I hope you have enjoyed reading your book this quarter. I look forward to reading your reflections. Please do not summarize the book. Present your thoughts and insights on the text. Happy postings! Peace.
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Anonymous
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Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier
The book I read is a story about a Native American Leonard Peltier, who was put into prison for defending his rights and wrongfully accused of killing FBI agents.
TRUTHFULLY: To me, at least, this is not the story of one man, but everyone's story because Leonard Peltier was imprisoned for being who he was. This story is a struggle that has been in existence since governments were created in the world. It is known to many, but not really known.
Yes, we heard of everyday people being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, but it makes you think doesn't it? That injustice is presented to all people-not just blacks, whites, hispanics, indians, or asian-EVERYONE. People in the world are being persecuted for being WHO THEY ARE. Here we are living life under a government that is said to be democratic or a land with equal oppurtunities for all men. Is it really equal or free when we have to listen to one person to run the country?
This book just makes me think. It checks reality. Slavery, struggle for justice and freedom, is FOREVER. At times reading through the book, I felt like it will never be solved, but then I stopped because Leonard Peltier is a man, who's compassion and beliefs in a "Being," is unchanging and has a loving heart. He is HOPE.
Now that is amazing. Leonard Peltier, a white people's name that was given to him, has so much courage, hope, and unwavering passion, and divine forgiveness to all those who persecuted him.
Here's a little background history for you guys. Peltier was part of a AIM (American Indian Movement) that fought the government for their rights and freedom at Wounded Knee in 1973. Three FBI agents came armed with guns to scare off the Indians and Peltier was one of the brave men to defend their people. The Indians had weapons as well, but only to scare off the FBI agents. A few FBI agents were killed amongst the gunfire and the government captured and put Peltier to trial with false evidence. They forced a woman to lie in court so that he would go to jail. His sentence is until 2041. He was 31 when put into prison..you do the math.
Now Peltier is writing about his life in prison - the treatment and abuse that goes on. And talks about history. The history of his people and his own life history leading up to the brawl at Wounded Knee.
There were a few quotes that hit me:
"We are oridinary. We are human. The Creator made us this way Imperfect.INadequate.Ordinary.Be thankful you weren't cursed with perfection. If you were perfect there'd be nothing for you to achieve with you life. Imperfection is the source of every action. This is both our curse and blessing as human beings. Our very imperfection makes a holy life possible. We're not supposed to be perfect. We're suppose to be useful."
It makes me think of Brother Stanislaus with Marcellin Champagnat. We are ordinary people, but with extraoridinary talents. And its true if we were perfect. We'd be God. But we aren't. Because we're born with original sin and imperfections we search for a greater purpose and strive for achievement. We look for God.
Leonard Peltier while in jail has done so much. He has created programs to help everyone. He has adopted and funded families in Central American countries. And so much more from being in jail. Here we are...with our so called freedom...and have hardly done anything. Is it safe to say that perhaps we ahve hardly lived? We are caught up in our own lives and our own pain and suffering...our own anger towards each other....that we forget about those around us. Those without a voice or have a voice but people refuse to listen. Maybe we should start listening and stop talking.
Life is hard, but doing something to help others and being selfless. Basically, making yourself a living sacrifice is worth having life. To help others. It's hard, but we don't have to do it alone. And we can start with CIW. We all need a little push from each other.
Mostly, like Leonard Peltier, let us have hope and not detest anyone for doing us wrong. Try to make things right.
"Difference - Let us love not only our sameness but our unsameness. In our difference is our strength. Let us be not for ourselves alone but also for that Other who is our deepest self.
Forgiveness - Let us forgive the worst among us becuase the worst is in ourselves, the worst lives in each of us, along with the best."
My book was on a former black panther. In history some people consider the black panthers criminals. By reading this book that not the case. I learend a lot from this book about the black panthers. The panthers was a civil rights group who belived in solving every thing in vilents. yes its but they did it for all the right reasson and that they wanted to change an unfair socity into a fair and equal socity. Before me other former pace students read this book befor me and you have geten different opinions every time. But to me reading this book is like reading the history of my people befor me. And i think we should read more books like this.
Part One: The book I chose to read for Pastoral Ministry is called “A Book of Spiritual Exercises” by Anthony de Mello. I chose it because the meditations are written almost as a living poem that speaks to you as you read it. The first one that really spoke to me is called “The Revolution.” In the meditation, I am sitting there with Jesus and he asks me to “condense the good news into three or four sentences.” How can I say everything I feel is good news in Christ in less than a paragraph? How can this author expect his reader to? I wasn’t able to do it, but it turns out that was ok because the next meditation-“The Darkness”- allowed me to see just how amazing the good news is. This exercise reminds us that there is a Pharisee in each of us, ready to come out in the smallest sign of weakness and be cruel to the unknown or the different. Now, after the incident with Andres, I see the end of this meditation as even more powerful. Even with the Pharisee in us, Jesus says, “You are precious to my heart.” As I go deeper into the book, I reach the exercise called “The King,” which talks about Jesus crucifixion. We’ve always been taught that his death saved us from sin, yet de Mello brings out another important meaning to His death: freedom and liberation. He beat sin and those who killed Him by giving up his life. Now we live through Him, yet we are still alive and in “slavery.” Now it is our turn to face social, emotional, and spiritual pressures and beat them, just as out role model did. Then I read “The Lord” and a new thought came to me as a continuous from “The King”: does His freedom add a burden to our oppression? Do we feel His teachings are a cross? To me the answer is: if it is, then it is one I will gladly carry. But, I think there are many who see it as a burden that they can’t get away from without being seen as a sinner, or going to Hell. Luckily for them, if they read “The Promise,” they will see that even though pain is inevitable, when He returns, “your hearts will filled with joy and no one will be able to take that joy from you.” I want to add this excerpt because I feel its power. Ashley, I think you will like this. From “The Redemption”: “It is difficult to absolve a person whose offene I see as being a total evil. The fact is his offense has done me good. He was an instrument used by God to bring me grace, as Judas was an instrument used by God to bring grace to humanity and Jesus Christ.”
Hagakure The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
This book lead me and challenge me to look back on my life, my morals, and the everything I have learned. As I read I was intrigued by the teachings on etiquette and violence. Violence was only a discipline. I was interested in the manner in which men carried themselves and how women were viewed. The philosophy posed to me about men was, A man is to love his master above all, then the women’s philosophy was to love there husbands as their husbands love their masters. A man was to give his life for his master meaning if his master was killed he would commit seppuku, suicide. The man or husband would die along with his master in reverence. Since there is nothing left to live for kill yourself. I was really taken back by the seppuku that constantly went on. For every incident someone would kill themselves. I thought life was important, but etiquette was more at this time. If a man made a fool of someone, the one made a fool would kill provoker, thus the killer would commit suicide. It is crazy. It brought me to the incident that happened in school. If it was back in the times of the samurai that student would have died and the attacker would then kill himself.
Japan was based upon respect and if you did not carry that respect you were either named a coward, asked to commit seppuku or exiled. Many crazy philosophies were encountered by my mind which boggled me. This encountered was awkward as I read about homosexuality. Yes it is gay, but it created comradery. No I would rather be an outcast. The author’s of the book states that a man was recommended to stay with a man for five to seven years and then get married. That meant have anal sex with a man and they have intercourse with a women. Upon reading a quote that a man said about homosexuality popped out. “ It is both pleasant and unpleasant.”
I have always been fascinated with Japanese culture and have loved it since I was a child. I felt that I wanted to have a sword in my hand and fight the way a samurai does. It was a dream I had, but now that my mind has evolved and I have learned new things like “morals,” I turn towards a more peaceful and reasonable way of life. A lifestyle that if mixed with these absurd philosophies and teachings they might make sense in a different sort of context.
Mixing religion with the philosophy on men and women would be as follows, A man should love God above all and a women should love her man with the same love the man has for God. A better view. A man should give his life for his master; a man should give his life for God. Committing seppuku- taking your life away from the path your were on to the path of the cross. I learned about appearance and that no matter where one goes or one is his appearance must be great. The same way we use this teaching to go out someone where nice we must dress for church and want to feel and look good for God. The book was awesome. It is the best book I have read in a while.
Part 2: "The Symphony" is probably my favorite meditation on death. In it, I am watching my body decompose, disintegrate, and disappear into ash, while sporatically viewing the beautiful day and the people living and having fun. It gave me the sense that I am a small part of a vast universe, not only in the human sense, but in the Catholic sense as well. Here's another powerful excerpt, this time from a love exercise called "The Education." "Jesus uncovers by his look the love, the honesty, and goodness that hides in every human being." "Where I see malice, he sees ignorance...Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.""-he uncompromisingly condemns my sin, but stubbornly refuses to condemn the sinner." The last section is Silence, and in this section I was truly able to do what the exercise wanted. In "The Mirror," it says: "Observe, also, the infintesimal pause before the air flows in and the fraction of a space before the air flows out." I have never noticed that there is a very little amount of time between breathing in and out that all is still. After reading these exercises, I realized that taking for granted anything is a lot more detrimental to our lives than we think. So in the end, I'll leave you with one last quote:"Nothing has changed except my attitude - so everything has changed.-The Enlightenment
When I first started reading the book I didn’t get it but after reading the first exercise I was hooked because it was actually true that we are always worried about are thoughts, past and are future an nothing else that is why is really hard to almost impossible for us to reach true and complete silence at any point in are lives that also means that we cant enter in true peace and serenity with out it and this book was created to give us exercise to do in are lives so we can reach that level of true peace and serenity that we wouldn’t really be able to reach that easy with out it. So with these exercise it helps us to only concentrate on are surrounds and are body and nothing else so that we really reach a true and complete level of peace and serenity so that we can increase are relationship with God and also to really be able to hear what he wants us to do for him wit out any complications at all. The writer even takes times to separate it in sections so you don’t have to over exert yourself in trying to reach that silence that we all long for and then you can see hoe in your progression in reading the book and doing the exercises it gets easier for you to do what the writer asks you do that it ends up becoming second nature and some of the stuff that he asks you to do you might already do in a regular basics and he just helps you to see what you do in a different way that will leave like dam bro you right and I would never notice that before with out you telling me that it can be seen that way as well. In the book the writer say the best way to pray that is like the best way or more manful is a prayer from your heart instead of something that you got off of the top of your head because if its from heart that means that you actually mean it and care about it then you just saying it because it popped up in your head because of something that you saw, heard or read.
"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can." I was hooked from then on. The novel "Life of Pi" is fabulous. He writes as if he was talking to us. I could relate to the way he was made fun of for his name. I wasn't as bad as him, but it still getting picked on. I also love the way he uses the zoo to explain different situations. I never realized how much in common we actually have or how closely we try to change things to our liking. It's funny how he brings up his atheist teacher. That he was his favorite and how he has so much respect for scientist. They have faith, tremendous faith, but in science. It's funny how dramatic things like that change us. He studied zoology along with pastoral ministry which is ironic in a way. How we aren't suppose to believe all of what has come out of science.
The way he explains his faith is breaht taking. He has so much passion for it. He need no words, just actions. Prayer, worship, and dedication bring him to God. He may be Hindu, Christian, and Islamic, but in his heart it's all the same. Faith has no label and neither does God. I completely agree with him here. The way you worship God is true to you. You should label God, he didn't label you. He may have called you his but there is no question about it. To me, faith and religion shouldn't have categories. It'll all the same. In the end, God is God, no matter how many forms of him you believe in. We as Catholics can't be the elite religion because aren't. Neither are the others. "Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims."
Great quote. Trully it is. How he intertwines the religions in a quirky way.
I love the way he became intrigued with the Christian faith. I also loved the way he got confused at who was the God. Comprehending on why you would sacrifice your son is pretty big, especially if you try to do it in the shoes of Jesus. He gets so into it. I'm envious at his passion for knowledge. How he gets so consumed by religion.
This book is full of unexpected surprises, but helps you find your place with your religion. You don't need a title, you just need faith.
Well, the book I read was is a book of many different parables. The whole layout of the book is pretty cool. It takes place in a tattoo shop in Jerusalem. The narrator of the story is an Ethiopian tattooist, telling the story to a pilgrim man. The pilgrim man is considering getting a tattoo, and the tattooist tells him to sit down while he tells him some stories. This is when the little parables start. 22 parables are told and at the end, the pilgrim man says he wants tattoos, but the tattooist says he has invisible tattoos all over his body, which are the tattoos from the parables.
All of these parables had some kind of amazing moral, and that is what I enjoyed most. One thing that took me a while to get used to, though, was the unrealistic, fantasy type stories. When I read some of the parables, I immediately thought of the stories in the Bible, and then I realized that that is exactly what Edward Hays intended to do. He added little twists to his own stories and in a way modified them, I thought that was a very creative effect to the whole book. The parable "The Mirror of God" reminded me of the creation story and how God created us humans in his image. I like how this parable used mirrors as a symbol of the way we see ourselves. The way we see our souls depends on us, if we are really true to ourselves and our morals. "If you see your true image - your true image - you do not lose your soul."
While all the parables were amazing, there were a few that really stood out to me, and I'll talk about those because it would be too much if wrote about every single one of them. My favorite one is "The Soul Dream". I know that if everyone reads this book, they'll each have their own favorite parable, and "The Sould Dream" is my favorite one. After reading it, I felt like I could really apply it in my life. It's a cute, unrealistic parable, but when it is read it makes so much sense. It is about different souls in heaven. They are waiting in line to speak with God and tell God what they want to be on earth. This one soul asks to be a home, and God grants that soul's wish, and makes the soul a home. But the only thin is, God makes it into a trailer home, and the soul is not happy at all. It goes on being a trailor and miserable for many years, until he remembers that God has a reason for anything, so the soul starts to look at things on the bright side, and the soul's life as a home becomes better and better, until it is made into an actual house by a loving family. This parable really inspired me and helped me to remember that "with God, nothing is impossible". There is a reason for everything and everyone, and if things are not going my way today, with a little faith and trust, things will get better because God knows what he is doing.
Another parable I really enjoyed was "The Alien". This one was about the "largest family in the world". The parents couldn't even count how many kids there were because there was too many. Another son was born, but he felt different from the rest of his siblings and called himself an alien. He treated the rest of his family really bad. His parents decided to have another child to maybe lessen this "alien's" anger. The youngest son tried to be nice to his older brother, but his older brother only ended up killing him. His older brother felt really bad after that and so he decided to change. This parable was very meaningful to me because it makes me think of all the mistakes that I have made. In human mindset, we don't really learn our lesson until something tragic happens, and life shouldn't be that way. We shouldn't change our lives after something tragic has happened, we should do it before before it's too late. I think of the phrase "You never know what you've got until it's gone."
The other parables i didn't mention are just as moving and meaningful. Edward Hays has this way of capitaviting readers, at least me. At first, I didn't really like the whole fairy tale, unrealistic writing technique, but it grew on me and I was able to catch the morals of the parables. It's an amazing bbook that has many life lessons that everyone can learn from.
Eye opener. Let me first say that. This book even with it's twists and turns had one of the most true and relatable messages. From this, i have learned that with faith especially, we are taken on many winding roads and journeys to find Christ, yet at times are blind.People these days have become consumed with all the evils going on in the world and are controlled by a world of mass media. So when the time comes to look for good, to look for Christ, people want something "spoon-fed" to them and begin to bury their faith lives while trying to find God ironically enough. I know from personally experience that not only with faith, but with other things, sometimes its right where you started, it's at home. We as a society have become accusomed to forget our family lives where for some of us our faith life began. We have become zombies that are controlled by media-we have become blind. The hard part like in the story, is realizing that maybe the things told around us were wrong to distract us from the true treasure- our faith. Faith is something so unique and special because it is given to us from our Father and that beats any chest of gold.
Since I have already one of her books, I already pretty much knew her style of writing and many of her ideas, but I must admit I was still very impressed with her words. I remebered the time that she came and spoke to our class because the stories she told us were all in the book like the story of the old wise man and the bird in the boy's hands that is either dead or alive. Many of the parables I had heard before and understood, but some of the parables she mentioned I had never even heard before. What surprised me the most though was when she began to explain the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son. I haev heard different explanations before about that story but never like this one. I used to consider myself the good son because although I know that I have made many mistakes in my life I have always been religious and tried to do my job as a Catholic. Then I realized that the good son wasn't really that good at all because he held grudges and he was jealous and envious of his brother. After realizing this I still considered myself to be more like the "good" son because a big habit I have is holding grudges because I am always afraid of having the same thing done to me again. It is hard for me to forgive. I also find myself getting jealous very easily with the people I hold dearest in my heart. McKenna described the older brother as a bigger sinner because he was supposed to act like the older brother and take care of his brother and teach him. This amazed me. Never would I have thought that the older brother was connected or even responsible to the younger brother's doings. Now I see myself even more as the image of the older brother. I need to help my "younger" brothers more often and hep them from going on the wrong tracks. I tried to put myself in the parables and decide who I was inm each. Sometimes I would even change my mind on who I was after I understood the full explanation, like the seed that were planted in different places. I decided that I was the seed in the thistles. I try to stay close t God always, when the times are bad and when the times are good. But the worries and struggles in life all around me begin to pull on me away from God. Parables have always been hard for me to understand because they were really told for the people of Jesus's time to understand with the things of their everyday lives. Things in todays world are a bit different in todays world. The thing I liked the most about the book was her stories. They were like modern day parables of our time for us to understand things easier. The ones that stuck out o the most must have been the intorduction about the captain of the battleship and the lighthouse and the one of the old woman with the carrot. They have a message and humor because we have all found ourselevs in similar situations today and acting the same way. Megan McKenna portrayed other thing in a way I would have never been able to see by myself like the story of the evil judge and the woman that kept praying. Us being the evil judge and God being the woman surprised me completely, but it is so true. He is aleays there asking us to help him sending us messages and we just ignore him until it practically smacks us over the head and finally we say yes. I really did enjoy the book. She is a very good writer. Her words seem to have so much truth and honesty especially the postcript when she admitted to not understanding all of the parable sin the bible. Jesus was the biggest parable. He lived there with him and has his own story of their time right in fron tof them. I think we are parables when we live the way we are supposed to. We can all be modern day parables.
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Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier
The book I read is a story about a Native American Leonard Peltier, who was put into prison for defending his rights and wrongfully accused of killing FBI agents.
TRUTHFULLY: To me, at least, this is not the story of one man, but everyone's story because Leonard Peltier was imprisoned for being who he was. This story is a struggle that has been in existence since governments were created in the world. It is known to many, but not really known.
Yes, we heard of everyday people being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, but it makes you think doesn't it? That injustice is presented to all people-not just blacks, whites, hispanics, indians, or asian-EVERYONE. People in the world are being persecuted for being WHO THEY ARE. Here we are living life under a government that is said to be democratic or a land with equal oppurtunities for all men. Is it really equal or free when we have to listen to one person to run the country?
This book just makes me think. It checks reality. Slavery, struggle for justice and freedom, is FOREVER. At times reading through the book, I felt like it will never be solved, but then I stopped because Leonard Peltier is a man, who's compassion and beliefs in a "Being," is unchanging and has a loving heart. He is HOPE.
Now that is amazing. Leonard Peltier, a white people's name that was given to him, has so much courage, hope, and unwavering passion, and divine forgiveness to all those who persecuted him.
Here's a little background history for you guys. Peltier was part of a AIM (American Indian Movement) that fought the government for their rights and freedom at Wounded Knee in 1973. Three FBI agents came armed with guns to scare off the Indians and Peltier was one of the brave men to defend their people. The Indians had weapons as well, but only to scare off the FBI agents. A few FBI agents were killed amongst the gunfire and the government captured and put Peltier to trial with false evidence. They forced a woman to lie in court so that he would go to jail. His sentence is until 2041. He was 31 when put into prison..you do the math.
Now Peltier is writing about his life in prison - the treatment and abuse that goes on. And talks about history. The history of his people and his own life history leading up to the brawl at Wounded Knee.
There were a few quotes that hit me:
"We are oridinary. We are human. The Creator made us this way Imperfect.INadequate.Ordinary.Be thankful you weren't cursed with perfection. If you were perfect there'd be nothing for you to achieve with you life. Imperfection is the source of every action. This is both our curse and blessing as human beings. Our very imperfection makes a holy life possible. We're not supposed to be perfect. We're suppose to be useful."
It makes me think of Brother Stanislaus with Marcellin Champagnat. We are ordinary people, but with extraoridinary talents. And its true if we were perfect. We'd be God. But we aren't. Because we're born with original sin and imperfections we search for a greater purpose and strive for achievement. We look for God.
Leonard Peltier while in jail has done so much. He has created programs to help everyone. He has adopted and funded families in Central American countries. And so much more from being in jail. Here we are...with our so called freedom...and have hardly done anything. Is it safe to say that perhaps we ahve hardly lived? We are caught up in our own lives and our own pain and suffering...our own anger towards each other....that we forget about those around us. Those without a voice or have a voice but people refuse to listen. Maybe we should start listening and stop talking.
Life is hard, but doing something to help others and being selfless. Basically, making yourself a living sacrifice is worth having life. To help others. It's hard, but we don't have to do it alone. And we can start with CIW. We all need a little push from each other.
Mostly, like Leonard Peltier, let us have hope and not detest anyone for doing us wrong. Try to make things right.
"Difference - Let us love not only our sameness but our unsameness. In our difference is our strength. Let us be not for ourselves alone but also for that Other who is our deepest self.
Forgiveness - Let us forgive the worst among us becuase the worst is in ourselves, the worst lives in each of us, along with the best."
-Leonard Peltier
My book was on a former black panther. In history some people consider the black panthers criminals. By reading this book that not the case. I learend a lot from this book about the black panthers. The panthers was a civil rights group who belived in solving every thing in vilents. yes its but they did it for all the right reasson and that they wanted to change an unfair socity into a fair and equal socity. Before me other former pace students read this book befor me and you have geten different opinions every time. But to me reading this book is like reading the history of my people befor me. And i think we should read more books like this.
Part One:
The book I chose to read for Pastoral Ministry is called “A Book of Spiritual Exercises” by Anthony de Mello. I chose it because the meditations are written almost as a living poem that speaks to you as you read it. The first one that really spoke to me is called “The Revolution.” In the meditation, I am sitting there with Jesus and he asks me to “condense the good news into three or four sentences.” How can I say everything I feel is good news in Christ in less than a paragraph? How can this author expect his reader to? I wasn’t able to do it, but it turns out that was ok because the next meditation-“The Darkness”- allowed me to see just how amazing the good news is. This exercise reminds us that there is a Pharisee in each of us, ready to come out in the smallest sign of weakness and be cruel to the unknown or the different. Now, after the incident with Andres, I see the end of this meditation as even more powerful. Even with the Pharisee in us, Jesus says, “You are precious to my heart.”
As I go deeper into the book, I reach the exercise called “The King,” which talks about Jesus crucifixion. We’ve always been taught that his death saved us from sin, yet de Mello brings out another important meaning to His death: freedom and liberation. He beat sin and those who killed Him by giving up his life. Now we live through Him, yet we are still alive and in “slavery.” Now it is our turn to face social, emotional, and spiritual pressures and beat them, just as out role model did. Then I read “The Lord” and a new thought came to me as a continuous from “The King”: does His freedom add a burden to our oppression? Do we feel His teachings are a cross? To me the answer is: if it is, then it is one I will gladly carry. But, I think there are many who see it as a burden that they can’t get away from without being seen as a sinner, or going to Hell. Luckily for them, if they read “The Promise,” they will see that even though pain is inevitable, when He returns, “your hearts will filled with joy and no one will be able to take that joy from you.”
I want to add this excerpt because I feel its power. Ashley, I think you will like this. From “The Redemption”: “It is difficult to absolve a person whose offene I see as being a total evil. The fact is his offense has done me good. He was an instrument used by God to bring me grace, as Judas was an instrument used by God to bring grace to humanity and Jesus Christ.”
Hagakure The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
This book lead me and challenge me to look back on my life, my morals, and the everything I have learned. As I read I was intrigued by the teachings on etiquette and violence. Violence was only a discipline. I was interested in the manner in which men carried themselves and how women were viewed. The philosophy posed to me about men was, A man is to love his master above all, then the women’s philosophy was to love there husbands as their husbands love their masters. A man was to give his life for his master meaning if his master was killed he would commit seppuku, suicide. The man or husband would die along with his master in reverence. Since there is nothing left to live for kill yourself. I was really taken back by the seppuku that constantly went on. For every incident someone would kill themselves. I thought life was important, but etiquette was more at this time. If a man made a fool of someone, the one made a fool would kill provoker, thus the killer would commit suicide. It is crazy. It brought me to the incident that happened in school. If it was back in the times of the samurai that student would have died and the attacker would then kill himself.
Japan was based upon respect and if you did not carry that respect you were either named a coward, asked to commit seppuku or exiled. Many crazy philosophies were encountered by my mind which boggled me. This encountered was awkward as I read about homosexuality. Yes it is gay, but it created comradery. No I would rather be an outcast. The author’s of the book states that a man was recommended to stay with a man for five to seven years and then get married. That meant have anal sex with a man and they have intercourse with a women. Upon reading a quote that a man said about homosexuality popped out. “ It is both pleasant and unpleasant.”
I have always been fascinated with Japanese culture and have loved it since I was a child. I felt that I wanted to have a sword in my hand and fight the way a samurai does. It was a dream I had, but now that my mind has evolved and I have learned new things like “morals,” I turn towards a more peaceful and reasonable way of life. A lifestyle that if mixed with these absurd philosophies and teachings they might make sense in a different sort of context.
Mixing religion with the philosophy on men and women would be as follows, A man should love God above all and a women should love her man with the same love the man has for God. A better view. A man should give his life for his master; a man should give his life for God. Committing seppuku- taking your life away from the path your were on to the path of the cross. I learned about appearance and that no matter where one goes or one is his appearance must be great. The same way we use this teaching to go out someone where nice we must dress for church and want to feel and look good for God. The book was awesome. It is the best book I have read in a while.
Part 2: "The Symphony" is probably my favorite meditation on death. In it, I am watching my body decompose, disintegrate, and disappear into ash, while sporatically viewing the beautiful day and the people living and having fun. It gave me the sense that I am a small part of a vast universe, not only in the human sense, but in the Catholic sense as well.
Here's another powerful excerpt, this time from a love exercise called "The Education." "Jesus uncovers by his look the love, the honesty, and goodness that hides in every human being." "Where I see malice, he sees ignorance...Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.""-he uncompromisingly condemns my sin, but stubbornly refuses to condemn the sinner."
The last section is Silence, and in this section I was truly able to do what the exercise wanted. In "The Mirror," it says: "Observe, also, the infintesimal pause before the air flows in and the fraction of a space before the air flows out." I have never noticed that there is a very little amount of time between breathing in and out that all is still. After reading these exercises, I realized that taking for granted anything is a lot more detrimental to our lives than we think. So in the end, I'll leave you with one last quote:"Nothing has changed except my attitude - so everything has changed.-The Enlightenment
When I first started reading the book I didn’t get it but after reading the first exercise I was hooked because it was actually true that we are always worried about are thoughts, past and are future an nothing else that is why is really hard to almost impossible for us to reach true and complete silence at any point in are lives that also means that we cant enter in true peace and serenity with out it and this book was created to give us exercise to do in are lives so we can reach that level of true peace and serenity that we wouldn’t really be able to reach that easy with out it. So with these exercise it helps us to only concentrate on are surrounds and are body and nothing else so that we really reach a true and complete level of peace and serenity so that we can increase are relationship with God and also to really be able to hear what he wants us to do for him wit out any complications at all. The writer even takes times to separate it in sections so you don’t have to over exert yourself in trying to reach that silence that we all long for and then you can see hoe in your progression in reading the book and doing the exercises it gets easier for you to do what the writer asks you do that it ends up becoming second nature and some of the stuff that he asks you to do you might already do in a regular basics and he just helps you to see what you do in a different way that will leave like dam bro you right and I would never notice that before with out you telling me that it can be seen that way as well. In the book the writer say the best way to pray that is like the best way or more manful is a prayer from your heart instead of something that you got off of the top of your head because if its from heart that means that you actually mean it and care about it then you just saying it because it popped up in your head because of something that you saw, heard or read.
i forgot to put my book title it was SADHANA A WAY TO GOD CHRISTIAN EXERCISES IN EASTERN FORM BR: ANTHONY DE MELLO
"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can."
I was hooked from then on. The novel "Life of Pi" is fabulous. He writes as if he was talking to us. I could relate to the way he was made fun of for his name. I wasn't as bad as him, but it still getting picked on. I also love the way he uses the zoo to explain different situations. I never realized how much in common we actually have or how closely we try to change things to our liking. It's funny how he brings up his atheist teacher. That he was his favorite and how he has so much respect for scientist. They have faith, tremendous faith, but in science. It's funny how dramatic things like that change us. He studied zoology along with pastoral ministry which is ironic in a way. How we aren't suppose to believe all of what has come out of science.
The way he explains his faith is breaht taking. He has so much passion for it. He need no words, just actions. Prayer, worship, and dedication bring him to God. He may be Hindu, Christian, and Islamic, but in his heart it's all the same. Faith has no label and neither does God. I completely agree with him here. The way you worship God is true to you. You should label God, he didn't label you. He may have called you his but there is no question about it. To me, faith and religion shouldn't have categories. It'll all the same. In the end, God is God, no matter how many forms of him you believe in. We as Catholics can't be the elite religion because aren't. Neither are the others.
"Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims."
Great quote. Trully it is. How he intertwines the religions in a quirky way.
I love the way he became intrigued with the Christian faith. I also loved the way he got confused at who was the God. Comprehending on why you would sacrifice your son is pretty big, especially if you try to do it in the shoes of Jesus. He gets so into it. I'm envious at his passion for knowledge. How he gets so consumed by religion.
This book is full of unexpected surprises, but helps you find your place with your religion. You don't need a title, you just need faith.
The Ethiopian Tattoo Shop by Edward Hays
Well, the book I read was is a book of many different parables. The whole layout of the book is pretty cool. It takes place in a tattoo shop in Jerusalem. The narrator of the story is an Ethiopian tattooist, telling the story to a pilgrim man. The pilgrim man is considering getting a tattoo, and the tattooist tells him to sit down while he tells him some stories. This is when the little parables start. 22 parables are told and at the end, the pilgrim man says he wants tattoos, but the tattooist says he has invisible tattoos all over his body, which are the tattoos from the parables.
All of these parables had some kind of amazing moral, and that is what I enjoyed most. One thing that took me a while to get used to, though, was the unrealistic, fantasy type stories. When I read some of the parables, I immediately thought of the stories in the Bible, and then I realized that that is exactly what Edward Hays intended to do. He added little twists to his own stories and in a way modified them, I thought that was a very creative effect to the whole book.
The parable "The Mirror of God" reminded me of the creation story and how God created us humans in his image. I like how this parable used mirrors as a symbol of the way we see ourselves. The way we see our souls depends on us, if we are really true to ourselves and our morals. "If you see your true image - your true image - you do not lose your soul."
While all the parables were amazing, there were a few that really stood out to me, and I'll talk about those because it would be too much if wrote about every single one of them. My favorite one is "The Soul Dream". I know that if everyone reads this book, they'll each have their own favorite parable, and "The Sould Dream" is my favorite one. After reading it, I felt like I could really apply it in my life. It's a cute, unrealistic parable, but when it is read it makes so much sense. It is about different souls in heaven. They are waiting in line to speak with God and tell God what they want to be on earth. This one soul asks to be a home, and God grants that soul's wish, and makes the soul a home. But the only thin is, God makes it into a trailer home, and the soul is not happy at all. It goes on being a trailor and miserable for many years, until he remembers that God has a reason for anything, so the soul starts to look at things on the bright side, and the soul's life as a home becomes better and better, until it is made into an actual house by a loving family. This parable really inspired me and helped me to remember that "with God, nothing is impossible". There is a reason for everything and everyone, and if things are not going my way today, with a little faith and trust, things will get better because God knows what he is doing.
Another parable I really enjoyed was "The Alien". This one was about the "largest family in the world". The parents couldn't even count how many kids there were because there was too many. Another son was born, but he felt different from the rest of his siblings and called himself an alien. He treated the rest of his family really bad. His parents decided to have another child to maybe lessen this "alien's" anger. The youngest son tried to be nice to his older brother, but his older brother only ended up killing him. His older brother felt really bad after that and so he decided to change. This parable was very meaningful to me because it makes me think of all the mistakes that I have made. In human mindset, we don't really learn our lesson until something tragic happens, and life shouldn't be that way. We shouldn't change our lives after something tragic has happened, we should do it before before it's too late. I think of the phrase "You never know what you've got until it's gone."
The other parables i didn't mention are just as moving and meaningful. Edward Hays has this way of capitaviting readers, at least me. At first, I didn't really like the whole fairy tale, unrealistic writing technique, but it grew on me and I was able to catch the morals of the parables. It's an amazing bbook that has many life lessons that everyone can learn from.
The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho
Eye opener. Let me first say that. This book even with it's twists and turns had one of the most true and relatable messages. From this, i have learned that with faith especially, we are taken on many winding roads and journeys to find Christ, yet at times are blind.People these days have become consumed with all the evils going on in the world and are controlled by a world of mass media. So when the time comes to look for good, to look for Christ, people want something "spoon-fed" to them and begin to bury their faith lives while trying to find God ironically enough. I know from personally experience that not only with faith, but with other things, sometimes its right where you started, it's at home. We as a society have become accusomed to forget our family lives where for some of us our faith life began. We have become zombies that are controlled by media-we have become blind. The hard part like in the story, is realizing that maybe the things told around us were wrong to distract us from the true treasure- our faith. Faith is something so unique and special because it is given to us from our Father and that beats any chest of gold.
Parables: The Arrows of God
by Megan McKenna
Since I have already one of her books, I already pretty much knew her style of writing and many of her ideas, but I must admit I was still very impressed with her words. I remebered the time that she came and spoke to our class because the stories she told us were all in the book like the story of the old wise man and the bird in the boy's hands that is either dead or alive.
Many of the parables I had heard before and understood, but some of the parables she mentioned I had never even heard before. What surprised me the most though was when she began to explain the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son. I haev heard different explanations before about that story but never like this one. I used to consider myself the good son because although I know that I have made many mistakes in my life I have always been religious and tried to do my job as a Catholic. Then I realized that the good son wasn't really that good at all because he held grudges and he was jealous and envious of his brother. After realizing this I still considered myself to be more like the "good" son because a big habit I have is holding grudges because I am always afraid of having the same thing done to me again. It is hard for me to forgive. I also find myself getting jealous very easily with the people I hold dearest in my heart. McKenna described the older brother as a bigger sinner because he was supposed to act like the older brother and take care of his brother and teach him. This amazed me. Never would I have thought that the older brother was connected or even responsible to the younger brother's doings. Now I see myself even more as the image of the older brother. I need to help my "younger" brothers more often and hep them from going on the wrong tracks.
I tried to put myself in the parables and decide who I was inm each. Sometimes I would even change my mind on who I was after I understood the full explanation, like the seed that were planted in different places. I decided that I was the seed in the thistles. I try to stay close t God always, when the times are bad and when the times are good. But the worries and struggles in life all around me begin to pull on me away from God.
Parables have always been hard for me to understand because they were really told for the people of Jesus's time to understand with the things of their everyday lives. Things in todays world are a bit different in todays world. The thing I liked the most about the book was her stories. They were like modern day parables of our time for us to understand things easier. The ones that stuck out o the most must have been the intorduction about the captain of the battleship and the lighthouse and the one of the old woman with the carrot. They have a message and humor because we have all found ourselevs in similar situations today and acting the same way.
Megan McKenna portrayed other thing in a way I would have never been able to see by myself like the story of the evil judge and the woman that kept praying. Us being the evil judge and God being the woman surprised me completely, but it is so true. He is aleays there asking us to help him sending us messages and we just ignore him until it practically smacks us over the head and finally we say yes.
I really did enjoy the book. She is a very good writer. Her words seem to have so much truth and honesty especially the postcript when she admitted to not understanding all of the parable sin the bible.
Jesus was the biggest parable. He lived there with him and has his own story of their time right in fron tof them. I think we are parables when we live the way we are supposed to. We can all be modern day parables.
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