Asceticism

which cannot be controlled by us. However, we need the power of Yoga to attain this distinction.” Patanjala Yoga Sutra has defined yoga as a control of the modification of mind. Yoga, in general terms, refers to the Hindu system of meditation and asceticism, aiming at a union of the devotee’s soul with the universal spirit. In other words, it means attaining the supreme state in life. Patanjali introduced “ashtang Yoga sutras proposing eight basic yoga types. These eight Yoga forms are as…

At the first several decades when the umma was established in Arabia, the society was less chaotic than before, but it was not stable enough. Due to the harsh natural environment, previously divided political and religious circumstances, and lack of discipline, there were still unstable factors that would do harm to the harmony of the newly formed society. There were robbers plundering food and money, licentious people indulgent in sex, discontented people planning to divide the umma and thus…

Those under the rule of the Taiping lived under strict rules that were “on paper and often in practice, startlingly radical” (Spence 176). For example, strict asceticism required the “segregation of sexes an absolute bans on opium smoking, prostitution, dancing, and drinking of alcohol” (Spence 176). They also had fundamental principles concerning families that everyone had to follow. For example, the eldest sister…

Parmigianino (c. 1503-1540) was one of the most gentle and graceful artist of the Italian painters. His style was mainly influenced by Correggio and later influenced by Raphael. His works, whether painted or copper prints, had a great influence on Italy and Northern Europe. We can find that most of his paintings have slender necks and hands. This characteristic has the meaning s of anti-religious reform. "Madonna with the Long Neck" is an example of this. "Madonna with the Long Neck" is an oil…

In this analysis, I have chosen two articles written by two great American writers from the early 1960s. From James Baldwin, I have chosen “As Much truth as One can Bear” and from Philip Roth, “Writing American Fiction”, both criticisms and diatribes against the literary culture of that era. Both writers make claims about the duty every writer has to the culture they live in, and it is these claims that make their points of view both reassuring and persuasive. In both Baldwin’s and Roth’s…

Nancy Scheper-Hughes paints a vivid picture of the village folk living in “Ballybran”, once vital, now desolate and isolated by lack of economic opportunity and diminishing population growth. As a psychological anthropologist, she seeks deeper answers, attempting to identify psychological and cultural root causes of anomie and despair in the people living in rural Ireland. She explains multiple reasons for both their anomie and extremely high rates of mental illness which lie in shrinking…

In the span of fifteen hundred years, Eastern and Western Christianity had comparatively been influenced by Jesus’ teachings. The ideology of Jesus Christ included his virginal birth, his death, and resurrection. With this in mind, some of the important reoccurring issues in understanding both concerns for the East and West are founded in the sacramental and liturgical practices. Christ’s death and “resurrection became koinonia: or communion, fellowship, or the church [p. 33, Vol. 1].” The…

Humanity use religions as an alternative to explain the unexplainable, at times disregarding certain aspects of scientific studies about the natural world. They give hope to the living and comfort to the dying. The human brain attempts to make sense of the world around us through categorizing and compartmentalizing information for processing. This is what drove ancient civilizations to incorporate the worshipping of deities in day to day life. They did not have the ability nor the resources to…

If he hollers let him go, is an essay by Rachel Ghansah. It is a review of political, personal, and family reasons of Dave Chapelle, famous American comedian, to move back to his hometown yellow spring Ohio. When his career and popularity was on the peak, he left his stand up show and moved, though he appeared on TV and gave some official interview later. According to some critics, it was more emotional decision, than thoughtful. Rachel Ghansah was trying to find out Dave’s true motives. It is…

sharing, emotion, body, trust, absence of hierarchy, nature, immanence, process, joy, peace, and life” instead of solely masculine ones such as “independence, autonomy, intellect, will, wariness, hierarchy, domination, culture, transcendence, product, asceticism, war and death”, an ethical view can be applied for real world…