Telling my Humanities Story

Reflecting on 2021

As my first semester back to school comes to an end, I've taken the time to reflect on my learnings that I've encountered so far in 2021. My standard weekday routine consisted of waking up, getting dressed, going to work, start homework, find the motivation to workout, do some more homework, and then going onto bed and repeat the next day. Then on most weekends I usually had to hop on a plane and travel for work or family. Although I haven't had much of a social life this year -so far, I was able discover new things about myself in terms of mindset and new interests. And as I kept busy during this semester, I encountered a few readings with ideas that I will forever keep for the betterment of myself and my future. 

My Encountered Readings

Bresnan, Patrick S. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018. 

Book Cover
Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought
Patrick S. Bresnan

• Bresnan is a retired professor of history and philosophy. His book provides an extensive overview of Eastern Asian religions, traditions, and philosophies while making connections between their ancient origin and modern thought. The text primarily focuses on India, China, and Japan with a clear historical timeline as you read. I found this book rather interesting because it engages you with different ideas such as reincarnation, karma, self-awareness, yin and yang, and many more. The reading shares these ideas and connects it with other religions or traditions by explaining their interpretations with reason and historical stories. 

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

Book Cover
The Bhagavad Gita
Jack Hawley

• Hawley is a consultant and writer whose studied in India about spiritual energies within everyday life. His book is based during the 2nd century BCE, on a Hinduism Sanskrit scripture of a universal love song. He creates an enjoyable read with a clear interpretation of the story of Prince Arjuna, who is accompanied to war by an old 'friend' Krishna, to help guide him into the right path. I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for a new perspective outlook in life, as it is filled with poems and secrets of enlightenment to help one become successful in their own daily life. It will also teach you that the more you learn and evolve your knowledge, the more positive energy you will find around you. 

Rausch, Andrew J. Turning Points in Film History. Citadel, 2004.

Book Cover
Turning Points in Film History
Andrew J. Rausch

• Rausch is a film critic, author, and interviewer, as well as an actor, film producer, and screenwriter. His book presents significant points in film history that helped revolutionize the way movies and films are produced today. Providing historical facts based on film historians and filmmakers, while casing their ideas with an influential event that can be identified within today's modern films. This book was a required reading for my film history class this semester, and I found it enjoyable to read because it mentions countless inventors, such as Thomas Edison, who I had no idea made such a huge impact on what we know about movies. 

My Learnings of the Environment

During the mid to end of this semester, I was assigned a group project with a couple of my fellow classmates about a themed topic we've chosen at the beginning of this class. Our theme was How Should the Environment be treated? At first we were a little worried with there only being three of us, while other theme groups had multiples of maybe four, five, or six.. but that didn't stop us from wanting to produce the best PowerPoint we can. I've decided to take the initiative role and become our group's project manager and editor, while also assisting as graphics designer. My favorite part of the project was being able to collaborate my ideas and perspectives with my groupmates. At times there would be differences but being able to understand one another and have an open mind was the best part because isn't that what humanities is all about? Although I took a huge load this semester with a new job and being a full-time student, I was able to accomplish about 26 hours on this project between group meetings, individual work, and advising. 

Looking Back at Asian Humanities 320

For almost all my life my mom has always tried to encourage me to find a religion of my own, and be able to have someone (or something) I can talk to in times in need. When I first enrolled into this class, my expectation was to find a religion I can incorporate into my daily life while also being able to knockout another class requirement. As class started, I expected it to be an easy breeze. All I had to do was do the required readings and write the discussions posts or blog entries. My goal was to do just that while finding a religion for my personal use and complete the class with an A. Unfortunately I didn't accomplish any of those goals except one. I was able to find a religion I can use within my daily life.

What interested me most about the class was writing blog entries. I found writing blog entries to be such a fun way of expressing my learnings with photos and researching, while also having the opportunity to edit the appearance of my posts. It's something I wish we did more of rather than discussion posts and only once a chapter. One of my favorite takeaways from the class was learning the different interpretations of reincarnation between religions. Because death is the biggest question of humanity right? We're always wondering what happens exactly after death. And although I already knew the universal definition of reincarnation, I learned that Mahayana Buddhist have a different idea to it and they refer to it as samsara, the cycling of existence. 

Overall I found this class to be a very enjoyable learning experience that I will continue to take with me as I evolve as a human being in this world. 

Work Cited

Hoden, Vernerable, director. What Is The Difference Between Reincarnation and Rebirth? - Zen Buddhism. YouTube, Dharma Gate Zen, 7 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5WlEkFszw.

“Reincarnation.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/reincarnation.

Telling the Story of the Silk Road

The Highway to Trade

Buddhist adoption in Asia, through the Silk Road

Expansion of Early Buddhism

As we read Chapter 16 from Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction of the History of Eastern Thought and watch The Silk Road: Where East Met West, we are introduced to the journey of Mahayana Buddhism and its evolution in China through the Silk Road. The Silk Road is connected all throughout China and other pars of the Eurasian continent, stretching from east to west and also south into India. The road helped trade move back and forth, also giving opportunity for "Buddhist ideas, Buddhist books, and even Buddhist monks to enter the flow and move wherever the Silk Road may take them" (Bresnan 377). One city that largely established Buddhism was Xian, "seen as the beginning of the Silk Road" (Silk, 7:43 - 7:46). But as time passed in China's capitol city Xian, so did the livelihood of Buddhist culture. 

Similar Statue of my family's

I find the history of expansion of Buddhist culture very interesting because growing up Chinese and Filipino American, I never really associated Buddhism to be originally practiced in India. My family would have Buddha statues sitting (in Lotus position) at the entrance of our door, and before we exit, we would have to rub his belly for good fortune. And being so young, I thought these practices were a main apart of my Chinese culture. I agree with Bresnan's comment, saying that Mahayana Buddhism making its way into China through the Silk Road and becoming strongly intergraded with its culture is "a very interesting intermediate step that most people in the modern world have never heard about" (Bresnan 377). Because I am one of those modern people, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. 

The Ancient Trade Route

As we gain knowledge about the Silk Road, I noticed that the text only briefly introduces us at the beginning of the chapter while the video mainly focuses on the topic throughout. Each source started with the length of the route, describing it to be the source of trade and culture expansion. "Along its many miles, there was money to be made. But the people on the Silk Road not only bought and battered goods, they also exchanged ideas and techniques" (Silk, 1:47 - 1:58). Unlike the text, the video doesn't state which exact ideas and techniques were exchanged in the beginning, "Buddhism traveled far ahead, hitching a ride on that fascinating highway of trade, an extremely long caravan route that connected China with other parts of the Eurasian continent" (Bresnan 377). After the brief introduction of Buddhist travel, the text describes what they brought and exchanged on their journey. To further expand my knowledge of trade on the Silk Road, I watched this video from Crash Course History on YouTube:

The Influence of Cultures on Europe

One topic in particular that I found interesting was the influence of Eastern culture on European cities, such as Venice, Italy. As we know, the Silk Road carried on for many miles throughout different regions and exchanged not only goods, but cultures and their ideas and techniques. Near the beginning of the video Sam Willis, the video's main historian, mentioned that in 1844, Charles Dickens visited Venice and have a very strange feeling that it wasn't an European city, "but an oriental one that was troubled by the wild luxuriant fancies of the East" (Silk, 3:06 - 3:28). Meaning that Dickens found much of Venice's environment to be influenced by Eastern Asian culture and Muslim styled architecture. Safe to say that the influence of Eastern culture, most likely came from the stream of trade. As someone whose visited multiple cities in Italy, one including Venice, it never occurred to me before how different it was compared to maybe Rome or Naples. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Downes, Richard. "The Silk Road: Where East Met West." BBC UK, performance by Sam Willis, Season 1, Episode 1. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021.

Kartapranata, Gunawan. Buddhist Adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism First Entered China through the Silk Road. 31 Jan. 2014. 

Telling the Story of Buddhism

Tracing Back to Early Buddhism

Amitabha Buddha
Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco
Steve Prezant

As we read Chapters 11 and 12 of Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought by Patrick S. Bresnan, we discover new ideas and thoughts: the evolution of Buddhism, the underlying importance of Ashoka's role in the development of the Buddhist tradition, the rules of Theravada Buddhism, who or what is a bodhisattva, and other religious concepts and characteristics Buddhism shares. Or is this Yogacara? and what you're reading right now "simply doesn't exist; it's an illusion, a creation of the mind" (Bresnan 285). I'll be digging deeper into the explanation of why there is no such thing as "Buddhism", and the Mahayana Buddhist's interpretation of reincarnation.

Buddhist? or Buddhism? What is it?

Early Expansion of Buddhism

In the centuries immediately following Buddha's death, Buddha's teachings and principles were being morphed into a new modern day term we now call Buddhism, but there is no such thing as "Buddhism". To hear the term Buddhism, it can be easily confused and familiarized with religious groups such as Hinduism or Judaism. As we've read in previous chapters before, Buddha does not refer to himself or his teachings as a religion with a god or set of leaders, but as a "way of life". The suffix -ism, is a suffix that is usually added to a word that represents a specific practice, system, or philosophy. With the help of Buddha's followers after his death, his teachings were becoming a huge part of India's varied culture. "As the tradition developed, there was much interplay, much give-and-take between the Buddhist and others" (Bresnan 246). Meaning, since a lot of his practices were being interpreted and taken by other religions, the teachings of Buddha was being interpreted as a religion. But as we study the origin of Siddhartha Gautama (aka Buddha), we know Buddha does not refer to his practices as a religion but a "way of life" and a science of the mind. 

The Reason Behind Existence

Reincarnation is a term that is highly familiarized with most human beings. Most people identify the term as the belief that the soul, upon death, rebirths itself, and comes back to earth in another embodiment or form. Each religion, such as Mahayana Buddhism, has its own interpretation and reality of what reincarnation really is. The Mahayana refers to reincarnation as samsara, the cycling of existence, or a cycling process that has a continuous flow of energy. Another way of saying that our current human life is apart of the cycling process. Meaning "with regard to human beings, though, the particular character of the flow is generated by karma, the consequences that follows every kind of volitional act" (Bresnan 290). So unlike Hinduism's belief of their atman being reborn into another body, Mahayana believes that the cycling process itself and our energy, is the one being reborn and regenerated back into the world. I find this interpretation very interesting and uncommon because as I watched the video below, he uses an analogy of taking a drop of water and putting it into another body of water, and how we can't extract that same exact droplet of water because it(s energy) has already became a part of something else. 

The Start of My Spiritual Awakening

These two chapter readings are probably my favorite part of this unit's journey. Maybe even the whole semester so far. I've never thought of defining reincarnation the way Mahayana Buddhist do, and as I've mentioned before in past blog posts, I am not religious, and I think this is one of the most eye opening and influential ideas to my own spiritual awakening.

Work Cited

Gabriele. “What Is an -Ism?” English Language Blog, Transparent Language, 19 Feb. 2012, blogs.transparent.com/english/what-is-an-%E2%80%93ism/.

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

Hoden, Vernerable, director. What Is The Difference Between Reincarnation and Rebirth? - Zen Buddhism. YouTube, Dharma Gate Zen, 7 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5WlEkFszw.

Kartapranata, Gunawan. “User:Gunkarta.” Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Feb. 2012, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gunkarta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Buddhism

O'Brien, Barbara. “The Six Perfections of Mahayana Buddhism.” Learn Religions, Dotdash, 27 Apr. 2019, www.learnreligions.com/the-six-perfections-449611.

“Reincarnation.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/reincarnation.

The Bhagavad Gita: Book Review

Arjuna and Krishna Chariot Painting

An Essential Path to Wisdom

The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners by Jack Hawley, is written to inspire and help one understand themselves and their surroundings spiritually. It revolves around Hinduism and it's core beliefs. The Gita is a story about two families, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, going into battle for their rightful spot onto the kingdom of Hastinapura. Prince Arjuna, a Pandavas brother, is accompanied to war with his 'old friend' Krishna, who is there to help guide him into the right path.

"I'm utterly confused as to what is my duty. I'm asking you to help me, not to just tell me to go out and fight. I beg you to tell me what I should do. I am your pupil; be my teacher, my guru. I take refuge in you and surrender to you. Please instruct me, beloved Krishna, show me the way" (Hawley 12). 

Union with Divinity

As somebody who does not worship any religion or beliefs, reading The Bhagavad Gita gave me a new profound perspective of yoga. I've taken a physical yoga class here at Cosumnes River College before, but we never learned the background of how it became or how it evolves you as a person spiritually. 

"When the mind become still and quiet, the Self reveals itself. At these depths one experiences the joy and peace of complete fulfillment" (Hawley 60).  

 I've learned the practices of meditation and relaxation, and in these moments I feel so alive, so powerful like the world is mine, as if I could achieve whatever I wish. "In this supreme state you desire nothing else whatsoever and cannot be shaken by any calamity. To be in this mental state is to know the real meaning of yoga (union with God)" (Hawley 60). I learned that yogi is not only just seen within ones self, but within everything around you, all creation. 

The Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutra

The practices of Yoga also relates to how we treat the environment. If one believes that we are always in touch with God around us, our perspective and attitude shifts which gives out a more positive energy! 

Book Cover
The Bhagavad Gita

Knowledge is Sacred

If you are someone who is looking for a new perspective outlook in life, I would recommend reading The Bhagavad Gita. It is a powerful story filled with poems and enlightenment, and secrets to help you become successful in your daily lives. 

"It's sole purpose it to lead humanity from the darkness of ignorance to enlightenment, from the perishable world of nature to the imperishable world of spirit" (Hawley 165).

This story teaches you that the more you learn and evolve your knowledge, the more freedom and happiness you will find around you. Treating yourself and the environment with more knowledge will leave a feeling of contempt within your body, soul, and state of mind. 

Work Cited

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

“The Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutra.” Youtube, Yoga International, 15 Aug. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI2Kk15Epbc&t=305s.

Valley, Painting. “Welcome to the Online Museum of Illustration Arts. Feel Free to Explore!” PaintingValley.com, Public License, 2020, paintingvalley.com/download-image#krishna-arjuna-chariot-painting-23.jpg.