Plato's The Republic and The Old Testament
A Buddhist teaching suggests that practicing Buddhism is like taking a raft over a great river. One riverbank represents the realm of ‘samsara,’ the cycle of suffering that we are all spinning around in. On the other side is ‘wakefulness,’ or ‘nirvana,’ an enlightened state of awareness characterized by an infinite sense of unity and bliss. The raft symbolizes Buddhism; its purpose being to help us cross over from samsara to nirvana. According to the teaching, however, a curious thing happens to the individual who manages to reach the ‘banks of enlightenment.’ Having climbed off of the raft, she turns around to discover that she cannot now see any riverbank on the side from which she departed. In fact, she realizes that there is no river, no raft, and – to her pure astonishment – no Buddha at all! (Zimmer, 82-90)
The story is a way of reminding us that the state of wakefulness involves an experience of reality so utterly beyond linear comprehension, so overwhelming and indescribable, and so categorically unlike anything one could possibly imagine or articulate in finite terms, that even the means of achieving it are, at best, illusory roadmaps – roadmaps that use boundaries in an attempt to help people grasp a condition of being that has no boundaries. Thus, in essence, it would never be possible to attain a complete understanding of wakefulness using Buddhism or any other practice or paradigm arising out of the substrate of finite consciousness. It could be said that systems like Buddhism are limited to pointing us in an appropriate direction or helping us to look in places where we might be more likely to become enlightened. They may embody or convey truth in one form or ...
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...ntext, but this does not prevent us from encountering the Ultimate in the writings of the Old Testament as well. The texts each approach the subject from foreign perspectives, describing unique facets of the same idea. If we work from that point of view, we can see unity between them, and develop a broader, more encompassing understanding of the world.
Works Cited:
Plato. “from The Republic.” In: Benton, Janetta Rebold and DiYanni, Robert. 1998. Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 152-154.
Wilber, Ken. “The Perennial Philosophy.” In: Wilber, Ken. 1998. The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications. 7-8.
Zimmer, Heinrich (trans). “Buddhahood.” In: Eastman, Roger. 1999. The Ways of Religion. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 82-90.
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
“In the West, we think of each human life as solid and discrete, beginning at conception and ending at death. The Buddhist view is of waves appearing and disappearing endlessly on a great ocean of life energy. When cause and effect combine in a certain way, a wave arises, appearing...
24 Amore, Roy C. and Julia Ching. The Buddhist Tradition. In Willard G. Oxtoby, Ed. World Religions: Eastern Traditions. P. 221
Gatsby?s greatness is not contained in noteworthy accomplishments, his wealth, or even his pursuit of love. Gatsby possesses the power to dream. Gatsby dreamed of being wealthy and reuniting with Daisy. He fulfilled his dreams, but unlike his dreams, Gatsby?s reality was hollow. His money was made illegally and his love for Daisy was based on only that which he could buy. Gatsby?s greatness is not only present in what he dreamt for, but also, he possessed the ability to grasp his dreams and turn them into reality. Gatsby may not be a perfect character, but by living for a purpose, he is able to extract greater meaning from life, making him superior to the other characters in the novel.
Before reading "The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent" by Thomas A. Tweed I had no experience with Buddhism except for what I have seen in the movies and in the media. Seeing Buddhism through these different sources, it does not portray an accurate illustration of what the religion is truly regarding. Having little to no knowledge about the background of the religion makes reading this book both interesting and a little difficult to read at the same time. In Buddhism, two groupings define the religion. The first group is known as "The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism," the categories underneath are life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and lastly, the path to the cessation of suffering. The second group is "The Eightfold Path," which consists of, the right view, the right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and lastly, the right concentration. Once read and understood the different points, it made this literature easier to comprehend and made for smoother reading.
Roach, Geshe M. "Meditation." Ed. Keith Kachtick. You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006. 191-207. Print.
Gatsby is a local celebrity, and everyone that goes to his parties has a theory about how he's made it in the wealthy world. In reality, everyone seems to know his name and is endlessly interested in his life for unknown reasons. So in that way, he seems to be pretty great, he even wins back the girl of his dreams for a short period of time.
The founder of Buddhism was a man named Siddharta Gautama. He was born as a prince of a small kingdom located near today’s Nepal, around 500 B.C.E. (Gurinder 1). According to the legends, Siddharta was raised in the lap of luxury. He was given the finest clothes, riches, and a mansion for every season (Fisher 136). Despite having anything his imagination could conjure, he was unconvinced of their value (136). As the story continues, he was presented with the four sights that were being kept from him (136). These sights included death, sickness, old age, and a monk seeking lasting happiness rather than material possessions (136). After these sights, Sidhharta began his long path to enlightenment. After six years of searching, he had reached his goal of an ultimate consciousness called Nirvana, or enlightenment that is above ordinary human states of mind (Gurinder, Numrich, Williams 1-2). After his discovery of the ultimate consciousness, he was given the title of Buhhda, which means “Enlighten One” (2).
Soccio, Douglas J. "The Philosopher-King:Plato." Archetypes of Wisdom. 7th ed. Bellmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1995. 121+. Print.
Several comments should be made about this choice. First of all, it should be emphasized that the scope of this essay is such as to only be able to examine Buddhism as a philosophic system with psychological implications. Buddhism is, of course, mu...
The study of Buddhism over the past century or so has resembled the encounter of the blind men and the elephant in many ways. Students of Buddhism have tended to fasten onto a small part of the tradition and assume their conclusions held true about the whole. Often the parts they have seized on have been a little like the elephant's tusks a striking, but unrepresentative, part of the whole animal. As a result, many erroneous and sweeping generalizations about Buddhism have been made, such as that it is 'negative', 'world-denying', 'pessimistic', and so forth.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Sterling, Richard and Scott, William. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
People are hesitant about genetic research for several reasons; most of them centered around the invasion of their privacy and the negative effects it could have on their lives were the information to be displayed publically. There’s also the sticky question of ownership when it comes to genetic material; does it belong to the patient being tested, or the scientists who discovers what’s being tested in the first place? Although steps have been taken via the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to prevent a patient’s information from being accessed without their permission, there is still no law that will allow someone to put a patent on genetic material within a human body. (“21st-Century Genetics.” The New Genetics, 2010) Looking at a commonly known example, the Black Death, also known as bubonic plague, remains to be one of the worst cases of human casualty due to illness. The people of the 14th Century had very little knowledge of the inner workings of the human body and therefore chalked ...
The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic - those that lead each person to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates was Plato's early mentor in real life. As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in several of his works and dialogues. Socrates moderates the discussion throughout, as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The basic plan of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the operation of society as a whole and the life of any individual human being. In this paper I will present Plato’s argument that the soul is divides into three parts. I will examine what these parts are, and I will also explain his arguments behind this conclusion. Finally, I will describe how Plato relates the three parts of the soul to a city the different social classes within that city.
Buddhism is one of the major world religions with many followers around the world. It is unique in its nature as it is frequently referred to as a ‘spiritual tradition’ (Miller, 2010). Buddhism focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life (Johnston, 2003). Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always possible. This belief in the impermanence of all things underpins the Buddhist interpretation of the world and reality (Maguire, 2001).