Death And Dying In Hinduism And Islam Religion Essay

Death And Dying In Hinduism And Islam Religion Essay Death and dying is equally important among all religions. Different religions have different values, beliefs, tradition, social customs and attitude regarding about death and dying. Among all of them, the most common experience is that a persons death always leaves the shadowy moment among all the relatives and the family members. Death is always connected with us and we are at the state of transition. Every living body has to die. However, religion occupies a significance space regarding about death and dying. The religion has its own norms and values to define the death. Among different religions, Hinduism and Islam define death as the period of sorrow even-though Hinduism believes in reincarnation but Islam does not. Hinduism views life as a wheel of salvation while life means a way to meet the almighty Allah in Islam. Thus, two different religions have two different perspectives of viewing life and death depending upon their religions. The Bhagvada Gita also tells about the moral of life and death. During the battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandava brother, Arjuna, has to kill his guru, Dronacharya who taught him the most powerful skill of bow and arrow. Nobody can defeat the Arjuna in archery. Since, Dronacharya belongs to the Kaurava, the Pandava brother Arjuna has to kill his own guru to win the battle of Mahabharata. The Lord Krishna chants poem about birth and living. He said to Arjuna that death in unavoidable to those who are born and birth is certain for those who had died. So, there is no reason to grieve if something in unavoidable. So, death is an inescapable. Death always stands upon its honor in the battle field. It is fair to illuminate the injustice and inequality to obtain the mokshya known as liberation. Thus, the saying of the Lord Krishna to Arjuna provides him a moral sense and knowledge of being born into this universe and reacts upon the essence of justice against immorality. Like in Bhagvada Gita, another holy scripture Ramayana also tells about the significance of death and dying. Bali and Sugriva are the brother of the same blood. Though Sugriva is younger than the Bali, Bali has treated him like a slave. However, Sugriva doesnt argue about the matter. He just wants to take care of him for the whole life. Despite the circumstance, Bali has received a terrific boon after his tough meditation for twelve years. He has a greed upon his bravery and courageous. He has captivated Sugrivas wife Tara for a long period of time. So, Sugriva is frustrated and asked about sharing of the Kiskindha kingdom. But, Bali refused it and threw him out of the kingdom. Sugriva doesnt know what to do. One day, his follower Hanuman found Rama and Arjuna wandering in the dense forest and became closer to each other. Then, Hanuman introduce Rama and Arjuna with Sugriva and Sugriva told the events about how he has to live in mountain despite having the kingdom. So, Rama told Sugr iva to call Bali upon the battle field. Sugriva did the same thing as Rama told to him. After a long battle between Sugriva and Bali, Rama killed Bali by using his archery. Upon his deathbed, Bali asked Rama about his crime. He asked what he has done to him. Who are you to kill him? Why you kill me like a terror? Why dont you show in-front of me? Then Rama replied to Bali that he has done injustice with his brother. Rama told that his father Dasaratha taught him about the moral of law and order and finally for his last question, he replied to him that the kings used to hunt deer by shading in some corners. As soon as the message spreaded over the kingdom, Tara came on the spot and cried and begged his husband back from Rama. Rama told Tara that why are you crying without thinking that the body is dead only not the soul. If you think that the dead body is your husband then why dont you think about his soul? You are on an illusion of body and soul. I respect his soul and he will be pl aced in a higher standard in the heaven. Tara realized that the body only decomposes not the soul. Even, if the person is dead, s/he will be highly recognized into the society for a long period of time. Swami Nikhilananda, the great disciple of Ramayana also said that human being should not worry about the contemporary cause and effect which is known to them. He also added that body can undergo certain metamorphism where the internal reality or the soul doesnt change rather than the illusion known as the Maya creates the desire and identifies as the self. We have to understand that the self in not the Brahmin. Following these two great scriptures, Hinduism is the religion about reincarnation. The state of being human being today is the outcome of the deeds that have been conducted in the past. After several reincarnations, we are human being now. The salvation occurs only by achieving Mokshya and Mokshya can be achieved by learning Karma yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti yoga, taking the path of devotion and learning the Holy Scripture like Bhagvada Gita and the great epic Ramayana. The ultimate way of reaching the supreme goal is to unite with Brahman. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. While Hinduism believes in polytheism, Islam believes in monotheism. Islam means submission to the god. Literally, the meaning carries a greater detail. Islam or being a Muslim means high attitude of the self. Islam believes Muhammad as the messenger of the god. The god determines the lifespan of the person. It is the gods mercy to take the person in younger age or in the older age. The Muslim believes that god created them and they have to move according to the way that the god wants. Some Muslim believes that after death, two black faced angels with blue eyes known as Munkar and Nakir visit the graveyard and ask the deceased about his life when he was alive. Upon interrogation, the person has to tell the truth. Depending upon the saying of the deceased, the process of punishment and comfort will be justified. Like in Hinduism, Islam also believes in heaven and hell where heaven means full of beautiful nymphs and the enjoym ent with the spouse while hell means the place with thorns and evil souls. When the person is lying on the deathbed, the priestly people read some passages from the Quran to facilitate the dying body to release from the physical world. After death, washing of the dead body is done and purified by the Moullana, the holy priest. The body is covered with the white cloth. The main difference between the Christianity and the Muslim is that no coffins come between the body and the earth. Building other structures are not allowed in Islam and as well as writing on the stone. Some Muslim believes that the graveyard should be dig deep enough to the dead so that the dead body can be able to sit up during the period of the Last Judgment. The grave is laid in the direction of north to south rather than east to west. The main reason behind doing that is the holy Mosque lies towards east to west. So, the deceased face is pointed towards the Mecca. It is customary to say Allah Karim which means upon the mercy of god we came into this earth and upon the mercy of him, we sh all go. Muslim views their life as a mission into this earth. The main mission is to take care of the whole life seriously as per the commandment of the god. The people have to be physically and as well as mentally fit to take care of the whole life. Spiritually, the people have to keep faith on Allah and strictly obey his saying. According to the Islam, no older person would be the burden into the society. When older person get sick or being incapable of helping themselves, the younger one should take care of them and offer them nutritious foods. The family members of the dead have to fulfill any debts of the deceased person as soon as possible. Just like in Hinduism, Islam also allows offering charity and fasting on the name of the deceased person. The family member can visit the grave to maintain the strong attachment with the deceased and as well as to observe the day of the judgment. According to Islam, death should be properly understood because it is the part of the living. Sometimes, we feel scare of discussing about death and dying because we dont want to die. We are so afraid of it. But, for Muslims, this is not the right attitude against the Allah. The Prophet Muhammad said that you have to live in this world like a traveler. Once come never return back. The destination of the journey is to meet with the almighty Allah. Death is followed by the pain and suffering. Sometimes, people become agony on death and dying. They are pathetic. According to the Allah, pain and suffering is not the curse for the Islam people. It is taken as an assignment to see how people handle it, and how they response upon it. The Quran states that Allah takes the soul at the time of death and those who are in the verdict of dying, Allah come around them and give them the clean cheat letting them to know that its the time to take a journey with Allah. The living and dying process is taken as the action where there is reaction thereafter. The faith of all Islam people is that the body and spirit unite together. So, Islam views death as the process or resurrection. The prophet also stated that being a Muslim means to challenge each and every circumstance that comes into the life. One should be capable of dealing with adversity and success. Whatever happens in life is already fixed and should take a high spirit and calmness to meet with Allah. The prophet also stated that the path towards the heaven is filled with obstacles and difficulties while the path towards the hell is filled with desire. Its up to the people to choose the path of difficulty or the path of the desire. The path of difficulty is filled wi th knowledge, sacrifice, and purity while the path of desire is filled with anger, suffocation, and greed. Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the Worlds Religions: Tradition, Challenge, and Change. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print. DeSpelder, Lynne Ann, and Albert Lee. Strickland. The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print. Death and Dying. KhutbahBank. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. . http://civic.bev.net/icb/pdf/i43_lad.pdf http://khutbahbank.org.uk/2009/06/death-and-dying-inspirational-khutbah/

Analysis Of A Modern China Family English Literature Essay

Analysis Of A Modern China Family English Literature Essay Pa Chins Family is a historical, semi-autobiographical narrative of the hardships endured by the members of an aristocratic family during the massive transformation in Chinese social and political order that took place during the early 20th century. The central conflict that is embodied in the novel is the inability of the individuals portrayed in the narrative to move past the often oppressive traditional social constructs that prevent them from moving forward in light of the new revolutionary paradigm that was sweeping the country. Three brothers, Chueh-hui, Chueh-min and Chueh-hsin, are the central figures in this narrative, and the struggle to balance the responsibilities imposed upon them by the traditional order and their desire for radical change defines the essential subject matter of the novel. These conflicting desires tear them apart and force them to either adapt or be left in the past. The work embodies the voice of a nation that was steeped in contradiction, and demonstrates throughout its passages strong underlying themes of societal disillusionment and unrest. By offering a unique insight into the most personal aspects of life during this tumultuous period of Chinese history, Family offers the historian a critical perspective on the psychological underpinnings of a society undergoing fundamental changes in structure. The increasingly pronounced dichotomy between old and new is critical to the understanding of the narrative in this story. This is represented at numerous avenues, but is revealed most blatantly in a sequence where Chueh-huis ponders upon his grandfathers sleeping body and through careful analysis comes to the realization that the old man ultimately represents not his grandfather, but an entire generation and that he himself was similarly the representative of his own generation. Reflecting further upon this observation leads him to the conclusion that they could never see eye-to-eye. (Chin 64). This conclusion is important, and foreshadows the inability of China to reconcile the two radically divergent world-views; there would be an ultimate clash between traditionalism and socialist progressivism that tears apart not only the country, but all the bonds that are held within. This antagonism between the old and the new similarly crosses historical lines, with historical texts demonstrating a fundamental disconnect between the traditional constructs that served as the guidance of Chinas actions on the world stage for generations and a powerful need for reform that threatened to sweep away these traditional systems. In Madame Sun Yat-Sens public address concerning the political left, she opens with the following: if China is to survive as an independent country in the modern struggle of nations, her semi- feudal conditions of life must be fundamentally changed and a modern state created to replace the medieval system which has existed for more than a thousand years. This task needs to be done by the method of revolution (Cheng Lestz 267). Statements such as these reflect a growing animosity towards traditional social constructs, in this instance painting them as medieval. This attitude is indicative of an unwillingness to compromise with the past in order to move forward it must be burned away to make room for the new. Critically, it must be recognized that the ultimate impetus of this rebellion was not reform for the sake of general development or even reform for the purpose of furthering China as a nation, but as a means to catch up with the West. Here we see a marked transformation; China is no longer the smirking, dominant nation who expects Western nations to cow-tow to the whim of the Emperor, but a third-rate nation with a collapsing political system that is forced to play catch-up to the burgeoning Western powers. A palpable sense of inferiority can be observed when reading political material originating from this period, permeating all layers of Chinese society. The New Life movement can be seen as an extension of this pathological national insecurity; it is an attempt to emulate the West. In Madame Chiangs address on the matter, she states that Each nation, according to its lights, has sought to find a way out of stagnation into normalcy. Italy has its fascism, Germany its Nazism and America its New Deal (Cheng Lestz 295). This can be interpreted as indicative of Chinas interests to pursue the developmental patterns of the West; in the psyche of the Chinese they can no longer carve their own path in history only hope to follow the path of the West without losing the essential Chinese spirit, which is largely based on Confucian values. This attempt to reconcile the past with the present parallels many of the hardships endured by the brothers in Family. An interesting aspect of the story is the employment of the third-person narrative in order to divulge the various characters in the story in a setting where there is clearly a great degree of confusion regarding social and moral normality. By nature of this form of narration, we are sometimes limited in the psychological motivations and inner feelings of many of the characters in the novel. This is an important plot device in some instances; we do not learn anything of Master Kaos innermost thoughts until just before his death, at which point he is revealed to be a man of a good nature who holds only the best intentions for his family. In the narrative, three promising young women are ultimately destroyed by the family: Ming-feng, Jui-cheuh and Mei. This serves not only as the reason for Cheui-huis decision to abandon his family and, by extension, the traditionalist teachings of Master Kao, but a statement of the way in which traditional Chinese society exploits women in such a manner as to deprive from them the will to live. Despite the seeming lack of regard for their welfare, loss of the women is felt acutely by all members of the family, considerably more so in comparison to Master Kao, where after his passing the major concern is the dividing of his wealth and assets (Chin 295-296). This belies the fact that there was little love for the harsh Master amongst these closest to him; the love is a fascade, like all things in the traditional life. The death of Jui-cheuh was especially hard on Cheuh-hui, who felt that the baby was an enemy who had taken his beloved, then went so far as to blame the entire social order and, by extension, his own conformity to the traditional order, for having made him so weak as to be unable to save the two women that he loved: What had taken his wife away was something else. It was the entire social system, with its moral code its superstitions. He had borne them for years while they stole his youth, his happiness, his future, the two women he had loved most In the world. They were too heavy a burden; he wanted to shake them off; he struggled (Chin 309). Throughout the novel we are confronted with a Cheuh-hui that is deeply troubled by his inner hatreds and insecurities; here it is manifested in a way that is blatant to the reader and presented in a way as to make the deep-seated societal dysfunction that is the underlying theme of the novel explicit in a dramatic fashion. In Family, the brothers are ultimately driven apart, with Cheuh-hui leaving in disgust of the events that had taken place, and unable to reconcile with the past. Similar changes had also taken hold of the other brothers, whom had turned against the family either in fact or in spirit with a deep chasm growing between the siblings with the elapse of time only narrowly being reconciled by last-minute efforts to make peace with one another. Examples of such attempts include Master Kaos assertions that Cheuh-hui was a good child (Chin 289) and Cheuh-hui promising Cheuh-hsin that not only would he write, but that they would surely see one another again in the future. It is a hopeful yet sad parting, with each of the brothers attempting to make good with one another in the recognition of the fact that they have all been forced to endure extreme hardship. Family is the biography of a China that cannot reconcile with itself through any means other than destruction of the old. As Cheuh-hui is forced to endure the loss of everything that he has cherished in his life in order to break free of the traditional order that has bound him to a life that is filled with sorrow and anger, China is also forced to contend with a similar situation . Change does not and cannot come as a compromise, such as Chiangs New Life movement, but as a radical communist insurrection that simply erases the past and sews the seeds of a new future. While some of his brothers may be more willing to accept the family even in the face of its inevitable destruction, Cheuh-hui embraces the uncertain future; he recognizes that he can only move forward if he does not look back.

Creation or Evolution? :: social issues

Creation or Evolution? How was the earth created? This is a question that has puzzled humans for ages. There are two main theories that explain how the earth was formed. These are the theories of evolution and creation. The creation theory is divided into various groups. The most accepted creation theory is the one of the biblical creationists. Biblical creation and evolution are very different, and both have indicators as to their authenticity. In evolution life is seen as having resulted by natural processes only. The theory suggests that in the past there were extended intervals of stability which ended with a mass extinction and the sudden appearance of a new species. This process occured without the intervention of supernatural forces or dieties. Nearly all modern scientists who are not Evangelical Christians believe in evolution. Biblical creationists are also called literal creationists, because they interpret the two Genesis accounts of creation in the Bible literally and believe that the Bible is without error. They believe that the "day" mentioned in Genesis 1 signifies a normal 24 hour day. According to this creation the universe was established in six days. Biblical creationists interpret most sedimentary rocks as products of Noah's flood. The majority believes that the earth is under 10,000 years of age. Some believe 4004 BC was the year of creation. The person who proposed the methods by which natural processes cause the evolution of the species was Charles Darwin. He used natural selection to explain how evolution worked. Darwin's old teacher said evolution would "brutalize" us as human beings and sink us "into a lower grade of degradation" than any time in recorded history. He was partially correct. The fact that many people think they evolved from monkeys has made morale in the world lower. However, to say that it has been the cause for the decline of society is ridiculous. Yes, war and crime has been higher in this century than in any other, but it is ceartainly not because of the theory of evolution. A theory can not start a war or commit a crime. People can. How can you prove creation or evolution? You can not prove them scientifically. The only one you could prove is creation, because of the Bible. If you believe that the Bible is without error, then you must believe that God created everything. Creation is much harder to support scientifically.

“A Scientific Romance” Essay -- Literature Review

Many people wish they could change past decisions to improve their present lives. Ronald Wright’s â€Å"A Scientific Romance† discusses various themes that develop his character’s emotional and psychological states. One of the main themes of this novel is time travel because it impacts the main character, David Lambert. David’s selfish nature is illuminated as the novel progresses because his motives are to change the past to work out in his favor. Although David’s intensions for traveling time seem loyal and admirable on the surface, his true intensions are selfish because David’s motives for time travel only benefit himself. He completely disregards others’ feelings and refuses to accept a life without Anita: the woman who does not love him back. He is manipulative because he wants to go back in time to a point where she loved him. Although he knows her true feelings, his incentive is to manipulate her future to include him. Davidâ⠂¬â„¢s journey to the future is encompassed with remorse because he feels responsible for the death of his family and his loved one. However, David feels time travel will alter his life for the better because he feels the power to change outcomes and events. Although David thinks these outcomes will workout in his favor, the author illuminates his personal belief :outcomes are beyond human control. Although he tries to play the roll of God, David fails to realize changing his decisions in the past may not exactly change the outcome of his life due to many factors, such as others’ unfavorable responses to his changed decisions. David travels time to attempt to manipulate the outcome of his life to work out in his favor and regain the lives he feels responsible for losing; however, time travel cannot change the pe... ...m. The author proves the past cannot be changed because the novel does not have a happy ending. David resorts to time travel as a solution to his current situation because he wishes to regain his loved ones he feels responsible for losing. David is selfish because he wishes to travel back in time to change his mistakes and alter the outcome of his life to wok out in his favor. He feels responsible for the death of his love Anita, and the deaths of his parents because of his action. He feels time travel will change the outcome of events, which will make his life better in the end, but he doesn’t consider the fact that it might be the person doing the actions and not the events themselves. Time travel is not the perfect solution for David, because he would be better off realizing the mistakes that he made and learning from them in order to live a better life.

Looking Back at Adolescence Essay -- Adolescent Behavior

Adolescence is a part of growing up between leaving the childish ways behind and slowly preparing more mature roles as an adult. This is a very confusing part of growing up because this is a time were we are trying to find our identity, creating our long term goals, and making decisions that may affect our lives forever. This can also be characterized as a part where we are trying to fit in a society which we feel we belong because we share the same experiences, thoughts and feelings. Also in this time, some are experimenting on things that come their way. Some of these things lead them to complicated situations. Still some are engaging into smoking, drinking and worst drugs that fatally affect their academic responsibilities. We adolescents grow in a very different setting than the generation before us. We are greatly exposed to technology that teaches us many things. If you open your personal computer at home and start browsing, pornography is just one click away. Too much technology kills us. Everything we might need is already spoon feed to us. I never mean that tech...

Carl Jung Theory

Jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego, which Jung identifies with the conscious mind. Closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything that is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is like most people's understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your â€Å"psychic inheritance. † It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that you've been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. Grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature. A nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is the near-death experience. It seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death. They speak of leaving their bodies, seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of being pulled through a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceased relatives or religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment at having to leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. Perhaps we are all â€Å"built† to experience death in this fashion. Archetypes The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images, and a few other names, but archetypes seem to have won out over these. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an â€Å"organizing principle† on the things we see or do. It works the way that instincts work in Freud's theory: At first, the baby just wants something to eat, without knowing what it wants. It has a rather indefinite yearning, which, nevertheless, can be satisfied by some things and not by others. Later, with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specific when it is hungry — a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice of New York style pizza. The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know its there by how it draws matter and light to itself. The mother archetype The mother archetype is a particularly good example. All of our ancestors had mothers. We have evolved in an environment that included a mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without our connection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants. It stands to reason that we are â€Å"built† in a way that reflects that evolutionary environment: We come into this world ready to want mother, to seek her, to recognize her, to deal with her. So the mother archetype is our built-in ability to recognize a certain relationship, that of â€Å"mothering. † Jung says that this is rather abstract, and we are likely to project the archetype out into the world and onto a particular person, usually our own mothers. Even when an archetype doesn't have a particular real person available, we tend to personify the archetype, that is, turn it into a mythological â€Å"story-book† character. This character symbolizes the archetype. The mother archetype is symbolized by the primordial mother or â€Å"earth mother† of mythology, by Eve and Mary in western traditions, and by less personal symbols such as the church, the nation, a forest, or the ocean. According to Jung, someone whose own mother failed to satisfy the demands of the archetype may well be one that spends his or her life seeking comfort in the church, or in identification with â€Å"the motherland,† or in meditating upon the figure of Mary, or in a life at sea. Mana You must understand that these archetypes are not really biological things, like Freud's instincts. They are more spiritual demands. For example, if you dreamt about long things, Freud might suggest these things represent the phallus and ultimately sex. But Jung might have a very different interpretation. Even dreaming quite specifically about a penis might not have much to do with some unfulfilled need for sex. It is curious that in primitive societies, phallic symbols do not usually refer to sex at all. They usually symbolize mana, or spiritual power. These symbols would be displayed on occasions when the spirits are being called upon to increase the yield of corn, or fish, or to heal someone. The connection between the penis and strength, between semen and seed, between fertilization and fertility are understood by most cultures. The shadow Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow. It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren't self-conscious. It is the â€Å"dark side† of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there. Actually, the shadow is amoral — neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesn't choose to do either. It just does what it does. It is â€Å"innocent. † But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we can't quite admit to. Symbols of the shadow include the snake (as in the garden of Eden), the dragon, monsters, and demons. It often guards the entrance to a cave or a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious. Next time you dream about wrestling with the devil, it may only be yourself you are wrestling with! The persona The persona represents your public image. The word is, obviously, related to the word person and personality, and comes from a Latin word for mask. So the persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious. At its best, it is just the â€Å"good impression† we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course, it can also be the â€Å"false impression† we use to manipulate people's opinions and behaviors. And, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true nature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be! Anima and animus A part of our persona is the role of male or female we must play. For most people that role is determined by their physical gender. But Jung, like Freud and Adler and others, felt that we are all really bisexual in nature. When we begin our lives as fetuses, we have undifferentiated sex organs that only gradually, under the influence of hormones, become male or female. Likewise, when we begin our social lives as infants, we are neither male nor female in the social sense. Almost immediately — as soon as those pink or blue booties go on — we come under the influence of society, which gradually molds us into men and women. In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ, usually based on our different roles in reproduction, but often involving many details that are purely traditional. In our society today, we still have many remnants of these traditional expectations. Women are still expected to be more nurturant and less aggressive; men are still expected to be strong and to ignore the emotional side of life. But Jung felt these expectations meant that we had developed only half of our potential. The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men, and the animus is the male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. Together, they are referred to as syzygy. The anima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous and intuitive, or as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may be personified as a wise old man, a sorcerer, or often a number of males, and tends to be logical, often rationalistic, and even argumentative. The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of our love life: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for our other alf, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of the opposite sex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someone that â€Å"fills† our anima or animus archetype particularly well! Other archetypes Jung said that there is no fixed number of archetypes that we could simply list and memorize. They overlap and easily melt into each other as needed, and their logic is not the usual kind. But here are some he mentions: Beside s mother, their are other family archetypes. Obviously, there is father, who is often symbolized by a guide or an authority figure. There is also the archetype family, which represents the idea of blood relationship and ties that run deeper than those based on conscious reasons. There is also the child, represented in mythology and art by children, infants most especially, as well as other small creatures. The Christ child celebrated at Christmas is a manifestation of the child archetype, and represents the future, becoming, rebirth, and salvation. Curiously, Christmas falls during the winter solstice, which in northern primitive cultures also represents the future and rebirth. People used to light bonfires and perform ceremonies to encourage the sun's return to them. The child archetype often blends with other archetypes to form the child-god, or the child-hero. Many archetypes are story characters. The hero is one of the main ones. He is the mana personality and the defeater of evil dragons. Basically, he represents the ego — we do tend to identify with the hero of the story — and is often engaged in fighting the shadow, in the form of dragons and other monsters. The hero is, however, often dumb as a post. He is, after all, ignorant of the ways of the collective unconscious. Luke Skywalker, in the Star Wars films, is the perfect example of a hero. The hero is often out to rescue the maiden. She represents purity, innocence, and, in all likelihood, naivete. In the beginning of the Star Wars story, Princess Leia is the maiden. But, as the story progresses, she becomes the anima, discovering the powers of the force — the collective unconscious — and becoming an equal partner with Luke, who turns out to be her brother. The wise old man guides the hero. He is a form of the animus, and reveals to the hero the nature of the collective unconscious. In Star Wars, he is played by Obi Wan Kenobi and, later, Yoda. Notice that they teach Luke about the force and, as Luke matures, they die and become a part of him. You might be curious as to the archetype represented by Darth Vader, the â€Å"dark father. † He is the shadow and the master of the dark side of the force. He also turns out to be Luke and Leia's father. When he dies, he becomes one of the wise old men. There is also an animal archetype, representing humanity's relationships with the animal world. The hero's faithful horse would be an example. Snakes are often symbolic of the animal archetype, and are thought to be particularly wise. Animals, after all, are more in touch with their natures than we are. Perhaps loyal little robots and reliable old spaceships — the Falcon– are also symbols of animal. And there is the trickster, often represented by a clown or a magician. The trickster's role is to hamper the hero's progress and to generally make trouble. In Norse mythology, many of the gods' adventures originate in some trick or another played on their majesties by the half-god Loki. There are other archetypes that are a little more difficult to talk about. One is the original man, represented in western religion by Adam. Another is the God archetype, representing our need to comprehend the universe, to give a meaning to all that happens, to see it all as having some purpose and direction. The hermaphrodite, both male and female, represents the union of opposites, an important idea in Jung's theory. In some religious art, Jesus is presented as a rather feminine man. Likewise, in China, the character Kuan Yin began as a male saint (the bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara), but was portrayed in such a feminine manner that he is more often thought of as the female goddess of compassion! The most important archetype of all is the self. The self is the ultimate unity of the personality and is symbolized by the circle, the cross, and the mandala figures that Jung was fond of painting. A mandala is a drawing that is used in meditation because it tends to draw your focus back to the center, and it can be as simple as a geometric figure or as complicated as a stained glass window. The personifications that best represent self are Christ and Buddha, two people who many believe achieved perfection. But Jung felt that perfection of the personality is only truly achieved in death.

Love at the Cornhusk

Love at the Cornhusk – Aida Rivera Ford Tinang stopped before the Senora’s gate and adjusted the baby’s cap. The dogs that came to bark at the gate were strange dogs, big-mouthed animals with a sense of superiority. They stuck their heads through the hogfence, lolling their tongues and straining. Suddenly, from the gumamela row, a little black mongrel emerged and slithered through the fence with ease. It came to her, head down and body quivering. â€Å"Bantay. Ay, Bantay! † she exclaimed as the little dog laid its paws upon her shirt to sniff the baby on her arm. The baby was afraid and cried. The big animals barked with displeasure. Tito, the young master, had seen her and was calling to his mother. â€Å"Ma, it’s Tinang. Ma, Ma, it’s Tinang. † He came running down to open the gate. â€Å"Aba, you are so tall now, Tito. † He smiled his girl’s smile as he stood by, warding the dogs off. Tinang passed quickly up the veranda stairs lined with ferns and many-colored bougainville. On landing, she paused to wipe her shoes carefully. About her, the Senora’s white and lavender butterfly orchids fluttered delicately in the sunshine. She noticed though that the purple waling-waling that had once been her task to shade from the hot sun with banana leaves and to water with mixture of charcoal and eggs and water was not in bloom. â€Å"Is no one covering the waling-waling now? † Tinang asked. â€Å"It will die. † â€Å"Oh, the maid will come to cover the orchids later. † The Senora called from inside. â€Å"Tinang, let me see your baby. Is it a boy? † â€Å"Yes, Ma,† Tito shouted from downstairs. â€Å"And the ears are huge! † â€Å"What do you expect,† replied his mother; â€Å"the father is a Bagobo. Even Tinang looks like a Bagobo now. † Tinang laughed and felt warmness for her former mistress and the boy Tito. She sat self-consciously on the black narra sofa, for the first time a visitor. Her eyes clouded. The sight of the Senora’s flaccidly plump figure, swathed in a loose waist-less housedress that came down to her ankles, and the faint scent of agua de colonia blended with kitchen spice, seemed to her the essence of the comfortable world, and she sighed thinking of the long walk home through the mud, the baby’s legs straddled to her waist, and Inggo, her husband, waiting for her, his body stinking of tuba and sweat, squatting on the floor, clad only in his foul undergarments. â€Å"Ano, Tinang, is it not a good thing to be married? the Senora asked, pitying Tinang because her dress gave way at the placket and pressed at her swollen breasts. It was, as a matter of fact, a dress she had given Tinang a long time ago. â€Å"It is hard, Senora, very hard. Better that I were working here again. † â€Å"There! † the Senora said. â€Å"Didn’t I tell you what it would be like, huh? . . . that you would be a slave to your husband and that you would work a baby eternally strapped to you. Are you not pregnant again? † Tinang squirmed at the Senora’s directness but admitted she was. â€Å"Hala! You will have a dozen before long. † The Senora got up. Come, I will give you some dresses and an old blanket that you can cut into things for the baby. † They went into a cluttered room which looked like a huge closet and as the Senora sorted out some clothes, Tinang asked, â€Å"How is Senor? † â€Å"Ay, he is always losing his temper over the tractor drivers. It is not the way it was when Amado was here. You remember what a good driver he was. The tractors were always kept in working condition. But now . . . I wonder why he left all of a sudden. He said he would be gone for only two days . . . .† â€Å"I don’t know,† Tinang said. The baby began to cry. Tinang shushed him with irritation. â€Å"Oy, Tinang, come to the kitchen; your Bagobito is hungry. † For the next hour, Tinang sat in the kitchen with an odd feeling; she watched the girl who was now in possession of the kitchen work around with a handkerchief clutched I one hand. She had lipstick on too, Tinang noted. the girl looked at her briefly but did not smile. She set down a can of evaporated milk for the baby and served her coffee and cake. The Senora drank coffee with her and lectured about keeping the baby’s stomach bound and training it to stay by itself so she could work. Finally, Tinang brought up, haltingly, with phrases like â€Å"if it will not offend you† and â€Å"if you are not too busy† the purpose of her visit–which was to ask Senora to be a madrina in baptism. The Senora readily assented and said she would provide the baptismal clothes and the fee for the priest. It was time to go. â€Å"When are you coming again, Tinang? † the Senore asked as Tinang got the baby ready. â€Å"Don’t forget the bundle of clothes and . . . oh, Tinang, you better stop by the drugstore. They asked me once whether you were still with us. You have a letter there nd I was going to open it to see if there was bad news but I thought you would be coming. † A letter! Tinang’s heart beat violently. Somebody is dead; I know somebody is dead, she thought. She crossed herself and after thanking the Senora profusely, she hurried down. The dogs came forward and Tito had to restrain them. â€Å"Bring me some young corn next tim e, Tinang,† he called after her. Tinang waited a while at the drugstore which was also the post office of the barrio. Finally, the man turned to her: â€Å"Mrs. , do you want medicine for your baby or for yourself? † â€Å"No, I came for my letter. I was told I have a letter. † â€Å"And what is your name, Mrs.? † He drawled. â€Å"Constantina Tirol. † The man pulled a box and slowly went through the pile of envelopes most of which were scribbled in pencil, â€Å"Tirol, Tirol, Tirol. . . .† He finally pulled out a letter and handed it to her. She stared at the unfamiliar scrawl. It was not from her sister and she could think of no one else who could write to her. Santa Maria, she thought; maybe something has happened to my sister. â€Å"Do you want me to read it for you? † â€Å"No, no. † She hurried from the drugstore, crushed that he should think her illiterate. With the baby on one arm and the bundle of clothes on the other and the letter clutched in her hand she found herself walking toward home. The rains had made a deep slough of the clay road and Tinang followed the prints left by the men and the carabaos that had gone before her to keep from sinking mud up to her knees. She was deep in the road before she became conscious of her shoes. In horror, she saw that they were coated with thick, black clay. Gingerly, she pulled off one shoe after the other with the hand still clutching to the letter. When she had tied the shoes together with the laces and had slung them on an arm, the baby, the bundle, and the letter were all smeared with mud. There must be a place to put the baby down, she thought, desperate now about the letter. She walked on until she spotted a corner of a field where cornhusks were scattered under a kamansi tree. She shoved together a pile of husks with her foot and laid the baby down upon it. With a sigh, she drew the letter from the envelope. She stared at the letter which was written in English. My dearest Tinay, Hello, how is life getting along? Are you still in good condition? As for myself, the same as usual. But you’re far from my side. It is not easy to be far from our lover. Tinay, do you still love me? I hope your kind and generous heart will never fade. Someday or somehow I’ll be there again to fulfill our promise. Many weeks and months have elapsed. Still I remember our bygone days. Especially when I was suffering with the heat of the tractor under the heat of the sun. I was always in despair until I imagine your personal appearance coming forward bearing the sweetest smile that enabled me to view the distant horizon. Tinay, I could not return because I found that my mother was very ill. That is why I was not able to take you as a partner of life. Please respond to my missive at once so that I know whether you still love me or not. I hope you did not love anybody except myself. I think I am going beyond the limit of your leisure hours, so I close with best wishes to you, my friends Gonding, Sefarin, Bondio, etc. Yours forever, Amado P. S. My mother died last month. Address your letter: Mr. Amado Galauran Binalunan, Cotabato It was Tinang’s first love letter. A flush spread over her face and crept into her body. She read the letter again. â€Å"It is not easy to be far from our lover. . . I imagine your personal appearance coming forward. . . . Someday, somehow I’ll be there to fulfill our promise. . . .† Tinang was intoxicated. She pressed herself against the kamansi tree. My lover is true to me. He never meant to desert me. Amado, she thought. Amado. And she cried, remembering the young girl she was less than two years ago when she would take fo od to Senor in the field and the laborers would eye her furtively. She thought herself above them for she was always neat and clean in her hometown, before she went away to work, she had gone to school and had reached sixth grade. Her skin, too, was not as dark as those of the girls who worked in the fields weeding around the clumps of abaca. Her lower lip jutted out disdainfully when the farm hands spoke to her with many flattering words. She laughed when a Bagobo with two hectares of land asked her to marry him. It was only Amado, the tractor driver, who could look at her and make her lower her eyes. He was very dark and wore filthy and torn clothes on the farm but on Saturdays when he came up to the house for his week’s salary, his hair was slicked down and he would be dressed as well as Mr. Jacinto, the schoolteacher. Once he told her he would study in the city night-schools and take up mechanical engineering someday. He had not said much more to her but one afternoon when she was bidden to take some bolts and tools to him in the field, a great excitement came over her. The shadows moved fitfully in the bamboo groves she passed and the cool November air edged into her nostrils sharply. He stood unmoving beside the tractor with tools and parts scattered on the ground around him. His eyes were a black glow as he watched her draw near. When she held out the bolts, he seized her wrist and said: â€Å"Come,† pulling her to the screen of trees beyond. She resisted but his arms were strong. He embraced her roughly and awkwardly, and she trembled and gasped and clung to him. . . . A little green snake slithered languidly into the tall grass a few yards from the kamansi tree. Tinang started violently and remembered her child. It lay motionless on the mat of husk. With a shriek she grabbed it wildly and hugged it close. The baby awoke from its sleep and cries lustily. Ave Maria Santisima. Do not punish me, she prayed, searching the baby’s skin for marks. Among the cornhusks, the letter fell unnoticed.