Reading Notes Week 12 Part B: The Life of Buddha

The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha Leads a Life of Pleasure

- Suddhodana lived a nice life and was really caring of his people

- Suddhodana always gave the people the advice and guidance that they needed instead of death 

The Three Encounters

- The prince was ready to leave the kingdom and his father found out

- For the princes goodbye his father made sure to clean a path for him so the prince will stay clean of all the bad in the world, he was given a chariot for his travels

- Even with the efforts of the princes father the dark and grey that the world brings was soon brought upon the prince 

- The gods put a struggling old man in the path of the chariot and the prince was confused as to why the old man looked the way he did

- The princes father did his best to undo the unsightly thing his son had saw, he did this by arranging a really nice day in the garden with the help of a friend

Gopa's Dream

- Even with the efforts in the gardens to help change the mindset of the young prince nothing was helping

- The prince did not accept any of the pleasures his father had given him because all he could think about was the death that was awaiting him as he got older

- Once he got back to the palace he couldn't sleep and this is when he met Gopa

Siddhartha Leaves His Father's Palace 

- The prince asked for his horse late at night 

- The prince set out on the horse late at night to leave his fathers kindgom

- The horse was as quiet as he could as not to wake the towns people 

-There is great efforts to get the prince to come back to the kingdom but every try is unsuccessful 

-The prince enters the forest in disguise in run down clothes and cut his hair

- The prince did this so no one would notice him and he would have the element of surprise if there was ever an attack on him 

Buddha Source: Samadhi

Bibliography: The Life of Buddha. Andre Ferdinand Herold. Web Source

Reading Notes Week 11 Part B

The Wise Goat and the Wolf

-A group of goats lived in a cave and two wolves hunted these goats until only one goat was left alive

-The last goat was wise and learned from the deaths of all her friends that left the cave before her

-The wolves had no clue on how to catch this wise goat that was a left in the cave, every time they tried to catch this goat it always escaped

-The wolves came up with a plan to catch the last remaining goat by tricking the goat into helping them

-However, this plan was foiled when one of the wolves let his impulses get the best of him and the wise goat caught on to what the wolves were trying to do

-The wise goat was able to run back to the safety of the cave before the wolves were able to fulfill their plan

-The wolves tried once again to try and draw the goat out of the cave

-However, the goat was wise and knew that nothing good was going to come out of listening to the wolves so the goat came up with her own plan to trick the wolves 

-When the goat agreed to come back with the wolf for a second time, this time the goat tricked the wolves by saying she was going to bring her friends with her also 

-Once the wolves found out who the goat had as friends they ran far away and left the goat alone 

Wise goat and Wolf
Source: kidsgen

How The Monkey Saved His Troops

-This troop of monkeys lived on the shore of river that was home to a mango tree 

-These monkeys relied on this mango tree to supply them with fresh fruit to eat when they hunted for food at night 

-Each night the troop of monkeys went to the mango tree to pick up all the mangoes off the ground that fell over the day and then climbed the tree for more mangoes

-Later one a king and his fishermen a distance down river were checking their nets for fish when they noticed a strange fruit in the nets 

-The king called upon his forestry people to find out what the strange fruit was called, his people advised him that it was mango and that it was safe to eat

-The king and princess loved the mangoes and the king demanded that he be taken to where the mango tree was at 

-The king and his people arrived at the mango tree and picked up all the mangoes and then stayed overnight to get more in the morning 

-The monkeys like clockwork came back to the tree that night and found no mangoes on the ground due to the kings people picking all of them up

-The monkeys then climbed the tree to find more mangoes and in this process waked the king from his sleep

-The king was not happy about this and demanded his archers to shoot the monkeys as they descended the tree 

-The monkeys were scared and sought help from their leader to evade death from the archers down on the ground 

-The chief monkey came up with a plan to save his troops, the chief did this by building a bridge with his own body for his troops to move to another tree to escape the archers arrows 

-The chief saved all of his troops and the king saw everything the chief monkey had done and was impressed with it and decided to let the monkeys live a happy life 

Monkey saving his troops
Source: BBC School Radio

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt. The Wise Goat and the Wolf. Source

Ellen C. Babbitt. How The Monkey Saved His Troops. Source

Reading Notes Week 11 Part A

The Three Fishes

-Three different fish named: Thoughtful, Thoughtless, Very-Thoughtful 

-Thoughtful and Thoughtless took off down the river and weren't paying attention and ran into a fish net

-Very-Thoughtful saw this and sprung into action to save the other two fish

-Very-Thoughtful to get the fish out made the fisherman that owned the net think the net was broke

-The fisherman pulled the net out of the water and freed the fish

-Thoughtless and Thoughtful thanked Very-Thoughtful for saving them 

Fish
Source: Bed Time Stories

The Red-bud Tree

-Four princes found about this tree that was covered in red-buds and wanted to see it for themselves

-The first prince went to see the tree, but it was not covered in red-buds it was bare and black 

-The second prince went to see the tree, but it was not bare it was now covered in beautiful red-buds

-The third prince went to see the tree, but this time the tree was not covered in red-buds it was covered only in green leaves

-Lastly the last prince went to see the tree, but the tree didn't have any buds or leaves this time the tree had bean pods on it

-The last prince ran back to tell his brothers what he saw and all of them disagreed with each other on what they each saw at the different times they went to see the tree

-Their father heard all of this and came over to sort out the disagreement between the brothers by making them realize they had all went to see the tree at different times and this why they each saw something different

Redbud tree
Source: Tree Center

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt. The Three Fish. Source

Ellen C. Babbitt. The Red-Bud Tree. Source

Story Lab Week 10: Tedx Videos

A New Theory of Human Intelligence 

I found this Tedx video to be really inspiring and also interesting to actually see something like this take place somewhere to see what the results would be. Universities get way to caught up in the stats of year to year and always trying to be the top dog against everyone else in having the highest scores. However, what opportunities are they missing out on and also what opportunities are they taking away from students that want to pursue a college degree. Are there people out there that can't pass the normal standardized tests that would may not look on paper but actually be really good in the real world environment and they are missing out because they don't fit the social norm. I think it will be really interesting to see some results of what Kaufman finds out if and when he does any studies on his new theory. 

Copy Right is Brain Damage 

This was a very interesting way to think about what copyrighting has done to a lot of what people and the creations that they have made. Getting copyrights really does put a damper on the possibilities of what something can become, through the original artist and others that wish to branch off and create their own version. All copyright has done is made it so that the artist is hurt in the long run and the community that they share, all the while the corporations are making money off it and changing it to what they want to attract more people to buy their version. This video also really got me to thinking about how culture is formed and how the idea of copyright has really suppressed the progression of culture through works of art. 

Neural Connections
Source

Tedx Videos Source: Story Lab Creative Mind 

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Part B

- Krishna showed a devotion that Brahma wanted to challenge to see how Krishna would react. Brahma started to kidnap the cows and villagers that would equal a year. However, Krishna combated this by just making replicas of the lost cows and village people from himself. Brahma bowed down to Krishna after this task.

-Krishna wanted to prove to all his brothers and villagers that he can ride a vicious bill named Hastin. So, Krishna started to spend a lot of time with Hastin by playing music to him and feeding him sweet straw until Krishna thought enough time had passed by to earn Hastin's trust. To all the villagers and Krishnas brothers surprise Krishna mounted the bull and rode the bull all around the village with no problem. Krishna thought them the lesson of kindness through taming and building a friendship with a wild creature.

-Kansa makes a come back into the stories about Krishna, when he invites Krishna to Mathura for a event called Dhanur Yajna. However, Kansa had a plan that was not in good faith and this plane was to try and kill Krishna for a second time; however, the news of this plan made its way back to Krishna and even with the advice of his brothers and villagers Krishna said he must go.

-Krishna and Delmar arrived at Mathura and there was a very nice warming party of villagers that met them and Krishna and Delmar adverted any angry villagers by bringing happiness and this was done by fixing a deformed woman.

-Kansa then came at Krishna trying to kill him and Belram by trampling them with an aggressive elephant called Kuvalayapida; however, the creature was no match against Krishna who knocked the creature out in one blow. The brothers fought off all things that Kansa threw at them to try and kill them. The brothers made it to the event where Krishna picked up the bow that was created by Shiva and it snapped and Kansa launched his whole army upon the brothers. However, just like everything else there was no chance and Krishna and Belram defeated the army and Kansa didn't even get a chance to run before the brothers reached him and successfully attacked him.

-With the defeat of Kansa, Krishnas birth parents and grandfather who were locked up in the kingdom of Mathura were set free and Krishnas grandfather became the new king of Mathura. However, an ally of Kansa was not happy about the defeat of Kansa and so king of Magadh waged a war against Krishna and the Mathura kingdom. However, Krishna and his grandfather had another kingdom built to house the villagers of Mathura so when Jarasandh came to the kingdom they would only find a empty city. Krishna became king of the new location and the Pandava brother Bhima was left to defeat Jarasandh.

Krishna and Cow Herd
Source: Wattpad

Bibliography: Epified, Krishna, Part B Video Source: Youtube Playlist

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Part A

The story about how Krishna came about starts when he was born as the eighth child, Krishna was able to survive the death that captured the other seven babies before him. Krishna was not just any baby and he turned out to be a spectacle they all did not expect. They all thought the eighth kid was in safe hands until Kansa found out about the eighth child being born. Kansa came to look at the eighth child and to kill the baby like the other seven. However, the child which is now known as Krishna was able to overcome Kansa and Krishna was safe at last. Krishna later became King and many other things.

Krishna grew up and was known for not being a very nice child, he was becoming a terror throughout the community's. Krishnas mother tried to kill him one day; however, from that day she found out that he was not a normal being and that Krishna was special.

There was a huge storm that came through the town brought on by Inda and it was a huge one and all the towns people ran to Krishna for shelter. Krishna raised the mountain that was next to him and lifted it with his little finger. Krishna then asked for forgiveness from the gods and goddesses. Krishna was then given a Gopi named Radha which was proven to be loyal to him through making her drink scalded milk.

Baby Krishna
Source: Clip Dealer

Bibliography: Epified Krishna Video Source: Youtube

Week 9 Story Telling: The Friends Return

Updated Story Found Here: Tyler's Portfolio

Teacher of the Sons
Source

The band of friends that is now five was once a group of six, but these friends are closer than most and once you break a vow you are no longer wanted in the inner circle. The group was once comprised of Brooke, Mia, Rowdi, Steven, Josh, and Anthony. It was only just a few months ago that all six friends were seen walking around together having the best time in each other company, until Anthony broke the vow to never release any information that was talked about within the friend’s circle. This group of friends has one thing in common and that is they all work together at the same place; however, Anthony was transferred to another store due to conflicts with his leader. Once transferred Anthony envied the other friends because they were able to stay together and were having fun at the store he was no longer at and he didn’t like that at all. So, even with the vow to never tell anyone outside the circle of friendship, Anthony began to tell people at his new store about things that he and the other friends use to do at his old store.

With Anthony spreading rumors about stuff he and the friends use to do it made its way back to his old leader through the back channels and the team started to get in trouble. The friends found out about what Anthony had done and they banned him from the circle of friends. Once Anthony found about the friends agreeing to ban him from being within their circle, he ran back to them wanting to be accepted back into the group. However, this group of friends don’t take the breaking of vows they have made lightly and told him that they won’t be able to accept him back into the group.

Upon kicking Anthony out of the group, a great leader that the friends always looked up to came upon the friends during this time and took them under his wing. This leader was known as Bruce the Almighty (at least this what he thought he was), Bruce took the friends one by one and taught them different things on how to navigate the drama that was lingering over them.  Through the guidance of Mr. Almighty himself the friends were able to make their circle between the five of them even stronger and not let the drama that Anthony has bestowed upon the group take them down. With everything that the friends have overcame they are now an inseparable group that hasn’t let anything come between them.

Authors Note: For this story I tried my best to find a way to incorporate the group of friends I have used in a couple of my blog posts again for this week. So, for this short story I took a couple of the videos from the Karmic Revolution video series and relate to the friends to the best I can. The first video that I used was about Ambas Ruin and how once she was kidnapped and wasn’t able to return to either kingdoms that she went to. Ambas Ruin and Anthony getting kicked out of the friends circle is were I tried to relate that section of the story to the reading we did. Then for the second story that I used was Sons of Vyasa  and this is were Bruce the Almighty comes into the story of when he takes the friends under him and teaches them different things. This is not really completed and will have more context added into at a later date. 

Bibliography: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution. Source