Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Journal-December 9 (The Final Post!)
Hey--what are you doing??? This is NEXT week's question! Go back to the previous post, labeled December 2...that one is THIS week's question! :)
Look through the novel, Peaceful Warrior. Choose one quote or idea that you learned from the novel (if you want, you may choose more). Make sure that it is an important idea, an idea that made you change your mind about something important, or an idea what made you see the word in a different way. Answer the following questions about the idea or quote:
1. Why did you choose this idea or quote? Please explain.
2. Is the idea different from the way most people think? Please explain.
3. If more people in the world believed in this idea, would the world change in any way? Please explain.
4. If you have children someday, how will you explain the idea to them? Give an example of how you can help a child believe in the idea, rather than lies.
5. If you believe in the idea, when and where are you going to start practicing the idea?
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There are many aphorisms in this book and it isn’t simple to choose among them, but maybe the best one according to me is “your mind is the source of your moods”, on p.56.
This quote gives me the opportunity to meditate about something that I ever have thought before. My mood is often dictated by my mind: if I plan to go to the beach during the weekend and the weather becomes bad, it starts raining and to being cold I find myself moped, and nothing can enjoy my days. Like Dan with his planned picnic. While I am reading this quote and looking at Dan’s behaviour I can find a “copy” of myself and finally I have understood how silly has been my behaviour sometimes. My mind creates huge illusions on my planned things and when something happen upsetting my ploject, the disillusion is so big that I can’t enjoy nothing more of what is happening. And the worse thing is that all these illusions, even whit the better conditions, hardly are going to became all reality. So even if there is a radiant sun, a warm weather and so on, all the illusions can even be accomplished and so in some manner I’m always insatisfied.
I think that many people live in this manner. I grew up in a modest family and I have all this illusions that are fighting with my serenity: I think that rich people are even in a worse situation, because are used to see their dreams become reality without many efforts and in an easy manner. When they run into a disillusion, their sadness would be very huge. We are living in a world that is running too much, nobody have the time to stop and to think, but in this manner people can’t understand what is really important for the life. I have to learn to accept the events, to stop fighting with something I can’t thrive. I have to learn to enjoy the moment. If outside it is raining I have to enjoy the warm of the house, without thinking about how funny it should be being on the beach playing volleyball, because it can’t happen and so I am sad for nothing and nobody can do nothing to change the situation. It is amazing because it the weather is going to be bad and I plan to spend my weekend at home I’m fine and I find some activity enjoying every moment of it.
If more people thought about this quote, I think there would be less moped people and less suicide. Because if everybody learned to enjoy every single moment of his life, there should be no space for sadness. We become sad or moped when something breaks our plans, our aspectatives. But these are only a creation of our mind. If we are able to enjoy what is happening in every moment of our life without expecting more, we would be happy.
First I have to practice a lot to learn stopping and meditating when sadness is coming upon me: I think in this manner I can have clear the situation, and when I understand there is no reason to be sad, I can be happy. When I have learned to do so, and I hope one time it will happen, I would like to teach this to my child too. When children are very little they haven’t aspectations and they are always happy: maybe it would be better start at this point with the training. Maybe simply without promises, only surprises. When you are not waiting something you can’t miss it. And surprises bring happiness. Like: “let’s go to the circus!”, instead of “Shall we go to the circus next week?”. It isn’t a simple learning to teach to a child, but I think that a kid learns more simply watching and being close to his parents, so a correct behaviour of their can grow up a nice child.
1.i choose the quote : about the butterfly.
Lao dzu dreamed he was a butterfly , upon awakening , he asked him self :"Am a man who just been dreaming that he was a butterfly , or a sleeping butterfly , now dreaming that he is a man"
i also heared this story when i attended my university ... my teacher of philosophy made my class laugh a lot .
all the concepts in this book are not new , but after finishing this book , i can conceive the life more clear ...it strings of the fact in the intelligent way ... after reading the book , i nearly understand what i understood in the past in the high level like i was standing in the sky and looking the world .
but acccording to me , this quote is the most intelligent.
is Tao dzu crasy ?
yes , i thought so at first ...
but let think about this quote carefully ...
who are crazy, who are stupid , who are good , who are bad , who are rich , who are poor , what is soft , what is hard ..... everything is illusion .all things all over the world is illusions.
do you sure that you are not in a dream ??
i smiled with this quote , very content , this is the answer for all things all over the world .
2.the warrior 's concept about the hapiness , everything in this book can be explained by "life is illusion".
the people can not understand the quote, also can't practice it in their life . i am too .
3 . yes , no thing is nessesary ,no thing is rght , no thing is wrong ...everything will change to become the thing it wants to be .
4. i will not say with them anything , i want them realize t by themselve or never
5 i understand it , but i am not sure about that , but maybe in the future , i will do a fact what human have never done before
Quote: “Everyone played their roles so well!” (p.201, l.25)
Dan said these words, when he finally came back to the city. Before he said these words, he also said “It’s all the marvelous Play of God.” And, he saw the ordinary landscape in the city: there are lovers, criminals, volunteers, and him. I like this thought. Actually, I have already heard this thought before in a book about Buddhism. This idea acknowledges and accepts all people’s lives. No matter how we live, everything is accepted.
Some people know this thought. And, I think most people have thought of this idea. But, whether we know this thought or not does not matter, because all we can do is still to live our life even after realizing this idea. However, in my case, I felt my stress and struggling in my mind lightened after I knew this thought.
This thought might be seen as very cold idea, because this idea implies that every happening in our life has been decided already. However, though our stories have been decided already, we cannot skip our story and cannot see others’ stories. And I believe that every scene, chapter, and script is made very well. So, acting the play, we can enjoy it.
By the way, in the book about Buddhism I mentioned earlier, the author said we should not be bad actors and actresses in the play of God. This means if we act our story badly, we will be fired from the play. But, I disagree with this thought. I think everybody is meant to be the best actor and the best actress for each character in the play. And, we cannot run away from the play until we act the play to the end.
If I have children someday, I will not teach this thought. That is because, this thought means nothing. Even if my children know this idea, all they can do is still to life their life. But, if there is a scene which explains about this thought to my children in my story, I will do that. I have no idea. I cannot skip my story. As Soc said, I just act current chapter and scene.
I believe in this idea. But there is no practice for this idea. Again, as Soc said, all I can do is to live now and here.
I chose the story about good luck and bad luck. This is my favorite story in this book. I have told many people and ask them what you learn from this story. It’s a great story. It is not only a story but also a lesson for everyone.
I chose this story because when I read this story, I learned a lot of thing. I think many things which had happened in my life. This story describe an old man just has a small farm, a so poor horse and a son. One day the horse run away and everyone said the old man had a bad luck but the old man said who know it was bad luck or good luck. The second day, the horse brought five wild horse and everyone said good luck but the old man said the same words. And then the son ride one of wild horse and fell down from the wild horse. He leg broken. Everyone said bad luck and old man said the same words. The following week, the army went to the town and all of young man have to join war except his son because his leg broken. Everyone said good luck but old man nobody knew good luck or bad luck…… After I read this story, suddenly I understand many things. I use different ways to deal with things. I understand whatever will be happened, we should use the peaceful attitude to face them.
I think most people don’t know this idea because when they encounter some bad thing, they will very sad and disappointment. They even do some bad things. They even give up some very important things such as life. Some people when they encounter some happy things, they feel everything is beautiful and everything is amazing. They don’t thing about another thing. We should try our best to do everything and focus on now and here. We should understand we can’t control future and we can’t know what will happen in the future but we can change now.
If most people believe this idea, all things will be easy and everyone will have a peaceful heart. Whatever bad thing or good thing, they will finger out in a good way. They don’t pay more emotion on something. They just let it go. They will know everything has two sides. They will do their best in every single minute. The world will become peaceful. Their desires will reduce and they will enjoy life, enjoy whatever they own.
If I have a child, I will tell him/her this story. I will teach them everything has two sides. Don’t just found one side. Bad things have good side as well. At less you can learn some things from bad things. So don’t disappointment when you encounter bad thing. Of course, good things have the bad side. So whatever bad things or good things, you should have a peaceful heart and thing them by yourself. Your life just belongs to you. Put your focus on now and here. I believe you will become the best!
After I read this story, I change my mind. I think everything has two sides especially when I encounter bad things, I will tell myself it’s not bad thing. It’s good for me as well. So I find my heart become peaceful. I feel my heart bigger than before. I can let many bad things go and I can understand many things which I can’t finger out. So I’m happy now. I like this book. I will read this book one more time.
Quote
Happiness = Satisfaction/Desires
We have few basic needs but endless wants. Full attention to every moment is my pleasure. Attention costs no money: your only investment is training. (on p.161)
It means that all of the happiness depends on your satisfaction and desires. In other words, if your desire is 1 and your satisfaction is 100, your happiness is going to be 100. It means that you are happy now. In contrary, your desire is 100 and your satisfaction is 1, your happiness is going to be 0.01. You are unhappy now!
Socrates always said that we have to get satisfaction in our life, and it can help you to be happy. At first, Dan always angry at his life. When his job is going down, he usually angry himself. However, after he had an accident, he thought about his real life. It helped him to get a satisfaction on his life. From this, he could be happy, and he could overcome his problems.
I agree with this absolutely. Most people have needs and wants. Although he had something what he wanted, he was going to want more and more. For example, even though I already have a car, I usually want bigger one. So that, I’ll try to reduce desires, and try to get more satisfaction.
If I have a child, I’ll teach these meaning. However, it’s very hard to teach them. I’ll tell to my child that plz reduce your desires, and you already have what you needs. So you don’t need to get desires more. You just have to satisfy in your life. And then, he or she understand what I’m saying. I hope so!
From this novel, I always remind that I have to reduce desires, and satisfy my situation. I’ll try it sice right now.
1. There are a lot of ideas, quotes or aphorisms in this novel that I learned and I am trying to do in my daily life. The important ideas that I always have in my mind and always I remember are “here and now”, “There are no ordinary moments” and “let it go”.
“Here and now” refers to live our present life (nowness), not thinking in the future or in the past. These thoughts can carry us on mental conflicts and worries. If we live in our present time we are going to be conscious and aware of our environment. Then, we have to enjoy every moment, every second in our life and be conscious of what we are doing. We have to live the now and try to avoid thinking in the past or in the future.
“There are no ordinary moments” refers to every second of our life is filled with extraordinary moments. Those are delighting and taking pleasure about everything around us. If we live an ordinary life, we are living a boring life. We have the freedom to do everyday whatever we want. We have to take advantage of that. Living a boring life can carry us several problems like depression and also we could try to kill ourselves.
“Let it go” refers to let flow all those thoughts that make us feel uncomfortable. It also refers to accept everything just like it is.
2. Everybody and that includes me used to think different about the 3 ideas I chose. For example, “Here and Now”, everybody is always making plan for the future but future is unpredictable and it could change in a fact. Others are always thinking in the past. People are always complaining about things that they did not do in the past. People have not realized yet that the past is past; is gone.
“There are no ordinary moments”. Most of the people are always complaining about every thing in their life instead of enjoy it. The human been is unsatisfied itself and every moment looks like boring to it. People should realize that enjoying every single moment in our live it will make us happy.
“Let it go”. People do not accept changes. But people did not realize that their life change every second. All those feelings that make us unhappy or uncomfortable we have to let them pass through. It is not easy to do but we have to learn.
3. If people everywhere believe in these ideas of course the world probably could be different. Their life could be happier than before. People could be more conscious and responsible for their life.
4. Well I have a child. I am always trying to explain her not with lies, how life is. She thinks like an adult person. I always tell her, that she have to live her moment, she have to share with the same age children. Also, she should let the worries go. She lives with her mother. Her mother has a boyfriend. But my daughter said to me that her mother’s boyfriend is not a good person. But I always tell my daughter that is not her problem. Also I said to her that her mother is an adult and knows what is wrong and good. Then her mother has to make a resolution on her problems. Not my daughter.
5. Sincerely, I started to practice these three quotes since I realized them. When I apply these or one of these three, I felt very good, very comfortable; is just like my body had change inside. I think is happy with myself and with everything around me.
I chose “What time is it?” “Now.” “where are we? “ “Here.”
1.The reason why I chose these quotes is when I read these quotes, I felt shock. This quote means warrior have to live every single minutes and they live “now”. I've never thought of living “now” so this is very fresh idea for me. Also I don't live every single minutes like Socrates so I felt I wasted my life time and I was shocked to realize about that.
2.I think almost all of the people don't live their life like Socrates. They think of their future, think of their past and they don't look “now”. However, I think most people believe that living their life preciously is most important thing. So I don't think this idea is different way that most people think but this idea is difficult way that people do. Even if I read “Peaceful Warrior” and know this idea and agree with, it's still difficult to think only “now” and “here”.
3.If more people in the world believe in this idea, I think world will change. People can live their life full and it's very important thing for all of the people. We have only one life so we can't waste our life time and if more people believe this idea, there are more people live their life fully.
4.I think it's very difficult to teach this idea to children but they have this idea naturally. Little child think about only “now”. They don't think about past nice memories or horrible mistakes. Also they don't worry about their future. They just enjoy “now” to play, eat and sleep. Become older, we forget this wonderful way of thinking and start think about what we don't have to think. So we don't teach them about this idea but we have to learn from them how to live “now” and “here”.
5.After we talked about this quote in the class, I tried to think just now but it's very difficult for me. Concentrating “now” is harder than what I expected and I felt tired. Then I realized how much time I think about future or past every day. I think about what I have to do in the future or why I did such a stupid thing. However, life is very important and valuable so if I can, I want to live every single minutes of my life time and enjoy my life more and more.
1. I chose a quote on page 138 “There are no ordinary moments!”, because, through having read PW, I thought that this quote can make people happier than any other quotes. Every moment is changing and extraordinary for every person.
2. Most people may know every moment is valuable and sayings like “time flies” or “time is money” are kind of similar to “There are no ordinary moments!” However, there are a few people who completely understand Socrates’ meaning. Although people, of course including me, know an importance of time, we don’t realize every single moment are different and valuable. For example, if they have what they don’t want to do, people tend to put off that. Also, when students are bored with class or something and think another thing during class, they can take advantage of that, because there are no ordinary moments. Besides, people can enjoy changing moments.
3. If more people believed in the world in this idea, the world certainly would change better for that every people enjoy their every moment. There would be no people who bored with or indifferent to something. In another word, the world would come that every people enjoy their moments, lives and world lively, therefore all of the world and society would be a vibrant.
4. I think children can enjoy “now” and every moment without any special teaching and it means that they can feel all moments are not same and changing. So when they are children, I don’t have to explain them a meaning of this quote. But as they grow up, they won’t be able to feel that and at the time, I will have to teach them keep enjoying as now. Besides, I will tell them that, from now on, you will learn and think deeply many things, but the most important thing is the moment which you live.
5. The easy and useful way to practicing may be in my daily life, of course as soon as possible. In fact, I am very nervous to work at Disney World, because my English skills are very poor. If I think something which worries me or scary me, I will get nervous and can’t do anything without it. I don’t like this habit of mine. This quote taught me that every moment was extraordinary and had each meaning, so I should start practicing to enjoy every single moment now. If I have acquired it, I will take advantage of the moment even though there is any bad thing.
There are a lot of important idea I read in this book but most important three idea I remembered; time is now, do your best and a story. To choose one of them is very difficult for me. I think my most favorite is the story. After I read the story, I told my friends, they approved me, too. Because, this story should be our doctrine in the life. If we approach to events using the main idea in this story, we can accept easily bad events when we meet.
This story was told Dan by Joy. Socrates wanted to tell Dan after accident. In the story, a man lives in a small farm with his son and one horse. One day, the horse runs away. His neighbors think bad luck but he says who knows bad luck or good luck. A week later, it returns leading five wild mares. Everybody thinks what a good luck. The man says again who knows. The next day, the son fell off the horse and his leg is broken. The neighbors says again what a bad luck. Good luck or bad luck? Then, army comes to take young men for war and farmer’s son is separated because of his broken leg. Good or bad?
The story says us don’t worry for every bad thing or don’t feel very happy for every good thing. Most people don’t behave like in the story. Before I read the story, I shared the story with some people. After they heard, they said they would change because the story is like a lesson or a teacher. Everything has a purpose in our life but we don’t know. We can understand only when we meet.
If I have a child someday, I will tell the story same way because it is very simple and I will add my ideas for my child. I will say you should be patient to see what is good or what is bad in your life before you are so happy or you are so sad for events. I thought a lot but I couldn’t find an example to persuade my child. I think I would give an example from his or her life.
As soon as I read the story, I participated to idea. Now, I think that everything in my life is important for my life and my improvement. I may not understand know but I will see in the future…
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