at the same time describing the knowledge of my culture.  Although there is no longer a required theme in the final essay, I find it will be easier for me if I stick to some theme that connects with my thesis.  Although this particular theme will probably not be one of the three that we could pick from for the mid-term essay.

In the next three paragraphs, I will take a piece of literature, art, and music and connect this piece with the thesis.  In these paragraphs, I will add much detail to show that I  have a great understanding of that particular culture.  This includes addressing the details of the piece, maybe the meaning of the piece, and analyzing the piece on a higher level.  After these paragraphs, the final paragraph will conclude and combine what was talked about in the last three paragraphs.  This includes talking about the connection of the thesis with the three disciplines.  This just ties in and brings in the end of our essay.

When it comes to knowing what describes each period explicitly and the traits of each period, it seems that I have a bunch of work and studying to do.  It is easy to see the differences between Islam and the other cultures as there are vast differences, and Islam is more of an understanding of how the people of a religion live, while the other cultures are an understanding of the people of that particular time period.  Also I need to concentrate on what makes each culture particularly different from one another.  The middle ages show many similarities, but there are obviously distinct differences between each period.  I can start with the differences of the complexity of the lives of the humans living during that time period.  However, there is a lot of work to do here before the final essay.
    
When it comes to picking the theme and the cultures on which I am going to write my final essay, it seems that I also have much work to do here as well.  This is because of the above paragraph and not knowing the exact differences between the cultures.  However, I think a good thing for me to write on would be the focus on the afterlife and the obligations people have during their lifetime to achieve their afterlife.  This I think is a good theme for me because most of the pieces worship God in music, and there is also a large focus on Jesus and the last judgment in the artwork.  However, we also see that there are distinct differences in each culture of their views of afterlife and what must be done during the people's lives.  Bottom line is there is much preparation needed before the final essay.

Christianity

When it comes to Christianity, I find that although I am a Christian myself, I know little there is to know about the entire faith. Christianity is obviously based on the life and death of Christ, as he is the savior, but it was truly the disciples and apostles that made Christianity what it is today. Upon watching The Rise of Christianity: First Thousand Years, I have a better knowledge of the early years of Christianity, and luckily, this time the movie was on DVD, what an upgrade.

Jesus’ death can be accounted by the Roman Empire as an effort to squash the rebellion of these new beliefs. He is said to be executed because of treason, and after his demise, Simon Peter claimed to see Jesus after his burial and watched him resurrect into heaven. However, the disciples did not know what to do until the Holy Spirit came to them on the last day of Pentecost placing flames over their heads and giving them the ability to go spread the word of the Lord. This is the day the new religion was born, and from that day forward, there was a movement of people to spread the word of the Lord.

Although most people dictate Simon Peter to be the first leader of the church, it is actually James the Just, Jesus’ brother. There is still a debate today over the relationship James had with Jesus, but he is considered to be the first leader of the church. However, the biggest movement of Christianity would not start with either of these two men, but instead would start with a man who first started out persecuting Christians. This is Paul, and it is said that the Lord came to Paul one day while he was traveling, forced him to the ground, and said this is Jesus your lord. From that day on, Paul would be the person who headed the movement of Christianity.

Paul traveled all over the area spreading the word of God, but he is the first person to travel to Rome to spread the word of God. At first, the movement went well as gentiles could become Christians immediately and did not need to be Jewish beforehand. However, Paul was eventually imprisoned by the Roman Government as the views of Christianity went against the views of the gods of the Roman Empire. Eventually others arrive in Rome, Simon Peter is of importance, and continue to spread the word of God. However, Rome orders that any Christian be persecuted, and this starts the darkest era for the Christians. Paul is beheaded, and Simon Peter is crucified upside down. Some would think the end of Christianity, but the religion continued to grow.

It was not till Christians added Roman rituals and customs were brought into the Christianity worshipping did the persecutions stop. The persecutions soon died out with time as more and more Romans began worshipping of the religion. This was great for Christianity as they now had a basis for their religion and strength behind their religion. This is very interesting to me how this all came about because there are several parts that are unclear about what was really happening in Christianity. Unlike Islam, many people were spreading the word of Jesus, and that is why there was so much evolution of the religion as many people were putting forth their opinions. However it is important to understand that the disciples of Jesus were the ones who created and spread Christianity and not Jesus himself.

Midterm Reflection

After being in class and seeing some of the essays, I think I have a better idea of what to do on the final essay. Someone told me on the way to the exam to write as much as I could, I did not take this into account while writing my essay though. Wish I had taken the person's advice because I feel that my essay was too dry. It lacked the detail, but it had the connection. On the next essay, I need to elaborate on the piece. Explain all its detail, all the detail, and then try to connect it to the piece. I need to show that I have a better understanding of what the piece actually is describing, and the things that are going on in the piece. I know that in my essay, I only related a few specific things to the topic at hand. Yet, I have never been a great writer, and this is a big learning experience for me on how to write more of an analysis on a piece.

Today's lab we saw a few papers that had received better grades than mine and some that were worse. When looking at the better papers, they had more detail, and from it the person reading it could tell that the person knew more about the topic. Although the better graded paper did not really relate back to the theme as much as I did, I felt in my paper everything was in line and reflected the theme very well. I also felt that my literature paragraphs were much better than my music and art paragraphs. My music paragraphs were by far the worse because we did not go into as much analysis on them as we did with the art and lit pieces. It is tough to connect a piece of music back to a theme when it has no words in it.

Looking into the future and final essay, I have a better feeling of what is asked of me. I also have a better method of attacking the essay. Since I really want an A and am really bad at language arts, I am for sure going to prepare the essays well in advanced and try to rewrite them during the time period. I did write outlines and one essay, but I feel that it would be better to have the exact draft ready to go into the exam. Also, my essay will be long and full of detail. It may stray from the topic a little, but this will just add detail and show the professor I have a better understanding of the culture. I had great understandings of all the cultures for the midterm, as reflected in my other grades, but I need to better put this understanding into words. Also, I need to open up the essay better and compare the cultures better. Yet, with a better understanding and more practice, I feel that my final essay will be miles better than my midterm essay.

Islam

After watching The Story of Islam on VHS, I come to appreciate modern technology and modern documentaries. The first thirty minutes of the movie, the only thing talked about was the movement of Arabic people around Saudi Arabia. However, in the early parts of the movie, we did find out that there are over a billion Muslims in the world. This is over three times the population of the United States; however, the percentage of Muslims in the United States is slim to none compared to that of the other religions. Even today, the majority of Muslims are in the Middle East, mostly because they were never really run out of their area of worship like Judaism and other religions. I also found it interesting that today the Koran is the governing document of Saudi Arabia.

After thirty minutes of talking about Arabic movements which I will not go into explaining, the movie started to talk about Muhammad. Muhammad was born in 570 a.d. (can tell the move is old when we use C.E. now), and his parents died at a very young age. After their demises, he went to live with his grandfather and later his uncle. Upon living with his uncle, he was sent to be raised as a nomad in a Bedouin tribe. While he is still a boy, it is said that two angels came down from God and gave him the information of God. Muhammad did not immediately go into spreading the word of Allah, but he traveled to Syria and gained much information about the other religions.

During this time, Christianity was on the rise and Judaism continued to exist in the Mediterranean area. Muhammad learns about these other religions from the leaders of these religions, and this is the primary reason why some of the scriptures in the Koran are taken from the Torah and the Bible. Although these scriptures have slight changes to them, sometimes major in the case of Joseph, the originated in the other religions. When he was 25, he led a caravan from Syria back to Mecca, where he met his wife of 40 years, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. This was his first wife, although it is said that he had thirteen wives in his lifetime. This wife was wealthy making Muhammad wealthy, but he was not pleased with his life. He frequently would climb a small cave and meditate. In this area, he was once upon a mountain when the angel Gabriel came and visited Muhammad asking him to recite three times in the name of Allah. Muhammad simply responded back that he did not know what to recite.

He started questioning himself, and for three years he returned to Mt. Hera to listen to Allah, and during this time, the Ka’aba was dedicated to many idols. Thus, the Meccans believed in many gods and were threatened by Muhammad as he discredited their Gods. He then leaves Mecca with his followers and travels across the Red Sea, where he begins the first Islamic community outside of Mecca. Angel Gabriel then visits Muhammad another time, where he is taken from Earth and speaks with the past prophets. It is now time for Muhammad to go back to Mecca, and when he returns, Muhammad runs into even more trouble as people against him want him dead.

Muhammad again does not stay in Mecca, and he travels outside. He left Mecca because of the plots against his life and the death of his wife. While outside of Mecca, he creates the first mosque and the Koran. He is also commanded to start a war between non-believers. Eventually, Muhammad has an army of 10,000, and he goes back to Mecca and overtakes the city. This is when he rubs the black stone inside the Ka’aba and destroys the other idols other than Allah. This is when Mecca becomes the center of Islam for the world.

Eventually Muhammad dies of illness, but only after Islam is a largely established religion. Unlike other religions, Islam seems to be the most black and white religion of all. We know exactly the story of how Islam came about, and there seems to be no grey areas. It is interesting to me how much Muhammad was able to accomplish in his lifetime. It seems that he was constantly learning about or creating the religion of Islam his entire life. Also it is surprising to me that so many people worship a religion that is so modern. Judaism has been around for a much longer time than Islam, but the number of followers is significantly smaller than Islam. This could be in part due to the fact that Muslims used force upon non-believers while Jews never forced anything upon anyone else. Yet, a billion people who believe in Islam is quite an astounding number with or without the use of force.

Mid-Term Essay

In the world today, we see many people have obligations they must perform for their jobs and their family. Yet for Hindus, the obligations they face in everyday life are part of the dharma or duty that they believe they perfrom for Brahman. Dharma is one of the main concepts in Hindu belief, as they believe they must serve their God in order to achieve Moksha in which they end their cycle of rebirth. We see that through The Baghavad Gita, "Raga Piloo," and the Shiva Nataraja the concept of obligation, and what all Hindus must do in performing their obligations. The people of Hinduism must perform their obligations to Brahman in order to end the cycle of Samsara.
We see my claim at work in The Baghavad Gita, as Arjuna must perform his obligations that he has to fight against his cousins and relatives. Arjuna is in a situation of battle, and it is his duty to fight and kill his cousins who are opposing him. However, Arjuna believes that in killing his cousins he will not be performing the obligations given to him by Brahman. this is due to the fact that in killing others, Arjuna would cause suffering and death among his cousins keeping him from achieving Moksha. An avatar of Vishnu, Krishna, comes down and speaks to Arjuna, and Krishna tells Arjuna that he must perform his Dharma in order to end samsara for him. Although Arjuna is torn apart by having to kill his cousins, Brahman has given Arjuna the obligation of fighting against other people in order to end his cycle of samsara.
In the "Raga Piloo," the performer, Ravi Shankar, has certain obligations he must fulfill in his work and life in order to achieve samsara. Shankar is a musician, and this means that he was once a shishya, student, of a guru, teacher. As a shishya, he has the obligation to do what his guru tells him, and once he becomes a guru, he has the obligation to make music for the Hindu culture. In the music, there are certain parts of the song that help to instill a sense of peace and tranquility of the audience listening. These are the obligations that we see in the "Raga Piloo." Shankar has the duty to make this peaceful music, and in the music, bring the people listening to a higher level of understanding Brahman. Shankar keeps playing the sitar until he has met this obligation. This is the obligations that Brahman have give Shankar, and in order to achieve moksha, he must fulfill these obligations.
Shiva Nataraja is a statue of the avatar of Brahman, Shiva, and in it we see the obligations that Hindus have for their god. The second left hand of Shiva is pointing towards the ground symbolizing upliftment and liberation. This is important as Shiva is the destroyer, and he has the obligation of destroying a weary universe to allow for the creator, Brahma, to start the process of creation. Yet, people also have an obligation to Shiva if they want to be liberated or achieve moksha. It is up to the people to do their duties and obligations if they want to be saved, and by Shiva's second left hand pointing toward the ground, one may achieve this if they perform their Dharma.
In Hinduism, we see the obligations that Hindus have for Brahman; yet, in Archaic Greece we see the obligations one has for gaining honor. In the Iliad, Achilles has the obligation to gain honor for himself through his fighting. We see in the"Hymn to Nemesis," the obligation for a person to honor the gods as for them to favor them so that they can gain more honor. Also, in Anavysos Kouros, the honor it is to have a statue made out of yourself. Thus, the people of this period feel that they have an obligation to gain honor in themselves as that is the most important part of their lives. This compares to the Hindus who feel they have obligations to Brahman in order to achieve moksha.

Judaism

Upon finally watching the vhs on Judaism, there was much that I found very interesting and different than what I imagined. First off, Judaism is more of a lifestyle than it is just a religion. In this I mean, Judaism involves more than just coming to worship; it involves building a family, doing things as a community, and helping the people around you out. In building a family, since God told Adam and Eve to procreate, Jews find it important to have kids in the first ten years of marriage. If they do not have kids by that time, they are allowed to have another marriage. This is interesting because no other religion encourages having kids; the bottom line is that Jews must have children.

Another important thing that the movie showed me was how much the Jewish culture has succumb to other cultures. Jews for nineteen centuries had no place that was center to their religion. This was after the second Temple of Solomon was destroyed, and before they were able to gain land in Israel. For centuries, Jews evolved their religion to incorporate the new places of where they were having to live. This is the main reason why the synagogue came into being. The synagogue was created to have a place where people would come to worship in a local setting since the temple was far away, and then the temple was destroyed. It is unique that for many years the priests required at least ten men to worship in the synagogue as that number was needed for the worship to be proper.

I said the Jews have succumb to other cultures because of the number of Jews in the world today. There are an estimated 12 million Jews in the world with 6 million in the United States and 4 million in Israell. This is quite surprising as Judaism has been around longer than Christianity, and I would expect that there would be a decent number of Jews as the religion has spread world wide. Yet, the movie explained the many reasons why this number is so low. The Jewish people have had much suffering over the years being driven from the Temple of Solomon twice and losing their holy land. Also after the second time, they were not able to regain their land for hundred of years. Also, we see that the Jews suffered incredibly during the Holocaust. This drove down much of the Jewish population in Europe and is a good reason why there are many Jews in the United States. The Jews like the United States because of its freedom of religion, but even there, their religion has changed much over the years to succumb to this new place of being.

I also found it very interesting some of the rules that Jews must follow. In their religion, they do not only have the ten commandments given to Moses, but they have 613 commandments that they must follow. These commandments range from not taking something that belongs to someone else to the way that animals must be slaughtered. It is also interesting that Jews are not allowed to drink milk with any meat. Also, the Jews must celebrate three main festivals which include: Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles. Passover celebrates the Israelites obtaining their freedom from Pharaoh, and the Feast of Weeks honors the giving of the Torah to Moses. However, they also celebrate the feast of tabernacles which commemorates the 40 years the Israelites were wandering in the desert. However, Chanukah is not one of the three main Jewish festivals. Chanukah has grown to be quite large, but mainly this is because Christmas is celebrated at the same time of year. This then gives Jews something to celebrate, since most Jews are surrounded by Christians sprawled out around the world.

I found the Jewish culture very interesting, and it struck me as much different than I imagined. They are very family centered people, and they are not a violent race by any means. This is shown through all the suffering other people have caused on them over the years for their beliefs. The number of Jews also surprised me since there are tens of millions of Christians around the world, and Judaism is a religion that has been around longer than Christianity.

Analyzing a Piece

What comes to my mind first when analyzing a piece is scanning the piece over. Whether this be an art or a literature piece, it is important to observe exactly what the piece is describing before going into more detail. This process consists of observing titles, main headings, or anything that catches the eye. With art, this would focus mostly on the center of the piece because most artists place what they want the observer to notice most in the center. After scanning the piece, its time to start reading or looking at the piece more in depth. This consists of paying attention to the details within the piece that most stand out to the person. Usually the message of the piece is in plain sight for a person as the author wants the person to get the message. Hopefully after a few minutes, one comes to understand what exactly the piece is trying to concentrate on. For example the statue of the dying warrior, the message would be that the race of the simoans is dying out.

After this brief observation, it is time to go into the more details of the piece and how these details tie into the beliefs and ideas of that particular culture. The person must observe little details and briefly think if there is a reason behind that detail being there. This could consist of slowly reading each line in a story and seeing if this ties into anything that the culture believes. There is a reason why these authors made these pieces, and they usually represent beliefs that were shared by the people during these time periods. When looking into these details, its important to ask yourself questions and see if these details bring any answer to them. This is an important part as these questions tie into the meaning of the piece. After one has answered some of these questions, it is then important to tie the piece into the ideas on which they may be writing. These ideas tie in with what the culture believes, and these beliefs have much representation by symbolism in the pieces. The person must connect these ideas with what their own beliefs and the beliefs of other cultures. Once this is complete, the person has an idea of the human nature of that particular culture by that piece, and the analysis is complete.

Suffering, Judgment, Obligation

When you think of these words many things come to mind, but when I think about them, I think about the cultures around me. In our own culture, we suffer when we do wrong and when things do not go our way. We are under constant judgment each day from our peers and our professors. We also have much obligation of what we should do each day with our lives.

Now when I think about comparing these words to the Hindu culture, they begin to have a different meaning. When you first think of suffering, the Hindus believe that everyone suffers as human beings until they reach Brahman. Upon reaching Brahman, they no longer have the suffering that they had in the human life. However, they also believe that when they cause others to suffer, they will suffer in their next life when they are reborn. It is kind of interesting that they believe that when they cause others to suffer, they will eventually suffer themselves.

For judgment in the Hindu system, they are under constant judgment of Brahman. He judges whether or not people are doing their dharma and avoiding kharma. It is kind of interesting to think that their god judges them, and when they die, their god will judge whether or not they are reborn or become one with Brahman. This is interesting to me since in Christianity, God loves everyone and does not judge people on their actions.

Lastly, obligation in the Hindu system is also an important concept. Hindus are obligated to do their dharma and avoid kharma. They must do the duty that Brahman has appointed to them, and only by doing this can they achieve moksha. They are constantly performing yoga that is also required by them. Its kind of interesting that they have so many things that they must perform in their lives in order to achieve everlasting life.

It is interesting what all the Hindus must do day to day to please their god, Brahman. They must perform all these extra duties that are expected of them, while we are just expected to live our lives and do not have all the obligations that the Hindus have. It is interesting that they have all this stuff plus all the suffering, judgment, and obligations other human beings bring to them.

Hindu Temple

Upon arriving to the Hindu Temple, my first impression was the difference between their place of worship and the catholic church that I worship at. After placing my shoes in their shoe closet, I took a seat on the floor and started to study the main worshiping room. It was very much different than what I imagined it to be. I thought that the temple was going to be an elaborate building with stone floors and with many beautiful decorations filling the room. Yet, the temple was much different than that. It had a few beautifully carved stone statues, but it was quite simple to say the least. The floors were just tiles with matts thrown on top to make it slightly more comfortable for sitting Indian style, and there were a few scriptures on the walls throughout the room. Although it was different than what I imagined, the temple gave off a sense of ease and comfortableness. It was almost as if they kept it simple for others to understand that you do not need an elaborate place to worship to follow their gods. As if their religion is open for anyone to come worship and believe in what they believe.

After being at the place for several minutes, there was a lady that was a member of the temple that began to spoke about the Hindu traditions and their beliefs. She introduced the two most important people of their temple, the president and her father who happened to be the oldest member of the society. She spoke on some of their gods and some of their beliefs. I found it most interesting that they keep their doors open for other people of the world to come and worship. That the Hindus believe everyone is equal and the same. She also pointed out that there were over one billion people who practice the Hindu lifestyle. That's more than three times the number of citizens of the United States. However of the csra, only around six hundred families practice Hinduism. It amazes me that throughout the world that many people believe this religion. The speaker also pointed out their reasoning upon performing their greeting. In their greeting, they bring both hands together bow to one another. This greeting has the implications that you are one, I am one, and we are the same.

After the presentation, the oldest member of the temple then spoke. He spoke for a few minutes then it was time for the students who were there to ask questions about their beliefs. I felt that they made some valid points on what they believe in and were not offended by any of the questions that were asked. What amazes me more is that their religion supports the theory of evolution. Being that I am a science major, I constantly find myself questioning the bible and its reasoning for human existence.

My experience of the Hindu temple was one that I will remember. I guess because of their reasoning for life and the way that they choose to live their lives. Their beliefs make sense, and it is kind of interesting that I am questioning my own beliefs against theirs. Its going to be interesting next week learning about their society in more detail.