Back at the Ford.
So now, with a gimped spring break, I must take on the tasks I had dropped in order to return home. Let us list these tasks:
- Junior Sem Midterm; 8 - 10 page paper. STATUS: Rough Draft complete.
- Romantics Midterm; 5 - 7 page paper. STATUS: Not started
- Italian Midterm; Exam. STATUS: Delayed until further notice.
- Emergence; Book Presentation STATUS: Book Unread.
- Work; Resume STATUS: Unfinished
*yawn*
So yeah, it's kind of a big deal.
As you may or may not recall, one of my new years resolutions was to explore spirituality and religion. Well, yesterday, I found this firefox add-on that randomly finds a web site based on the interests you select. As such, I found this website on all of the world religions. I started exploring Buddhism and I find it extremely fascinating. It's only barely a religion (in some cases, at least) and it varies incredibly from one culture to the next. There's a form called Pure Land Buddhism in which the practitioners believe that a Buddha, the Amitabha Buddha, from the past made a promise to his guru that, upon enlightenment, he would create a world (the "Pure Land") for all those born after him to go to upon death for instant enlightenment. Essentially, everyone is able to become enlightened, and all that they need to do is have faith in this Buddha in order to achieve it. Similar to Christianity, no?
Here are some facets of Buddhism I find incredibly appealing:
- Emphasis on healthy skepticism: Buddha teaches that you shouldn't accept anything at face value - instead, put it to the test of your own experience and make a determination. This fact is so heavily emphasized that Buddha applies it to his own teachings as well! If you don't feel that something he says is true, test it out, and if it doesn't fit, discard it.
- Your mind is the source of suffering: Because the only thing we know to be true is that we perceive, the source of all suffering is identified as our perceptions. By modifying the way we view things, we can make ourselves happier, and, eventually, enlightened.
- Kinship is key: It's a practice of kindness to everyone - the eightfold path (right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration) will help you not only to become better yourself, but to foster a caring relationship with others as you live your life.
- Disregards the metaphysical: Questions like, "Why are we here?" or "What is answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?" (it's 42, btw :-P) are unimportant. The parable to attend to these questions is as follows: A man is shot with a poisoned arrow, and a doctor rushes to help him. But before he'll let the doctor help him, he insists to know who fired the arrow, how he managed to do so without being caught, why he fired the arrow, etc. The man, continuing to ask such questions succumbs to the poison and dies. The answer lies within in you - don't worry about these larger, unanswerable questions.
I have to go food shopping now, but it's pretty damn amazing.
I've determined I'll do my work at night and enjoy these fucking AWESOME days - the weather has been gorgeous!