Final video project.

Okay so my video is about a very specific experience one of my friends had with his religion. - his time spent in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal when he was 15. What i found most interesting was the different identities within what his life was like when he was in the monastery, and the identity when on a small American college campus. How can an very structured and symbolic lifestyle, even for an short period of time alter and shape the rest of your life and what they bring to another environment. The pictures within the video are there to help the viewer understand the drastic change in environment from a Nepal monastery to Appleton WI. 

Also another interesting aspect to look at is how someone with this sort of religion can feel very natural in one environment but not necessarily in another. (like Nepal versus Appleton, WI). I think what you have to take from this instead is how you can take values learned from this experience and apply them to another lifestyle, such as on a college campus. Its almost how if a religion was placed in a new environment, instead of just a single person, and how the values and skills get applied to new experiences and environment- sometimes even altering the religion itself eventually to fit within their new context. 

The Temple in Chicago

The Baha'i Temple in Chicago is one out of only 7 Baha'i Temples in the world. After the discussion in class today about some aspects of the Baha'i religion and then looking at the website for the temple in chicago a few things stood out to me that correlated within both sources of information, and some information from the website was slightly different then i had originally interpreted it from class. Some things that definitely correlated was the continual discussion with system of symbols within any religion. Talking about the symbols importance to the development of a religion in class then reading an active source site helped to clarify and round out my understanding of these symbol's significance. Such as the Nice-pointed Star, The Ringstone, and The Greatest Name. Another thing i found really interesting was the slogan for the home page of the Baha'i sight, "Baha'i Faith, Religion Renewed for a changing World". This concept has a large correlation with the discussion we had in class just today. We discussed how religions are social constructs and are evolved as our societies evolved. How much of the evolving of a religion is consistently evaluated by those within the religion though? Critics are made all the time by outsiders and rebels from the religion but its an interesting concept to completely believe in something yet know its only based on the social environment so if that changes then the beliefs are altered as well. It almost reminds me of Chuang Tzu's values and beliefs with the idea of honoring and excepting change. Not accepting change one is not excepting anything within life because everything is in constant motion and interaction within themselves. 

Okay so i was trying to come up with something to talk about for this blog post and everything i seemed to think of felt like a repetition of what i've posted already. BUT something i've always been fascinated with popped into my head so here it goes and hope this gives some people light to something they've maybe not thought about too much on there own... 

I've always been really curious and fascinated with the theory and concepts behind  transgender individuals. Not because i have a weird fascination with how pop-culture portrays these people but the psychology behind having a conflict of two parts of nature that we are designed to only understand or experience one of those (gender or your "sex" - not sure what the correct term is for this but your biological make up and emotions that go on with that make up). So an individual is faced with being born a certain biological make-up but emotionally feels they should have been born (or in other words, who they really are) the other. What are their reasons for believing they should have been the other gender? Sometimes, but very rarely, its actually because something biological happened and they were born with more hormones for one gender versus the one they physically are so that creates the struggle. But a lot of times (again from what i have observed or learned from others) these feelings about your identity are shaped by the social make-up around you. Its crazy to think though (in a exciting brain-stretching kind of way) that something so decided by nature actually is trying to be altered by how individuals are influenced socially. 

Okay so this relates to religion because some main reasons religions are formed is to forma common identity with communities of people together with similar values. So religion is an identity. Identity is both environment and social constructions we create or have been created for us. How much of religion though is created because we have a biological element which makes us believe in world or live beyond the present, and how much of it is an influence by our social environments? Religion i feel leans towards a social influence so therefore identity is socially influenced. But then that means identity is mostly social constructions we've created ourselves so how can religion be anything but a search for a common identity between people? 

...wow i hope that all made some sense.... :P

Our biography of Baha'ullah details the life of a man who would become the founder for of the Bahai. By the end of chapter 4 we see that there is a group known as the Bahais. Write about what you see as the elements that go into founding a new religion.. Is it a sudden change or a long process? What is the relationship with past religions? What is the importance of a founder? 

     The Bahai did not come into existence over night. In fact, for Bahai to become a recognized religion the founder and recognized leader; Baha'ullah went through several exiles such as Baghdad to Istanbul, from Istanbul to Edirne and then from Edirne to Egypt. (89) Thats just one example in the very beginning that occurred standing up for his beliefs and finding a place in which others accepted this new beliefs as well. Even his followers who never did anything wrong against the ottoman empire chose to follow their leader through to all the different places he was ordered to go. Imagine leaving everything you've ever known to follow a single man because of his beliefs. Some of this reminded me of "Happy Feet" and how the dancing penguin was sent away because he danced instead of sang. At first the way a new stream of thought or religion starts is the rebellion from another but then, usually slowly what was once rebellion starts to have followers giving these beliefs a higher platform in our societies. As in Happy Feet and our last discussion in class thats how new religions are formed and Bahai is no exception. Every sort of social movement has a leader or an instigator. Having a founder or leader for religion is crucial and is always the case (with the knowledge i have of religions). 

Another musicians approach to reaching people

okay so after our multiple discussions about Bob Marley it started me thinking about other artist that have similar respect from our public who could be considered "religiously wise". The main artist i thought of was bob dylan. For many many years he has been a respected artist and musician for his way through to all types of people with is music. The interesting thing i learned from a dylan fan one year was that he reaches so many different types of people with all his songs that are about different people and their environments, yet he really has only had personal experiences with a small handful of the material he writes about. Even though he hasn't had direct experiences that correlate with his music that reaches the people who its actually about, does that make him more or less wise? Now i know that just because someone is considered wise and can reach many people with there knowledge doesn't mean that they are religious affiliated. BUT some people value his "wise wisdom" from his music soo much that they would consider following him like a religion. Is that actually considered a religion within out class discussions on the understanding? My first thought is yes, because within the many MANY songs and lyrics there is a system of symbols that people understand an relate to. Each one thinking and finding those songs to be a "unique" world within themselves. yay for bob dylan i guess?

Rastafari video

Watch the video on Rastafari in Jamaica (see second link under week 8) and write about the system of symbols that you see reflected in this video. Is this version of Rastafari life different than you might have expected after seeing the faith through Marley and his music?

Some of the main systems of symbols i noticed after watching this video was the difference

in the isolation of the religious people in the community versus marley's usage of his religion to 

move a masses of people. The usage of color as a symbol is also very evident such as the difference in our

understanding and definitions of the colors black and white. I feel as though this is lifestyle could be figured

out when reading out text but its probably not efficient for marley to life this lifestyle with what hes set out

to accomplish. If he was isolated like the religious people in this video being isolated wouldn't accomplish those goals.

Could Dance be the most powerful communication tool for religion?

I'm in a modern dance class at lawrence and today we did a really interesting exercise  that made me think about this question. The main point of them is to move or the absence of a certain kind of movement in environments that aren't used to that. So a group would stand really still with their eyes closed in a busy area of the campus. another one was to move in slow motion near the road with speeding cars coming by. The reactions we received from people walking by or cars driving by as well as when I observed some of the students myself made me realize how powerful movement can be for any message. Religion is continued by a strong community of people who have found ways to communicate it to others. So if body language is 90 or so percent of the communication between people then wouldn't dance be the highest form of intentional communication, especially for religion? I'm curious peoples thoughts on that.... 

Read the section from the Ethiopian book known as the Kebra Negast. This is a retelling of the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Then write about how this story might change one's perspective on Ethiopia as a nation. Or to say it another way, how does this story give a special significance to the nation?

The story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is a well known story in the Religious community. The significance of the story intertwined with ethiopia makes people view ethiopia as more then just a impoverished country in africa, but a sacred community. After reading the story I have been introduced to a very close part of their traditions. Religion is such as primary part of an individual or community of people that i feel if one learns more about a particular community's religion then it humanizes this community to people who would of never been in contact with them. Also, if the reader has a common interest in the importance of the story then they share a close bond of community ties without even formally "knowing" the person. Ethiopia could have started out as a country hard for lots of westerners to relate to because of the greatly impoverished citizens, but with the knowledge of a common religious story or symbol it is humanized creating a closely connected international religious community. 

Conceptual Blending and Analogy

In the article "Conceptual Blending and Analogy" by Gilles Fauconnier he explains the meaning and concepts behind "Blending" and "analogies" in the sense of cognitive science. All of these are just different forms for us to interpret and understand our experiences in the world. What i find interesting, which is pretty accurate is the fact that we use completely unrelated experience in the physical sense to help us understand another experience. The example that stuck out to me most in the section was the explanation of the ski instructor trying to teach a novice, telling him to "imagine that he was a waiter in paris carrying a tray with champagne and croissants" (261). This would be considered an action blend. I think this style of conceptualizing is definitely linked to how we use religions. For instance, isn't the bible and other forms of sacred scriptures 'blending' so you understand your experiences in your own life? You're learning how to act according to an example which is (in a very literal and physical sense) probably very different. The waiter carrying a tray is an example explaining how to act for a skier when he is skiing, and the religious documents and scriptures are "examples" of how to act within your own personal life. 

The Images of existence.

On Wensday evening i had to present at the art salon, which is when all the students in independent studies through the art department present their projects so far and receive feedback which is also intended to create conversation between artists. One of the projects really intrigued me. It was an abstract photography project done by a senior who was majoring in composition and a minor in studio art. Basically he created images and developed them by the different sound frequencies created by a speaker. Each image was completely different from the next, and drastically different if it was created with a different sound frequency. The images were different but beautiful. You were viewing sound waves and energy through patterns and shapes. I was thinking, if you can create images by sound frequencies, can that be done for other strong forces in our universe that are not originally experienced by the eye? Such as, if you follow the belief that everything in our universe is interconnected in some way as different energy forces than even thoughts are connected to the physical world and everything will influence and react to each other to some degree. Because everything is so interconnected, i think of thoughts as a form of energy in our universe, just like if your around someone who is really angry or super happy, even without them telling you you can "feel" it. So if you can feel this energy, especially strong thoughts and emotions then why can't something else pick that up as well like sound frequency was able to be captured on a photograph? wouldn't that be fascinating if you could capture beliefs as actual images! We always use symbols to represent certain beliefs and historical evidence of these beliefs, but what if the images were created by the energy forces creating those beliefs.  

It would give a whole new meaning to 'looking' around you for what you believe in. 

http://www.thisbydonkey.blogspot.com/ sam's post on how water will freeze differently depending on how its spoken to is not exactly the same thing i'm talking about here but it supports my idea of how everything in the world is connected and will somehow effect each other. even energy and emotions to the physical world. 

Can you use Augustine to interpret the Psalms?

Read book 2 of Augustine's On Christian Teaching and write about how the ideas in this section could be used by you to interpret the Psalms. Are these ideas helpful for interpreting scripture?

Augustine in book 2 brings up a lot of points and ideas having to do with interpretation of christianity. The one I'm going to focus on is his opinion on the change in meaning from translations. He states that if we are to translate into latin for example, we should learn the languages that latin derives from to achieve the highest understanding  of the text. He also states that latin is difficult to translate into because meanings are difficult to translate from certain phrases versus single words meanings. Applying Augustine's ideas of translation to the Psalms is an idea that should definitely be considered, though is very extensive to the general public who are reading and attempting to understand these Psalms. If everyone was required to fully understand the languages that make up the language of their religious scripture then you would end up having less people making the attempt to do so. Though, if you could get people to really master the derived languages the translations would be more true to the original text. It also makes me wonder wether the element of change/ evolving being a crucial element to religion is more for practical reasons such as translations will never hold completely true to the original documents after a certain point, so you just have to be okay with change because it will happen inevitably. 

religious references in pop culture.

So after our class on monday I thought a lot about how religion is communicated with music. Then I started thinking about pop culture and how they reference to any sort of religions and how the viewer interprets it. Is there a strong impact for the viewers interpretation of that religion? I believe there probably is, and i was curious to what extent does our pop culture influence the change in religions evolving? Its totally natural for religion to evolve as societies and the world around it evolves, but would this be considered like a steroid to the growth of a society's development? Heres a music video that i thought of when I was considering this idea. I encourage you to watch it once all the way through and not think to hard about it, just be entertained. Then think about how it makes you feel... whether you believe that the video is accurate or not of your knowledge of the religion it references to how does it make you feel about it? Does the images associated with the spiritual references conflict for you at first than you become comfortable with? Can you step back from yourself and see how your views or even just images you didn't think could be associated with this religion are not put together and your okay with it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUmcUuPo3Jo

Is God the fighter?

Read Psalm 18 along with its footnotes. Comment on the image of God that is presented in this Psalm. Is it problematic that elements of this God have been borrowed from other religious traditions? Is the image of God as a fighter and aid in battle scary? 

The concept of a fighter is a really interesting subject to bring up with how it is intertwined with religion, specifically and example of this is in Psalm 18. It could be as simple as religion is one of the oldest sources for storytelling, and within stories there is often the element of a heroic figure which is often proven he is a hero by being a "fighter". If you can follow me that far with this idea then what I'm getting as is maybe God is interpreted as a "fighter" because in a storytelling structure that makes him therefore proven a hero. A Hero of his people and the world you might say. Another interpretation i had for this concept was the historical element of people have respected and admired glorious fighters in battles which makes this figure easier to understand and appreciate if they can put it to a context like that. So in my opinion i don't find the fighter image scary at all in the Psalm because i think its meant to represent something beyond the physical environment of a battle, but a fighter in life and a respected figure for one to admire. Psalms for me are often a message about God that is from the people, and the language and images they put God into are more metaphorical images, not meant to be taken as a literal image to imagine God within. 

People watching... could you be watching their faith?

Okay so think might be a little far out there but i'll give it a go and you can let me know what you think of this thought. I've always enjoyed people watching... not in a creepy way... i hope.  I'm just curious about how people express themselves visually and the variety of people their are in the world. I guess I just really find people in general fascinating. So i was thinking... religion and or spirituality is such a crucial part of most peoples psyche even if they themselves don't realize it. So... how much can you tell about their spirituality by their physical physic or clothing? Theres obviously the really noticeable things like wearing a cross or a yarmulke, but what about the really subtle things that even they don't realize is attached to their beliefs?  I spent some time in paris over spring break and when i was there taking pictures of the sights i decided to my own little project where i could take portraits of all the interesting people i saw in Paris. "The Faces of Paris" i call it. Even though they say that as a whole, Paris or most of europe is not that religious, you can definitely see some individuality of spiritual expression within their visual presence. So heres a few of those pictures and see if you can image or figure out what sort of believes, connections, associations, or symbols they support visually that can be interpreted into spirituality. 

Early Psalm 2

We have now discussed Psalm 2 and its reflection of the early Israelite monarchy. The "king" is probably literally a reference to the "king" of Israel and his enthronement. Read now the version of Psalm 2 present in the earliest book printed in America, the Bay Psalm Book. Read this version and imagine what this poem could mean in an early American context. What are the changes that have occurred to allow for this new meaning? 

The switch between the two versions of Psalm 2 have some definite language differences, after all they are translations from very different times in history, but the meaning seems to leave the same emotions with you once you finish reading it out loud. 

One major difference is obviously the old English versus how English is spoken now. Its amazing to me how translators figure out exactly what each word or line translates to after all the filters and influences of societies and cultures alter the language and meanings over the years. Also, rhythmically the two versions are different. The older Psalm II seems to rhythm, which could drastically change how the listener receives the information. Thats another interesting thing i pondered after realizing this difference... how much does rhythm effect the interpretation of the language and meaning? I would assume its a great deal because just like music in a film, it drastically changes the feeling you get even though its the exact same information being said or viewed with or without the music. 

  

symbols of the ear...

After our multiple discussions on the "system of symbols" i started thinking about all the different expressions of symbols and if all symbols had to be visual to fall under this definition.... is the idea of a symbol have to be primarily visual? or can it be the symbol for the ear? obviously lots of groups think so because music and chants are a large part of what makes up some religions. But then i wonder wether music/chants are symbols for the ear, or are they considered rituals for that religion? I can definitely see how they could be considered either one. So, the best way so far for me to understand it myself or decipher the difference is also looking at what is interpreting the outside influence. If its your body thats interpreting then a symbol could be something kinesthetic like dance or any kind of movement... or pain for that matter. egh. like sacrificing something from your body and the physical effect even if it is not visual to the outside world it is symbolic to the body being influenced by it. So chants and or music used in a religious setting I believe is symbolic to the ear, and a ritual are more the outsiders perspective viewing the one interpreting it, or possibly rituals are to strengthen the community aspect of a religion and that is a symbol to the group as a whole.  

Blog week 2

"A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." 

"Long a mysterious part of the Wisconsin landscape, the effigy mounds are now regarded by some as monumental representations of the same underlying belief systems encoded on woodland pottery and other artwork... "

The effigy mounds in Wisconsin do fit into the description of "a system of symbols" using the definition above. As i described in my last post, you can't separate the intentions behind most art from spirituality and/or religion. Even with the passage i took from the section on effigy mounds, they even describe the mounds as representations of the meaning behind the artwork in the woodlands. That to me says that this is a symbolic representation of our belief systems. formulating concepts and general order could be for the mounds where they are located, and how they also can represent certain areas on the landscape that are important for them, such as water, good land, ect. marking out areas with symbolic territorial markings like that represents an attempt to create order. Any kind of creation and attempt for order will help define ones existence.

Ghazal

When i was at Interlochen i took a few creative writing classes my senior year. one of the projects we did were creating Ghazals. Ghazals are a type of poetry in couplets that don't necessarily have physical relation with the imagine created, but more emotional that much harder to explain with words. My understanding of Ghazals are they compare emotions of the images, not the images themselves. I thought i'd share one of the Ghazals i wrote in that class with you. its not as abstract as some of them, but i still like it. see if the emotion you feel after reading it can be associated with spirituality... I don't know, might be kind of fun. :) 

What if we tired everything we owned to our backs?

Let the rain cleanse us from our plastic selves. 

We are slaves to our own layers.

I own 20 raincoats.

Mellon farmers have the hearts of a warrior.

Mellon man lies drunk in a ditch. 

I want to drive through a row of velvet covered Elvis paintings.

Dream birds are just double martinis.

Get off the road, and into the world that heals you.

The lunch-meat never tasted so fresh. 

Palaeolithic art and religion handout

After reading the article on Palaeolithic art and religion, the topic of art and how it is intertwined with religion has lingered in my mind... "Nevertheless, the quest for ur-religion is inevitably intertwined with the origins of art" (9). My question with this statement is- where do you draw the line with associating art with any form of spirituality, formal religious group or not? Art to me is a communication tool for the individual or a group of people's self expression. There is no such thing as art that is not intended to be shared in some form. Understanding that art is rooted as a self expression communication tool, how can you really separate it from spirituality ever? For instance, they give the example in the article about Stonehenge being a strong example of symbolic religious affiliated art. Whoever created must have had some form of religion or spirituality present. You don't create a fairy circle like structure of boulders just because your bored. The structure signified something, they were sharing an idea, possibly as solid to them as the boulders they were using. So the structure represents at least a presence of an idea to be shared, and that communication of human expression was successful because people still travel all around the world to see this magnificent structure.  How does this successful use of communication relate back to spirituality? well, my very simplified definition for spirituality is the sharing or acknowledging within yourself of ideas you have about the world around you, and your gut feeling for how to answer these questions that aren't rooted from a physical thing, but rooted emotionally, and shared through the physical. like art.