Week 12 Reading Diary B: The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha is so distraught from the discovery of age and sickness and death decides to leave the kings palace to commence his quest for good. *tear*

He reaches a forest full of hermits and here he decides is the place he will begin to find a way to destroy old age and death.

This quote on page 63 is really great“Unhappiness is born of desire; that man is to be pitied who is a slave to his passions. When a man dies, there are always heirs to his fortune, but heirs to his virtues are rarely found, are never found.”

And this one
“…the practice of virtue is never untimely.”

When Gopa and Suddhodana find out Siddhartha is gone they are in complete despair.

Siddhartha meditates for many years eating nearly nothing, exposing his bones

Image of Siddhartha Meditating
Provided by Wikipedia Commons

Siddhartha is beginning to collect disciples, beginning with five, who leave him calling him crazy because he has yet to gain true knowledge.

He has several crazy dreams and upon awakening he realizes that he has gained the true knowledge- he is ready to become Buddha.

    

Week 12 Reading Diary A: The Life of Buddha- His Birth

The beginning of The Life of Buddha has been quite interesting. His mother, Maya is the Queen to Suddhodana. She gives up her “worldly” evil desires for a life of good, virtue and abstinence. She heads to an apartment to act out her creed.

While she is away she has a dream that she becomes pregnant with a white elephant with many tusks and the Gods praise her and her good deed. When she woke up, she was overjoyed and wanted to speak to the King, her husband.

He agrees to meet her and as he is approaching her, he feels a sense of weakness and uneasiness. Shortly, a voice from above tells him that his wife, Queen Maya, is going to carry this wonderful son of the Gods, Buddha. He is overjoyed by the knowledge of having this son.

Months passed and the time came for Maya to give birth to Buddha.  She goes to give birth in the garden to allow Buddha to begin his life surrounded by the innocent purity of the flowers. When she entered the forest, she saw a beautiful tree full of flowers and suddenly and easily, she gave birth to Buddha. The Earth was full of joy. Every creature rejoiced as this wonderful child came to be born on earth.

The Birth of Buddha
Provided by Wikimedia Commons

The Life of Buddha by A. Ferdinand Herold,translated by Paul C. Blum

Week 11 Famous Last Words: I'm Only Twenty

Dare I say it, but I think I have finally gotten my life together. Now that I’ve completely jinxed myself… Last week, I was questioning every step of my life. OChem really made me reevaluate if I wanted to do this; if I was cut out to do this. I had always known that it would be tough, but I severely underestimated my work-load this semester. Each of my classes is a completely different evil, but I am ready. I’m ready to tackle the last of the semester full force.

I’ve teetered with the idea of not going to law school for several months. It just seems like such a crazy goal to have on top of engineering. The LSAT, my GPA, the lack of background—I have really been wondering if it was a good idea.

This weekend, I went home to visit my parents for Easter. I brought up these concerns with my dad who said “Don’t worry about it. You’ve still got time to decide.” It seems obvious, but I felt as if I had to have everything ready; that I had to have my “Ten Year Plan” and stick to it to a T.
With my anxiety distinguished, I ironically mapped out my entire life. I always knew I was awkwardly ahead in my coursework, but little did I know I had 9 hour semester in the spring next year…the perfect time to prepare for the LSAT in June. Funny how life gives you all the answers if we take a step back and let it.

It’s nice to remember every once in a while that I’m only Twenty, and barely through a quarter of my life. In retrospect, I really do have time. In other news I read the Twenty-Two goblins translated by Arthur Ryder and let me tell you. I loved it. It was weird and confusing and sort of wonky, aka perfection. I would definitely recommend reading it for an un-textbook option. Heck, I’m ready to read it again.

And for your viewing pleasure...

A photo of me and my brother... 

With our eyes closed... 

The typical Henderson sibling dysfunctional photograph. 

We now celebrate open eyes in photos.

Photo of My Brother and I From Easter 2015
Photo Taken by Chon Henderson

 

Week 11 Storytelling: The Fate of the Disobedient

“Dad, I’m so sorry! I didn't mean to be out that late!” began Ferra as she was startlingly confronted by her father who was posted waiting in the living room.

“You KNOW that you have to be home for dinner. Do you have any idea what time it is?” her father sternly stated, attempting in vain to hide his anger.

"I'm sorry! It won’t happen again! I promise!" she said with sadness.

“You’re going to have to prove yourself,” he said trying to be understanding. “If this ever happens again, you’re going to be in some serious trouble."

“I promise! This is never going to happen again,” Ferra said as she gave her forgiving father a hug.

A few months went by and Ferra was the usual good child that she had been her entire life. She feared what would happen if she disobeyed her father and knew better than to cross him. 

Ferra managed to keep her promise, that is, until this incident happened again. 

"THAT'S IT!" her father screamed as she, once again, attempted to sneak into her home without her father noticing.

"You're in serious trouble, Missy. I gave you a second chance and you blew it. What were you even doing? It's midnight! Dinner is at 7 o'clock every day. I was patient until 8 o'clock.... and then 9 o'clock came and went and then 10 o'clock rolled by, and you NEVER answered your phone. Do you know how worried I was? Do you have ANY idea what that feels like? To have no idea where your kid is?"

"Well, no. I'm not a parent," Ferra thought as her father looked at her with angry eyes. She suppressed her sarcasm and expressed another apology.

"Really, Dad. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? How do I make it up to you?"

Ferra's father was silent as thought for a moment before he came up with the perfect solution. Suddenly, it came to him. His eyes lit up and Ferra saw evil wash over his face. Her father smirked as he looked at his daughter and dictated her punishment.

"So….Ferra…” he maliciously began.

"Think of your most HATED task. You know, one I never make you do because you hate it so much? The one that I always do because I'm just such a nice father? Now dig deep," he arrogantly and teasingly stated. 

Ferra's face dropped and her eyes filled with terror as she realized what was happening. 

"Oh God. No. Dad, ANYTHING else. PLEASE. Please, don’t make me do it. Dad! Anything!" she begged.

Her father giggled as he realized the genius of his plan.

"Come on. Why don't we start right now?" he said as he walked toward the back door.

"Dad! No! PLEASE! Anything else! Don't make me pick up the dog poop!" Ferra wholeheartedly begged as she hesitantly began to walk toward the back yard.

"How long are you going to make me do this?" she asked already dreading the answer.

“Every weekend,” her father replied.

“Forever?!” Ferra gagged as she filled with fear of the impending doom of dog poop.

"Oh, no, of course not forever,” he said, hardly settling Ferra’s worry.

“Then how long?” she hesitantly asked.

“Oh, you know... We will see, but I'm thinking until, well, you're married!" he said teasing her as he grabbed his sulking daughter's hand.

Image of Father and Daughter
Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story of the Eleventh Goblin in the story of The Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. In that story a King falls in love with a Fairy and asks her to marry him. She agrees to marry him as long as he lets her disappear four times a month. The King cannot hold back his curiosity and follows her. The Fairy is swallowed by a giant and the King nobly saves her, or so he thought. The Fairy was punished to this fate of being eaten because of an issue she had with her father long ago but she does not remember the pain of being eaten until the King "saves" her. I found the back story so incredibly interesting. In writing this story, I explain the series of events that led to her fate with her father in a modern-day situation. I changed the Fairy to "Ferra" and used a different story-line but the plot stays similar. Both the Fairy and Ferra were late and needed to be punished. While it may not seem so to Ferra, the severity of the is drastically reduced in this modernized story. The end of my story hints to the fate of the Fairy in the Twenty-Two Goblins when she meets her King and is married.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917)

Google Define Tech Tip

Bourgeois

I have always found this word rather interesting so I figured I'd get to know more about it!

Week 11 Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins Overview

Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins

          This week, I explored the Un-Textbook Stories of Twenty-Two Goblins translated from the Sanskrit version by Arthur Ryder. These stories began with an introduction of King Triple-Victory, the indirect focus of the stories.

          In this introduction, King Triple-Victory received fruit every day from a Monk. The King did not want the fruit and would give them to his Treasurer. His Treasurer also finding no use for the fruit would throw them out of the window. King Triple-Victory gave the fruit to his monkey who decided to open the fruit one day to find a gem in it. Shocked, King Triple-Victory went and asked the Treasurer if all of the other fruit had gems in them as well and soon realized that there were heaps of gems. The Monk returns the next day and King Triple-Victory asks him why he gives him such a nice gift each day. The Monk leads him to a tree which contains a goblin, beginning the series of stories.

          Throughout each story, there is a weird paradox of morality that King Triple- Victory must answer to the satisfaction of the Goblin. Each story is a different strange situation that seemingly has no real answer. However, King Triple-Victory manages to answer to the goblin’s satisfaction leading to another story each day.

          These stories were quite strange to read but so entertaining. Each story was a strange series of events that did seem to go together. The introduction of the story was hardly a preparation for the first series of events, which was different from the next set- each sentence was something a little… wonky, could I say? The goblin also asked equally as strange morality questions that King Triple-Victory always instantly knew the answer to. It was as if the stories King Triple-Victory were hearing were not the same stories I was interpreting which made it even more interesting to me; everything came together as an incredibly interesting story.

          Each story was something of a “Food For Thought” that made me pause in my busy day and think about what this story was truly about and what the point and lesson of the story was. While I still don’t know for some of these stories, I really appreciate the process of “Read and Think” that Twenty- Two Goblins led me to do.

Image of a Book Cover of
Twenty- Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder
Provided by Tumbler

Links: 

         Twenty-Two Goblins

          Introduction 

         And also because I thought it was a strange word to choose in this          mythical setting: Goblin

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins Continued

My Favorite Story From The Second Portion of The Twenty-Two Goblins

The Eleventh Goblin: The King Who Won a Fairy

• Oh no. A corrupted King… He only cares about his pleasures and his desires. This can’t be good.
• The poor counselor just wants a few days away from the King and he won’t permit it.
• So now the counselor has to sneak out on his own pilgrimage.
• He finds a merchant and decides to go on his voyage with him. This pilgrimage isn’t so bad after all.
• And now a magical tree in the ocean with a fairy???
• Farsight tells the king about his journey and he falls in love with the fairy. Must of been a good story…
• And of course he wants to go on this journey to meet this fairy.
• So the King gets out of the boat to find a beautiful city with jewels and pillars and pearls but it is an abandoned city. (Having images of Disney’s Ariel)
• They decide to get married on a CONDITION that she can just disappear for 4 days every month. This is NOT going to end well.
• She goes to visit a giant who swallows her because of a curse her hungry dad cast on her???.... WHAT?
• The King follows her and kills the giant and conveniently breaks the curse. Oh and she conveniently remembers all the pain. And how to fly. Ok.
• So now she has to disappear again… and she comes back without her powers.
• And the counselor dies of sadness because…? What?

Image of The Mermaid and Satyr inspired by
The King and The Fairy
Provided by Wikipedia