Reading Notes: Life of Buddha Part B

Victory over mara

The whole idea of Siddhartha as a hero is really unique in the story of the Buddha. From all my previous readings, a hero is someone who has to physically fight the evil, usually with a weapon of some sort. In Buddha, Siddhartha is a hero because of his courage to conquer old age and death. By conquering old age and death, he gives up everything in pursuit of supreme knowledge. That idea of a hero pursuing supreme knowledge to conquer death seems completely different even from the other Indian Epics I've read in class. Overall, I think the story is great, but, it seems that Buddha's attempt to shine light into the world would be overall futile as if nobody gave birth and nobody had a desire to then there would be no humans. Thus it would lead to the end of humankind. This is similar to when Paul the Apostle said that marriage is a concession and although the ideal is to be celibate, most people are not that strong. I would have to look further into Buddhist ideas to understand this.


Bibliography:
The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Read Notes: Life of Buddha Part A

This is my first time exploring the story of the Buddha. Although in highschool I had friends that read Siddhartha, I never read it myself. One of the things that really stood out to me throughout college was the Buddhist idea of taking the "I" out of suffering and to think that there is suffering. That idea is really unique as throughout the story, none of the old age, sickness, and death, was present in Siddhartha himself, but rather, he saw it and felt it. This contrasts with his actual environment in which he has everything that he could ever really need. This idea of there IS something in the world became prevalent and is a coming of age moment for Siddhartha as he realized that the world has pain. It's quite beautiful.

Patrick meditating?

Bibliography:

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Wikipedia Trail: From Nostos to Nostoi

For my introduction yesterday, I looked at the etymology for the word nostos which is the "return home" theme of The Odyssey. I pressed around on more of the Wikipedia links and it led me to the Hero's journey, which is a cycle of events that every hero goes through that has a decisive crisis or climax in a story and end with victory. The decisive climax was kind of a dead-end so I went back to my nostos link and found nostoi which also deals with the return. It seems both those words have a similar meaning?

links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climax_(narrative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostoi

A hero's journey

Week 5 Story: Patrick the Sailor

"Once upon a time there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died." - Patrick Star 

the ugly barnacle

Those were the last words I ever heard from the man thought the Captain as he made his way to the bazaar. What I carry and what I bring with me to these merchants are the last of the equipment that he left behind before he died.

It was a terrible accident. Four score and seven years ago, a ship I was in charge of land on what we thought was an island. Our men, tired from the long voyage at sea, sought to build a fire to cook our freshly caught fish and be merry. However, it all changed when the fire nation attacked. Upon lighting a fire, a terrible stirring of the ground occurred. Only a few of my men were able to make it back on board, myself included and as we were yelling for the other men to come aboard, the ground below them began to sink and a large spout of water came spraying out of the ground, piercing a man in half.  Our ship flowed away from the waves and I saw my men no more.

Even amongst those dead, I managed to gather the equipment of my finest sailor, Patrick Star from Bikini Bottom. I thought to myself if perchance I were to run into a family member of his I could give back his belongings and tell of his brave adventures out in the sea.

When I got to the bazaar, a crowd encircled me. I told them my story and the tail of my brave sailor when all of sudden one of the men raised his hand up.

Patrick raises his hand
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"Captain it's me! Patrick!" cried the man.

I could hardly believe it. Here, after years of searching, a man perchance claims to be Patrick?

"The audacity that some men have! And here I thought that men are honest! How could you claim to be a dead man?" I barked at the pretender.

"Captain, I am he! I managed to escape and have sought refuge with a king!"

Lies! I thought to myself, there was no way that this man could be the famed Patrick. I saw him with my own two eyes. The destruction that the whale caused because we mistook it for an island.

"Captain!" yelled one of my men

"Yes?" I said

Turning back, I see my men swell up in tears.  For that man who I thought to be a pretender was indeed the brave Patrick Star who I have been looking for. Falling down to my knees I cry and kiss his feet.

real tears

"How did you survive?" I asked.

End.

Bibliography:
Andrew Land The Arabian Nights

Authors Notes:
This is the first of Sindbad's voyages. The story takes place after Sindbad escapes a near-death experience of having mistaken an island for a whale. He drifts back on a piece of wood somewhere and manages to survive until one day he finds his captain trying to sell Sindbad's belongings. For this story, I told the story from the perspective of the captain.

Reading Notes: Sindbad Part B

I really enjoyed the story of Sindbad and it encourages me to read the Arabian Nights. One thing that stood out to me about this story is the way that strangers treat him with hospitality. Perhaps my favorite is when he encounters the King of Serndib and the slaves that meet him first feed him. This hospitality reminded me of Xenia or the theme of hospitality that strangers greet people in Greek epics like The Odyssey. Anyways, other favorable mentions are that old guy who rides on Sindbad's shoulder and the elephants who show him the ivory.

Bibliography: Andrew Lang The Arabian Nights

elephant who picks up sindbad

Reading notes Sindbad Part A

This is my first time reading Sindbad. I really enjoyed all the adventures of the first four voyages! It really makes me think about that poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called "Ulysses." It seems like Sindbad no matter what terrible adventure he had before always wants to go back for more! My favorite one is the fourth voyage where he has to die with his wife, and he then kills some lady that was going into the hole and took her food and later escaped. lol

Bibliography
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang

Popeye meets Sindbad

Storybook Plan

A resource that I think might be helpful is:
the myth of return by Douglas Frame and The Odyssey translations by Tony Kline and Robert Fagles.

Next, the stories that I'll use for my story project are

Calypso's Island
Circe's Island
Achille's in the underworld
Odysseus on Ithaka.

For my story, I'm putting Patrick in place of Odysseus. I may or may not change some of the villains.
I want to explore the theme of nostos and the idea of longing in the stories.