Buddhist art and culture

for this inner peace, understanding, and happiness is a primitive instinct. Individuals from all societies have pursued this tranquil mindset in one way or another since the beginning of time, and many have reached it through meditation. The ancient art of meditation has played a role, to some degree, in most of the prominent spiritual traditions on Earth. It has also been shown to improve the mental and physical health of people who practice it. Meditation is defined…

Tattooing has been practiced through many cultures around the world for centuries. It has been used as a symbol of identity and self-expression. Many of these cultures have used tattoos to identify different tribes or military branches, along with family heirlooms or simply because they appreciate the art of ink. Although there are so many different reasons as to why people get tattoos, they are not always so great. In recent history, tattoos have gained the stigma of gang related and deviant…

significant importance surrounding the instability and naturalness of all things. Zen came to Japan in the seventh century but was not completely developed till the twelfth century. Zen became a central influential force in Japanese culture as it reached into more then just Buddhist temples, from gardening and calligraphy to war strategies and practices. The core of the Bodhidharma’s wisdom is that a person does not need to analyze sacred texts, pray to deities,…

Vietnam in 1970. When I was four years old, my mother and two younger sisters died during the Vietnam War. My older sister and I were then sent to be raised by my grandmother, a devoted Buddhist in her 70s, while my father continued his military service. In obedience to my grandmother, I engaged in Buddhist worship. I grew up not only in poverty but also in ignorance of Christianity. In 1987, I escaped the country with my father and we came to the United States as refugees. I then went to…

the effects of the Cultural Revolution were devastating and a crime to humanity, one thing does stand true, without the disaster that was the last ten years of Mao Zedong’s life, we would have no reform. In other words, without the Communist shock culture treatment that was the Revolution, we would not have been able to see the extraordinary economic growth of China in the last 30 years, the gradual decrease in left side extremists, or see the return of Ancient Chinese traditions and the…

faith, traditions, and communities, what could be the foundation and ground for us to begin the discussion. Religious Reading as a Practice of Comparative Theology The contexts for doing comparative theology are various, such as prayer, liturgy, music, art, and religious reading of a particular tradition. Clooney considers, “the foremost prospect for a fruitful comparative theology is the reading of text, preferably scriptural and theological texts that have endured over centuries and millennia,…

While it originates from Buddhist schools of meditation, mindfulness meditation is generally classified as a secular practice in most Western cultures. It is “an underutilized tool to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and pain,” and “has been shown to improve health outcomes, immune system functioning, and quality of life.” Countless studies…

better way than a contained space that can show the repercussions after someone commits a crime or goes through a traumatic experience. Banning theater won’t stop people from seeing bad things or doing immoral things. To ban something important to our culture is not allowing the future to learn from us and setting them back similar to the burning down of the library in Alexandria. You lose a lot when you ban things because it is not written down due to fear and that keeps others away from…

enormous transformation in my life.” She added, “I really jumped the grooves”. After a year short she appointed to teach postcolonial and world literature at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1986 for continuing to write. In her many interview she says about the difficult life of her in Canada. She says, she found herself treated and discriminated against, as a member of the ‘visible minority’. In 1968 she immigrated to…

Rudulfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is about a young protagonist, Antonio and his coming-of-age. The story is also about Ultima, a curandera, who helps Antonio mature by guiding, mentoring and protecting him. The novel succeeds in reflecting Chicano culture of the 1940s in the rural parts of New Mexico, “Guadalupe”. Anaya uses myths, cultural motifs s and curandera customs like the gathering and use of medicinal herbs to show the readers how indigenous cultural traditions can influence people.…