This semester with this class has been great. I have really enjoyed getting to read about the stories that I have wanted to learn about over the past couple years. I enjoyed this a lot and was always looking forward to reading more stories and seeing what new story I could find.
I think there were some improvements that could have happened though. I really like the audio books that Professor Gibbs put together. I liked those a lot because I work and am married so I can't often take a couple hours here and there to read everything, and trust me it would be a couple hours I am a slow reader. So having more options to listen to the readings would have been great. It would have helped me to be able to listen to the readings of the week while I was at work and then just come home and create my blog post for it. Doing things that way was great for me and helped me to get through my homework easier.
I think another great thing to add would be a day in which there is a learning video or something of the sort about the story. It is great to read it, but as a Religious Studies major I wanted the knowledge of what is behind the story, how it was created, things of that nature. I love that and would have loved to be able to learn more of the stories as the semester rolled.
This course was great, though, and I learned a ton and definitely improved my writing skills. Thank you Professor Gibbs for a great semester.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Monday, April 24, 2017
Storytelling: The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox muttered to himself as he pulled the wagons down the road for his master. This ox was the strongest ox in all the land. He was so strong that his master would brag to anyone he saw that he had the strongest ox of all the world. In fact, his master would see other men and their oxen and laugh at them saying, “That’s nothing compared to what my ox can pull!”. Nobody believed this man though, they knew him as the poor, crazy man from the farm out north. But every night the man would go to sleep boasting still about his mighty ox.
One day the man came up with a brilliant idea. He would go prove his ox to the world. “Come on my beautiful ox! We are going to show the world of your strength!”. As they made it into the town the man boasted proudly of his ox. “My ox is the strongest in the world! If he can pull one hundred wagons, pay me one thousand silver pieces!”, the man shouted to the people in the village.
“There is no way you ox can do that! I will take you up on your bet!”, the villager laughed and laid down one thousand silver coins. They hitched up one hundred wagons to the yoke of the ox and sat back to watch the show.
“Come on, you rascal! Move! Get off your butt and go!” The master began to yell at his ox and whipping him to make him move.
“What the heck?! My master has never said such cruel words, I will not move for him”, the ox thought to himself. After many minutes of this, the master conceded defeat and paid the one thousand coins. The two of them went home and went to bed without a word to each other. The next morning the master went to the ox, “Hey buddy. So, uh, you wanna tell me what happened yesterday? You have always been able to pull more than what was yoked up yesterday.”.
“You were being a jerk. Why on earth would I move for someone calling me foul names and whipping me? I am a strong ox, I don't need to be treated like a dumb ox.” The ox replied.
“You are right,” the master said, “I will never treat you like that again. I am sorry.”.
“If you yoke me back up and take me to the village I will win you your prize, just don't be a jerk this time, okay?”, the ox said to his master and they began to make their way to the village.
As they approached the village they saw the man they bet against yesterday. “Come to lose more money? I am willing to lay down double today!”, he said to them.
“Deal!”, said the master, “Yoke him up!”. And they yoked up the ox and began to watch as the wagons began to move.
“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox was muttering to himself over and over. And the wagons were moving forcefully one after the other, until the last stood where the first was originally. All of the villager’s jaws had dropped and the master of the ox took his winnings. They went home happily and celebrated their winnings together.
"Get along, you Rascal"
Author’s note:
So in my story today, I decided to tell about The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I wanted to tell this story because I found it very interesting when I originally read it. I didn't want to change much of the story, but I did want to tell it with more dialogue than was originally given. I thought that one major change I would add was a simple “I think I can.”, to what the ox was saying to himself as he was pulling his yoke. The first thing I thought of when I read that an ox was pulling so much as Thomas the Train when he would go up the hills. I thought that it would give it a comic relief, but also bring back memories to a lot of people who might have at least seen the show back when they were kids. I think that being able to add this simple change in made the story a little more fun. Also I decided on having more dialogue about how I would think that the situation would play out between the ox and his master. I think that as well gave it more comic relief than just the seriousness of the original story.
The Jataka Tales of India
Ellen C. Babbitt
Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part B
Another great story of the Jataka Tales that I got to read this week was about The King’s White Elephant. This one showed, in my opinion, that good can come from working hard. I liked to read this one because it was useful for me to ponder over as I read it. When you work hard good things happen, and that is what happened in this Jataka. It starts with a great elephant who had a splinter in his fought hobbling over to some carpenters. The carpenters saw that he was hurt and aided the elephant by pulling out the splinter. Thankful for their help he decided to help the carpenters with pulling down trees and moving them around. He was happy to help since they helped him. The carpenters fed him well and treated him very well. When this elephant had a baby elephant that was all white, he told the young elephant to go help the carpenters because they helped him first. So the young white elephant helped the carpenters in the same way that his parent did. At the end of the day this white elephant would go into the river and play with the carpenters kids. That is when the king saw this elephant and loved its beauty. So he paid the carpenters for the elephant and it went home to the palace where it was kept very well. So really this story ends up being kinda sad in the fact that he leaves his play mates and his family. And it might actually be a story of the better of looks that you have the better chance good things would happen to you… I want to think otherwise so I have decided to think that it means the harder you work good things will happen to you.
The Elephant used to pull up trees for the carpenters.
The Jataka Tales of India
Ellen C. Babbitt
Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part A
One of my favorite pieces of literature that I have read this year has been the Jatakas. I am particularly interested in them because I am writing my story book over them, but they are also really interesting to read. Like in most Indian epic writings, the animals and humans have verbal communication to each other. I think this is particularly interesting and I wish I could do this… But they have tons of wisdom in each story. And each is equated to the spirituality of the Buddhist who have wrote and studies these. One of the interesting ones that I read this week was the story of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I was intrigued by this title because I did not know what it meant to win a forfeit. So I dove into this short story to get a good understanding of what it was. In this story a man who owns an ox claims that he has the strongest ox in the world. He boasted so much about this ox that he made a wager with some town folk for 1000 coins. He said his ox could pull 100 wagons. He yoked his ox and he yelled at him to pull and shouted bad names to his ox. His ox would not move so he lost his forfeit of 1000 coins. Later he went home and spoke to the ox who said that the bad names and whipping were cruel and so he did not move, but if he were to treat him better he would win his master his forfeit back. So they went back to the city and his master treated him so well. The ox pulled and won the forfeit. These tales are super interesting to me and I have loved to get to read each of them. I am looking forward to trying read and understand more.
"Get along, you Rascal"
The Jataka Tales of India
Ellen C. Babbitt
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Story: The Patient Buffalo
Once there was a man who was sleeping under a beautiful tree. He was not a lazy man but he got to spend his day sleeping because of the beautiful sunshine and the fact that it was a Saturday. This man loved to be outside so every Saturday he would go outside to spend time resting under the tree and taking a long nap. But every once and a while something slightly annoying happened. There was a little boy in town who loved to play some jokes on people. This boy loved to play jokes on this man in particular because he always saw him sleeping under the tree.
Today this little boy had some friends with him and he wanted to show off what all he would do to this man to be funny. He said to them, “Watch this guys, I am gonna make him so mad!” Referring to the man under the tree. The boy picked up a stick he found on the ground and started poking the man in the arms and in the face. He was trying so hard to make the man mad but the man just sat patiently watching doing nothing. Finally the man got up from his nap under the tree and began to walk down the road. The little boy had another idea of how he could make the man mad. “Let me jump on his back, I will force him to give me a piggy back ride.”. As the boy ran towards the man he jumped and got on his back. He waved his stick around and pretended the man was a horse he was riding into a battle. Yet, the man did nothing but hold the boy on his back and continued to walk down the road. It seemed to the little boys friends that the man cared for this little boy and that he would never be mad. So the friends started to walk away thinking that the show was over. The boy hopped off the mans back and began to walk with them, admitting defeat.
As the man continued to walk down the road he came across a monk who had watched the interaction between the little boy and this man. The monk asked the man, “Why do you not act harshly towards the little boy who persistently annoys you. Don't you know that you have authority over the younger people and that you could force him to stop what he is doing?”
“Now why would I do that to the little boy?” The man asked the monk, “This boy is not smart, and he will learn, but I have no reason to force that on him. He is not a smart boy and I understand the mind of a child.” The man finished.
“You answer well, sir.” The monk pulled off his hood to show his beauty, he was not just a monk but a fairy. “I grant you this, peace from all things on this earth, you will be happy and no little boys will be able to mess with you ever again”.
Buffalo & Monkey
Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939
Author’s Note:
In this story I decided to base it off of one of my favorite Jatakas that I read, The Patient Buffalo. In the Patient Buffalo, a buffalo is being messed with by a monkey and the monkey is trying to make the buffalo mad. I chose to make the buffalo and monkey into human characters in order to give it a bit of a change. I liked the story though, so I wanted to keep it based off the same aspects. The fairy in the end I chose to make a monk because I wanted to relate it to something we could know better. I wanted to keep him a fairy though so that I could grant something magical to the man and it still make sense. I really enjoyed seeing the patience and resolve of the buffalo in the story and the man in my story because I feel that it really shows the way that the Buddhist people live. Not putting their own desires first, but keeping no desires at all. I thought this was important and I hope that I was able to relate this as I wrote my story. I hope that you enjoy my version of this Jatakas.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Reading Notes: The Jatakas part B
As I continued to read the Jatakas tales, I was happy to understand more and read more and more bout them. They are some of the most interesting tales and they have great fun and wisdom inside each of them. One of my favorite stories that I got to read in part of the stories was the Patient Buffalo. This story was so good to me because one, I love buffalos. Also because it shows the patients and the resolve of the Buddhist people. I believe that this story is filled with wisdom of how to treat yourself and how to treat others. Knowing that Buddhist are people of no desire, and that desire itself is a bad thing. Seeing how the buffalo did not desire anything for himself but only to not cause this monkey harm was his priority. And with his patients to this monkey he was able to find peace through the magic fairy. Another tell that I really enjoyed was the Sarabha. I enjoyed this story so much because it was a lot like one of the stories that I used in my storybook project, the Banyan Deer. I liked the was that the deer talked to the king, having been able to communicate with humans just like in the other stories. I liked this story because the Deer spoke with the king and was able to connive the king to not hunt in the forest again. This is just like the story that I used in my storybook project (though i retold it so much better,,,). This was truly a great story to get to read and i really enjoyed getting to read something similar to what I already knew. I have loved getting to read the Jatakas because of the wisdom and the fun stories that are in them. They are filled with greatness in each story and I always look forward to reading more of them. I will probably be reading more of these stories as we finish out the rest of the semester.
Buffalo & Monkey
Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939
Reading Notes: Jatakas part A
This week I chose to read the Jatakas tales. Seeing as I am writing my storybook project over some of the Jatakas tales, I decided that I would read more of them to gain a better understanding o the tales. I have really enjoyed guttering to read the stories that I have read this week and am looking forward to reading more later on. I believe that each tale has so much to offer on the wisdom of the buddhas and gives great wisdom for people. This week I got to read about the stories of the Monkey Bridge, which was a very good story in my opinion. I really enjoyed reading about how monkeys would not pay attention to their leader then realized they needed to. I liked how the monkey chief was the selfless one who aided and sacrificed himself for the good of the community and of his followers. This was a really good story. It made me think of my own religion, in how the people did not listen to God, and how Jesus came to sacrifice himself for everyone else. This story stood out to me the most because of this. I really enjoyed getting to read this story. One other story that I read was the story of the Guilty Dogs. I enjoyed reading this story for a couple different reasons. One of which is because I love the fact that the animals and the humans can talk to each other. This is the same in just about every Jatakas that I have read. All animals can have conversation with the humans. And most times the conversations take place between the chief of animals and the chief of man. This is interesting because it is not just conversation between a child and his puppy, but a chief dog and a king. This Jatakas also tells of the wisdom of the Buddhist, because you see just how the chief dog is able to tell that the palace dogs are the guilty party and not the city dogs. I think it is telling and important to know the wisdom of the Buddhist, because all of their stories illustrate just how wise these are.
The Monkey Bridge
Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939
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