Indian Epics Fall 2019

So as I am finishing up this course I thought what better last assignment than to do a reading of my favorite thing to read in this class, Jatakas. I decided to read another one from the Twenty Jataka tales because that hadsome great ones in it that I thought I would go back and read. This time around i wanted to focus on the swan kingdom story because swans are incredible and they fit perfectly in Indian epics due to how majestic but also mysterious they are. In the beginning of the story it sets the scene by mentioning tons of swans in the area. Picturing this in my head I could see cherry blossoms, a beautiful lake and then the king swan with his silver leaves lying under one of the trees. This picture in my head is what ended up coming true in the story as a new lake was decided to be built by the king and everything that I just mentioned was actually built. After this is where I get a little confused. The lake is built but the king is not at the lake. All of the other swans unde

In the interest in time for this semester, as this will be my last reading notes post, I decided to skip to the end of the book and read the last part. Before the ending of the book, I did want to mention that this book is where my favorite Jataka is from. The story of the crane and the crab. It was by far my favorite and I even wrote a sequel to it to try and tie of any loose ends it may have had. It was a story that Buddha told, and I did not know that originally. Throughout the end of this book, there were many other Jatakas that the Buddha told, but I will not focus on those. I want to focus on when he ascended into Nirvana. The scene that is set in the story is so vivid and I can picture it so well. It talks about two cherry blossoms that are in full bloom, but some of the flowers falling. These are in full bloom even though it is not the season for them. That is just how powerful Buddha is. Ananda, one of his disciples is there and goes to comfort the Buddha, but also he is s

Now that the Buddha has finally become the Buddha, there is still so much left to the story. To begin Part two of the book that is written on the life of Siddhartha, the first Buddha, he is still meditating under the tree of knowledge. From what is written he meditates for four weeks straight. During the even weeks he goes on these "journeys" that I assume are like astral projecting a bit. For the first journey it is a long that that takes him through "all the worlds." I think this journey would be a great way to tell a story because it never elaborates on exactly what happens, so I could go wherever I please with the story. In the fourth week he goes on another journey, but this is one shorter and he travels from coast to coast. I am not sure where exactly this is set, whether it be in India or some fictional land that no longer exists, but I am going to assume India. I think this may be a better story to tell because the journey is shorter and would be much easi

Okay, so I did another typing test. I know it was only a few weeks ago that I did the first one, but not only am i typing lie crazy in this class, I am also typing like crazy at work. We recently have been having to enter hundreds of labels into a database. These tubes do not have actual words on them, rather they have random letters and a date on them that have to be entered correctly. It is not very fun to be typing at a computer for 5 hours at a time, but at least I am getting paid. This is why I decided to redo the tests to see if I have increased in my typing speed. I did not. I was literally the exact same on both websites and the exact same as last time basically. What always trips me up on the typing tests is that I feel the pressure and whenever I mess up I have to go back and fix it without continuing on. I know that a lot of time you can just fix it all after, but I hate seeing those red lines as I type so they need to be taken care of right away. I still think I type well

Siddhartha (the first Buddha) had grown up a prince and was sheltered from the real world for most of his early life. He was even married before getting the explore the world outside of the palace he lived in. One day, The prince wanted to go into the city and see how the people outside of the palace lived. What he did not know is that the king ordered all of the old, sick, poor, and weak people to be taken out of the city. This was done so that the prince would not see the bad things that occurred in the world. While the prince was riding his chariot through the city he was struck with happiness at all of the youth that he saw. The people and buildings were so young and happy. He continued to ride through the city until he saw and old man come out from around the corner. The chariot stopped and the prince saw the old man. He was confused at first by the lack of youthfulness in the man. He asked his adviser if this was normal and he replied that everyone awaits the same fate of old

For this week I decided to read more abut Buddha because I still have not come to the point where he becomes the actual Buddha. This week was interesting because it started off with Siddhartha going away on a pilgrimage away from home to learn the teachings of peace basically. However, when he gets there, he realizes that the man who is teaching him may not know what he is talking about. I was a bit confused by this because the teachings seemed like what I know Buddha for. Subjecting yourself to harsh treatments, but still being able to survive and be calm throughout them. Siddhartha did not agree with these teachings and decided to leave to start his own teachings with meditation. Eventually he came across the Tree of Knowledge and started to meditate there. This caught the eye of the King of Evil, Mara. Mara started to become afraid that he would not be more powerful than the Buddha if he continued to gain wisdom from the tree. The way Mara is described is almost like a beast, but