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| Charles Darwin Quote |
Aaaaah, the last two years have been quite a blur and we all faced so many personal challenges.....yet, we somehow survived!!The pandemic hit us all hard, at times, testing our ability's to seek the light at the end of the tunnel or rather question if there even was any light present. The future seemed grim, dark, oh so torturous...….would this virus ever end? Would we ever see any resemblance of what we knew as normalcy?
To keep my mind engaged, I enrolled in HUM 20-Asian Humanities class. Here, We had two required texts that I read for my books for the year 2022.
Patrick S. Bresnan. Awakening-An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. Sixth Edition. Routledge,2018
- This book focuses primarily on India, China and Japan while showing the relationships that exist between Eastern and Western traditions. He enlightens the readers with Buddha's "Four Noble Truths", explains the Vedanta Philosophy along with the Yoga Sutras. He describes, compares, and contrasts between Zen Buddhism and Chan Buddhism. Patrick Bresnan just a fabulous job with talking about Indus Valley Civilization. I would definitely recommend this book as an enriched read.
Jack Hawley. The Bhagavad Gita-A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library,2011
- The Gita is a universal love song sung by God to his friend man. This book teaches us the very essence of life, of humility and devotion through service to the Divine, the Godhead, the Brahman! It is a statement of the truths at the core of what we all already believe, only it makes those truths clearer and help us utilize them in our daily lives. Conversations between Krishna and Arjuna are heartfelt, honest and outrageously brutal at times. Another book I would recommend as a read for mind, body and soul well being.
This semester, I also worked on my final project with a theme of Religion. It started a little rough as I wasn't managing my time well and wasn't too invested initially. However, with a little self pep talk and fire under me, I spent a good 24-28 hours, starting all over from scratch and gave it my all. Was I impressed with my end product?? You bet so!! LOL.....I researched, reviewed my past content, reread my discussion notes and complied all together to have a fabulous presentation.
I began the semester with a clean slate, an open mind, a yearning for learning. After a first few weeks, I felt overwhelmed but told myself I got this....I could do this and my goal was to have nothing but an 'A' in my class. Did I know much about humanities or what it entailed? Nope, just that it had to do something with people and culture.
As this semester ends, I have learnt a lot. I feel confident in the knowledge gained and am pleasantly surprised with how much I have learnt about past civilizations and how they shaped today's world. I enjoyed reading and learning of conversations between Arjuna and Krishna, learning of the "Four Noble Truths", Shintoism, Confucianism, the Silk Road, Trade and Travels and most importantly, the presence of Islamic world values in such ancient past.
I sign off with a huge huge sigh of breath....that breath of relief. I did it:)
