Buddhism And Its Impact On The World - 882 Words

Buddhism is a well-known religion that has taken the world by storm. With 300,000,000 believers worldwide. According to the 2006 census 2.6% of Australians are Buddhist. It originated in an area of Nepal that was originally part of Northern India. Although there are 300 million Buddhists worldwide, they all share the same core beliefs. Instead of an afterlife, Buddhists believe in Reincarnation, the cycle of birth, death, and being reborn again as either a plant, animal, or human. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Guatama. Siddhartha was born the son of a king, who ruled over the Shakya clan. In an attempt to make sure his son would be a great king, he shut his son away in a life of luxury. At the age of twenty nine Siddhartha visited a†¦show more content†¦When worshiping, Buddhists sit on the floor, facing an image of Buddha and chanting. If at a temple, they listen to the chanting’s of monks, reading from religious texts. Unlike other religions, Buddhists do not consider the Buddha a god, but instead worship him out of respect. Most world religions have one sacred text. Unlike these religions, Buddhism has more than one sacred text. Each group of Buddhists have a different set of scriptures. The main Buddhists belief is that of the four noble truths. The first is Dukkha (life is suffering). The second is Tanha (the cause of suffering is the desire for the pleasures of life). The third is Nirvana (The way to end suffering is by overcoming desire and experiencing enlightenment). The final one, is that to overcome desire, one must follow the principles of the middle way or the eightfold path. There are three main religious buildings for Buddhists. A temple contains a shrine and meditation often takes place here. The second is a monastery. This is where a group of men or woman who are so devoted to their religion that they have chosen to withdraw from everyday society. These men and woman are called monks or nuns. The final type of building is a Stupa or a pagoda. These monuments are very decorative and are built over the remains of nuns or monks. The main celebrations of Buddhists is Vesak. Other festivals include the Buddhist New-Year and Losar. There three major groups of Buddhists are Mahayana

Life and Circumstantial Luck Free Essays

Tic- toc. Tic- toc. Do I go left or do I go right? All these years I have been following the road of life and now it is in my power to take the road that leads to my final destination. We will write a custom essay sample on Life and Circumstantial Luck or any similar topic only for you Order Now Along the way, I have traveled on many types of surfaces, but now I face my greatest challenge. I am stuck between two paths. One path leads to eternal happiness and other leads to eternal sadness. Is it in my destiny to choose the right path? Or will it just be my luck to choose the wrong path? Do I go left or do I go right? Tic- toc. Tic- toc. Life. It is such a simple word, yet the meaning is nothing close to simple at all. We all take a journey on the fabulous road to life, yet does anyone even know what life is? I mean we all live it, but what is it? Anyone know the definition? ( I’d surely would like to know. ) Well if no one truly doesn’t know the answer to life then how can we know for sure why things happen the way they do? Is there some kind of spiritual force out there? Is there some person or thing controlling our every move? Or do things just happen just because they do; coincidences and forces that we have no control over? No one really knows if a god really exists, so things just happen because they just do. Things happen because of coincidences and forces we have no control over. Our life is then based on luck, isn’t it? Think about it this way, luck refers to something that which happens beyond a person’s control. This view incorporates phenomena that chance happenings, a person’s place of birth for example, but where there is no uncertainty involved or where uncertainty is irrelevant. (Huh? English please. ) In other words, luck is just something that we have no control over and just happens. However, there are a few different types of luck. Constitutional luck, it is luck with factors that can’t be changed. Circumstantial luck, it is luck with factors that are haphazardly brought on. Lastly ignorance luck, it is luck with factors one doesn’t know about. (So, where does this luck come in play? ) Luck can be seen everywhere, whether it be in movies, books, paintings, or reality. We live our lives experiencing luck every day. As we step foot into a casino or acquire a lottery ticket, we unlock the emerald doorway to our chances. Chance is the key to any time of game. We spin the wheel of fortune hoping that it will land on something pleasant. Often in literature, luck plays a significant role. When we think of luck, we think of lucky number 7 or the colour green. But in reality, luck isn’t that clear. It is a mystery hidden behind the shadows. Some people are blinded by the concept of destiny that they don’t realize that it is luck that is aiding them. In one of the greatest plays written, Othello, the main character is a person who you would think is unaccepted by society, but is loved. Othello is a moor and a Muslim from Africa. He is this dark angel that many are afraid of, yet love. During the 1600s, only men of noble decent became generals with a few exceptions here and there. But a Moor becoming a general was just a preposterous idea. Regardless of this fact, Othello thinks that it was because of his accomplishments that made him become who he is. He had fought in many wars and then Brabantio had invited him to stay with him and â€Å"still questioned [him] the story of [his] life from year to year, the battle, sieges, fortune that [he had] passed. (Othello, 1. 3, 128-130) A white man had shown interest in a black man regardless of the racism in the world at that time. (How does that happen? ) Nevertheless, Othello somehow becomes a general before even meeting Brabantio and coming to Venice. How became a general, is a question no one has an answer to. We can accept the belief that his accomplishments made him successful, but with racism being a major factor no thing seems to add up. We can say that it was in his destiny to become a general, but really is that really the case? It is more of a matter of pure luck that Othello obtains such a high rank in society. Overcoming such obstacles especially in the 1600s was simply impossible. A black man could never have a higher rank than even a white surf. White was always greater than black. Goodness always prevails. (Well back then it did. Now does it? Yeah, not so much). So for Othello to have become a general it could not have been because of his accomplishments, it had to have been of random occurrence that made him just a bit better than a white surf and to move up the chain of success. To have luck take control of your life, neither wits nor feelings are involved- just possibility. We depend on random occurrences to aid us for the better. â€Å"Luck never gives; it only lends,† (E. B. White) If life does revolve around luck then you must pay a price for the goodness. You may get lucky for a while, but since luck never gives, it takes back the luck and it is why we experience karma. Luck may give us marvellous things, but sometime along the road all of it gets taken back. Yet the whole concept of luck doesn’t seem to quite add up. Random occurrences and things happening beyond a person’s control do exist, but not everything is random. Life on earth couldn’t have begun randomly. There must have been something that created all of this and luck- just doesn’t seem to quite explain why. Many religions in the world either agree or disagree with the concept of luck. Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, taught his followers not to believe in luck. The view which was taught by Gautama Buddha states that all things which happen must have a cause, either material or spiritual, and do not occur due to luck, chance or fate. The idea of moral causality, karma is central in Buddhism. In the Sutta Nipata ,the Buddha is recorded as having said the following about luck: â€Å"Whereas some religious men, while living of food provided by the faithful make their living by such low arts, such wrong means of livelihood as palmistry, divining by signs, interpreting dreams†¦ bringing good or bad luck†¦ invoking the goodness of luck†¦ picking the lucky site for a building, the monk Gautama refrains from such low arts, such wrong means of livelihood. † Lakshmi, is the Hindu Devi of money and fortune. It is said that by proper worship, with a meticulous prayer procedure the blessings of this powerful deity may be obtained. However, the Catholic Church excludes chance or luck as an explanation for creation. As well, there is no concept of luck in Islam other than actions pre-determined by God and that God alone has power over all things. It is stated in the Qur’an that one’s sustenance is pre-determined in heaven when the Lord says: â€Å"And in the heaven is your provision and that which ye are promised. † However, one should supplicate towards God to better one’s life rather than hold faith in un-Islamic acts such as using â€Å"lucky charms†. Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. (Thank you dictionary. com) Whether one be atheist or follow a certain religion, one still has a belief in something. Many follow religions so they can give the creator of life a name; God. Many believe that God is the spiritual being that has created what we call the universe. No one knows for sure if he exists or not, but many want to believe that he does. In addition, throughout humanity, many messengers of God have walked the surface of the Earth and this gives more of a reason for people to believe that God exists. If God really does exist, then he must be the Supreme Being that had created life for us humans. Hence, he has already planned our life in a way, but in order to fulfil our life we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The bits and pieces are scattered everywhere and it is not easy to find them all nor is it to put them together. Along the way pieces can get damaged or lost. When pieces of the puzzle get damaged it means that your life is going bad or something is not going good, but can still repair your life. Sometimes pieces can get lost to the point where you have not enough pieces to complete the puzzle. In that case you make bad decisions and then something tragic happens to your life, which can result in death. This can be seen as how people die at a young age. Some young individuals make the wrong decisions and then it ends up costing them their life. Searching for the pieces is not as easy as it sounds. The pieces can be right in front of us, but we second guess ourselves and don’t know where to look. Often times we seek advice from fortune tellers and prophets. We go to seek for any clues of the future and hope that we can find our right path. And other times, people tell us what our destiny is and it is what we believe and try to achieve. This is most often seen in movies and books about heroes. Many character archetypes are based on the concept of a hero. The hero is a larger-than-life character that often goes on some kind of journey or quest. In the course of his journey, the hero demonstrates the qualities and abilities valued by his culture. How to cite Life and Circumstantial Luck, Essays

Great Gatsbys Report Essay Example For Students

Great Gatsbys Report Essay CHAPTER 1:Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota who recently moved to New York to learn about the bond business, opens his story by describing himself. He is tolerant, slow to judge, and a good listener. As a result, people tend to share their secrets with him, including someone named Gatsby. Gatsby, Nick says, had a beautiful dream, but the people surrounding him ruined that dream. Nick is so disgusted with these people and their New York lifestyle that he has left New York and returned to Minnesota. In the summer of 1922, however, Nick had just arrived in New York and rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. Unlike the conservative, aristocratic East Egg, West Egg is home to the new rich, those who, having made their fortunes recently, have neither the social connections nor the refinement to move among the East Egg set. West Egg is characterized by lavish displays of wealth and garish poor taste. Nicks West Egg house is next to Gatsbys mansion, a sprawling Gothic monstrosity. Nick is unlike his West Egg neighborshe graduated from Yale and has social connections on East Egg. One night, he drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, a former member of Nicks social club at Yale. Tom, a powerful figure dressed in riding clothes, meets Nick on the porch. Inside, Daisy lounges on a couch with her friend Jordan Baker, a competitive golfer who yawns as though bored by her surroundings. Tom tries to interest the others in a racist book called The Rise of the Colored Empires, by a man named Goddard. Daisy teases Tom about the book, but is interrupted when Tom leaves the room to take a phone call. Daisy follows him, and Jordan tells Nick that the call is from Toms lover in New York. After an awkward dinner, the party breaks up; Jordan wants to go to bed because she has a golf tournament the next day. As Nick leaves, Tom and Daisy hint that they would like him to take a romantic interest in Jordan. When Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time, standing on the lawn with his arms reaching out toward the dark water. Nick looks out at the water, but all he can see is a distant green light that might mark the end of a dock. CHAPTER 2:Halfway between West Egg and New York City sprawls a desolate plain, a gray valley where New Yorks ashes are dumped; the men who live here work at shoveling up the ashes. Over the valley of ashes, two huge blue eyes stare down from an enormous sign. These spectacle-rimmed eyesthe eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburgare the last vestige of an advertising gimmick by a long-vanished eye doctor, and they watch unblinking over everything that happens in the valley of ashes. Tom drives Nick to George B. Wilsons garage, which sits on the edge of the valley of ashes. Toms lover Myrtle is Wilsons wife, and lives there with him. Wilson is a lifeless, yet handsome man; Myrtle has a kind of desperate vitality. Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to New York, to the Morningside Heights apartment he keeps for his affair with Myrtle. Here they have a party with Myrtles sister Catherine and a couple named McKee. Catherine has bright red hair, wears a great deal of makeup, and tells Nick that she has heard Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during the first World War. The McKees, who live downstairs, are a horrid couple: Mr. McKee is pale and feminine, Mrs. McKee is shrill. The group proceeds to drink to excessNick claims that this party is only the second time in his life that he has been drunk. The ostentatious behavior and conversation of everyone at the party repulses Nick, and he tries to leave. At the same time, he finds himself fascinated by the lurid spectacle of the group. Myrtle grows louder and more obnoxious as she drinks, and shortly after her new puppy arrives, she begins to talk about Daisy. Tom responds by lashing out with his open hand and breaking her nose, which brings the party to a screeching halt. Nick leaves, drunkenly, with Mr. McKee, and ends up taking the four a.m. train back to Long Island. CHAPTER 3:Gatsby has become famous for the elaborate parties he throws every weekend at his mansion, and now Nick receives an invitation. At the party, guests mill about exchanging rumors about their hostno one seems to know the truth about Gatsbys wealth or personal history. Nick runs into Jordan Baker, whose friend, Lucille, speculates that Gatsby was a German spy during the war. Gatsbys party is almost unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel over his Rolls Royce, his swimming pool, his beach, crates of fresh oranges and lemons, buffet tents in the gardens overflowing with a feast, and a live orchestra playing under the stars. Liquor flows freely. In this atmosphere of opulence and revelry, Nick and Jordan set out to find Gatsby. Instead, they run into Owl Eyes, a middle-aged man with huge spectacles who sits poring over the unread books in Gatsbys library. At midnight, Nick and Jordan go outside to watch the entertainment. Suddenly, a young man with a magnificent smile appears and introduces himself as Gatsby. Gatsby looks like a roughneck, but his speech is elaborate and formalhe has a habit of calling everyone old sport. As the party progresses, Nick becomes increasingly fascinated with Gatsby. He notices that Gatsby does not drink and keeps himself separate from the party, standing alone on the marble steps watching his guests. At two oclock in the morning, as husbands and wives argue over whether to leave, Gatsby goes inside to take a phone call from Philadelphia, and Nick starts to walk home. On his way, he sees Owl Eyes struggling to get his car out of a ditch. Nick then proceeds to describe his everyday life, to prove that he does more with his time than simply attend parties. He works in New York City, through which he also takes long walks, and he meets women. After a brief relationship with a girl from Jersey City, Nick follows Daisy and Toms advice and begins seeing Jordan Baker. Jordan is dishonest; Nick even knows that she cheated in her first golf tournament. Nick feels attracted to her despite her dishonestyeven though he himself claims to be one of the few honest people he has ever known. CHAPTER 4:Nick lists all the people who attended Gatsbys parties that summer, a roll call of ridiculous names including the Cheadles, and the O.R.P. Schraders, and the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia. He then describes a trip to New York with Gatsby for lunch. As they drive, Gatsby tells Nick about his past, but his story seems highly improbablehe claims to be the son of wealthy, now deceased parents from the Midwest, but when Nick asks which Midwestern city he is from, he says San Francisco. He then claims to have been educated at Oxford, collected jewels in the capitals of Europe, hunted big game, and been awarded medals in the war by multiple European countries. Nick is skeptical, but Gatsby produces a medal from Montenegro and a picture of himself playing cricket at Oxford. Vineland, a novel by Thomas Pynchon, tells the story of a tumultuous p EssayIn the oppressive New York City heat, the group decides to take a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom begins his confrontation with Gatsby by mocking his habit of calling people old sport. He accuses Gatsby of lying when he claimed to have attended Oxford. Gatsby responds that he did attend Oxfordfor five months, in an army program following the war. Tom asks Gatsby about his intentions with Daisy, and Gatsby replies that Daisy loves him, not Tom. Tom claims that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could not possibly understand; he then accuses Gatsby of running a bootlegging operation. Daisy, who began the afternoon in love with Gatsby, feels herself moving closer and closer to Tom as she watches the confrontation. Tom realizes he has won, and sends Daisy back to Long Island with Gatsby to prove Gatsbys inability to hurt him. As the confrontation ends, Nick realizes that today is his thirtieth birthday. Driving back to Long Island, Nick, Tom, and Jordan discover a frightening scene on the border of the valley of ashes. Someone has been killed by an automobile, and Michaelis, the Greek who runs the restaurant next to Wilsons garage, tells them it was Myrtle, run down by a car coming from New York. The car struck her, paused, then sped away. Nick realizes Myrtle must have been hit by Gatsby and Daisy, driving back from the city in Gatsbys yellow Rolls Royce. Tom thinks that Wilson will remember the yellow car from that afternoon. He also suspects that Gatsby must have been the driver. Back at Toms house, Nick waits outside, and finds Gatsby hiding in the bushes. Gatsby says he waited to make sure Tom would not hurt Daisy. He tells Nick that Daisy was driving when the car struck Myrtle, but that he, Gatsby, will take the blame. Still worried about Daisy, Gatsby sends Nick to check on her. Nick finds Tom and Daisy eating cold fried chicken and talking. They have reconciled their differences, and Nick leaves Gatsby standing alone in the moonlight. CHAPTER 8:Late that night, Nick goes to visit Gatsby at his mansion. Gatsby tells him about courting Daisy in Louisville in 1917. He loved her for her youth and her vitality, and idolized her social position, wealth, and popularity. Daisy promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but after he left, she married Tom. Early that morning, Gatsbys gardener tells Gatsby that he plans to drain the pool. Yesterday was the hottest day of the summer, but this morning autumn is in the air, and the gardener worries that the falling leaves will clog the pool drains. Gatsby tells the gardener to wait a day; he has never used the pool, he says, and wants to go for a swim. Nick tells Gatsby good-bye, but as he walks away, he turns back and shouts that he thinks Gatsby is worth more than the Buchanans and all their friends. Nick rides the train to New York, but feels too distracted to work, and he even refuses to meet Jordan Baker for a date. Riding back to West Egg on the train, he looks out at the valley of ashes. He tells us what George Wilson was doing at that same moment, which he learned later from Michaelis and the newspapers. Wilson stayed up all night talking to Michaelis, and in the morning he was overwhelmed by the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg illuminated by the dawn. He believes they are the eyes of God, and leaps to the conclusion that whoever was driving the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover. He decides that God demands revenge, and leaves to track down the owner of the car. He looks for Tom, because he knows Tom knows the cars ownerhe saw Tom driving the car earlier that day, but he knows Tom did not kill his wife, because Tom arrived later with Nick and Jordan. Nick hurries back to West Egg, and finds Gatsby floating dead in his pool. After Tom told Wilson that Gatsby was the owner of the car, Wilson went to the mansion, shot Gatsby, then shot himself. Nick imagines Gatsbys final thoughts, and pictures him disillusioned by the meaninglessness and emptiness of life without Daisy, without his dream. CHAPTER 9:Nick tries to hold a large funeral for Gatsby, but all of Gatsbys former friends and acquaintances have either disappearedTom and Daisy, for instance, move away with no forwarding addressor refuse to come, like Meyer Wolfsheim and Klipspringer. The latter claims he has a social engagement in Westport, and asks Nick to send along his tennis shoes; outraged, Nick hangs up on him. The only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsbys father, Henry C. Gatz, who has come all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is proud of his son, and saves a picture of his house; he also fills Nick in on Gatsbys early life, showing him a book on which a young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement. Nick is sick of the East and its empty values, and decides to move back to the Midwest. He breaks off his relationship with Jordan, who suddenly claims that she is engaged to another man. Just before he leaves, he encounters Tom on Fifth Avenue. Nick first refuses to shake Toms hand, but eventually he accepts. On his last night in West Egg, Nick walks over to Gatsbys empty mansion and erases an obscene word someone has written on the side of the house. As the moon rises, Nick imagines the island with no houses, and thinks of what it must have looked like to the explorers who discovered the New World centuries before. He imagines that America was once a goal for dreamers, just as Daisy was for Gatsby. But Gatsbywhose wealth and success so closely mimic the American dreamfails to realize that the dream has already ended, that his goals have become hollow and empty. Nick imagines that people everywhere are motivated by similar dreams, and by a desire to move forward into a future where their dreams are possible. Nick pictures their struggles to create that future as boats moving against the current of a rivera river which inevitably carries them back into the past.