Allegra: Lectures

10/27: More groups did their presentations today, including our own group. The group covered the religions of Asia & Japan. The Asia and Japan group explained the religions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto. The history of Confucius was explained as well as his teachings about striving to be moral and treating others the way we would like to be treated. For Taoism the importance of balance was explained through the the symbol of the yin yang. An example given for balance is the exercise Tao chi which uses the naturalness of space to move. The third religion, Shinto, comes from Japan. Many people who practice Shinto also believe Taoism or Confucianism. Shinto involves the traditional myths and practices of the island of Japan.

10/29: We took a lecture on the Regensburg Letters by Pope Benedict, which we had to read for homework. Notes include:

• individuals should be able to speak intellectually, it is a way of respecting one another
• a dialogue must have truth and tolerance in it when discussing faith or beliefs
• as you trust your friends to tell you the truth (with kind motive) you should be able to trust a person you converse with over beliefs to speak honestly
• truth spoke without "charity" is cruel because it deforms truth (thus gosisp is cruelty)
• The Christian faith is compatable with reason (logos is part of our faith-relogo)
• Pope Benedict uses logic in his writing
• The Christain claim is that God is love yet people believe there is violence associated with religion
• Christians also claim onl reason can justify faith
• A Byzantine emperor si violence is irrational, which contradicts the Christian claim to reason
• Other relgions believe God does not have to be reasonable in terms of our human capacity
• Law of Abrogation is Islam says God transcends reason and can contradict Himself
• For Christians: God cannot be reasonable, because He is logos, He can be studied in a university
• Pope Benedict's Address was given at a university and became controversal because people believed he was attacking Islam, when he was really addressing that people of all religions are invited to the Vatican to observe Christian practices, but only Muslims are invited to the pilgrimmage to Mecca to experience it
• Pope asks for reciprocity

11/2 The class talked about the Schall reading "Another Sort of Learning". It is controversial because it claims none of the important things are taught in school, school is trivial teaching compared to experience.

11/4 The class watched Chalk and took notes on a worksheet. Not lecture was given.

11/6 Once again, the class watched Chalk--a movie about the daily life of teachers. The theme of the movie is "Why do teachers quit after their first three years of teaching?" The movie deals with who is meant to teach kids.

11/10 Lecture notes were taken on Confucianism:

• Tao is the way, it is not a deity, it's a law which is unseen
• the Tao is the order of the universe
• Christianity is dominantly immanent, Islam is dominantly transcendent; the Tao is equally both
• >>it is incomprehensible, beyond the mind which means it is transcendent (beyond space)
• >>immanent because it is active in the universe
• Confucius: born poor
• >>as a result he believed nobility should be based on merit
• >>furthermore an individual must always be learning to gain self-respect
• In terms of education, Confucius valued wisdom not data; therefore the elderly are revered because they are oldest and thus wisest by experience
• a great Confucius statement is "know thyself"
• Spiritual Perfection comes from learning to be human (knowing thyself)
• >Chun Tzu: ultimate role model
• >>>a gentleman or lady who is constantly learning and never lazy
• >>>a mature, intellectual person
• The Chun Tzu dresses in what is fashionable because it is respectable to society
• >has a presence when they walk in a room, but not in an alpha-male manner
• >they lead and act virtuously
• The #1 virtue of Confucianism: Jen (goodness)
• >>goodness includes behaving properly which building respect, practicing the arts which build culture, and being good which builds society

An example of the Chun Zhu is given in a story about Dan, Razor, and Blazer: Dan is a goody-goody/yuppy/wimpy boy. Razor is the daring/disrespectful/exciting/bad boy. Neither are desirable ultimately because they are both BOYS, immature. Blazer is the gentleman, or Chun Zhu who offers stimulating conversion about arts, sports, news, anything. It is agreed the Chun Zhu is not perfect but strives to be.

11/12 No notes were taken; We watched Pride and Prejudice and discussed the characteristics of a Chun Zhu

11/16 Notes were taken on Taoism: the way of nature

• there is a distinction of Philosophical Taoism and Religious Taoism, our class will focus on Philosophical Taoism
• Taoism is the Chinese Religious Foundation with belief in nature deities, ancestor worship, and harmony with the Tao
• While Confucius intended to creat beauty with a leader (Chun Zhu) and symphony, Taoism just says listen to nature
• Lao Tzu at eighty years old retired from his job to enter nature
• He wrote the Tao Te Ching as he left his home
• He is now a deity throught the practice of ancestor worship (not a god but recognized as an important individual for Taoists)
• Ying Yang is the symbol of Taoism
• >>means Heaven Earth
• >>the Ying and Yang complement each other without fighting and need eachother
• >>neither side is superior and there is a little bit in each other
• with the Ying and Yang nothing is absolutely good or evil, truth is also relative. With the monotheistic God, He is all good and truth is absolute by Him
• The Chun Zhu of Confucianism contradicts Ying Yang because he/she strives to be ALL good and virtuous
• Te is the power of harmony between Ying and Yang
• >>virtue or power is actually found in harmony
• >>to seek harmony with the Tao, balance the Ying and Yang in your life
• A Sage is a Taoist role model
• >>he/she is connected to the Tao, or nature
• harmony with the Tao is the only way to thrive (cannot go against the way, it's like paddling up a stream)
• Understanding the Tao will bring simplicity and unity
• A threat to balance of Ying and Yang is thinking too much which causes confusion
• >>this is part of Yang, the aggressive side
• Ex. Dogs are too aggressive in getting food, a cat will wait for its food and it comes to them
• We must balance Passivity and Aggression (Ying and Yang)

11/18 The class watch Roshoman today. Something to think about: what do people mean when the refer to a "Roshomon" moment? And is truth absolute? What could cause a priest to lose faith in the goodness of man after already witnessing countless murders and acts of evil??

11/20 The class watched Roshoman. Ultimately the priest regains his faith in man, it is understood truth is relative (according to Taoism). Every person presents their version of the truth with a little bias to make themselves sound better.

12/01 The gold day class still needed to finish Roshoman. We talked about our Thanksgiving breaks and discussed the movie after it ended.

12/03 We finished Taoism notes:

• Wu Wei is a primary virtue, maintaing harmony
• stresses actionless activity, non-action
• this is NOT about doing nothing, it is about accomplishing the task at hand only and doing so without stress and too much Yang
• At the heart of all Taoist virtues is the need to be more passive and embrace the Yin
• The Yin will bring balance which brings supreme effectiveness
• Harmony is power (or Te)
• a great example of power through passivity is water because it slowly and patiently is able to carve out canyons
• In Taoism Te is harmony, in Confucianism Te is virtue; there is the distinction
• Other virtues of Taoism include humilitya nd noncompetition, naturalness and naturalism, and non-aggression and passivity
• Naturalism is the idea of leaving nature alone
• >>this does not mean being a PETA member and actively protecting environment; it is about simply leaving nature alone

The rest of the classes have been dedicated to further review of the lessons in these lectures.