Indian Epics Fall 2019

I am currently finishing up the class and I need 2 more points to get the 410 points that I need for an A. At the same time I have 13 minutes to write this post, find an image for it and post it. I think I should be able to do that because I am going to be rambling on about how I regret how I treated this course and wish I stayed on top of things. It really is not that hard to do well in this course. You do the assignments and you get full points. It was completely my fault for getting behind. There was no reason for it either. Two days ago I sat down and did like four posts and got plenty of points in like an hour or twos time. It is not that hard. Now I have 11 minutes and I am starting to panic a bit. I still have to find a image. I should use one that just says "stupid" because that is how I feel about myself right now. Instead of doing this last night like I said I was going to do, I ended up going to a party. So when I woke up this morning I remembered that I needed...

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...