Epics of India MLLL 4993

Fort comme un boeuf on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my Eastern Stories and Legends notes. These are all Jataka tales, or stories of the Buddha’s past lives. Most of these tales demonstrate important morals or lessons to live by, and they also show what happens to those who are not kind to others. In addition, they reward those who do kind things for others, and all the stories show the gentle nature of the Buddha. Two of these tales were very similar, and both were about Bulls. In each, the Bulls have been brought up by kind masters who they wish to repay in some way. The Bulls (who are each living a separate life of the Buddha) decide that they will work to bring some income to their masters. In the first tale, The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment , the Bull tells his master to bet with another man. The bet was to be that if the Bull could pull a determined heavy wagon load, then the other man would pay the master. The master agrees to this,...

Buddha as King on  Wikimedia This week, I read Eastern Stories and Legends, and these are all Jataka tales. Jataka tales are tales about the Buddha’s past lives. I realized that I had read many of these stories in previous units. It is interesting to see how these tales changed according to different authors. I will discuss the ones that I had not read before here. The majority of these tales incorporate important morals to live by and demonstrate the effect that kindness can have on one's life and others' lives. I had never read The Spirit That Lived in a Tree before. In this tale, the Buddha is the spirit living within a 600,000 year old tree. He also rules over many other trees who would would be able to feel his pain if he were to experience it, almost like a collective consciousness. When a greedy king decides that he wants to have the most extravagant palace that only rests upon one column instead of several, he calls for this ancient, worshiped tr...

Image on  Pexels Rosalie was a spirited girl with fire-red hair to match her personality. She was not good at holding still and frequently got into trouble at school for this and for her quick temper. The other children were friends with Rosalie and admired her eccentric personality, but none of them dared behave as she did in the classroom. She was not afraid to speak her mind and often pestered the teachers with many questions that they found extremely annoying. There was one teacher, though, who did not mind the girl’s questions, and this was Rosalie’s favorite teacher. Ms. Simmons taught science and regularly took her students outside to observe the stream that ran next to the playground. Not only did her pupils like going outside during class, they also loved learning from Ms. Simmons who cared about each one of them. This included Rosalie, who found it easiest to concentrate in Ms. Simmons’ fun lectures. The teacher knew that any of her students would ...

Image on  LinkedIn This is a continuation of my Twenty Jataka Tales notes. These tales all incorporate important life lessons, and many of them are “happily ever after” tales. These happy endings are achieved through the kind ways of the Buddha, as all Jataka tales are an episode of one of the Buddha’s lives. As mentioned in the last set of notes, though I did not go into detail, I went to a Buddhist event earlier this year. It was part of my Sociology of Religion course in which each student had to choose an event to attend from a religion that differed from their own. I had originally wanted to go to a “normal” Christian church service. I am not religious, but Christianity is what I am most familiar with. Not being allowed to go to a Christian service was a good thing for me as I was made to try something new. If I had not been made to attend the meditation service, I probably would have never gone on my own as I was nervous and felt like an outsider. T...

Image of Buddha on  Wikimedia This week, I read Twenty Jataka Tales for my reading notes posts. I chose this unit because I liked the Jataka tales that we read as a class at the beginning of the semester. I was reminded that a Jataka tale is one about a life of the Buddha. All of these tales give lessons to be learned and the majority are “happily ever after” tales. The main theme running through this unit was the power of kindness. In each of the Buddha’s lives, he is selfless and has a sweet disposition so that no human wishes to do him harm. He has the power to change the way others perceive the world, and he teaches them the kindness that is natural to him. In January, I visited a Buddhist temple for a class assignment. I participated in meditation, and the feeling of calm that permeated that exercise is very similar to how the Buddha is portrayed in this unit. In The Monkey-Bridge , a monkey king uses his own body as part of an escape bridge to avo...

Image on  Flickr Inez and her husband Victor did not make much money, but they were a happily married couple. The couple had two adopted children from Victor’s deceased sister who they loved as their own. They did not spend money on things that they knew they couldn’t afford, but they always had enough and lived a much more fruitful life than most people. The one thing that they thought would really make a difference to their happiness was their want for a biological child. After trying to conceive for five years, they were finally blessed with the news that Inez was pregnant. Not only that, but she was carrying triplets, two girls and one boy. The prospect of three children altogether was nice , but five was more of a financial burden than the couple expected. Still, Inez and Victor were looking forward to the additions to their family. Victor took up extra hours at work, and the couple prepared everything they needed for the delivery of the three infants. ...

Image of Kunti and Pandu on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my week 9 Mahabharata notes. I chose to watch the Karmic Revolution videos on YouTube, as I watched a film version of the Ramayana for the second edition of that epic, too. These videos are a great way to quickly learn about the Mahabharata or to refresh one's memory after reading the full version. It might even be a good idea to watch these videos before reading a longer version of the epic in order to become acquainted with some of the characters and key aspects of the tale. This version greatly helped me in keeping characters’ relationships straight in my mind. Any questions that I had about the birth of the Pandavas was completely eradicated, and I now understand why Kunti is such an important character in the epic. Here are some of the notes that I took while watching Karmic Revolution: Kunti tells Pandu about mantra, but not about her first son. Pandu asks her to call upon gods to m...

Image on  Wikimedia For this week’s version of the Mahabharata, I chose to watch the Karmic Revolution videos on YouTube. These videos are set up so that a learner can return to the channel every week and learn a little bit about the epic in three minutes. I think that these videos could have originally been longer or uploaded more frequently. They are accompanied by illustrations, which are a nice way to get a visual of the story. Something that I really liked about this method of storytelling is that the video makers really want their audience to understand what is happening and try their best to make sure that their audience does not get lost. At the beginning of some episodes, they will recap all that the audience has already learned. In these recaps, they omit superfluous or detailed information and focus on the basics. This is very useful and helps the more important aspects of the epic stick in the learner’s mind. An element of these videos that ...

Great Wall of China on  Wikipedia In Epics of India, I am pretty pleased with how I have done so far in this course. I am excited about my Portfolio blog and think that the stories that I put there will end up being refined and of good writing quality. I do have a weekly routine, and I have recently started writing down every assignment due throughout the week so that it is easier for me to keep track of everything. The assignment that I have enjoyed the most in this course is the Portfolio project, to which I just added my second story. I liked the process that I went through with the first story I posted in my project. It was nice to have the time to edit and refine my work, and I think that this will be something to show off after the course is finished. Looking forward, I hope to have the time to do some of the extra credit assignments. I have asked my manager to schedule me four days at work instead of five so that I can properly work ...

Image on  Growth Mindset For Epics of India and for Mythology and Folklore, the comments that I am receiving from other are largely ones that praise my blog format and the quality of my author’s notes. I am glad that other students find my author’s notes to be useful, because I take them very seriously. When writing them, I think of how clearly I am summarizing the work that I was inspired by for my own storytelling. As many students will not have read the particular stories that I have, it is pertinent for me to accurately explain the key characteristics of any given story that I write on and to tell how my own story has differed. While I appreciate the praise that I am receiving from other students (who probably want to write me a quick note in order to get their Comments assignment out of the way), I would appreciate more substantial feedback. The most useful feedback that I am receiving is from Ms. Gibbs. When I go to leave feedback for other student...

Sitas Exile by Raja Ravi Varma on  Wikimedia I have enjoyed the Epics of India course, and I think that I am doing well, overall. I had intended to get ahead a little bit at the beginning of the semester. As I mentioned in the Reading and Writing post for Mythology and Folklore, as well, I work over 30 hours a week. My shifts usually begin at 4:30 a.m., and I am so much more tired than I thought I would be when I get home! So, I am managing to keep up with all of my coursework, but I have not done any extra credit assignments like I wanted to. My favorite post from this course has been my story, The Unruly Cock. Since I decided to use this story as part of my Portfolio project, this is the tale that I have worked on the most for this course. Reading the comments from my peers has been very useful, and I have used them to make my story even better. I am proud that I have something to show for these two courses of Ms. Gibbs’. I frequentl...

Read the updated version of this tale on my Portfolio  here . Surya gifts Yudhishthira the Akshayapatra on  Wikimedia Upon entering their period of exile in the mystical woods, the Pandavas and Draupadi quickly began to hunger, for it was difficult to find food. When too faint, Bhima would carry the five others on his back until they reached a water source. Weeks went by in this same manner, until one day Yudhishthira happened upon a brahmin and told him of his sorrows. The brahmin, sensing the desperation in Yudhisthira’s voice and wanting to help, suggested that the Pandava pray to the Sun God, Surya. Yudhisthira, who had always been true to his faith, agreed. He began wholeheartedly praying to Surya: Powerful Sun, You who sees everything in the universe, You are our Creator. You are Vishnu, Brahma, and Prajapati at once. You are the Brahman! Please, help my brothers and our wife in our trials. Surya, pleased by Yudhisthira’s devoutness an...

Duel Between Duryodhana and Bhima on  link This is the last section of my Mahabharata Reading Notes. In the previous section, I decided to focus on specific morals that I thought were relevant in a YouTube summary video, and I related those back to the text. I thought that I might do the same with this set of notes, but this last section of the Mahabharata was more action-packed, making it a bit harder to do so. War was more of the focus on this last part than any religious considerations. All of the characters will experience profound loss, and so the epic becomes very tragic. Arjuna is forced to attack Bhima, and both Arjuna and Bhima lose their respective sons. I was not able to relate the morals that I found in the video easily to the text, but I did find some moral considerations on my own. I think that it is important to talk about the moral crisis that occurs in the section entitled Death of Drona , as well as the wise words of Yudhishthira at the ...