...Eden’s Draft of essay (without intro and conclusion) Bruce Dawe effectively utilises the poem ‘enter without as much as knocking’ as a tool to explore in depth the not only physical but emotional influences from modern society. Dawes poem is a political and social statement of contemporary culture and the cyclic web of conforming and consumerism that we follow consciously and subliminally. The persona is born into a clinical, inorganic world of ‘Blink, blink. HOSPITAL. SILENCE’, where feelings of isolation and distance are evoked, where loss of connectedness and belonging is created. Dawe comments upon the superficial world we are brought into from the start. Without warning, without consent we are stripped from our innocence and taught what is right and what is “true”. Even from a place of safety, from a haven in a “mothers arms” the allusion of “Bobby Dazzler on channel 7” from the cradle so to speak, introduces the influence of the character and opinions of his modern external world. From the ‘set-up’ of the personas life individuality is robbed as he becomes part of a stereotypical family where reality is superficial and abiding family and society norms begins control. The frame work of this conformed civilization compel the persona to exist as a commodity of a nuclear family that runs all too often on the middle class dictates of consumerism, wealth and keeping up with Jones image. Even as a child, within his family he is introduced into a world of control...
Words: 1241 - Pages: 5
...human life which are called the four purusharthas. The four purusharthas are: Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Moksha. In Sanskrit, ‘Dharma’ means one's destiny or purpose. In general, it refers to one's vocation or career. Dharma also means righteousness, duty-conscious, being virtual, living morally and ethically at all times. Artha is prosperity, wealth, money or success in worldly pursuits. In addition to leading a virtuous life that meets specific social and personal obligations, a Hindu should strive for success, in any given activity through lawful means within the bounds of dharma. Kama means the physical, emotional, and intellectual desires of a person. As stated in bhagavad gita, “he who performs his prescribed duties out of desire in the right manner will obtain the fulfilment of all the desires and reach the deathless state”. Moksha, the ultimate end of every Hindu's life, can be understood in a variety of ways: liberation from rebirth, enlightenment, Self-realization, or union with God. This is considered to be the highest purpose of life. A person who overcomes desires and therefore gains enlightenment can achieve moksha. Daoism (Taoism) For Taoism, the meaning in life for the adherents is to realize the temporal nature...
Words: 1002 - Pages: 5
...beings, good beings or bad beings, happy beings or unhappy beings, wise beings or ignorant beings, but we cannot give happiness to others nor can we make other beings to become happy. If one can give happiness to others or can make another being to become happy, then there shouldn't be any beings being unhappy in the world, because we can just give happiness to everyone and make everyone happy. But it doesn't work like that. Not even Buddha nor any enlightened beings can make another being to become happy or to become enlightened. If it is so easy, we can just ask for happiness or enlightenment and be happy forever and be enlightened. It is all come from within ourselves. Happiness or enlightenment, it is up to our own efforts to realize them within ourselves. It cannot be given or be bought from someone else. All the teachers and teachings are there to guide us to attain true happiness and enlightenment by our own effort. When beings are unhappy, have no peace in the heart, the mind is full of attachment, ignorance, anger, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, dissatisfaction, frustration, disappointment, doubt, fear and worry, the mind is feeling depressed and unhappy, then no matter how sincere we want to share joy and happiness with them, they will still be unhappy. We can give them what they want and tell funny stories that might make them feel good and happy for a few moments, but we can't really give them happiness or remove their unhappiness. Everyone has to...
Words: 3190 - Pages: 13
...Brendan Wu This World and the Next Kevin Goldstein November 29, 2014 A Thoreau Examination of Materialism In Walden, Thoreau admonishes society for succumbing to material desires and forsaking greater, more worthy pursuits like knowledge and self-reliance; similarly, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick creates a world where dependence on material possessions causes society to sacrifice its humanity and ultimately creates irreversible ruin. Yet both authors acknowledge that material items are important, with Thoreau depending on things like his house and his field for survival, and Dick introducing pet animals and empathy boxes as possessions that heighten human experience rather than suppress it. Thoreau and Dick argue that material possessions themselves have the potential to make powerful and positive impacts. It is the unchecked desire for material possessions that leads to societal decline and unhappiness. Throughout Walden, Thoreau is largely critical of materialism, venturing into the solitude of Walden Pond for two years partly to escape society’s preoccupation with material possessions. In the beginning of “Economy,” he observes young townsmen strapped with large inheritances and comments that having a massive farm, which is typically perceived as a sign of prosperity, only creates obligations and forces its inhabitants to spend their entire lives toiling, whereas owning a meager plot of land both allows for self-sufficiency and provides time to explore...
Words: 1969 - Pages: 8
...during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and acts as a medium for Wordsworth to voice his beliefs pertaining to the world that surrounded him. Humans, on their journey towards evolution, have been distancing themselves from spiritual pursuits to be lured by the never-ending thirst for wealth. Wordsworth is a poet...
Words: 1575 - Pages: 7
...Ashley Colvin REL 212: World Religion Instructor: Joel Goldstein Week 10: Buddhist Buddhism is a major global religion with a complex history and system of beliefs. Buddhism has been described as a very pragmatic religion. It does not indulge in metaphysical speculation about first causes; there is no theology, no worship of a deity or deification of the Buddha. Buddhism takes a very straightforward look at our human condition; nothing is based on wishful thinking, at all. Historian’s estimate that the founder of Buddhism was named Siddhartha Gautama, and he lived from 566(?) to 480(?) B.C. Siddhartha Gautama was believed to be the son of an Indian warrior-king, Gautama led an extravagant life through early adulthood, reveling in the privileges of his social caste. But when he became bored of the indulgences of royal life, Gautama wandered into the world in search of understanding. After encountering an old man, an ill man, a corpse and an ascetic, Gautama was convinced that suffering lay at the end of all existence. He renounced his princely title and became a monk, depriving himself of worldly possessions in the hope of comprehending the truth of the world around him. The culmination of his search came while meditating beneath a tree, where he finally understood how to be free from suffering, and ultimately, to...
Words: 1739 - Pages: 7
...Matrix of Mind Reality Enoch Tan – Creator of Mind Reality Discover The Greatest Secrets Of The Mind And Reality That Will Get You Anything You Desire, Almost Like Magic! If you want to FINALLY experience the COMPLETE Manifestation of All the Miracles, Success, Wealth, Health, Love and Happiness that you have always dreamed of… then register as member of Mind Reality now! Go here now to discover how to become a Mind Reality Member: ==>http://www.MindReality.com/specialoffer.html © Mind Reality Introduction Preview more of Secrets of Mind and Reality through the Free Newsletter: http://www.mindreality.com/secrets.html Mind Reality contains Universal Secrets that govern every area of life and reality. The deeper the knowledge, the more powerful the knowledge. The more powerful your knowledge, the easier it is to achieve success, because deep, powerful knowledge is the key to inspired thinking and finding intelligent solutions to problems. This book answers a great many questions that you've always been curious about such as: What is the nature of all reality and how the universe really works? Why gaining understanding and truth will get you everything you ever wanted? Why purchasing spiritual knowledge will tremendously accelerate your progress in life? And plenty more incredible knowledge inside.... The VERY reason why I created this free ebook with SOME of my articles is to give a preview of the immense QUALITY and QUANTITY information on Mind Reality. What you get...
Words: 11649 - Pages: 47
...answers to three of the most common questions humans face today. These common questions are: 1. What should we strive for, and how do we achieve this goal? 2. What makes us special if anything? 3. What tends to go wrong in the pursuit of our goal? Aristotle teaches, “everyone aims, ultimately, for eudaimonia”. Eudaimonia is the Greek term, which means human flourishing. For the ancient Greeks, the term flourishing relates to one being successful in life. “Aristotle realizes, of course, that there are many different opinions about just what eudaimonia is” (to be successful). “In order to sort through these opinions, separating the plausible from the true, Aristotle discerns three preconditions for a proper understanding of eudaimonia”. “According to Aristotle, whatever eudaimonia is, it must be such as to be final, self sufficient, and the end of action”. In order for eudaimonia to be final, it cannot be achieved for the sake of something else. This means that our goal of achieving eudaimonia should not serve to meet another goal. A good example of a non-final goal would be one setting their goal to make a million dollars. However, the only reason they want a million dollars is so they can buy their dream car. Because they only want the money in order to get something else with it, this would be considered a goal for the sake of something of something else. In other words, our goals have to serve a purpose to fulfill a final result. In order for eudaimonia to be...
Words: 2230 - Pages: 9
...Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift I/ Introduction A. Writer: Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift is the greatest satirist in the history of English literature. He was the contemporary of Steele, Addison, Defoe and other English enlightens of the early period; however he stood apart from them. The greatest satirist in the history of English of the bourgeois life came to the negation of the bourgeois society. Swift's art had a great effect on the further development of English and European literature. The main features of his artistic method, such as hyperbole, grotesque, generalization, irony, were widely used by the English novelist, the dramatists, by the French writers, by the Russian writers and others. Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He studied theology at Trinity College at the age of fourteen and graduated in 1688. He became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician and member of the Whig party, at the age of 21. At Moor Park, Sir William’s estate, Swift made friend with Hester Johnson, the daughter of one of Temple’s servants. His letters to her, written in 1710 – 1713, were later published in the form of a book under the title of Journal to Stella, the name he poetically called Hester. In 1692, Swift took his Master of Arts Degree at Oxford University. In 1694, he had begun to write satires on the political and religious corruption surrounding him, working on A Tale of a Tub, which supports the position of the Anglican...
Words: 4913 - Pages: 20
...began drifting away from religion, centuries ago, each has dreamed of subsuming the other. Scientists, in their boldest moments, speak of explaining away all the mysteries by empirical inquiry, leaving no need for ancient wisdom. And the faithful, fervently believing in spiritual forces unmeasurable by any meter, find it absurd that God's children would aspire to heaven solely by building telescopes and computers -- scientific Towers of Babel. They have longed for a reality beyond the shadowplay of the material realm. Left between these extremes are many people who are both scientific and religious, and confused about whether a bridge can ever cross the divide. Every few decades, this hope for reconciliation, or ''dialogue,'' experiences a revival. The most recent may be the biggest, with books, conferences and television shows trying to find a common ground between two fundamentally different ways of thinking about the world. In the 1970's scholars tried to merge science with Eastern religion; the emphasis now is on rejoining science with monotheistic, usually Christian, faith. Not all the work is motivated by religious passion. In his new best-selling book, ''Consilience'' (Knopf), the Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson tries to revive the Enlightenment dream of a unified system of knowledge that would embrace not only the sciences but also morality and ethics, removing them from the uncertainties of religion. Here the effort is not to make science spiritual but to make religion...
Words: 2455 - Pages: 10
...A Brief Look at Happiness If nothing else, one thing can be said about happiness: If individuals are happy and they know they are happy, they should clap their hands. While the intent of this simple statement is merely to amuse children, developing true happiness is thought by many to be very difficult. Also, happiness is often falsely recognized and misinterpreted. Therefore, being truly happy and knowing you are truly happy are very loaded concepts. The object of this paper is to analyze and compare the thoughts of three philosophers’ whose remarks on happiness have been most influential for centuries after their time. They are Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Although I do not have the perfect understanding of happiness and believe no one does, I believe that each of their approaches to happiness hold a common theme that must be inconsistent with true happiness. They base happiness ultimately on self fulfillment. One of the earliest to ask the question ‘what is happiness?’ was Aristotle, who, in a manner typical of philosophers, before providing an answer insisted on making a distinction between two different questions. His first question was what was meant by the word ‘happiness’—or rather, its ancient Greek equivalent eudaimonia. His second question was where happiness was to be found, that is to say, what is it that makes us truly happy? Reasonably enough he thought that it was futile to try to answer the second question without having given thought to...
Words: 3294 - Pages: 14
...2010 Chen and Miller 17 E X C H A N G E West Meets East: Toward an Ambicultural Approach to Management By Ming-Jer Chen and Danny Miller Executive Overview In the aftermath of the recent economic crisis, the world is looking for fresh ideas and new perspectives. Business reality has transformed from “West leads East” to “West meets East.” A thriving Chinese business culture represents not only a source of economic partnership but a potential fount of managerial wisdom that can help renew Western economies. Unfortunately, the cultural distance between East and West makes Chinese examples too different, and at times inappropriate, for Western firms to emulate. Outstanding entrepreneurs such as Stan Shih, who have taken the best managerial practices from the East and the West while avoiding the shortcomings, represent ideal “intermediate” role models. By employing such an “ambicultural” approach to management, Shih provides a model for both bridging cultures and instructing organizations in the East and West. In this essay, we discuss these linkages and some of the useful lessons for managers from both cultures. Indeed, “Chinese” as a way of thinking, with its emphasis on balance and self-other integration, offers the promise to bridge global divides and facilitate the formation of global-minded executives. T he global economic crisis has destroyed vast amounts of wealth— both public and private— and eliminated tens of millions of jobs...
Words: 5093 - Pages: 21
...Shakir Hussain Instructor: Dr. Hossain Al Mamun Reg # 2009236059 ENG 416 – Literature in Translation 4th Year 1st Semester Department of English September 2, 2013. Metaphor and Meaning: A Re-reading of The Prophet Abstract: The purpose of this study has been to investigate the metaphors and meaning in Kahlil Gibran’s (1883-1931) literary work The Prophet. Kahlil Gibran speaks in metaphors; perhaps that is the only way to speak about the truth. Through metaphor he gives indirect glimpses and spreads his philosophy of life. Every word in this book is a metaphor. Metaphors are used in this text to accelerate and enhance the meaning. The Prophet through its metaphors provides timeless spiritual wisdom on a range of subjects, including giving, eating and drinking, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, teaching, time, pleasure, religion, death, beauty and friendship. Corresponding to each chapter are evocative drawings by Gibran himself. Key Words: Metaphors, Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, and Philosophy of Life. Kahlil Gibran is said to be the ‘People’s Philosophy’. Gibran’s The Prophet is a metaphor for the mystery of life. The author seeks the help of metaphoric language in order to present the confluence of philosophy and religion, experience and expectation, desire and duality of human life. The combination of poetic and prosaic style of this book is beautified by the use of many figures of speech. The passages of this book speak to soul....
Words: 2510 - Pages: 11
...Bhagavad Gita : A Motivational Management Book by M.P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner, to The Govt. of Kerala. Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita Old truths in a new context The source of the problem Utilisation of available resources Work commitment Motivation – self and self-transcendence Work culture Work results Manager's mental health Management needs those who practice what they preach In conclusion A note on the word "yoga". Abstract One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita which is considered to be one of the first revelations from God. The spiritual philosophy and management lessons in this holy book were brought in to light of the world by many great Indian saint's effort and they call the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides "all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level." Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Your followers in your establishment are continuing the mission by keeping this lantern burning always knowing the wishes of the modern generations. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.( Mental health has become a major international public health concern now). To motivate him the Bhagavad-Gita is preached in the battle...
Words: 8694 - Pages: 35
...I-Introduction: The term "realism" was first used to formulate the philosophical doctrine that "universals exist outside of the mind" (Freyberg-Inan, 1). Yet, in political theory, "realism" represents a school of thought that analyzes the political process as it is or as it is disclosed by historical forces " ... that the able political practitioner takes into account ... and incorporates ... into his political conceptions and his political acts "(Ibid, 1-2). In the field of international relations, realism became the dominant analytical paradigm mostly after the start of the Second World War, when it displaced idealist doctrines, promising "to provide more accurate information, more powerful, and more relevant answers" to the roots or causes of peace and war (Brecher& Harvey, 54). At the same time, many features of the current realist paradigm can be traced back to the time of Thucydides, Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. Among contemporary thinkers recognized as major writers and contributors to the realist tradition are Hans Morgenthau, Edward Carr and Kenneth Waltz (Freyberg-Inan, 8). What are then the basic tenets or common features of a realist thinker? Machiavelli would acknowledge that to be a realist one has to look at history as "a sequence of cause and effect whose course can be analysed and understood by intellectual effort, but not directed by imagination" (Carr, 64). Hobbes would persist in the same train of thought and insist that to be a realist thinker...
Words: 17639 - Pages: 71
