Buddha In The Attic Sparknotes

“We gave birth alone, in an apple orchard in Sebastopol, after searching for firewood one usually warm Autumn morning high up in the hills. I cut her navel string with my knife and carried her home in my arms” (Otsuka 55). This is one example of how hard-working and dedicated to their new lives in America the Japanese women were in Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. They always powered through to the next thing that needed to be done, no matter what or how they felt. Gaman is a Zen Buddhist term from Japanese meaning “to endure with fortitude patience and tolerance”, which is exactly how those women lived their lives. Different cultural values explain why the Japanese women in the novel have different attitudes and behaviors compared to American

The film “The Linguists” follows linguists Gregory Anderson and David Harrison on their journey to learn about and document endangered languages in Bolivia, India, Arizona, and Siberia. Through their quest, they are able to interact with some of the few remaining speakers of languages that are near death and they manage to make an impact on how these communities view their heritage language. Focusing on the moribund languages of Siberia and Arizona, it becomes evident that speakers of the heritage language feel a love for the language and the culture it represents, but went through periods of oppression and embarrassment for being speakers of a minority language that ultimately shaped their attitudes on the language.

When one comes to a new country, especially one where they have never lived before, it is common for them to feel out of sorts. This feeling can be enhanced by the immense amount of culture shock, and the downplay of one’s culture in the new place. Additionally, it can also lead to feelings of withdrawal from society and its counterparts. The Japanese women, from the boat, in the novel The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka feel displaced when they first come to America for their new lives. This leads to them clinging to what their life back home was like, full of the culture and faith they were used to. Consequently, this feeling of being lost from their culture leads to it being harder for the Japanese women to adapt and integrate into American culture. This, in return, produces a never-ending cycle of the Japanese being pushed out of society and then being questioned as to why they have not tried to assimilate into American society. Therefore, in the novel, the warnings portrayed for immigrants, people of different ethnicities, and

What is Buddhism? According to the Oxford Dictionary religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” But Buddhism does not believe in a creator god , rather Buddhism is a religion that follows different philosophies to attain the ability to awake from this world and attain enlightenment. In society, Buddhism is respected throughout the world as a religion known for its peaceful and kind nature. In the western side of the world many of the individuals are unfamiliar with the Buddhist philosophies. To further justify the belief of Buddhism to its audience of the year 1993, Bernardo Bertolucci uses material from Buddhism doctrine. The film The Little Buddha by Bernardo Bertolucci portrays an adventure of Lama Norbu (Ruocheng Ying) trying to find the reincarnation of their late teacher Lama Dorja, as they teach the set of Jessie (Alex Wiesendanger), Raju (Raju Lal) and Gita (Greishma Makar Singh) about the belief of Buddhism through The Story of Siddhartha in which Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves). At first Jesse's dad, Dean (Chris Isaak), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda), are questionable of Buddhist philosophies, however following his business accomplice's suicide, a changed Dean yields and enables Jessie to go to Bhutan. As Jessie goes to Bhutan finds alternate candidates for the reincarnation of Lama Dorja and they all turn out to be great companions as they take in the importance of enlightenment together. The Story of

Nonetheless, my early infatuation with languages pushed me through extensive hours of study. I endured the 28 pen strokes it took to write “lazy” in simplified Chinese and the elusive punctuation rules that could transform the Spanish word for “Pope” to “potato.” Soon, words began to take shape, bombarding me with meanings and egging me on to explore further. As I scoured Chinese newspapers for intriguing articles and sifted through Latin records for soulful lyrics, words became puzzles, eagerly waiting to be solved. The search for hidden meanings had always been an enriching process.

While examining the packet of resources, two pieces caught my attention, “Vanishing Voices” by Russ Rymer and the Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States by Frida Khalo. In “Vanishing Voices”, Russ Rhymer explains, “Parents in tribal villages often encourage their children to move away from their insular language … towards languages that will permit greater education” (Rymer 7). This demonstrates how isolated ethnic groups abandon their culture in order to pick up the global language for economic prosperity. Likewise, the bottom of the self-portrait of Frida Kahlo clearly displays how plants are converted to provide energy for modern technology. The plants represent the developing countries while the technology serves as the most-developed countries which are eliminating remote cultures, and are using those countries’ resources for their own commercial advancement. These sources interested me as I had been accustomed to an Indian culture for 7 years, before assimilating into the American culture. I understood that I must learn the English language while preserving a part of my Indian heritage. I spent my 10 years in the U.S. learning English while slowly losing grasp of my Indian language. It related to my life as both sources centered around the theme of discarding one’s native culture to help learn the new language. Lori Hale is currently the associate professor of the department of religion at Augsburg college with several

There are many different definitions and views of Buddhism and many of these views and definitions vary from each other. A quick internet search reveals all the different definitions of Buddhism and some of them may not even be correct or have a scholarly perspective. A five minute Google search reveals one definition which we will take a look at:

Flowing like water, both spoken and written language is alive and pass through all nations and ages. Though spoken language may not travel through time as agelessly as written language, each have been prevalent in some form in time. Consequently, both “Languages” by Carl Sandburg and Don Juan by Lord Bryon demonstrate that language is constantly present in any age or nation, although written language survives and is unchanging through many generations while spoken language fades and morphs as time goes by. “Languages” and Don Juan initially connect languages to all eras and nations through metaphors and water imagery. Sandburg introduces the concept that words are lively and constantly present when stating, “There are no handles upon a language” (Sandburg 1).

In the other article, “The From Poets in the Kitchen” was written by Paule Marshall. She talked about her childhood experience with a bunch of black women workers. Marshall was a West Indian girl who was born in New York, and she growed up in a working class family. When Marshall was a kid, her mother usually chatted with her workers in the kitchen after work. Since they all spoke dialectal English in the kitchen, the kitchen became a place that helped Marshall to build up the language and make a process to become a successful writer in her life. These two articles had the similar way to show language could influence a person’s behavior and characteristic. As Czesław Miłosz mentioned that “Language is the only homeland.” Language can be a bridge to communicate with each other, but when we did not know how to express ourselves by using other language, we would feel helpless and embraced.

The Buddha cures fatal maladies by means of great compassion; thus he is named "Medicine Master." He manifests his perfect and brilliant body based on his great wisdom; accordingly he gains the title "Lapis Lazuli." The Buddha's impartial attitude is certainly unaffected by anything. Only if one is earnest and devout, one may move the Buddha and interconnect with him. Lady Lu from Fanyang County who is the wife of Nobleman Fan, the Grand Master of Remonstrance and the Regional Inspector at Huzhou, is the person capable of doing this. Since she is pregnant, she has been keeping the Buddha’s generosity in mind. Firstly, [her husband] has the fortune to receive a higher official position. Thereafter she gives birth to a son. Thus she commissions

Little Buddha, is a movie created in 1993 and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It is very important to mention how the movie Little Buddha is one that is empowering and a very entertaining movie. It is a story about a boy’s path to self-discovery, a Lama’s search for his loved teacher, and the rich Prince Siddhartha and his journey to enlightenment. Films as such are hard to find because not only are they filled with moments of joy by uplifting the spirits of people, but it allows people to think about life and death that many tend to forget, about the happiness and pressures that humans face, that are explained through the concepts of impermanence and reincarnation. This movie also touches upon the main concepts of Buddhism which are the 4 noble truths which ultimately leads to the path of enlightenment.

For example, in Chapter 2: the Buddha Silence, I will focus on SN 44.10, MN 72 as main, while referencing other discourses (samyuta nikaya, SN44.1 to SN44.11) that discusses the same issues to see what the Buddha or his disciples have said regarding this matters. In addition, I will look to scholars works that examines this topic to see their views. Thus, piecing all information gathered to see the main goal of the

Stuck in her own interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the idea that “human nature (nearly) the same” worldwide, and American Anthropologist, Laura Bohannan, set off for the Tiv in West Africa (Bohannan 1). Bohannan’s original intent was to learn about the African tribe’s culture and ceremonies, but one morning, when she was sitting with the elders of the tribe, they asked Bohannan to tell them the story of Hamlet, for they have told her many of their stories and found it only fair. In an attempt to translate the play into the Tiv’s language and finding the lack of appropriate words, as well as cultural differences between ideas many Europeans and Americans both agree upon, Bohannan quickly realized her original theory was incorrect. Ultimately, human nature is not “universally intelligible,” for culture shapes the way we think and our language gives us the tools to express those thoughts (Bohannan 1).

After the Buddha’s Enlightenment, he sought out his disciples to share his recently attained knowledge, mainly of the Dharma. The Dharma is a collection of teachings and doctrines which the Buddha realized while under the Bodhi tree, one of these including the Four Arya Realities (eBook 43). These realities comprise of the assertions that life is suffering, suffering is caused by craving, suffering can have an end, and there is a path which leads to the end of suffering.

There are those who have a difficult time expressing themselves with words. It is as though there is a communication barrier between people even if they are speaking the same language. The struggle for successful communication can be even harder if different languages are spoken. Even if there are no words spoken, communication between two people still occurs. Yiyun Li’s short story “A Thousand Years of Good Prayer” offers an excellent study in communication. This study includes examples of communication barriers and the successful aspects of communication revealing the ultimate theme: communication does not need to be verbalized to have a relationship