Page-Botelho,+KylaD+2012

Unit II The Philosophical Foundations of North East Asia

 * __Assignment 1 for Unit II__ **

My Religious Identity as an Atheist

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Confucius in Everyday Life
 * __Assignment 2 for Unit II__ **

Link: Scene from The Joy Luck Club http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSoKfVen-9M

__**Assignment 3 for Unit II**__ The Tao of Pooh

Forward, The How of Pooh, The Tao of Who?

__**Assignment 4 for Unit II**__ Buddhist Schools

Tibetan Buddhism

__**Assignment 5 (Final Assignment) for Unit II**__ Religions and Philosophies in East Asia

Subject: Yuxiang R. Wang, from China Format: Email

**How would you define yourself in terms of religion? As in do you have any specific religion, or would you say that one specific religion or philosophy dictates how you live your life? ** I don’t really have a clear cut religion, however I believe in parts of different religions, for example I believe there is a God, so I try to live a live free of sin and try to help wherever I can. However I also believe there are spirits and therefore Karma.

**If you don’t have a religion, what morals and principals do you try to live by? Which is the most important? ** The most important moral for me is that of Karma, where I believe that whatever I do there will be a counter force, the idea of //“Cause and effect”.//

**According to Buddhism, life is suffering and suffering is caused by craving. Do you agree with this belief or not, and why? ** That depends on how you define “suffering”. I think of suffering as you as a person being at mercy of something you are unwilling or do not want. I believe in life there will always be suffering, but it cannot be defined by suffering. In life there are too many good things that you appreciate and come to love it’s impossible for life to be defined by suffering.

**In your opinion, is a social hierarchy beneficial or detrimental to society, and if one exists, how should it be? ** I believe social hierarchy is very important, there always has to be superiority in a race, this is actually a good point, because I believe that survival of the fittest is also a very important factor in life, due to the balance it creates in an eco-system and ultimately our world, for example trees in a forest, there will always be trees that die off because they are not tall enough, not strong enough to withstand wind, and when they fall they create space and more sunlight for more plants to grow and for the ground around them to become more fertile.

**Do you believe that law should come before all else, or things like family and loyalty? ** I believe that Law has to be withheld but rules are made to be broken, maybe that’s just me being young but that’s what I believe at the moment, although not all rules should be broken, it is also not essential to follow every single rule, most of the time I believe that family and loyalty should come first.

**What is your opinion on respecting your elders, and how far does this go? In school for example, do you have more respect for your elder peers due to your own upbringing, or not? ** I think because of my upbringing I always have more respect for my elder’s unless they do something completely ridiculous and lose my respect. Elders’ have walked this earth older than me or my peers, so they should have more knowledge and experience therefore just on those things they should be respected.

**Do you believe in God, or are you agnostic, or are you in total disbelief of any higher power? What about heaven and hell? Or possibly reincarnation and Samsara? ** I believe in God and also reincarnation I’m not too sure what Samsara is. I believe that we are all subjects of God’s will and that he and fate is one. I also believe that everything we do will have a counter, and because of that alone I believe to live a righteous life. Plus I like having a guiding principle in one’s life so whenever I encounter a problem I have somewhere to turn to to look for guidance.

**Do you believe in qi, the idea of no good or bad and that everything is balanced? Why or why not? ** Yes I believe that everything in life SHOULD be balanced but it is not, therefore we will always have moment where everything is great and moments when everything feels like it’s going down the drain.

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How does nature influence your life? Do you think that everything will balance itself naturally if not tampered with? Please explain. ** I believe nature is something we can try to be in touch with but never completely anymore, because of what we have been exposed to already. We already can’t leave our citadels that are our houses, or electricity which runs everything we are part of now, or even in my case glasses because of my semi poor eyesight. So I believe we can always try our best to right everything we do, but still it is impossible to be completely natural and still be regarded as a sane human being, however that goes back to what other people judges you which is not right as they do not have the authority…

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Do you do any sports? If so are they relaxing? Would you say that your sport(s) bring you closer to nature? **Yes I play many sports, I also love tramping, because tramping you are walking within nature, like an animal would, however we have all these high tech equipment’s with us, compasses maps, torches purification tablets, it’s quite ridiculous to see what we have come to as humans, afraid of this afraid of that. It’s true that playing a sport brings us back to nature, but it also depends what kind of sport you are playing.

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If there were one right way for people to live their life, how would you describe it? ** From my belief’s I believe that everyone really has their own choice on how life should be lived, however I believe that trying to be as natural and caring as you can and living a life that will not hurt or disfigure others is how life should be lived.