Navigating the Path

2022 so far has been an interesting tale for me.  I'll spare you readers its downside and will instead focus on some things that have been particularly enlightening as I've navigated its path.  First, the books that I've read this year have all contributed well toward expanding my vision to see what life is about from many different perspectives, though there is a common theme here as you will see:

Doerr, Anthony. Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

  • We see the world from ancient Greek times all the way into the postapocalyptic future.  The characters' struggles all form links from one story to the next through this epic thread as they learn things that bring them great wisdom toward understanding that their world views have been greatly mistaken or greatly misguided but ultimately transcendent.

Simon & Schuster's editor endorses Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cameron, Peter. What Happens at Night. Catapult Books, 2020. https://books.catapult.co/books/what-happens-at-night/

  • Another series of episodes in which the characters' world view changes profoundly as they find themselves in a strange land in the middle of a snowstorm, and their bearings never quite arrive.  What they think they want, what they find, and what they learn define their destination.
Clegg, Bill. Did You Ever Have a Family. Simon & Schuster, 2015. 

The cover of Clegg's book, very mysterious...
  • Characters navigate through the unexpected and find a way to create new families that they never would have imagined.  They find what truly matters when all is upended and reforms.
Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2001.
  • The ultimate version of a character whose entire worldview is changed as he encounters the vast possibilities and the illusions of the material world upended in his path toward enlightenment, meeting a most unexpected Guide.  A life primer for a great many, including Gandhi.
The last of these books formed the cornerstone for a class I took this year about Eastern philosophies, which also led to this blog.  It also informed my class project/presentation about how humanitarianism had an impact in the course of Eastern philosophy through history.  What I liked best about the project is that it reinforced my perspective to consider how the cultures in the East worked toward the greater good of humankind, and what sorts of setbacks and leaps forward occurred along the way, and why.  I spent at least a good ten hours on this project since it required me to build a technical proficiency that I didn't have before.

The class for me was a big book that I'd never opened and never gained an impression of before.  My expectations were almost entirely unformed other than a few movies I'd seen and one visit to a Zen monastery.  What I wanted out of the course is what I gained, which is a grounding in the basics as a foundation to learn more and have some good points of reference as I discover more. I enjoyed this class quite a bit and learned a lot about the Eastern history and cultures as well as its philosophies. Especially enjoyable to me were the treasure hunts and museum visits with a huge inventory of artworks and architecture and other points of reference to illustrate the East and its history from a philosophical lens. I also learned the basics about putting together blogs, slide shows, and reference sources from JSTOR and summarizing them in the MLA format.  I'm quite grateful to have taken this class, though I wish that I'd had more time to spend to learn more about its subjects.  It has definitely increased my interest in these areas that I intend to explore much more.

WORKS CITED

Cameron, Peter. What Happens at Night. Catapult Books, 2020.

Clegg, Bill. Did You Ever Have a Family. Simon & Schuster, 2015. 

Doerr, Anthony. Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel. Simon & Schuster, 2021

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2001.

Simon & Schuster Books. "Nan Graham on CLOUD CUCKOO LAND: Why We Love It" YouTube, September 13, 2021. Accessed 17 May. 2022.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Religion and Culture Along the Silk Road: East and West, Pro and Con

Image
    This blog entry compares and contrasts the approach of two sources covering cultural and religious development in China along the Silk Road during its early and middle stages, emphasizing the impact that foreign travelers had in bringing ways of life and faith that would otherwise have taken much longer to reach China.  A broad overview from author Patrick Bresnan in Chapter Sixteen of   Awakening: A History of Eastern Thought   covers several varieties of Buddhism that developed in China's Tarim Basin near the Silk Road . A less detailed approach covering the history of the Silk Road and its mix of cultures and religions in China is the subject of the video   The Silk Road: Where East Met West, which is much more greatly focused on the culture and its elements of trade instead of its religions.  For example, the video covers several influences the Muslims left behind that remain thriving in places like Xi'an.  ( Silk , 7:47-8:46)   ...
Read more

Dissent and Accord: Buddhism's First Schools After Buddha

Image
Buddhism began in a way that was easily accessible, through Buddha's storytelling and teachings from his mouth to his followers' ears.   Buddha's followers needed only to listen to the stories  that they were being told, then apply the lessons of those stories to their everyday lives.  Of course Buddha was a master storyteller who inspired a great many followers.  Following Buddha's death in the early fifth century BCE, several Buddhist traditions flourished.  Of these traditions, only Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, sharers of the basic concepts of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, survived with any strength and prevalence.  However, this was not something that developed easily or without consternation and disagreement, and it took from Buddha's death until 80 BCE for the schools to converge and reach some sort of consensus at the Great Council and then reach an accommodating eventual coexistence: "The old Hindu ways were making ...
Read more

Confucianism and Daoism

Image
 When we look at Confucianism and consider its common ground with Daoism as well as its differences, we see history, core ideas and similar objectives that tie the two philosophies together. Both arose from the desire for order, peace and harmony after long periods of war and chaos. Both parted ways in how they approached the idea of whether people should treat each other as equals, and how that approach affects basic human interaction. To understand both philosophies better, we first need to look at a concept that preceded them: the Mandate of Heaven. As described by author Patrick Bresnan in Awakening: A History of Eastern Thought , "The Mandate of Heaven refers to the belief that the earthly king presides as something of  a steward to the gods. His rule is legitimate only so long as he fulfills the will of heaven, which is to say, to govern wisely and well, in the interest of all. If he allows selfish interest to replace concern for the common good, he will lose the Mandate...
Read more