This week our assignment was to watch a Kurosawa video group, from his Dreams collection. The group of videos I chose to watch was Sunshine Through The Rain. I chose this group because I thinks it's very mystical when you're standing in the rain and see the sun overhead. In these videos the main character is a little boy who disobeys his mother on a rainy, sunny day. She tells him that it's not a good time to go out because that is when the Foxes have their wedding procession and they do not like others seeing it. The little boy goes ahead anyway and comes across the Fox wedding procession. They end up seeing him and when he gets home his mother tells him that she can't let him in because they are mad and left a sword so that he can kill himself. She also says that he must go to them and ask for forgiveness, but that they hardly ever forgive. The poor little boy goes on his way to look for them under the rainbow. I thought these videos were very interesting and a bit creepy. I'm not too sure about the ending, it's pretty much left open. My guess at the moral of the story is that you should always obey your mother.
There are many ways I can relate the story to the Shinto lecture. The story is a myth that is meant to reinforce an ethic. The ethic here is probably one that states to always obey your mother. Another could be to respect the wishes of the Foxes. The Foxes in the story are Kami. Which are Shinto deities who are prayed to by the people. Foxes are seen as intelligent, witty, and have supernatural powers. People are supposed to respect them and not anger them. The little boy disrespected then and made them angry when he spied on their wedding procession. Since he sinned, he had to be punished by death most likely. These videos incorporated much of this to illustrate the moral or morals. I thought it was a very depressing, melancholic dream.
Breier. (2008). Buddhist Compliment. [online]
Available: http://www.toonpool.com/user/1688/files/buddhist_compliment_321115.jpg
March 7, 2011
The assignment this week was to find some kind of image, video clip, etc that shows an American stereotype of a Buddhist person. This assignment was very fun because I was able to search around on the internet and see what different kinds of stereotypes people had of this religion and compare them to what really is true. Much of the images and videos were comic parodies and were quite entertaining.
The image I chose is one where two Buddhist monks are facing each other and one is complimenting the other on how “thoughtless” he is. The other monk seems to greatly appreciate this compliment. This image I believe is poking fun at meditation. Americans seem to not understand the concept behind it. Meditation is part of the Buddhist path to Enlightenment. There are many different ways of meditating and different reasons to doing so. But Americans mostly see it as a monk just sitting in the lotus position, as the statue in the background, and doing nothing. Clearing the mind is part of the process, but Buddhists see meditation as something deeper than just clearing the mind. It allows them to set aside all the negative things that are obstructing their lives and come into a peaceful, relaxed state of mind. This allows them to open their minds to enlightenment, hopefully. In a way the cartoon is true, because monks do try to be as “thoughtless” as possible while meditating, how ever the it is not just simply doing nothing as Americans seem to think.
Warner himself points out the stereotype of the monks’ inactivity in his statement about the “usual image of the serene monk sitting in his mountain temple sipping tea and dispensing cosmic wisdom” (pg. 11). He also tells of how people do not see monks as being able to have any jobs other than yoga teachers and the like. This relates to the cartoon because Americans think of Buddhists as just sitting around meditating and being “thoughtless” all day. Warner himself states that he has a hard time seeing Buddhist practitioners that holds “real jobs in the secular world” (pg. 12). He then tells how he himself does not fit the stereotypical, meditating Buddhist with a befitting job.
This week we had to find videos on the Hindu aims of success and liberation. Both of these aims were very easy to find in Western pop culture. The easiest of the two was success, of course. Success songs are especially prevalent in the Hip Hop genre. This may be because the title of being the best, and ahead of everyone is very much sought after by hip hop artists. Liberation on the other hand wasn’t as prevalent, but still not difficult to find. I really enjoyed finding songs of the latter because they were very heart felt and motivational.
Hindus look to achieve success for wealth, fame, and power. This aim is more satisfying because it lasts longer and it is social and not something private like the aim of pleasure. It is also necessary because success is needed to do things like make money and support a family. The aim of liberation is the Hindus’ strive for infinite being, awareness, and joy. This is what they really strive for. These two aims are very similar to how Westerners see success and liberation.
The songs I chose for Success were mostly Hip Hop songs. As I stated before they are very easy to find. Just about every artist seemed to have a song about how they were ahead of the game and/or how they were #1. My favorite of the success songs is “Rockstar” by Prima J. It is a song about girls that want to be well known by everyone and envied by other girls. The song I chose to share from the liberation category is “Jesus Take the Wheel”, by Carrie Underwood. I chose this song because it’s about a woman who just gives herself up to Jesus and frees herself from the bad road she was going down. The way these aims are presented in the Western culture is very similar to how the Hindus view them.
This week we had to find videos on the aims of pleasure and community service. Even though it took longer than expected it was still an enjoyable, reminiscent assignment. When I started doing it, I wasn’t too excited, but soon found that I really enjoyed thinking about my favorite songs and what messages they really were sending. Pleasure was the easiest of the two to find videos of because music on pleasure, such as sex, drugs, etc., simply sell more. Community service on the other hand is more prevalent in religious music and not so much in main stream music. This aim, however, I found had more meaning and was more fulfilling when I found great videos. These I am actually excited to share with everyone.
Since my musical taste is all over the place, my songs are of many genres and time periods. I found this easier to do, than to pick just one genre or time frame. My pleasure songs mostly focus on sex and love, because that was the easiest to find. The only one that differed was Rihanna’s song, “Please Don’t Stop the Music”. This one was about the pleasures of music and not wanting it to end. My favorite of all the pleasure videos is “Dip It Low” ,by Christina Milian, because it’s very sensual and seductive, yet not dirty.
My community service videos are mostly about being positive, loving what you are, and what you’ve become. My favorite is “Waka Waka” ,by Shakira, because it brings together the whole world and sends a positive note about playing and working together.
The Hindu understanding of these two aims are very different from pop culture. Pleasure in the Hindu culture is based on getting what you want, but intelligently. Where as in pop culture the main focus is on getting what you want and not worrying about where it gets you. Also, where Hindus plan to outgrow their pleasure, we plan on keeping them our whole lives. Community service is not as prevalent in pop culture as it is in Hindu culture. That is because the Western cultures are more individualistic, and Eastern cultures are more collectivistic.
