Main Principles of Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Main Principles of Buddhism - Essay Example There are varied differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. In his work, Chodron (2001) indicates that Theravada puts a lot of focus on the Pali Canon or the Tripitaka whilst the Mahayana uses the books of Theravada Tripitaka and other sutras like the Lotus Sutra. In terms of Buddhas, Theravada is more inclined on the historical Buddha- the Gautama.   Mahayana applies the Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas like the medicine Buddhas and Amitabha (Chodron, 2001). With Theravada being located in the Southern- notable Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and other parts of S.E. Asia- and Mahayana on the Northern part, their goals of training are different. Theravada teaches Arhat while Mahayana Buddha hood through the bodhisattva-path (Chodron, 2001). The languages are also different, Pali for Theravada and Sanskrit for Mahayana (Chodron, 2001). Theravada has few rituals that are not closely followed while Mahayana has numerous that are determined by local pressures on their culture s.In Buddhism, the reason for living is to be happy. Chodron (2001) argues that it is difficult to achieve this happiness as the world is full of uncertainties that cause discontent. In this case, individuals are expected to search their souls in the quest to attain happiness, since it is believed happiness comes from within an individual.  

Sustainability, Crime and Perceptions of Safety in Newcastle Essay - 10

Sustainability, Crime and Perceptions of Safety in Newcastle - Essay Example A sustainable community is one that acknowledges the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental goals and has a comprehensive set of policies designed to satisfy the multiple benchmarks that define sustainability. According to the Centre for Sustainable Development at Simon Fraser University in Canada, â€Å"Sustainable Community Development (SCD) aims to integrate economic, social and environmental objectives in community development.† (â€Å"Why Sustainable Community Development†) In the context of the city of Newcastle, this cluster of goals and interrelated policies was compiled in The Australia Institute and Newcastle City Council authored report entitled, Indicators of a Sustainable Community, published in 2000. The report begins by noting, â€Å"Sustainability incorporates economic, social and environmental attributes of the City as they affect the quality of life of community members.† It goes on to note that sustainability is not a goal to be achieved but rather a process to be worked on with communities becoming more or less sustainable: â€Å"The challenge for policymakers and others involved in improving the quality of life in Newcastle will be to review these indicators over time and integrate them into management and decision-making processes within the City.† Interestingly, both of these indicators are important although they may, at times, be contradictory. It is not unheard of for crime rates to be dropping in a community at the same time that residents perceive themselves to be less safe. Therefore, this evaluation of crime and public safety in Newcastle will be conducted through analysis of actual crime rates and public perceptions of criminality and safety. The Indicators of a Sustainable Community report clearly identifies as one Desired Outcome improving community perception of safety. It defines the benchmark for this as, â€Å"Measuring how fear of crime impacts on people’s decisions to participate in activities outside the home indicates the community’s  perception of safety.  

Logic and Paper Essay Example for Free

Logic and Paper Essay Papers written collaboratively will use different warrants and/or different forms of argumentation to support the claim and grounds of a paper as opposed to a paper writing a paper individually. One may suggest that the warrant of a paper is the most difficult element in supporting the claims and grounds of a paper. The warrant is used to connect the claims and grounds of a paper. â€Å"Without a warrant a reader may not reach the same connection or make similar connections between a claim and evidence as a writer† (Morse, 2010). Collaboratively, different warrants will arise in a paper to bring together the validity of the evidence presented. Having more than one perspective in a team paper is key. It allows various facts and statistics to be introduced and considered. â€Å"It eliminates the possibility of errors arising out failures and considers the effect of contributing elements† (Jones, 2010). In addition, a different perspective when writing collaboratively, creativity is embraced. Different ideas come to the forefront, which may not have come to light without different varies being heard. This creativity helps the reader to connect the claim and evidence which is known as the warrants. â€Å"As writers we must guide our readers through our logic and convince them that our interpretation is logical and sound† (Morse, 2010). Lastly, collaboratively, teams can determine when a paper is good enough using various methods. Team members can establish represents that needs to be met and if they are met before starting and ending a paper. On the contrary, writing a paper individually will bring forth only one warrant in a paper because only one perspective is in place. He or she brain storms alone and revises alone. â€Å"Basically, there are just too many people, too many ideas, and too many â€Å"experts† to come to an agreement and achieve a good result. It is simply why we have to constantly be reminded that there is â€Å"no ‘I’ in team† (Mattoon, Marc). When writing collaboratively, one determines whether an argument represents one’s own position by the tone and wording put forth in a paper. The tone is not always easy to figure out. One must determine the audience and look for clues to see how the author feels and the content of the paper. Depending on whether the author wants to sound formal or sarcastic will in turn determine the actual words used in the piece and how the author chooses to put those words together. Word choices, such as the adjectives used to explain something, and comparisons made are also key in determining one’s own position. References Jones, N. (2010,July). Collaboration at Work: A Look at the Pros and Cons. Retrieved from http://www. brighthub. com/office/collaboration/articles/73856. aspx Mattoon, L. (March, 2012). Working in a Team: Advantages and Disadvantages. Retrieved from http://www. job-interview-site. com Morse, S. (2010, June). Writers Handbook. Retrieved from http://www. uci. edu/programs/humcore/student/Writershandbook/ch9_cew_morse. html.

The Theory Of Parallelism

The Theory Of Parallelism Mind and body is considered as a separate form of human. By giving an example for mind such as sad, euphoria, angry or happy, it is considered as mind. A mind can be explained as what we called feeling. For our body, it can do things such as cycling, hiking, writing paperwork, and talking. We cannot see how large is our mind but we can see our body. So, we can conclude that body is a physical subject while mind is a mentally subject. Based on the older philosophy theory, the mind and body is not correlated. This theory is called as parallelism. What is parallelism? Based on thefreedictionary.com, parallelism is The doctrine that to every mental change there corresponds a concomitant but causally unconnected physical alteration. (thefreedictionary.com ,2009) The meaning is every changes that happened in our mind, doesnt affect our body while the changes in our body doesnt affect our mind. These two are independent against each other. For example, if were happy, it just a stimulation o f chemical in our body that is call endorphin. It is nothing related to our thinking. However, if we are saying that the mind and body are two different and independent things, we are no better than a machine or robot. The idea of Descartes theory has formed a mind and body problem. So what is mind and body problem? The problem is how does mind and body correlated to each other? According to Descartes philosophy, mind is a thinking thing while body is an extended thing. These two is somehow related to each other. To answer this question, Decartes has formed a philosophical theory called dualism. Based on Decartess dualism, body and mind is dependent against each other. The body needs the mind to tell them how to react and what to do and the mind needs the body as an object to express our thinking. However, if we said that there are connected to each other, but where is the connection between the mind and the body? There must some connection within the mind and body. The things that we think somehow affect our body and vice versa. Decartes solution is possible for mind/body problem. What he said was mind and body are connected and irrelevant to each other, but where is the bond that connects the mind and body? Do they even exist? We cant say that our body is connected by electrons or electromagnetic waves that generate within our body because electrons and electromagnetic waves is something that we can see and know for a long time through science. The connection between mind and body must not be visible to our naked eyes. If we use the theory of electrons as our proof of the existence; a scientist can manipulate the electrons that connect through our mind and body and extract the mind and put into someones body. The body must have a special code or something special to connect with the mind. We cant just move the mind into someones body to survive. If we can do that, we can escape the fact of death. When a person is about to die, just extract the electrons and put into someones body. According to Joseph Almog, he said that ..here is the kind of mind a mind is is stable in time. Given that Decartess Meditation is a human mind, it may not turn into an angelic or divine mind.. (Joseph Almog, 2002, pg 94). Mind provides use stability. Hence, there must be a connection that binds within a mind and a body of a person, and mind and body must be complete with each other. Besides that, if mind and body arent related just as what parallelism said, we can just live in this world without a body. The body basically is an extended thing. If I ask a normal person, what they think about mind. Basically they will just tell you something like mind is a soul, mental, or a spirit. So why dont we just live in this world just by using a soul? Isnt that our body is just a little an extra feature? When were dead, our body will be assumed as a corpse, our soul will be assumed as a spirit. Based on what I said before this about spirit and corpse, if dualism is not a solution for this, we can say that were just spirit living in a corpse body. We are no better than a zombie that doesnt have any feeling and emotion towards anything. It is basically just a walking corpse. As a result for that, to be called as a human or a living being, one must be exist with a package that contains mind and body. These two things arent divisible as they two are depending on each other. Ba sed on science, there is nothing such as zombie, spirit or recreation exists. However, the scientific reporting of the reality only provided evidence based on medical research investigating birthmarks and defects. (Casimir J. Bonk,contents pg xvii) This determines how we can deeply understand what an individual with thinking and physical are connected together. Apart from that, physical (body) must exist with mind (consciousness). A person wouldnt know what pain is, if the physical part of his body does not experience any pain before. For example, if a person touches a hot stove, he/she will feel the pain by pulling his/her hand. That person can scream too as an alert to show that we are in pain. However, the pain feeling will stays in our consciousness. For the next time, even when the stove if not hot, when we are going to touch it, there is a pain feeling in our mind. Besides that, if a person did not feel any pain before, will they know what is the meaning of pain is? They might just know the theory of pain but not exact consciousness of pain. Hence, it creates a conscious between mind and body about how we feel. In conclusion, I think Decartess dualism is the solution for mind and body problem. Mind must exist with the body and body must exist with mind to stay in what we called as a human being. Without any of them, we are just a dead corpse or a spirit. Hence, I think Decartes has one of the best solutions for this problem. Citation Joseph Almog, 2002 What am I?: Descartes and the mind-body problem, Oxford University Printing Press. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/parallelism , Access 17th February 2011, Updated at year 2000 Casimir J. Bonk, 2010, Descartes Was Right! Souls Do Exist and Reincarnation Proves It: A Challenge To Rethink Dualism

Sex Addicts Find Each Other Online :: Journalism Essays

Sex Addicts Find Each Other Online To her friends and family, Mary Smith* is a young, hard-working psychology student who never seems to have time for fun. What they don't know is that Mary is a sex addict. Recently, her boyfriend of three months discovered her secret. After they broke up, Mary took her addiction one step further and started experimenting with strangers and bondage, spanking and rape fantasies using the Internet. Mary uses the Internet as her tool to find sex partners. Mary spends most of her time on the Internet exploring erotic Web sites. The Internet changed the way in which she communicates. Late night, she wanders nearby neighborhoods -- dressed sometimes as a dominatrix concealed by her outer coat -- to have sex with men. An honors student, she is terrified of getting caught but can not stop herself. She had her first sexual encounter with a total stranger in the front seat of his car just blocks away from her college campus. She met this man on the Internet through a personal ad directed at college girls. Mary never had sex with strange men before the Internet. Now she spends morning, noon and night surfing adult chat rooms, pornography sites and alternate lifestyle Web sites. â€Å"It all started when a friend called me up one day and told me that she was dating a man that she found off of the Internet.† Smith said. â€Å"Hours later I was hooked.† Smith placed an ad of her own on an erotic Web site. In the ad, she included her picture, physical details and sexual fantasies. She changed her name to protect her identity. â€Å"I got so many responses from guys; it freaked me out at first,† Smith said. â€Å"I went back to the sites minutes later because I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of having sex with different men.† The convenience of sexually oriented Web sites on the Internet gives the sex addict immediate access to potentially dangerous people. The seeker can become a victim of a sexually related crime. Sexual addiction is defined as any sexually-related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends and loved ones and one’s work environment. This behavior is often accompanied by other addictions such as drinking, drugs and eating disorders. The sex addict engages in sex to feel good. They became so consumed with this feeling that they soon avoid their school work and other responsibilities.

Brave new world and how it influenced my life Essay -- essays research

A Different World; A Different Person All forms of art have greatly influenced my life and have had an enormous effect on me as a person. Throughout high school, of all the great works of literature, poetry, and other types of art that have given me a feeling of joy, my senior year I discovered one piece of literature that stands out and opens my eyes to the world around me. Art, literature and music not only intrigue and inspire me, but also despite all of the thought provoking choices at hand, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, has had the greatest affect on my opinion of the world. I believe that this story is similar to what our society is becoming and has opened my outlook on the world. Aldous Huxley greatly described an innovated world in which all matters of truth and individuality are gone. The characters in this book are born into a caste system, in which they are conditioned to think and act according to which caste level they belong. Although, he did not predict that the human race would actually yield to this sad, loveless lifestyle, surprisingly they adapted rather quickly. After reading Brave New World, I was not only rudely awakened by the lifestyles of this race, but also shown what is truly important. With cloning being one of the new discoveries in today’s society, I can see how mankind could become a sea of walking machines, easily compared to those in Brave New World. From birth, the characters are told how to act, think and dress. To an extent, our soci...

Justice Served?

In Sherman Alexie’s poem, â€Å"Capital Punishment†, a part that was very interesting, yet confusing was when the narrator was being sympathetic. The narrator was very considerate of the prisoners. In the poem, Alexie makes the narrator be a cook at a jail that had the death row. Perhaps Alexie made the narrator be a cook instead of someone else like a guard or a warden because the cook would not represent the law; the cook just works for the jail. Readers of the poem, â€Å"Capital Punishment†, might at irst be puzzled by the sympathy of the cook towards the minorities that get the death sentence, but a close reading of the poem helps us see that the cook is against capital punishment.Throughout the poem the narrator shows us the controversial commentary about how the cook is for capital punishment. When the cook mentions, â€Å"Those Indians are always gambling†, it makes it seem like it is an everyday thing. (14). Then the cook states, â€Å"What did t hey expect? All of the stories should have been simple. † (96 ­97). he/she is implying that it is not important that a person just died.It is a normal thing for people to died, so we should not care. A reader of this poem might assume that cook is just doing his job, but in reality, he/she does care for what they are serving to the Indian man. In the poem there are sections where the cook says, â€Å"(I am not a witness)† (5,22,41,64,79) though it is clear the cook is because he/she is the one telling the poem. The narrator periodically repeats that staza five times. The first time it is mention is after the cook mentions that he/she is to prepare the last meal for the a prisoner that is g