The last time I read The Bhagavad-Gita I literally threw the book across the room before I could finish it, not that I would have back then. This time around I didn't finish The Bhagavad-Gita not because of extreme displeasure or because of a great lack of interest - I didn't finish The Bhagavad-Gita this time around because of a life altering event, which I will not go into details, happened to me over spring break.
This life altering experience shook me to the depths of my being. I was lost and did not know if there was much left of me that was well me. Believe it or not The Bhagavad-Gita helped me through it and allowed me to see that this life altering event took place, partially, because I was not honoring and performing my sacred duty.
The teachings in this book were so inspiring and informative that I had to put the book down to contemplate what I read and how I could incorporate its timeless wisdom into my life. Soon I shall pick up The Bhagavad-Gita again but not before I am ready.
I must admit that had this life altering event not occurred I might have thrown this book across the room again instead of gently setting it down in order to be read again. I do not think that I was ready for its knowledge and wisdom. Like Arjuna before me - my world had to be shattered in order to be receptive to what Lord Krishna has to say and even then I found myself debating and arguing his teachings until I received both minor and major epiphanies which allowed me to continue reading.
In the near future I can definitely see my copy of this book falling apart for I do intend to travel with this book and read it frequently in order to pick up what I missed from each of the previous readings.
I often hear people talk about finding books or books finding them when they need them the most and I always thought it was such nonsense - well I needed a book with timeless wisdom in order to help see me through a difficult time over spring break and I didn't find The Bhagavad-Gita it found me again.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Revisiting The Bhagavad-Gita
Hello class - today I am going to start rereading The Bhagavad-Gita and I am curious to see if I like it better this time around - I last read it several years ago when I was a young punk in desperate need of seasoning.
Well I am still young and still in need of seasoning but I don't think that I am a young punk, though I am sure some of the older generation would disagree with that assessment!
I must admit that I don't remember much from the last time I read The Bhagavad-Gita I only barely made it through the first chapter and I most definitely remember that I could not stand it.
What I do remember is that The Bhagavad-Gita reminded me of most was reading The Old Testament of the bible, not that there is anything wrong with reading The Old Testament of course and there is a lot of timeless wisdom in the bible if one knows to look for it and I assume that there is a lot of timeless wisdom in The Bhagavad-Gita as well.
Well this time around I am older, hopefully a little wiser though at times I do have my doubts, more patient, and more experienced at reading older texts.
I am hopeful that I will be able to finish reading the entire book without setting it down so that it can gather a lot of dust and oh so slowly disintegrate in the process.
Well I am still young and still in need of seasoning but I don't think that I am a young punk, though I am sure some of the older generation would disagree with that assessment!
I must admit that I don't remember much from the last time I read The Bhagavad-Gita I only barely made it through the first chapter and I most definitely remember that I could not stand it.
What I do remember is that The Bhagavad-Gita reminded me of most was reading The Old Testament of the bible, not that there is anything wrong with reading The Old Testament of course and there is a lot of timeless wisdom in the bible if one knows to look for it and I assume that there is a lot of timeless wisdom in The Bhagavad-Gita as well.
Well this time around I am older, hopefully a little wiser though at times I do have my doubts, more patient, and more experienced at reading older texts.
I am hopeful that I will be able to finish reading the entire book without setting it down so that it can gather a lot of dust and oh so slowly disintegrate in the process.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Minor Epiphanies in "To The Lighthouse"
I have noticed that Virgina Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" has numerous minor epiphanies, of the "oh" variety, that are dispersed with frequent regularity throughout the novel.
The assignment of this blog was to write about only five instances of minor epiphanies that occur in "To the Lighthouse". Only five, well we could probably find 50 quite easily or wait there are 209 pages in "To the Lighthouse" and if one were so inclined to look someone could probably find at least 209 minor epiphanies in the novel. To prove this point, or at least attempt to I will randomly open my book to any given page and write the quote that, at least in my mind, best embodies the minor epiphany that I observed on that page.
Here we go...in numerical order (not the order in which I turned to them originally)...
On page 29 "She was silent always. She knew then-she knew without having learnt. Her simplicity fathomed what clever people falsified. Her singleness of mind made her drop plumb like a stone, alight exact as a bird, gave her, naturally, this swoop and fall of the spirit upon truth which delighted, eased, sustained-falsely perhaps.
Page 62 "She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of-to think; well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. Although she continued to knit, and sat upright, it was thus she felt herself; and this self having shed its attachments free for the strangest adventures.
Page 128 "...the sea tosses itself and breaks itself, and should any sleeper fancying that he might find on the beach answers to his doubts, a sharer of his solitude, throw off his bedclothes and go down by himself to walk on the sand, no image with semblance of serving and divine promptitude comes readily to hand bringing the night to order and making the world reflect the compass of the soul.
Pages 150 -151 "And then, and then-this was one of those moments when an enormous need urged him, without being conscious what it was, to approach any woman, to force them, he did not care how, his need was so great, to give him what he wanted: sympathy.
Page 174 "But the dead...They are at our mercy. Mrs. Ramsay has faded and gone, she thought. We can over-ride her wishes, improve away her limited old fashioned ideas."
Page 176 and this one is not quite so random as I remembered that there was a followup epiphany to the one on page 174. "She had been looking at the table cloth, and it flashed upon her that she would move the tree to the middle, and need never marry anybody, and she had felt an enormous exultation. She had felt, now she could stand up to Mrs. Ramsay - a tribute to the astonishing power that Mrs. Ramsay had over one."
From these five quotes from "To the Lighthouse" we can see that these minor epiphanies are all small, though revealing, personal moments of epiphanies that continue to grow over the course of the novel.
The assignment of this blog was to write about only five instances of minor epiphanies that occur in "To the Lighthouse". Only five, well we could probably find 50 quite easily or wait there are 209 pages in "To the Lighthouse" and if one were so inclined to look someone could probably find at least 209 minor epiphanies in the novel. To prove this point, or at least attempt to I will randomly open my book to any given page and write the quote that, at least in my mind, best embodies the minor epiphany that I observed on that page.
Here we go...in numerical order (not the order in which I turned to them originally)...
On page 29 "She was silent always. She knew then-she knew without having learnt. Her simplicity fathomed what clever people falsified. Her singleness of mind made her drop plumb like a stone, alight exact as a bird, gave her, naturally, this swoop and fall of the spirit upon truth which delighted, eased, sustained-falsely perhaps.
Page 62 "She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of-to think; well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. Although she continued to knit, and sat upright, it was thus she felt herself; and this self having shed its attachments free for the strangest adventures.
Page 128 "...the sea tosses itself and breaks itself, and should any sleeper fancying that he might find on the beach answers to his doubts, a sharer of his solitude, throw off his bedclothes and go down by himself to walk on the sand, no image with semblance of serving and divine promptitude comes readily to hand bringing the night to order and making the world reflect the compass of the soul.
Pages 150 -151 "And then, and then-this was one of those moments when an enormous need urged him, without being conscious what it was, to approach any woman, to force them, he did not care how, his need was so great, to give him what he wanted: sympathy.
Page 174 "But the dead...They are at our mercy. Mrs. Ramsay has faded and gone, she thought. We can over-ride her wishes, improve away her limited old fashioned ideas."
Page 176 and this one is not quite so random as I remembered that there was a followup epiphany to the one on page 174. "She had been looking at the table cloth, and it flashed upon her that she would move the tree to the middle, and need never marry anybody, and she had felt an enormous exultation. She had felt, now she could stand up to Mrs. Ramsay - a tribute to the astonishing power that Mrs. Ramsay had over one."
From these five quotes from "To the Lighthouse" we can see that these minor epiphanies are all small, though revealing, personal moments of epiphanies that continue to grow over the course of the novel.
Friday, March 5, 2010
How Dillard Sets the Stage
In Annie Dillard's "Total Eclipse" we can see that she is writing in order to share with her audience how awestruck she was when she witnessed the total solar eclipse of February 26, 1979. This essay is particularly about sharing her experiences through the vivid use of language, metaphors and similes, and communicate with her audience how this particular event, and the journey leading up to the total solar eclipse, has affected her.
Dillard uses very descriptive language in this essay. She is able to convey powerful messages in very few words. For example we can get a strong sense of her great anticipation for total solar eclipse when she begins to describe the scenery of Yakima Valley. Dillard writes:
"East of us rose another hill like ours. Between the hills, far below, was the highway which threded south into the valley. This was the Yakima valley; I had never seen it before. I was justly famous for its beauty, like every planted valley. It extended south of the horizon, a distant dream of a valley, a Shangri-la...Distance blurred and blued the sight, so that the whole valley looked like a thickness or sediment at the bottom of the sky" (13).
From this passage we can see how Dillard uses language in order to "paint" the picture for her audience not only to see but also to experience. By using strong descriptive language in reference to witnessing Yakima valley, not to mention her other experiences while going to witness the total solar eclipse, we can see how she sets the stage for her revelations about her life changing encounter with the total solar eclipse. In fact the event was so dramatic for her that it took her two years to write her experiences down.
We can also see how Dillard foreshadows the the events prior to the total solar eclipse in order to set the stage for an experience that takes her by complete surprise. Dillard writes:
"It began with no ado. It was odd that such a well-advertised public event should have no starting gun, no overture, no introductory speaker. I should have know right then and there that I was out of my depth. Without pause or preamble, silent as orbs, a piece of the sun went away. We looked at it through welder's goggles. A piece of the sun was missing; in its place we saw empty sky" (14).
From this passage we can see how Dillard is communicating, however so slightly, with her audience - TO PAY ATTENTION! When she writes that she was out of her depth she is giving us a major clue that something so unexpected and so earth shattering was getting ready to happen.
Also I noticed that she uses a lot of repetition in this essay. At first it was getting just a little annoying reading the same thing over and over again restated in slightly different ways. But then I realized that she was once again communicating the importance of her experiences in order to set the stage for something bigger.
The repetition was necessary in order to produced the desired effect up her readers, also I think that it might also have been used as a subtle maneuver in order to convey her message to those audience members who couldn't get what she was up to. For those of us who did pick up on it - it only heightened our anticipation for the epiphanic moment of the text and for those who didn't pick up on it, well it probably subconsciously produced a similar effect as well.
Dillard uses very descriptive language in this essay. She is able to convey powerful messages in very few words. For example we can get a strong sense of her great anticipation for total solar eclipse when she begins to describe the scenery of Yakima Valley. Dillard writes:
"East of us rose another hill like ours. Between the hills, far below, was the highway which threded south into the valley. This was the Yakima valley; I had never seen it before. I was justly famous for its beauty, like every planted valley. It extended south of the horizon, a distant dream of a valley, a Shangri-la...Distance blurred and blued the sight, so that the whole valley looked like a thickness or sediment at the bottom of the sky" (13).
From this passage we can see how Dillard uses language in order to "paint" the picture for her audience not only to see but also to experience. By using strong descriptive language in reference to witnessing Yakima valley, not to mention her other experiences while going to witness the total solar eclipse, we can see how she sets the stage for her revelations about her life changing encounter with the total solar eclipse. In fact the event was so dramatic for her that it took her two years to write her experiences down.
We can also see how Dillard foreshadows the the events prior to the total solar eclipse in order to set the stage for an experience that takes her by complete surprise. Dillard writes:
"It began with no ado. It was odd that such a well-advertised public event should have no starting gun, no overture, no introductory speaker. I should have know right then and there that I was out of my depth. Without pause or preamble, silent as orbs, a piece of the sun went away. We looked at it through welder's goggles. A piece of the sun was missing; in its place we saw empty sky" (14).
From this passage we can see how Dillard is communicating, however so slightly, with her audience - TO PAY ATTENTION! When she writes that she was out of her depth she is giving us a major clue that something so unexpected and so earth shattering was getting ready to happen.
Also I noticed that she uses a lot of repetition in this essay. At first it was getting just a little annoying reading the same thing over and over again restated in slightly different ways. But then I realized that she was once again communicating the importance of her experiences in order to set the stage for something bigger.
The repetition was necessary in order to produced the desired effect up her readers, also I think that it might also have been used as a subtle maneuver in order to convey her message to those audience members who couldn't get what she was up to. For those of us who did pick up on it - it only heightened our anticipation for the epiphanic moment of the text and for those who didn't pick up on it, well it probably subconsciously produced a similar effect as well.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Tintern Abbey and Lock 60
When I was reading Tintern Abbey I was struck by the similarities that I feel when I visit Lock 60 in Pennsylvania (you should Google Lock 60). As a boy I used to walk, or ride a bike there, fish or collect mini fresh water shells. Lock 60 is located on the Schuylkill Canal, just off the Schuylkill River and it is surrounded by woods, steep cliffs, rolling, and a dam. The roaring water can be heard throughout the area.
Wordsworth is very nostalgic in this poem and I can relate to how he feels seeing one of his favorite places. However, this time he is seeing it through an grownups eye instead of that of a child. He reflects on how things have changed and he feels at peace there.
Wordsworth wrote:
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all. -- I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.
From these lines we can see how just by thinking about his boyhood years at Tintern Abbey affects Wordsworth. He feels bittersweet just thinking about it. But we can also see how much pleasure it brings him.
For me Lock 60 is my Tintern Abbey.
Last year when I went to Pennsylvania the first place I visited was Lock 60 and it was the last place I went to just before I left to catch my flight. I can spend hours there visiting my old hangouts, fishing, just walking around the trails or finding a comfortable place to sit back and relax. I love Lock 60 and I feel at a loss and at peace when I am there.
When I first read Tintern Abbey a few years ago I didn't make the connection to Lock 60. I just thought about it as I reread the poem over the weekend. I do remember thinking to myself a few years ago that it must be nice and awful to have a place like Tintern Abbey to haunt and please you. Well, I do have such a place and it is indeed both terrible and fantastic.
I look forward to later this year when I once again go to Lock 60. I can't wait to go and I do not want to leave. For Lock 60 is with me now so in a way it has never left me. Lock 60 - My own personal Tintern Abbey.
Wordsworth is very nostalgic in this poem and I can relate to how he feels seeing one of his favorite places. However, this time he is seeing it through an grownups eye instead of that of a child. He reflects on how things have changed and he feels at peace there.
Wordsworth wrote:
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all. -- I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.
From these lines we can see how just by thinking about his boyhood years at Tintern Abbey affects Wordsworth. He feels bittersweet just thinking about it. But we can also see how much pleasure it brings him.
For me Lock 60 is my Tintern Abbey.
Last year when I went to Pennsylvania the first place I visited was Lock 60 and it was the last place I went to just before I left to catch my flight. I can spend hours there visiting my old hangouts, fishing, just walking around the trails or finding a comfortable place to sit back and relax. I love Lock 60 and I feel at a loss and at peace when I am there.
When I first read Tintern Abbey a few years ago I didn't make the connection to Lock 60. I just thought about it as I reread the poem over the weekend. I do remember thinking to myself a few years ago that it must be nice and awful to have a place like Tintern Abbey to haunt and please you. Well, I do have such a place and it is indeed both terrible and fantastic.
I look forward to later this year when I once again go to Lock 60. I can't wait to go and I do not want to leave. For Lock 60 is with me now so in a way it has never left me. Lock 60 - My own personal Tintern Abbey.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
I have an plan
Well, this is my first posting in about two weeks and I apologize for that. I was inspired by Mick's idea about writing an epic poem for his final project and I think that I will do, or at least attempt to do, the same thing.
However, I think that for my poem instead of four separate sections I will have only three. For the moment, at least, each section will concentrate on one or more elements of the human condition. Furthermore, I envision that each section will be told in one of the three personal pronouns in English.
I am fully expecting and hoping that this will be an exciting undertaking that will be full of challenging moments that will lead me to the depths of despair and the the heights of personal fulfillment.
I must admit that I haven't tried anything of this scope before and I am hoping that it is within me to be able to complete by the time the semester ends. I know that things do not always go according to plan and perhaps this is one won't either. But what I do know is that I will give it a go and if my plans change so be it.
Who knows maybe I will fail - but maybe I will succeed. I won't know until I try but try try I will.
However, I think that for my poem instead of four separate sections I will have only three. For the moment, at least, each section will concentrate on one or more elements of the human condition. Furthermore, I envision that each section will be told in one of the three personal pronouns in English.
I am fully expecting and hoping that this will be an exciting undertaking that will be full of challenging moments that will lead me to the depths of despair and the the heights of personal fulfillment.
I must admit that I haven't tried anything of this scope before and I am hoping that it is within me to be able to complete by the time the semester ends. I know that things do not always go according to plan and perhaps this is one won't either. But what I do know is that I will give it a go and if my plans change so be it.
Who knows maybe I will fail - but maybe I will succeed. I won't know until I try but try try I will.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Dawning of Awareness: Oh's, Ah's, Yum's and Hmm's
Hello Class,
I just finished watching "Groundhog Day" for the first time in several years and I think that there is a gap in our current understanding, or attempted understanding, of the nature of an epiphany in the movie and in some of the text's that we read.
One student posted that we should reserve spot for Yum on the list of epiphanies. Well I think that this is a great idea and I that we should add hmm's to the list as well, which I call the dawning of awareness. In "The Dead" we see an hmm moment when he first realized that something was wrong with his wife in regards to the song that was sung and her reaction to it. An hmm moment is not the revelation of important information or sudden clarity - it is the moment that turns on the light in one's brain that there is either an oh or an ah moment on the way. So it is not a true epiphantic moment in the sense of this class but it is close.
An example of an hmm moment in Groundhog Day is when Bill Murray's character Phil sees an old homeless man struggling in a dark alley way. This old man was passed by without so much as an afterthought throughout much of the movie. When Phil saw that he was struggling to get by an hmm moment was triggered and shortly afterwards in the hospital when he learned that he died of old age an oh moment happened.
In The Wind in the Willows a similar hmm moment happened just before the ah moment. Mole and Rat were traveling to find Portly when they heard blissful music. This music was the hmm before the ah.
From these examples I feel that there is a moment not of clarity, like an epiphany, but of awareness before each epiphany - the ah's and the oh's. I think that this type of awareness, that something is not quite right whether good or bad, is present before most epiphanies if not all of them. Therefore, I will be looking for these hmm moments very carefully from now on.
I just finished watching "Groundhog Day" for the first time in several years and I think that there is a gap in our current understanding, or attempted understanding, of the nature of an epiphany in the movie and in some of the text's that we read.
One student posted that we should reserve spot for Yum on the list of epiphanies. Well I think that this is a great idea and I that we should add hmm's to the list as well, which I call the dawning of awareness. In "The Dead" we see an hmm moment when he first realized that something was wrong with his wife in regards to the song that was sung and her reaction to it. An hmm moment is not the revelation of important information or sudden clarity - it is the moment that turns on the light in one's brain that there is either an oh or an ah moment on the way. So it is not a true epiphantic moment in the sense of this class but it is close.
An example of an hmm moment in Groundhog Day is when Bill Murray's character Phil sees an old homeless man struggling in a dark alley way. This old man was passed by without so much as an afterthought throughout much of the movie. When Phil saw that he was struggling to get by an hmm moment was triggered and shortly afterwards in the hospital when he learned that he died of old age an oh moment happened.
In The Wind in the Willows a similar hmm moment happened just before the ah moment. Mole and Rat were traveling to find Portly when they heard blissful music. This music was the hmm before the ah.
From these examples I feel that there is a moment not of clarity, like an epiphany, but of awareness before each epiphany - the ah's and the oh's. I think that this type of awareness, that something is not quite right whether good or bad, is present before most epiphanies if not all of them. Therefore, I will be looking for these hmm moments very carefully from now on.
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