The Good vs. The Evil

After reading a part of Coles book, "The Myth of Evil", it got me thinking on a few things. I am not going to lie I was getting goosebumps just reading about the devil and god with their differences. However, at the end of the chapter I noticed that Cole mentioned that at the end of the day the majority of people are struggling between being good or doing something bad, and if they choose to do something bad/evil that is now their responsibility. I found this interesting and brought it back to our guilty conscience. I feel like this is true for the majority of people because even if your decision might not be as crazy as killing someone, but even a simple white lie might become something bad to you. This is when you have your good and bad conscience debating in your mind thinking about what may be right. In my perspective, I think this may be challenging for many of us on a daily basis but as Cole says if you do decide to take the bad side, you are responsible for what is to come.

Buddhism

 

After thinking about what myth I wanted to learn more about and doing my work cited on Buddhism, I was getting more interested into this topic. I have always heard bits and pieces of Buddhism but never really looked into the whole story of it. I began doing some research and found out great information that answered most of my questions. For instance, that Buddhism is a religion that is to find your inner peace and happiness with yourself and expand it with others. They use meditation to do so, and they try to come to an understanding of their negative thoughts like anger, jealousy, and ignorance then try to convert that into a positive mind with wisdom. I don't pay much attention to other religions other than mine which is the Catholic religion. I strongly believe in God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary and through out my life we always try to have faith in god, believe that he does everything for a reason, and as long as you believe in him and do not disobey him then you will go to heaven (very general). Then, when I came across Buddhism, I felt that this religion connected more with what is going on now. Working on a human being to be better and become better for your after life. I just found it very interesting how different religions can be, but what if I believe in both? What if Catholic is my religion but I believe in Buddhism too? Sometimes I get confused with what is actually real, for instance, all the different gods other religions believe in, Judaism, mother nature? What if they all are true, or what if only one? This are the things that get me thinking on a daily basis.

Another thing I found interesting was about what happens after death, even though no one really knows, this has always been a scary topic for me to talk about just because it will happen to everyone but no one really wants to think about it. Catholics believe you will go to heaven and live in the paradise that God has been working on since he was reborn. Then, Buddhism believes that your death is based on karma and if you have good karma you will be reborn into a human or god, but if you have bad karma then you will be reborn into an animal or even hell. Who knows what is really true but its something interesting to think about. Anyways, with all this being said, I love the fact that Buddhism focuses on inner peace and happiness, I strongly believe that is the only way to make people and this world a much better place. 

"BELIEVE NOTHING, NO MATTER WHERE YOU READ IT, OR WHO SAID IT, NO MATTER IF I HAVE SAID IT, UNLESS IT AGREES WITH YOUR OWN REASON AND YOUR OWN COMMON SENSE." -BUDDHA

Religion

Once comparing the short story of the, "Journey of the West", and religion it had me thinking about how much people depend on religion. Including the monkeys in this short story relies on the Buddha to save his land. Growing up into a catholic religion, I can see how many of the people rely on the Virgin Mary and Jesus for faith and protection not only for land but also for their family. Most people have grown up into a religion, and in my case believing in the bible, having faith in it and leading our right path. I may not speak for everyone but after reading the short story it made me think how much others also rely on religion for security and their way out of life as well.

Anthropology and Myths

One of the main thing that I can relate to this section would definitely be the misfortune and the explanation to misfortune. I believe that everyone has their own obstacles and every single person copes with it in a different way. After reading, "Anthropology: A Beginners Guide", I noticed that the explanations of misfortune made so much sense to me and how my life has changed because of this. I never payed attention to the evil and the good but eventually I put it together and well if there is a devil or hell then there has to be a god or heaven. A few years ago, my mother went ill and they could not find anything wrong with her. This was when we began hearing a lot of crazy noises in our house and began paying close attention. We realized that this was no illness, but more of a misfortune. A misfortune that the Azande would probably explain as someone doing witchcraft to cause misfortune. This is when I began realizing that there is a difference between black and white magic. Long story short, this whole experience I went through with my mother made me believe in God much more then before. This gave us the explanation that we can witness evil and now that we are doing much better we can also believe that there is good out there as well. 

If I could be a superhero to this situation I would choose Cat women, not only because she is disguised as a black cat more like someone who can fight the bad without looking like she is scared. AND SHE IS A WOMEN.

DESTRUCTION

 

Since in Unit 5 we were doing most of our reading and summary in creation, destruction, and change, I chose to link the myths to how we live in society now. Just like some of the creation myths I was reading, it seemed that in order to create the world came a sacrifice. In some cases it was not a sacrifice it was certain creations who were made and disobeyed. Even though the purpose was to create a beautiful place, it took a different road and chaos built upon them spontaneously. 

Coincidence? If we look at the world now it is not difficult to identify that there is a various amount of problems right now. For instance, this picture from Banksy shows a little boy who is saying, "I remember when all this was trees". This world was once created with outstanding nature and due to human beings all these buildings, factories and much more were created that is killing this beautiful place we live in. Apart from all the issues this world consist, the myths are similar to how we are living now because of the destruction's and changes this world has come to.

Zeus

 

"According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate beings, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves." -Plato's The Symposium 

I ran into this quote a few years ago and it made me question mythology. Even though I have not studied Zeus nor the god/goddesses all that well, I still find this so beautiful. Besides everyone's point of view of myths, I strongly believe that some part of this has to be true. I am still trying my best to figure out what I truly believe in and determining the real with the unrealistic. However, this simply touched my heart in so many ways. At first, it's horrifying to think that once people were built in such a strange way. Fixing that mistake, Zeus created this great adventure that can be miserable for some but incredible for others. Maybe that is what life is really about, finding your soul mate to help you live, to support and love one another through the obstacles of this crazy life we live in.