Not Quite Famous Last Words: The Understanding of Karma

Ruling your world by Sakyong Mipham.

While undergoing a ravenous and completely sporadic appetite for reading, I stumbled across a book more fascinating then I remembered. The book is titled, as you have probably already interpreted; Ruling your World by Sakyong Mipham. This book is both revering and interesting for the Indian Epics readings for several reasons. The author is an enlightened Buddhist priest. As we know, Buddhism sprang from North East India with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) himself in the 4^th to 5^th century. Because this religion came from a region that was heavily influenced by Hinduism, there are many similarities between the two religions including the four yoga’s, Karma, chakra, and enlightenment.

The one aspect that draws my attention the most in Sakyong’s book is that of Karma. This is not only because his explanation of Karma is so thorough and insightful, but it also holds great validity when tied to the scholarly readings, writings, and understandings of the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, and the Ramayana.

Sakyong speaks of Karma in this way: “Like Gravity, karma is so basic that we often don’t even notice it. But karma is happening everywhere. Whatever we see is a meeting of interdependent causes and conditions…Karma sometimes manifests very directly. We eat a meal and we feel full. We turn the key and the car starts. A more subtle interconnectedness has to do with our thoughts, actions, and words… We never know exactly what moment one action or word is going to trigger another, but everything we do sets something else into motion.” -Ruling Your World, Chapter 5: Understanding Karma.

The way he explains Karma is a gripping understanding of not cause and action, but of the many cause and actions we have as a being, and how it shapes our lives in an unknown way. 

Buddhist Training

Book Reference and Citation:

Ruling You World: Ancient strategies for modern life by Mipham J. Mukpo

Three Rivers Press, New York, New York. 2005. Print.

Story Planning: the Night of the Rakshasa: a Story of Lakshman

Story planning:

Conceptual ideas:

Rama and/or Lakshman leave the company of the sage on their travels to the City of Mithila, the nigh they hear the story of the Ganga’s.

Full of emotions or nervousness of reaching the city, and what he feels like the journeys end, Rama sneaks away with Lakshman to meditate in the woods some ways away from the sage. Rama begins to meditate but Lakshman begins to feel uneasy after hearing screaming and howls in the night. Rama does not stir from his meditation. Lakshman searches for the nose and finds a trail of fresh blood leading deeper into the forest.

He will either come across a Preta or a Rakshasa

Rakshasa

Preta

Characters in the story:

Rama: wants some solitude from the travel to reflect and meditate on his emotions of coming near to the end of his journey of reaching Mithila city. He and Lakshman sneak away in the night while the sage sleeps.

Lakshman: goes with Rama to watch after him as he meditates. While Rama is doing so, Lakshman hears voices, screams and howls of something terrifying. He decides to look for the source of the noise allowing Rama to meditate peacefully.

Rakshasa: is killing and devouring people from a nearby village and dragging their body’s away into the forest. The villagers are all dead when Lakshman arrives at the location the Rakshasa is bringing the body’s.

Preta: are following the trails of blood, trying to consume them. Lakshman see’s several of them as he is tracking to blood, and shoots one of them with his bow, but it has no effect.

Styles:

Journals of Lakshman he wrote while on his adventure with Rama and the sage. This can give an accurate account of how horrified Lakshman is during the night, but it must be written in first person, which is not preferred.

A poem of the telling of the night Lakshman found the blood trail. This would be interesting to do, but the stanzas must be calculated, which is a little harder to do.

A rhyming short story drenched in horror telling of the story listed. This would be similar to the short story written about the man and the lake monster. There may be a way to tie in the Journal into this style. 


Source: 
The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Pose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: R. K. Narayan
Published by Penguin Group, New York, New York. 1973. Print (and Web).

Thoughts on the 'Growth Mindset'

Carol Dweck TED Talk, "The Power of Believing That You Can Improve" and "Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone"

There is a lot of validity in this TED talk from Carol Dweck in the concepts that pushing students to be successful and proficient in the future is considerably better compared to the push of being successful and proficient in the now. This is because of the way understanding of ones own performance can be immensely impacted based on how we view failure and success in a 'now' time frame. If we took a test recently and fail it with, say a 35%, we usually feel inadequate, uneducated and often times unable to do well in that specific topic or subject indefinitely. That is a very 'now'/'set' mind set that addresses our failures and successes in a short term rewards system (our grade in a course). That is what is called a 'reactive system'. This is compared to a 'not yet' mind set where the failures and successes we have now, will lead into the future successes we have like a domino effect, cascading information, motivation, and inspiration to do better and to push harder in the topics that are sub-standard (this can also be referred to the instant vs delayed reward system, or even chess strategies). That is what is called a 'proactive system'.

Chess Strategy: Thinking Ahead

Both of these systems have validity in different situations. But as for education, the proactive system is a more effective teaching and study strategy for students than the reactive system. With the proactive system, again, students are pushed to learn form their mistakes, engage in critical thinking and trial and error learning aspects that will ultimately lead to break thoughts and innovation in their [critical] thinking and education. There is no benefit that comes from viewing errors and failures as permanent deterrents; viewing them as future successes, however, is drastically beneficial.
Challenging ourselves with difficult problems and critical thinking is an excellent way to push ourselves into doing better in all aspects of education.

Productivity and Time Strategies

Balance
There are multiple aspects in ones life that must be taken into consideration, invested in, and balanced.

When it comes to productivity and time management I am often one who struggles with staying on track. Lately I have dove deeply into exploring methods that help with focus, not just for scholarly purposes, but mental physical and spiritual as well. Balancing ones time is an immense part of balancing a lot of different, and uniquely personal behaviors.
Getting started is a usual deterrent for people who have procrastination issues, but there are simple solutions; in fact most of my tricks to my own time management and productivity are fairly simple (or rather somewhat enjoyable).
Setting a a time each day or every other day devoted to specific tasks is a fairly easy way to get things accomplished. Depending on how bulky an assignment or studying should determine the length. Breaks are not something to be avoided; they allow the brain to re-calibrate and information to soak in.In fact, there's a study method that is called the one third rule. I have found this effective on the longer study days for tests to be especially helpful. Basically, one third of your time studying or doing tedious tasks should be in the form of a break. Work for ten minutes, break for five. This can be done with any denomination of time so long as it is one to three (one hour work to thirty minutes break). Setting a timer for all of this is usually helpful.
What you do in your one third break is essential for maintaining endurance throughout the work periods: including watching movies, reading an interesting book (one that you enjoy), or perusing of the media's.
 After working for the day there are a few great ways to refresh for the next days work load: exercising and meditation.
Exercising allows one to take a break from tedious contemplation. Working your body is also the perfect way to keep your body healthy after all the sedentary studying and work.
After this, late into the evening before sleep, and occasionally during breaks, meditation is a great way to cleanse the mind and body.
Keeping a balanced body is a key objective to strive towards.

The Lake Monster and the Man

Lake Monster by Tom Gauld

There once was a village isolated from the world; surrounded on three sides by dense forests of blackened trees. Only one road led to this small and miserable place, but it was a long and dark road that people rarely rode (and with little haste). The villagers farmed as best as they could, but their crops always died, withered and taste like dried wood. They were forced to eat barely edible corn and brownish beets. Aside from this they had little more than a horse and three pigs. Miserable and doomed they waited anxiously for the arrival of their deaths, from malnutrition or un-kept gambling debts.

Than one day from the road, rode in a man on a horse. He talked to the villagers and asked how they fared. When they told him their plight, he did nothing but empathize with their despair. The man then entered a short meditation: thinking and twisting in deep contemplation. He tried to think of a way to help with their miserable situation.

Than with a look of confusion he asked about the lake.

“Three ways this small village is surrounded by blackened trees, but the fourth is a plentiful lake full of tasty fish you can catch and cook with ease.”

With quivering hands they all turned and pointed to the sign beside the road leading to the lake.

“Beware: lake monster and death ahead!” The sign read.

The man laughed with a start, mocking the villagers with his roar. He stopped with a pain in his heart as he saw, all the villagers stayed silent, all eyes wide open and gazing at him. Uncomfortable he noted their serious tone, he then drew out his sword and a very long bow.

“I shall slay your Lake Monster and allow you once more; to live and to prosper from the fish off your shore.”

They cheered him on as he rode towards his doom, promising him silver and gold upon his return.

The man reached the lake after a short gallop. He rode up a hill overseeing the large water.

“Come to me Monster of the Lake! Let me show you my mettle and give you disgrace!” Shouted the man on his horse.

With a large rolling wave appeared the giant Lake Monster; having a massive gaping mouth full of dulled razor teeth. With its uncountable eyes it watched the man, while bellowing a moderately long roar and a few unsettling grunts. It lingered 15 meters over the ledge where the man stood so proud.

Staring down the beast and returning its roar, the man jumped off his horse and bellowed once more: “I have come to slay you foul Monster of the Lake. I will be victorious this day, and march back into town with your severed hea-“

With its agitation amplified the monster simply leaned over and ate the man, and than his horse. He died in agony from embarrassment. 

The monster returned to the deep water, to continue its ruling over the lake. 

The villagers never saw the man again. They died several years later from malnutrition.

Fin.

Authors note: This story was based off the image created by Tom Gauld entitled: the Lake Monster. This image was created for the book: Beasts!

Creating a story from a single picture requires an imaginative perspective and imagination. With no text included aside from the authors name, image title and book that the image was made for, I had to base my creative thinking upon the task of enveloping my story around the image. To me, the man upon his horse with a sword staring down a many eye fiend should be a climax and transition of the story into a fierce battle. I however am a fan of irony and humor, so I decided to conclude the story where it should have heightened, along with a dreadful ending.   

Bibliography: "Lake Monster"; a cartoon by Tom Gauld from his book Beasts! Web Source: Tom Gauld

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