Groundhog Day Religion

Before we began our meditation, I informed the Buddhist teacher that I was there for a religious studies course assignment. He then gave me a quick review on Buddhism and Buddhist practices. He explained to me that Buddhist don’t find Buddhism to be a religion because they do

The primary theme throughout the essay is the cycle of suffering, its mystery and universality in

The 1993 movie Groundhog Day directed by Harold Ramis portrays the journey of self-centered weatherman Phil Connors who becomes trapped in a time loop and must repeatedly relive the same day. Connors’ ordeal highlights the Buddhist principle that life is dominated by hardship. However, Phil’s distressing experiences enable him to change his ways and become naturally happy. Phil’s transformation illustrates the Buddhist concept that suffering is actually an avenue to the bliss of nirvana . While in the beginning of Groundhog Day Phil focuses on fulfilling his selfish desires, he cannot achieve happiness until he stops pursuing his wants and improves as a person, which allows him to reach a state of enlightenment.

In the movie “Groundhog Day,” the main character Phil faces the nightmare of waking up on the same day at the same time. In the beginning, this causes Groundhog Day to have the same events over and over again. However, after living each day the same way, Phil decides to change the events of the day in both good and bad ways. Through these changes he finally learns how to achieve his biggest goal: winning over Rita.

Noble-8-Fold path is moral that focuses the mind on being fully aware of our thoughts and

“As we learn in the story, being mired in the ‘eternal present’ carries with it dangerous and devastating consequences” (Theriot 59).

After conducting my research on the daily practices of Buddhism, my mind kept going back to one of the first articles discussed in the class. In the article it briefly discusses how Buddhism, even though commonly viewed as a lifestyle, can be viewed as a religion by his criteria. Jane considers the core principles of Buddhism such as being kind to your neighbor, loving one another, genuineness, and inner peace that she deems more important than all other actions that could be done in her life; This idea gives her reason to act the way she does each and every single day.

The first truth is that life involves suffering such as having pain, getting old, and death. It can also describe painful emotions such as loneliness, and anger (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and hatred (Basic Buddhism, 1993). Instead of being disappointed when others don’t meet our expectations, Buddhism teaches us to be content and happy with what we do have (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The third truth describes giving up useless things in our lives in order to achieve true happiness (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The fourth and final truth is that the Noble Eightfold Path is the one true path that leads to ending suffering (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The Noble Eightfold Path is a Buddhist concept of focusing on the mindfulness and intentions of our thoughts and actions (Basic Buddhism,

Director and producer Harold Ramis filmed the infamous movie, Groundhog Day, a film based on an arrogant weatherman named Phil that detests Punxsutawney where groundhogs day is held but must relive this day for what feels like an eternity. Viewing this movie from a philosophical standpoint, the viewer can relate Phil to Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism. Phil is similar to Buddha because he experiences the three marks of reality, and the four noble truths. Using a philosophical view the audience can see how in order not dwell on the past or dream of the future and individual must concentrate on the present.

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Though Buddhism is commonly labeled as a religion, it fits the definition of a philosophy rather than a religion.

From my understanding, religion is the worshiping and believes in a supernatural being with powers, this supernatural being is known as a God. Religion is also said to be a compilation of a cultural structure of practices, worldviews, ethics, etc. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs, according to Dictionary.com. Some of the ways that I think Buddhism might problematize the understanding of what religion means such as their practices, afterlife, rewards, and punishments, etc. Furthermore,

The Eightfold path is the treatment to cure all desires of the heart. Briefly, they are having the right attitudes towards life, in a Buddhist way. It consists of having the Right Knowledge, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Behaviour, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Absorption. It is taught that Buddhism "is a way of living, not merely the theory of life, the treading of this Path is essential to self-deliverance" .

is catagorized as a philosophy, but is still regarded it as a religion. "The name Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the largest religions in the world that started in India. Later spreading to China,Burma,Japan , Tibet and other parts of southeast Asia. Buddhism is a religion that