I believe that Donne was trying to get across that everyone has some form of affliction and no matter the severity of it, it strengthens those who believe in God. If, there is someone who is deeply devoted to God, then God will help to give them the strength to overcome. Throughout history, the United States has strayed from being 100% “united.” This, however, changes when the country as a whole is threatened. World War II, for example, brought the American people back together to fight for a common cause. This can be a parallel to Meditation 17 because war is an infliction on humanity but when threatened by war, the United States unites and become stronger. Another example of this in present day is more of a personal matter. A few months ago,
The novel Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh shows how the world can be made a better place though the application of Buddhism and meditation in our daily lives. Thich Nhat Hanh describes practices and suggestions that the common person can apply in their daily lives immediately in order to create peace in their life and in the world.
Donne, John. “Hymn to God, my God, in My Sickness.” Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 211-212.
OK. So you’ve heard, that meditation is beneficial for you, maybe you’ve read lists about the advantages of meditation. A ton of different kind of meditations are on-line, and you found several resources, articles, blog posts about the theme to select from. These articles state, that the meditation has countless benefits, which are also proven by scientific research. You can believe them, since eminent scientists carried out extensive research on this subject. And they suggest, you should try them, and of course you should practice it each day. Every day - or you won’t have those benefits.
Each four-line section expounds upon one aspect of the Trinity- God the Spirit/God the Father/God the Son. Donne continually juxtaposes the explication of aspects of the Trinity with explication of man’s relationship to God, resulting in a high degree of conflation throughout. The first line opens with a simultaneous statement of doubt and faith, “Wilt thou love God, as He thee?” While the speaker is convinced of God’s love, he doubts his ability to reciprocate. This is in contrast to many of Donne’s other Holy Sonnets in which the speaker continuously implores ...
Prior to the class began, I made a brief visit to the Buddhist Temple; and it was my privileged to have my second visit the Buddhist Temple of Van Hanh in the East of New Orleans on July 3rd of 2016. It is located on 13152 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70129. The temple building faces Chef Mentur Highway. The prayer service began at 11:00 am and end at 11:55 am and lunch was served after the service. The Van Hanh Temple is small Vietnamese community Buddhist Temple since Vietnamese immigrants began to settle in New Orleans, Louisiana. It does not belong to any main Buddha Church like they have back home in Vietnam, but more likely independence because it’s so small and mainly supported by Buddhists. It was a fascinating experience. I would like to share that based on my observation and also a long conversation with the Buddha nun until 2:30 p.m. That will be included in basic Vietnamese Buddha Tradition, practice./worship, activity, teaching, sociology and
Meditation is an age-old practice that has renewed itself in many different cultures and times. Despite its age, however, there remains a mystery and some ambiguity as to what it is, or even how one performs it. The practice and tradition of meditation dates back thousands of years having appeared in many eastern traditions. Meditation’s ancient roots cloud its origins from being attributed to a sole inventor or religion, though Bon, Hindu, Shinto, Dao, and later, Buddhism are responsible for its development. Its practice has permeated almost all major world religions, but under different names. It has become a practice without borders, influencing millions with its tranquil and healing effects.
Analysis of Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen The book Buddhism Plain and Simple, by Steve Hagen, caught my attention and became more interesting to me than I thought. I have always heard of the religion Buddhism, but I never knew what it was all about. I never thought that Buddhism was as huge as it is. I knew that it existed in other countries, but I never knew what exact countries. Many of the views in this book surprised me and the book taught me a lot about morals and better ways to live your life.
John Donne’s poetry is rife with analogous themes, which allows the reader’s mind to wrap itself around the poems in the most superlative way possible. Donne’s poems are alive with collective themes of paradoxes and fidelity. Fidelity, in Donne’s vision of humanity, also weaves aspects of love: be it physical or spiritual. His theology and religious dogmas are abundant in his poems as well as his conception of cosmic forces beyond our control.
John Donne uses poetry to explore his own identity, express his feelings, and most of all, he uses it to deal with the personal experiences occurring in his life. Donne's poetry is a confrontation or struggle to find a place in this world, or rather, a role to play in a society from which he often finds himself detached or withdrawn. This essay will discuss Donne's states of mind, his views on love, women, religion, his relationship with God; and finally how the use of poetic form plays a part in his exploration for an identity and salvation.
iv[iv] Helen Gandner, ed., John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1962) 47.
His poetry is characterized by the themes of love, mortality, and spirituality. It is bathed in sophistication and complexity of thought. He used active verbs in a jarring manner to capture his conflicting thoughts and emotions. In his use of metaphysical conceit, Donne compared himself to a besieged town, captured by and engaged to Satan. He had attempted to admit God into the town but found he was too weak to do so, even though he loved God dearly. He pleaded with God to “Batter my heart” as though He would use a battering ram on the city walls and secure a divorce for him (Shmoop, 2008). He wanted to belong to God and only God, which he could not do unless God freed him to then imprison him. Donne’s poem is filled with the contradictions he became famous for. Illustrations of love and war, good and evil, captivity and freedom, and spiritual love and carnal love reveal the dual nature of the poem and the challenge in understanding, with certainty, what Donne was trying to convey with such sincerity (Donne, 2005). In last several lines, Donne reveals the ultimate disparity, saying he could never be chaste unless God ravishes him (Donne
It is quite feasible to state that poetry at its finest is a dazzling and expressive art of words. A poem not only can expose the diplomatic beliefs of societies, but can also articulate passions and sentiments of the author to whom the poem belongs. One of the many fine poems that have been prevalent among the study of literature that is irrefutably powerful is Meditation 17 by John Donne. This poetic essay exposes John Donne’s opinions and beliefs on humanity, and covers much cogitation from religion all the way to death. Of course, the poem has been written so profoundly that one may not grasp it completely at first glimpse, however John Donne does use explicit strategies to better convey his message to readers of all sorts. John Donne utilizes situation, structure, language, and musical devices to enhance the poem and to aid in delivering his message efficiently.
By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.
The speaker then boastfully asserts his power over the sun's rays, stating that "he could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, but that he would not lose her sight so long." This obviously undermines his argument because if it were not for those same beams of light, he would not see his love. Donne surely was aware of the ridiculous nature of this assertion; he appears to be attempting to accentuate the flaws in his argument against the sun, perhaps to emphasize the foolishness of a person in love. He continues this emphasis with his claim that all the riches and nobility the sun has seen "all here in one bed lie."
In the poem, Donne structures each stanza individually as a different personification of love. In the first stanza, Donne compares love to a plague when he says, “Yet not that love so soon decays…that I have had the plague…” (3/6) It is the latter line that Donne implements his use of imagery and conceit. Love is not often compared with “the plague” and this is a very strong interpretation. However while these two images seem different, they do interconnect through the pain and anguish that love can foster. This first comparison of Donne’s is very ef...