Ted Talk, East Vs. West

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

If we take a glance at the world we live in today, we can recognize that people are different from one another in physical and psychological ways. Since this is the case, people possess the ability to develop different ideas even if they deal with the same topic. This can be seen through the one thing that everyone in this world holds in common, which is that we are all living beings that will eventual experience death. Even though we all share the same characteristics of being alive and will eventually face death, there are many different ideas of what will happen to someone after death. The movie “Unmistaken Child”, demonstrates one idea of what the Tibetan Buddhist Monks believes happens to someone after death.

In “Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent,” Safwat Saleem, shows his passion and his courageous side when speaking in his Ted Talk, describing the main idea of there not being such a thing of normalcy, as well as arguing that individuals should be confident and accept who they are from their special qualities. Agreeing with Saleem (2016), however to also consider it has become common in today’s society to want to be normal. Therefore many people would not agree with wanting to be exactly known as quote on quote ‘normal’ but they may want to assimilate to norms because that person is or may be in a unique way socially accepted.

Humans are accountable for actions and our lives are a result of our past actions. Humans are no more important than animals. Many Hindu believe in reincarnation or the rebirth of the soul in a new body. They may see an animal as someone reincarnated from a different life. When comparing Hinduism and Christianity, they both believe in love for everyone. They both also control behavior through either the ten commandments or through the eightfold path. When contrasting the two, Hindu’s worship multiple deities and Christians worship one God. Christians live one life on earth and when they die they either go to heaven or to hell. Hindus believe that their soul is born as an animal and by living the right way, they climb the ladder to a higher class throughout many

Although these cases are common in the east and among native populations, the west also has its share of similar experiences. The Abrahamic religions that dominate the west tend not to accept reincarnation, but rather in “afterlives” where the soul goes to live eternally after leaving the body. Additionally, some religions do not have any belief in a soul or consciousness at all, concluding instead that whatever we are dies along with the physical body. Regardless, past life accounts happen even in these populations. Research done in European societies found that the essential features of these cases are very similar to the ones found in Asia, Africa, and among some Native American groups. Some of these similarities include very young age,

Two of the most central ideas in Hinduism that are very important to my cultural identity in terms of my outlook on life and other people are reincarnation and karma. I believe that there is a cycle of death and rebirth, and depending on your deeds in your current life, you will be rewarded or punished in your next life. Eventually, every Hindu’s goal is to attain “Moksha” and break the cycle of life and become one with God. My belief in karma and reincarnation affects my everyday life because when I think about my situation or other peoples’ situation, I trace everything back to actions in our previous lives. My religion is the most important part of my life, and the values that it has taught me have stuck with me through times of joy and times of distress. My relationship with God is the most important one in my life, and it is the biggest part of my cultural identity.

When it comes to choice it always seems to be a love hate relationship: we hate making them, but we can’t live without them. Anyone can all look back to a time in our lives where they wish someone could just pick for us, or times when we wish there were more to choose from. All Americans have many choices, and it is such a part of our daily lives that we don’t even realize it. Barry Schwartz and Sheena Iyengar‘s TED talks bring up interesting ideas about choice, how people deal with them and their affects. They both state that although choice is good, it can also have negative effects. Schwartz explains what most people believe and experience with choice, while Iyengar shows cultural differences in choice making. Both Schwartz and Iyengar

With a beginning of life there is an end, but the nature of death and how it is view can affect how we live. Death is understood to be that one’s biological function cease to function and the body no longer is capable of anything (Pence, 2011). The nature of death is viewed by each one of us differently and this paper is going to discuss the values and beliefs of different religions on death. This paper is going to look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto religion discussing what the nature of death virtues and values are. Finally discussing the overall understand of the nature of death within all these religions.

In some ways Hinduism is the oldest living religion since some elements of it date back thousands of years; Hinduism has no single founder, no single scripture, and no commonly agreed set of teachings despite many key figures and numerous holy books that might indicate otherwise. Hence why Hinduism is often referred to as a “way of life” and why it makes sense that the religion was informed by so many external conditions around its “birth” (BBC Religion Profile,

Evidently, all of the religions in the world have different beliefs. Beliefs are the basis of one’s behaviour. Everything an individual does, traces back to the beliefs they have about the world. Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions that originated from the same nation, India. Both religions share beliefs on different paths to enlightenment, beliefs on reincarnation, and both believe in the spiritual practices of meditation. The purpose of this paper is to further discuss these beliefs, along with their similarities.

In Martin Seligman’s TED talk, he explains the values of positive psychology’s impact on creating happier lives. In 2000, Martin Seligman created a new field of psychology called Positive Psychology. This field of positive psychology is the study of positive traits and behaviors that can contribute to a positive “happier” life. In Seligman’s TED talk, The New Positive Era of Psychology, he categorizes positive lives into three categories. The Pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life. But before he begins his speech, he explains the negative actions taken by psychology when treating people.

Hinduism and Buddhism are both eastern traditions with much to say about the human condition as well as the reason human beings exist at all. In some ways they are different while also being similar in other ways. In this essay, those differences will be discussed and the similarities examined for their message. In conclusion, we will examine what these two faiths offer to the human beings of the twenty-first century.

Hinduism and Islam are two of the world’s great religions however, they differ in many regards including their beliefs in god, their ethical beliefs and the afterlife in fact, it would be quite difficult to find to two religions more different then Islam and Hinduism. One major difference is in their belief in god, Muslims are steadfastly monotheistic where Hindus are very much polytheistic. Another key difference is their views on the afterlife Hindus believe in reincarnation, whereas Muslims believe in a heaven and a hell with the faithful going to heaven and the evil going to hell. The two religions also differ in the their ethical beliefs where Hindus follow the Law of Manu and Muslims turn to the Quran for their ethical guidance (Hopfe & Woodward, 2012). While both Islam and Hinduism advocate for a better overall person amongst it believers, they have vastly different approaches to achieve this result

The Daoism literature on human life and the end of it, suggest that Daoists are interested in, and have been on a continuous quest for immortality. Daoism, like other ancient Asian traditions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, offer a way out of cyclical human existence in a practice known as asceticism. However, the motivations and the methodology behind asceticism vary greatly in each of these Asian traditions in the East. The main focus of this paper

I have often wondered about the early days of Jesus, what he did before he met John the Baptist, got baptized, and started his new life. Many people believe he went for a long walk, a journey to the East, like the one described by Hermann Hesse in the novel with that title, A Journey To The East, which goes to the same place as the Chinese story called Journey To The West. Some says Jesus went to India and some say he went to Tibet.