Contemplative Essays

  • Aristotle, Conflicting lifestyles

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    When comparing the contemplative lifestyle to the moral virtuous lifestyle, one finds the differences to rest on the three types of good: goods of the body, external goods, and goods of the soul. One conflict comes between leading a courageous, brave life and desiring happiness. To explain the aforementioned I feel it necessary to define true courage. It seems true courage revolves around death. Not every kind of death is considered noble, for example death from drowning or death from disease. Aristotle

  • Handel's Messiah

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    Handel's Messiah Producers Qunicy Jones and Mervyn Warren took George Frederic Handel’s Messiah for a spin and did a wonderful job with it. They took a classical masterpiece and funk-defied it. This was one of the most important pieces of music to come across in decades, taking Handel’s Messiah to the masses of R & B lovers. In true style, the composer re-arranged Handel’s Messiah, to produce a classic collection of black music, while at the same time, carrying a European and Western tradition

  • All Quiet on the Western Front Essays: Can’t Go Home Again

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    mementos, the pictures and postcards on the wall, the familiar and comfortable brown leather sofa, Baumer waits for something that will allow him to feel a part of his pre-enlistment world. It is his old schoolbooks that symbolize that older, more contemplative, less military world and which Baumer hopes will bring him back to his younger innocent ways. I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books. The breath of desire

  • A Sense of Hope in Milton's Sonnet XIX

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Sense of Hope in Milton's Sonnet XIX John Milton's contemplative "Sonnet XIX" reveals the idea of man in adversity coming to terms with fate. Milton reflects upon the condition of his own soul in physical blindness through his ideas of service, duty, and talent in order to explore his relationship with God and his art: writing. Milton's use of diction and structure provide clues to the sonnet's interpretation and help resolve the thematic dilemma presented. The sonnet's imagery connotes multiple

  • Importance of the Players and Their Play within Hamlet

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    which has the freedom from duties and of expression that Hamlet lacks. Through them we see him explore role-play and word-play in a way which he himself cannot, in Shakespeare’s use of Hamlet as our guide to the world of theatre, and as an overly contemplative avenger. Already, in Act2 scene2, we see that Hamlet is conceiving plans and deception, as he warns of his contrived madness: “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.” (2, 2, 374-5) and so

  • John Donne's Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Imagery or Thoughtful Comparisons?

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    from seventeenth century London the same questions, he would have suddenly become inspired.  This exceptional personality was the metaphysical poet John Donne. Many people debate whether Donne's metaphysical style of verse is genuinely contemplative comparison or merely eccentric imagery.  However, if one looks deep enough into the witty his witty works such as, "The Sun Rising," or "The Flea," they will find evidence to support both views.  It has been said of Donne's love poetry that it

  • The Charater of Remedios in One Hundred Years of Solitude

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Charater of Remedios in One Hundred Years of Solitude In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the saga of the Buendia family is used as a thorough and contemplative representation of the nature of human detachment.  The Buendias are plagued with a seemingly incurable solitude; a solitude that they turn to and rely on when they find themselves in times of trouble.  When they are secluded, the Buendias lead meaningless and inescapable lives of habit and routine.  One

  • Comparing Beliefs and Vaules of the Renaissance and Middle Ages

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    the Middle Ages, also known as "The Age of Faith," man's purpose was to serve God. Life was looked upon as a journey. The focus of life was on the afterlife because there were no guarantees in the present life. The life of highest value was the contemplative life, one devoted to God. The passive virtues such as compassion, suffering, and humility were highly regarded. God was the center of man's world during the Middle Ages. On the Great Chain of Being, man was below God and the angels and above the

  • Analysis of Still Life With Peppermint Bottle by Paul Cezanne

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    private part of man’s nature. Jane Roberts supports this idea in stating that, “ … man will gladly surround himself with beloved knick knacks with which he can be isolated with and alone…” (Roberts 213). She goes on to say that these objects are contemplative in nature, allowing man to sit and ponder their meaning. When I speak of contemplation, I mean that every object is taken into account and their meaning of existence and placement are reflected upon. The fruit on the table has many other meanings

  • Philosophies of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

    2597 Words  | 6 Pages

    leaving Aurelius and Pius’s other adopted son, known as Verus, to rule together. The two brothers were quite different, although no disagreements are mentioned between the two. Verus was a headstrong man, who was more apt to want a war than the contemplative Aurelius. Verus was an "Epicurean" and definitely would never be called a philosopher. However, Verus died suddenly in 169, leaving Aurelius to rule Rome on his own. It is important to mention that during basically all of Aurelius’ rule, Rome was

  • Muslim Women

    3033 Words  | 7 Pages

    think of myself as a liberal, open-minded female, this project gave me a very new perspective on myself and many of my views as well. Muslim women living in the United States are quite honestly more diverse, more complex, more structured, more contemplative, and more culturally intuitive than I could have ever imagined in my limited experience and knowledge of them. The ‘Americanization’ I sought to illustrate turned out to resemble something closer to a religio-cultural tug-of-war than the predicted

  • The Significance of Sacrifice in Buddhist Practice

    5234 Words  | 11 Pages

    commitment to help others directly correlates to the stage of practice and sacrifice. Additionally, an intriguing comparison will be made between these concepts within Buddhism and very similar concepts with the Jewish tradition of mystical or contemplative death. Basics of Buddhism When exploring the specific function of sacrifice within Buddhism, it will be necessary to understand some of the fundamental beliefs that lay the groundwork for the religion as a whole. The Buddha was an actual

  • Bembo's Discourse on Love

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    been attracted to the figure of Plato. So there came his patronage of Marsilio Ficino and the birth of the Platonic Academy. Ficino became the disciple of Plato, and an advocate of neo-Platonism. Perhaps coincidentally, but as befits a court, the contemplative ideal began once more to gain over the active one. It was transmitted potently to Europe by a book that mirrored one of the noblest of Italian courts, that of Urbino. This was Baldassar Castiglione's Il cortegiano/The Book of the Courtier). Published

  • Looks and Love

    1640 Words  | 4 Pages

    Looks and Love Before I left home for college, my group of friends and I sat down for one last serious heart-to-heart. Sometime during our conversation, the question of college choice arose. Emotions escalated as we realized how far apart we would be in a short time. "Why did you choose to go to MIT?" they asked, "Why couldn't you just stay home at a state university?" Wanting to lighten the mood, I replied, laughing, "That's an easy one...the guys, of course!" And after the initial uproar of

  • Charles Baudelaire: Romantic, Parnassian, and Symbolist

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baudelaire: Romantic, Parnassian, and Symbolist Often compared to the American poet Edgar Allen Poe, the French poet Charles Baudelaire has become well-known for his fascination with death, melancholy, and evil and his otherwise eccentric yet contemplative style. These associations have deemed him as a “patron saint of modernist poetry” while at the same time closely tying his style in with the turbulent revolutionary movements in France and Europe during the 19th century (Haviland, screens 5-10)

  • The Human Condition: Contemplation Key to Understanding

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    issues of great importance. However, these are only superficial, and there is a deeper problem that will not have a simple legislative solution. Americans have forgotten how to think critically. Hannah Arendt places great importance on living a contemplative life, and it is for this reason that her book, The Human Condition, is a worthwhile text. In it, she offers many insights as to what could help to make the American society better, and it is for this reason that she cannot be brushed aside.

  • The Theme of the Suffering Innocent in Blake's London

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    form of four stanzas with each four lines and an ABAB rhyme. The tone of the poem changes from a contemplative lyric quality in the first to a dramatic sharp finale in the last stanza. The tone in the first stanza is set by regular accents, iambic meter and long vowel sounds in the words "wander", "chartered", "flow" and "woe", producing a grave and somber mood. The verb "wanders" connotes contemplative walking without specific destination through streets that are described as "chartered". But the

  • An Analysis of Lilith (Body's Beauty)

    1150 Words  | 3 Pages

    wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flower; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo! as

  • Characterization, Symbolism, and Repetition in Hundred Years of Solitude

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Prudencio Aguilar is neither "prudent" nor "eagle-like" (aguila means "eagle" in Spanish).  Repetition of names and behaviors is another technique of characterization. Certain character types, e.g., the contemplative, stubborn man, or the impetuous, forceful man, the patient and nurturing woman, and so on, are represented by more than one individual in the several generations of the Buendia family. All the Jose Arcadios, for example, are assumed to have at

  • Preexistence of Christ

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    Preexistence of Christ Advanced Information The preincarnate existence of Christ may be "only a simple, contemplative inference backwards from the spiritual glory of the present Christ" (Deissmann); certainly its clearest expression is found in later writing reflecting upon the rudimentary messianic, even adoptionist, assessment of Christ in the primitive Christian community (Acts 2:22 - 23; 10:38). Yet preexistence is at least implied in words of Jesus himself: "The son of man came"; the owner of