I searched around on the Internet and found this website: http://www.sikhs.org/
The word "Sikh" in the Punjabi language means "disciple". Sikhs are the believers of God who follow the writings and teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus. The wisdom of these teachings in Sri Guru Granth Sahib are practical and universal in their appeal to all mankind. They believe that there is only One God, he is the same God for all people of all religions. They think souls go through cycles of births and deaths before it reaches the human form. The goal of our life is to lead an exemplary existence so that one may merge with God. Sikhs should remember God at all times and practice living a virtuous and truthful life while maintaining a balance between their spiritual obligations and temporal obligations. The true path for them to achieving salvation and merging with God does not require renunciation of the world or celibacy, but living the life of a householder, earning a honest living and avoiding worldly temptations and sins.
Guru Nanakwas the founder of the Sikh religion, and he was born in 1469. He preached a message of love and understanding and criticized the blind rituals of the Hindus and Muslims. Guru Nanak passed on his knowledgeable leadership of this new religion to nine successive Gurus. Guru Gobind Singh, the final living Guru, died in 1708.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Hinduism
I searched on the Internet and found this website:http://www.hinduism.co.za/
I looked through the webpage Hinduism Brief Sketch. It is about the three religions now stand in the world, which have come down to us from time prehistoric-Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. And Hinduism was developed by Hindus. The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. Vedas mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons into different times. The law of gravity existed before its discovery, and exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.
And then I looked through another webpage Yoga. Raja-Yoga is the raja of Yogas, and as a sign of royalty it is often spoken of as YOGA without any further qualification or designation. It is the uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind.
I looked through the webpage Hinduism Brief Sketch. It is about the three religions now stand in the world, which have come down to us from time prehistoric-Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. And Hinduism was developed by Hindus. The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. Vedas mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons into different times. The law of gravity existed before its discovery, and exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.
And then I looked through another webpage Yoga. Raja-Yoga is the raja of Yogas, and as a sign of royalty it is often spoken of as YOGA without any further qualification or designation. It is the uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
My Book Report
Summary
Harry is a simple ten-year-old boy. His parents died, so he lives in his uncle's house. On his eleventh birthday, a giant—Hagrid—sends him a letter from a magic school called Hogwarts, and says that Harry is a wizard. Then Harry knows that his parents were killed by the most evil wizard, Voldemort. However, he vanished strangely after he tried to kill Harry.
There are four different houses in Hogwarts:Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Revenclaw, and Slytherin, and Harry is in Griffindor. There are a lot of courses in magic that Harry has to learn, and he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He also meets a boy that is in Slytherin, Malfoy whom he hates a lot. The teacher of Potions, Professor Snape hates Harry as well, and he always blames and sneers at Harry, favoring the students in his own house, especially Malfoy. Therefore, Harry hates Snape a lot, too.
Harry has a talent for Qudditch, a wizard's sport. In his very first flying lesson, Professor McGonagall sees he's good at Qudditch, and lets him on Gryffindor's Qudditch team.
In the middle of his first Quidditch match flying on his broom, his broomstick shakes out of control. Then Ron and Hermione see that Snape is cursing his broom. They interfere with Snape's curse by setting him on fire, and then Harry's broom flies regularly again. Harry catches the Snitch—a tiny golden ball, which earns 150 points for the team who catches it—and wins the game.
At midnight one night, Harry accidentally goes into the forbidden corridor on the third floor with Ron and Hermione. They see a wild three-headed-dog guarding something on a trapdoor. They are frightened and run away.
At Halloween, there is a troll in Hogwarts. Harry sees Snape runs into the forbidden corridor. Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone which can make things turn into gold and grants people immorality. Therefore, they think that Snape wants to steal it and give it to his master, Voldemort. Moreover, Harry even sees Snape bullying Quirrell, another professor.
Snape is going to steal the stone tonight; Ron and Hermione want to stop him. They unite together and go through the violent dog using music to soothe it, and pass the barriers the professors used to guard the stone. Finally, there is only one person who can go through the black fire in front of them, and it's Harry. However, he doesn't see Snape there. The person who wants to steal the stone is Professor Quirrell!
Quirrell tries to get the magic stone, but he can't get it from the magic mirror in the room. Harry sees that the stone is in his pocket in the mirror, and then he feels something real in his pocket. He has the stone. Quirrell unwraps the turban on his head, and on the back side of his face is Voldemort's face. He tries to catch Harry. However, when his hands touch Harry, they are burnt. Then Quirrell raises his wand to curse Harry, Harry jumps toward Quirrell and holds him bravely. He defeats Voldemort again. Harry's mother tried to protect him when he was baby, so she died defending him. The magic of Love has gone into Harry's body, and she protected him from her killer.
My Thoughts
I think that this book consumed a lot of the author's time and soul to write. The plot of this book kept building and building up to a high point. For example: when Harry, Ron and Hermione defeat the three-headed-dog, the dangerous plants, the room with thousands of keys—and find the only key to open the door—the giant wizard chess, and the potions with a logic riddle. Then Harry find Quirrell in the room, not Snape. It is a surprise. In fact, when the plot turns a bit dangerous or scary, it always surprises me. My heart always beats faster. I really enjoyed reading this book, so I just couldn't close it. Moreover, there isn't only good action in the story; there is also a lot of dialogue and learning. Sometimes their chats are full of humor, especially Ron's brothers—Fred and George. For example, their mother often can't identify the twins, and they usually joke that she's not really their mother. Even though their mother recognizes them correctly, they also trick her by saying she's wrong.
I had already seen the movie before I read this, and knew what would happen. Because of that, this book wasn't so exciting to me, but I still enjoyed reading it. Furthermore, the book is a lot more detailed and clearer than the movie. Therefore, I love this book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
I also think the characters are really good, like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The author described them well: their appearances, the thoughts in their minds, and changes in their personalities. Moreover, they experience many things together, like defeating the troll, going to the forbidden forest, keeping a dragon, and passing the barriers that protect the Sorcerer's Stone. Then they grow up after going through these experiences. For example, Harry was a thin and weak boy in the beginning, and his cousin always bullied him. Later, he becomes a wizard, makes friends, and becomes a lot braver.
Ron's brothers had been head boy, captain of the Qudditch team, and prefect, so he'd been overshadowed by them. Then, he sacrifices himself and defeats the giant wizard chess created by Professor McGonagall. He becomes braver.
Hermione Granger was born in a Muggle family (people that can't use magic) family. Then she studies hard and reads a lot of books, so she becomes the smartest student in Gryffindor. Moreover, she becomes more unpretentious after she makes friends with Harry and Ron.
The setting of the story is in the modern world, though there is another magic world like beside it. I think it is fun that there are two worlds beside each other, and that there is a strong difference between them. The magic world still uses parchments and quills, and it also uses herbs and roots for medicine. Furthermore, its mail is carried by owls. The science of the modern Muggle world develops and changes with each passing day;—cars, steamships, airplanes and even spaceships—however, the other world can use magic to travel around in only a few seconds, which is actually a lot faster than us.
I don't have many criticisms of this book; I think there is only a bit of details that are vague. For example, there isn't any clear description of why Harry saw his family in the Mirror of Erised the he first time he saw it in the room, and the second time he sees it he takes out the Sorcerer's Stone from his pocket. Furthermore, there isn't any obvious description of how Harry gets the Sorcerer's Stone from the mirror. Otherwise, I think this book is pretty good.
The ending of this book is that the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she's dead. I think the ending is really great. The plot kept building up, and the ending was very surprising, and I was moved by it.
What I Learned
This story is full of courage, friendships, and unitedness. In the story of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, I learned that courage is important. We shouldn't hesitate and be afraid to try things; just do them bravely. If we don't try things, we'll never have a chance.
Friendships and unitedness are important, too. Two heads are better than one. If we can't unite together, we are a grain of loose sand in a state of separation from the beach. Wars will continue, and people will make stronger and more dangerous weapons to fight each other. That won't help anyone, only aggravating the environment. If many friends walk together, each of them can support the others. Furthermore, they can use the merits of their friends. They can also learn from the lessons drawn from others' mistakes.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione defeat the villain together, and learn more things during their adventures. This symbolizes that we can learn lessons after we've done things. In our life, we go through many things. When we're going through our life, we should gain knowledge and learn to face challenges as a result. If we try more things, we gain more experiences.
In the story, Harry looks at the Mirror of Erised to see his family, because his deepest desire is to be together with them. However, it doesn't grant truth or knowledge. Therefore, Harry stops doing it, but it isn't easy to escape the deepest desire in his heart. He always has nightmares when he is sleeping, but they vanish gradually. In real life, there are many temptations, and we have to learn to restrict ourselves.
In the ending the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she’s already died. Harry's mother sacrificed herself to protect him. I was really moved by this. We should learn a lesson from her sacrifice, and treasure the things that we possess, especially our families. They help us a lot and don't care about gain or loss.
When I started reading this English book, I read it at a really slow speed, like a turtle and had a hard time understanding the meaning. Moreover, at that time, I usually stopped to look in the dictionary. A few weeks later, I found that I could read it faster and enjoyed reading it more. Then I could read it as I was reading the Chinese version. Furthermore, I learned a lot of new words from it. My English got a lot better. Now, I can read English sentences and understand them faster, and don't have to translate them into Chinese in my mind. My translation of English to Chinese isn't better than before, but that's OK.
In conclusion, I think this book is really exciting and splendid. Furthermore, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from the wise saw and the courage, friendships, unitedness, love, wisdom and honesty in the book. Like the attitude to face the life and knowledge. I think this book worth a lot, and I suggest you to buy this book. Moreover, there are other six books of the sequel of this book, I also propose you to buy all them.
Harry is a simple ten-year-old boy. His parents died, so he lives in his uncle's house. On his eleventh birthday, a giant—Hagrid—sends him a letter from a magic school called Hogwarts, and says that Harry is a wizard. Then Harry knows that his parents were killed by the most evil wizard, Voldemort. However, he vanished strangely after he tried to kill Harry.
There are four different houses in Hogwarts:Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Revenclaw, and Slytherin, and Harry is in Griffindor. There are a lot of courses in magic that Harry has to learn, and he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He also meets a boy that is in Slytherin, Malfoy whom he hates a lot. The teacher of Potions, Professor Snape hates Harry as well, and he always blames and sneers at Harry, favoring the students in his own house, especially Malfoy. Therefore, Harry hates Snape a lot, too.
Harry has a talent for Qudditch, a wizard's sport. In his very first flying lesson, Professor McGonagall sees he's good at Qudditch, and lets him on Gryffindor's Qudditch team.
In the middle of his first Quidditch match flying on his broom, his broomstick shakes out of control. Then Ron and Hermione see that Snape is cursing his broom. They interfere with Snape's curse by setting him on fire, and then Harry's broom flies regularly again. Harry catches the Snitch—a tiny golden ball, which earns 150 points for the team who catches it—and wins the game.
At midnight one night, Harry accidentally goes into the forbidden corridor on the third floor with Ron and Hermione. They see a wild three-headed-dog guarding something on a trapdoor. They are frightened and run away.
At Halloween, there is a troll in Hogwarts. Harry sees Snape runs into the forbidden corridor. Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone which can make things turn into gold and grants people immorality. Therefore, they think that Snape wants to steal it and give it to his master, Voldemort. Moreover, Harry even sees Snape bullying Quirrell, another professor.
Snape is going to steal the stone tonight; Ron and Hermione want to stop him. They unite together and go through the violent dog using music to soothe it, and pass the barriers the professors used to guard the stone. Finally, there is only one person who can go through the black fire in front of them, and it's Harry. However, he doesn't see Snape there. The person who wants to steal the stone is Professor Quirrell!
Quirrell tries to get the magic stone, but he can't get it from the magic mirror in the room. Harry sees that the stone is in his pocket in the mirror, and then he feels something real in his pocket. He has the stone. Quirrell unwraps the turban on his head, and on the back side of his face is Voldemort's face. He tries to catch Harry. However, when his hands touch Harry, they are burnt. Then Quirrell raises his wand to curse Harry, Harry jumps toward Quirrell and holds him bravely. He defeats Voldemort again. Harry's mother tried to protect him when he was baby, so she died defending him. The magic of Love has gone into Harry's body, and she protected him from her killer.
My Thoughts
I think that this book consumed a lot of the author's time and soul to write. The plot of this book kept building and building up to a high point. For example: when Harry, Ron and Hermione defeat the three-headed-dog, the dangerous plants, the room with thousands of keys—and find the only key to open the door—the giant wizard chess, and the potions with a logic riddle. Then Harry find Quirrell in the room, not Snape. It is a surprise. In fact, when the plot turns a bit dangerous or scary, it always surprises me. My heart always beats faster. I really enjoyed reading this book, so I just couldn't close it. Moreover, there isn't only good action in the story; there is also a lot of dialogue and learning. Sometimes their chats are full of humor, especially Ron's brothers—Fred and George. For example, their mother often can't identify the twins, and they usually joke that she's not really their mother. Even though their mother recognizes them correctly, they also trick her by saying she's wrong.
I had already seen the movie before I read this, and knew what would happen. Because of that, this book wasn't so exciting to me, but I still enjoyed reading it. Furthermore, the book is a lot more detailed and clearer than the movie. Therefore, I love this book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
I also think the characters are really good, like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The author described them well: their appearances, the thoughts in their minds, and changes in their personalities. Moreover, they experience many things together, like defeating the troll, going to the forbidden forest, keeping a dragon, and passing the barriers that protect the Sorcerer's Stone. Then they grow up after going through these experiences. For example, Harry was a thin and weak boy in the beginning, and his cousin always bullied him. Later, he becomes a wizard, makes friends, and becomes a lot braver.
Ron's brothers had been head boy, captain of the Qudditch team, and prefect, so he'd been overshadowed by them. Then, he sacrifices himself and defeats the giant wizard chess created by Professor McGonagall. He becomes braver.
Hermione Granger was born in a Muggle family (people that can't use magic) family. Then she studies hard and reads a lot of books, so she becomes the smartest student in Gryffindor. Moreover, she becomes more unpretentious after she makes friends with Harry and Ron.
The setting of the story is in the modern world, though there is another magic world like beside it. I think it is fun that there are two worlds beside each other, and that there is a strong difference between them. The magic world still uses parchments and quills, and it also uses herbs and roots for medicine. Furthermore, its mail is carried by owls. The science of the modern Muggle world develops and changes with each passing day;—cars, steamships, airplanes and even spaceships—however, the other world can use magic to travel around in only a few seconds, which is actually a lot faster than us.
I don't have many criticisms of this book; I think there is only a bit of details that are vague. For example, there isn't any clear description of why Harry saw his family in the Mirror of Erised the he first time he saw it in the room, and the second time he sees it he takes out the Sorcerer's Stone from his pocket. Furthermore, there isn't any obvious description of how Harry gets the Sorcerer's Stone from the mirror. Otherwise, I think this book is pretty good.
The ending of this book is that the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she's dead. I think the ending is really great. The plot kept building up, and the ending was very surprising, and I was moved by it.
What I Learned
This story is full of courage, friendships, and unitedness. In the story of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, I learned that courage is important. We shouldn't hesitate and be afraid to try things; just do them bravely. If we don't try things, we'll never have a chance.
Friendships and unitedness are important, too. Two heads are better than one. If we can't unite together, we are a grain of loose sand in a state of separation from the beach. Wars will continue, and people will make stronger and more dangerous weapons to fight each other. That won't help anyone, only aggravating the environment. If many friends walk together, each of them can support the others. Furthermore, they can use the merits of their friends. They can also learn from the lessons drawn from others' mistakes.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione defeat the villain together, and learn more things during their adventures. This symbolizes that we can learn lessons after we've done things. In our life, we go through many things. When we're going through our life, we should gain knowledge and learn to face challenges as a result. If we try more things, we gain more experiences.
In the story, Harry looks at the Mirror of Erised to see his family, because his deepest desire is to be together with them. However, it doesn't grant truth or knowledge. Therefore, Harry stops doing it, but it isn't easy to escape the deepest desire in his heart. He always has nightmares when he is sleeping, but they vanish gradually. In real life, there are many temptations, and we have to learn to restrict ourselves.
In the ending the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she’s already died. Harry's mother sacrificed herself to protect him. I was really moved by this. We should learn a lesson from her sacrifice, and treasure the things that we possess, especially our families. They help us a lot and don't care about gain or loss.
When I started reading this English book, I read it at a really slow speed, like a turtle and had a hard time understanding the meaning. Moreover, at that time, I usually stopped to look in the dictionary. A few weeks later, I found that I could read it faster and enjoyed reading it more. Then I could read it as I was reading the Chinese version. Furthermore, I learned a lot of new words from it. My English got a lot better. Now, I can read English sentences and understand them faster, and don't have to translate them into Chinese in my mind. My translation of English to Chinese isn't better than before, but that's OK.
In conclusion, I think this book is really exciting and splendid. Furthermore, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from the wise saw and the courage, friendships, unitedness, love, wisdom and honesty in the book. Like the attitude to face the life and knowledge. I think this book worth a lot, and I suggest you to buy this book. Moreover, there are other six books of the sequel of this book, I also propose you to buy all them.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Buddhism
I surfed the Internet around and found this website:
http://www.buddhism.org/
There are some dharma talkings of Venerable Master Hye-Am, and I looked through No Buddha-Nature Outside of the Mind of Bodhidharma's talk on lineage. It is about the talking of Bodhidharma and his students. A student asked "If we do not depend upon any written word, with what and how do we conceive the mind?" "When you are asking me, that is your mind. When I am responding to you, that is my mind; from the ancient, beginningless time, each and every movement in all different times and places is your original mind and your original Buddha." Bodhidharma said. It means that Self, as it is , is its own mind; the mind in itself is this Buddha. That is the reason it has been said, the mind in itself is Buddha in himself.
Buddhas have spoken the mind only:
Only the mind is Buddha,
Only Buddha is the mind;
Buddha exists not outside of the mind,
Mind exists not outside of Buddha.
It means that if you see Buddha is just your mind, then do not seek Buddha outside of the mind. Buddha cannot be liberated by Buddha, and Buddha cannot be seen if sought with the kind.
http://www.buddhism.org/
There are some dharma talkings of Venerable Master Hye-Am, and I looked through No Buddha-Nature Outside of the Mind of Bodhidharma's talk on lineage. It is about the talking of Bodhidharma and his students. A student asked "If we do not depend upon any written word, with what and how do we conceive the mind?" "When you are asking me, that is your mind. When I am responding to you, that is my mind; from the ancient, beginningless time, each and every movement in all different times and places is your original mind and your original Buddha." Bodhidharma said. It means that Self, as it is , is its own mind; the mind in itself is this Buddha. That is the reason it has been said, the mind in itself is Buddha in himself.
Buddhas have spoken the mind only:
Only the mind is Buddha,
Only Buddha is the mind;
Buddha exists not outside of the mind,
Mind exists not outside of Buddha.
It means that if you see Buddha is just your mind, then do not seek Buddha outside of the mind. Buddha cannot be liberated by Buddha, and Buddha cannot be seen if sought with the kind.
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