The Bhagavad Gita with modern business!

This week, I read The Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is the essence of Hinduism and a part of Mahanharata. It teaches the non-sectarian universal spiritual philosophy on the metaphysical science of the highest Reality. The Bhagavad Gita was generated because of the war, and it has influences of the modern society.

Nowadays, we do not have much original wars between nations, however, the competition between companies sometimes seem like wars. Although The Bhagavad Gita is a religious book, but many business leaders can still learn to understand that a lot of business intelligence.

For example, Krishna as God in the process, have deep moral confusion, and finally beyond the physical with the spiritual power, and get out of the monumental achievements of outside interference. The course of their deity can be explained by love, action, meditation, knowledge of the importance of the leader to understand how they can make regardless of outside interference and emotional responsibilities placed on the real personal wealth before, and finally becomes a successful career. 

In the "Bhagavad Gita" chapter eight, it has this to say: "efforts in the practice of yoga, the mind is not directed to any external things and thinking about the sacred concept of the supremacy views will certainly achieve the unity of living beings and individulized soul. This gives business leaders a lesson that: in the business career, thousand of problems continue to emerge, only to maintain inner calm and peace can not be affected by difficulties and ultimately, overcome them. 

"Bhagavad Gita" advocates that people should fulfill their duties to promote, rather than just look at the results. All in all, "Bhagavad Gita" emphasizes business leaders to promote themselves, including their own businesses. They better to centralize their power to make the business strong and powerful, rather than in competition with others by external stimuli.

Hanuman in Ramayana！

Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India. Through the whole book it describes the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king.

After reading Ramayana, especially book 4 and book 6, I find that Hanuman is my favorite character in this book. In the ancient Chinese myth “Journey to the West", it has a same character like Hanuman whose name is Sun Wukong. Wukong and Hanuman both were born of nature, and they have a supernal power. Wukong helps his master, Xuanzang to reach the east. During the journey, they suffered many difficulties, and Wukong always helps his master to fight against the evil spirit. Also, Hanuman did the same thing. He helps Rama to indicate his wife Sita, and helps them to fight in the battle with Ravana.

In India, Ramayana influences people for thousand years, every Indian knows the stories, and they adore the heros in this book. Hanuman is the popular one for the normal citizens. They made statues of Hanuman everywhere. In book 4 of Kishkindha Kanda, Rama and his brother meet Hanuman, and Hanuman introduced Rama to Sugriva, the monkey king. Rama befriends Sugriva and helps him by killing his elder brother Vali thus regaining the kingdom of Kiskindha, in exchange for helping Rama to recover Sita. In book 6 Yuddha Kanda, it describes the battle between the forces of Rama and Ravana. Rama and Lakshmana proceed with their allies towards the shore of the southern sea since they know Sita is there. The monkeys named "Naal" and "Neel" build a bridge across the ocean, and the princes and their army cross over to Lanka. Rama and Lakshmana were injured during the battle, and Hanuman bring the holy mountain which has the herb to help the princes, then bring the holy mountain back. At the end, Roma killed Ravana, and he installs Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana on the throne of Lanka.

During the whole book, Hanuman is the one who always has the power to help Rama. He plays an important part in locating Sita and in the ensuing battle. In my opinion, people adore Hanuman because of his braveness and wittiness.

Teaching Notes!

The Analects were written by Confucius's pupils during the period 30 to 50 years after his death. In the Analects, Confucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing." He puts the greatest emphasis on the importance of study, and today I will analysis the thoughts arise in the Analects which concern with studying.
First of all, Confucius thinks the most important thing about studying is the attitude. The Master said, "They who know the truth are not equal to those tho love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it." Only if people love it and feel happy about it, they can learn it very well. The Master also said, "When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teacher. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them." Anybody in this world has the advantages others may not have, so, be unambitious to learn from others is a good attitude to study.
Secondly, about the methods of studying. The Master said, "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous." This lesson instruct students that they should combine the learning and thinking together, and they should do some practice after studying.
Thirdly, about the contents of studying. Confucius claims that the contents of studying should be extensive. There are four things he sets as his outline of studying-letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness. He teaches knowledges, also teaches his students to keep good personality such as morality, loyalty and faithfulness. These four things are important to others and to the students themselves.
Fourthly, about the purpose of studying. The Master said, "The leaving virtue without proper cultivation; the not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to change what is not good; -these are the things which occasion me solicitude." If people did not build their morality and did not review the lessons they learned, that's the thing we are worried about. If people heard about the right thing and they cannot do it, or have the mistakes which cannot be correct, that's also the thing we should worried about. From this point, we know that the purpose of studying is not to memorize the books, and the purpose is to practice the knowledge we have learned from books.
The Analects has concerned about many aspects of the culture, literature, and philosophy about ancient China. I analysis one aspect about how to study. It shows the relationship between learning and practicing, and the pursue of truth and morality. The Analects helps teachers to educate a lot of students who are both knowledgable and virtuous.

Confession of Love, but restraint！（update Fishhawk）

The poem "Fishhawk" has a very special position in Chinese literature. It is the first poem of the "Classic of Poetry" which is the first literary work in Chinese civilization. I choose to analyze this short poem, because it is considered as the foundation of Chinese literature. It also influences the history, philosophy, literary, society, and culture of early Chinese.

The ancient Chinese attached importance to the Doctrine of the Mean(a text rich with symbolism and guidance to perfecting oneself). The guiding principle of the mean being that one should never act in excess. "Fishhawk" reveal this thought perfectly. First, the love between male and female is natural and normal. The repetition of "gental maiden, pure and fair" throughout the poem creates a feeling that the maiden is indeed yearned for by the prince. The words "waking and sleeping" shows prince deeply loves the maiden and wanted to be alongside her. In the Mao Commentary(The annotation by Han Dynasty scholar Mao Heng and his nephew Mao Chang), they considered the family as a basic unit of the society, and the harmony of the family is so important to the harmony of the society. So the pure love which like the love between those two fishhawks is praised highly by the ancient Chinese. Secondly, even though the prince love the maiden deeply, he did not touch the maiden directly throughout the poem. The prince cannot fall a asleep, but he did not talk to the maiden directly, he plays "bells and drums, do her delight." In the Analects of Confucius, he thought desire between male and female may make people to act unreasonable. It has the risk to make the society chaos, so he encourage people to act abstemiously. This poem commend people to restrain their emotions, act carefully, and enjoy a love which has a purpose of marriage.

"Fishhawk" was arranged at the beginning of Chinese literature, the thought of the Doctrine of the Mean in this poem influenced the Chinese people for thousand of years!

Fishhawk

Fishhawk is the first of the Classic of Poetry which contained three hundred and five poems. This poem is short, and it has a very important position of the Chinese literature. It is considered as the foundation of the Chinese literature. I am interested in this particular poem because this short poem can be interpreted in many different ways. According to the Mao Commentary, Confucians think this poem display the guideline for harmony of the household in ancient China. In the Zhou Dynasty, the Wen King searched for a maiden, in order to show her faithfulness in her marriage, the Queen allowed Wen King to search another maiden. Also, there is another point of view shows the speaker of the poem feel blue about the situation of helplessness, and it also compare his faithless marriage with the pure affection of the two fish hawks. The use of imagery is another thing attract me. In this poem, it repeat "gentle maiden, pure and fair" for four times. The repetition throughout the poem makes the reader feel like the prince was really yearn for the maiden, and the maiden is the only thing that the seeker can see. The onomatapeia of "gwan gwan" is powerful to help reader imagine the image of two fish hawks floating on the "sandbars of the stream," and this give reader a peaceful mood that abundant at the beginning.

In my view, "Fishhawk" is a fantastic poem to analyze. Readers can find the views of ancient China through this work in many ways, such as historical, literary, social and cultural.

The Romantic Egyptian

I'm very enjoying reading the ancient Egypt poems. Before I read the poems, the only thing in my mind about Egypt are Pyramids and Pharaoh. In my opinion, the ancient Egypt poems must be related to religion and hymn to god. However, when I read this section, I found many poems about love, they showed us the emotion and love in ancient Egyptian daily life. I know these poems come from different period of ancient Egypt. The period of the Old Kingdom has the largest and earliest group of poems comes from the pyramids. They include narratives, incantations, and invocations designed to help the Pharaohs' sole on its journey to the other world. In the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the poems are lyrics, narratives, and devotional poems.

There is one thing I never think about Egyptian is Romance. In the poem "Love Songs", it tells a story about a man who is in love with a woman he cannot have. He even describes her as a "goddess." He also does not see any flaws of this woman's appearance. This poem deals with the feminine aspects and descriptions of love, showing how women are the epitome of everything that is beautiful in the world. In the poem"I wish I were her Nubian girl", it tells a story about a man wishing he were her servant girl, because the servant would be privy to things that no man could be. Both of these two poems showed that in ancient Egypt, women were treated better than any of the other major civilization including men. After reading these ancient Egypt love poems, I know that love and emotional support were considered to be important for the ancient Egyptian women. Even though thousands of years past, we can still tell the very lovely, romantic story from the scattered fragment.