Andy Kim

Christmas Caroling: The Birth of Christ, Christmas, and Old Memories

During this winter, I was able to visit back to China, where I used to live before I came to Korea, and meet up with my old friends and spend some time with them just like old times. I was there for quite less than a week, but during that time, I was able to manage to squeeze in some time to experience Christmas caroling. I went to a Christian youth organization that was being hosted by my old school. Every year when Christmas approaches, my school always hosted a small Christian concert that was organized by my music teacher. I was able to participate to the choir group because the choir was singing the same song that we have sang in last year’s Christmas concert. One of the songs that we have sang was ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ written by Philip Brooks, who was an Episcopal priest and a Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia.

The Christmas carol ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ mentions the importance of the town of Bethlehem in relation to the birth of Christ. The carol takes us back to the night of Chris’s birth in Bethlehem to impress upon us the importance of that event. The carol has a very calm tone and mood throughout, which represents and illustrates the peace of the world coming from Christ’s birth and peace to us all.

O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark street shined The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight

Phillip Brooks wrote as if he were present at the time when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, which he tries to attribute the Bible event in Matt. 2.1  The song mentions that Christ’s birth happened at night because it is generally assumed that way so then the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth.

For Christ is born of Mary, And, gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, And peace to men on earth.

The carol continues with the events surrounding Christ’s birth and portrays that it was the angels who proclaimed the holy birth and sang praises to God.

I didn’t have much time to prepare for this performance, however I had the advantages of performing the same piece last year, so it wasn't necessary a challenge for me to do this this year again. The only difficult time I had to struggle was working with many underclassmen choir groups, and they were not able to portray a strong performance as we did last year. However, it was a fun experience to sing the birth of Christ and the town of Bethlehem during a Christian youth organization, and it was great to see many faces that I have missed while I was living in Korea. 

The choir group

Shema, God is Everywhere

Shema:

God is everywhere. God is everywhere to help each and every individual because God belongs in our hearts. I believe that there is more than one God and each and every individual has their own God that supports them. That is why every individual is different than others, and each and every individual have a different pathway of life they chose to live through God’s acceptance. Some people may not worship their Gods and some may do. My God means a lot to me, and has been supporting me ever since. I talk to my God for help and forgiveness, thankfulness and felicitous, and when I am in fear and alone, my God is in my heart to hinder such loneliness. God is not a person; it is a spirit that dwells in our hearts.

Personal Experience: 

I had to live by my self in a one-room for the first 1 month in school because our family was still moving our furniture in China. My Mother was in the states helping my brother enroll in his university and my father was in China still moving and finishing up his business in China. I had to stay in Korea because school started, which left me live alone here in Korea and live my life without any support. During times, I felt very lonely because this was my first time living alone and had no friends because I just moved to Seoul Foreign School. I had a hard time adjusting everything, but I was able to support myself from the strength God has given me in my heart. I was able to overcome the struggles and difficulties by God being on my side. 

Meditation Reflection

"The Flowering of Love is Meditation"

            On our previous Modern Religion class, the whole class experienced a Buddhist meditation exercise. We were able to experience this meditation using the eight important steps; right views, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. We were able to conduct each meditation step in different locations around our school. The first step was held in the classroom, and then as we go up each step, we were able to meditate in a wider setting such as the field and the roads. After I was taking the meditation experience, I was able to engage through the activity since we went through the general knowledge about Buddhism in class.

            I have to say, meditation was quite difficult for me to formally engage upon because of my conscious active thoughts and the lack of stillness. I had so much trouble on erasing my thoughts and thinking of nothing because once I try to erase all my thoughts during the meditation, I kept on thinking about other stuff without even noticing. It was hard for me to focus on the stillness of mind and reinforcing my self-awareness through meditation because this was my very first time experiencing it. A lot of the locations that we had meditation led me to encounter distraction. For example, the soccer field seemed to distract me a lot because of the people playing soccer and the loudness surrounding me. Nevertheless, out of all the problems and struggles I had during this activity, I was able calm my mental thoughts in some occasions that I was not bothered. If we had the chance of doing this activity again, I would really be engaged and try my hardest to do the meditation properly.

            The Buddhist temple was very interesting for me to visit because I was really interested of visiting a Buddhist temple near our school. I have been in a temple before, back when I used to live in China, I have to a lot of different Buddhist temples in China, which some of them are the most well-known temples located in Hong Kong, Sichuan, GuangDong, and Yunnan. After visiting the Bongwonsa temple that day, it made me think about the other temples that I have visited. For example, when I saw the 3000 buddhist sculpture all lined up together, it made me think of the Guangxiao Temple in GuangZhou, which in similar, the Buddhists were gathered around to practice the ritual to the Buddha for enlightenment of peace to come in humanity. It was very surprising how different nations and country can worship the same rituals and Religion, which could possibly enlighten the world to peace. I would love to visit the temple again to retain more thoughts.  

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind” – Gandhi

Revenge, the action of inflicting hurt or harm someone for a wrong suffered at their hands, an eye for an eye references that you have the authority to do such action to another person. However, Gandhi states that an eye for an eye for an eye for an eye will eventually end up making the whole world blind. I truly understand and support what Gandhi states that revenge is never the solution of satisfaction. If you take revenge and harm the ones that harmed you, you will eventually end up hurting the people around and everyone that is involved in the situation. To approach revenge and of disposing justice by trying to cause equal harm to anyone seen to be the cause of the harm references ‘an eye for an eye’, but then not only the people that caused the harm, but the people you love and support will also be involved in which be retaliated with harm done by the person you harmed. In the movie, Gandhi tends to resist the fact that revenge will achieve satisfaction, and tries to not respond to any harm that he has encountered. He implements the movement of taking no action against the British when they use violence towards the Indians. Many people tend to follow what Gandhi initiated and took no action against the British. While I was watching the film, I questioned myself ‘would this really process peace and hinder the act from the British’ and truly it had a role on making India as an independent country. Relating this problem to the real world, Israel and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has always encountered this endless cycle of revenge and vengeance.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end they always fall.”

Love is the most powerful element that can bring peace together. Gandhi seems to know that well. However many people still seem to not get that concept. As I mentioned before, revenge and violence seems to be the first thing the Nature of Man tends to believe that will rise them to win. History has always been using violence, death, revenge and vengeance to win upon others to gain higher priority. Gandhi tries to tell us that that is the way to lead yourself to fall, and only love and trust can bring yourself to rise.

YOGA EXPERIENCE

On September 26^th Modern Religion Experience class, we had a special guest that would teach us the basic movement of yoga. The instructor’s name is Mr. Harsh, he is from India and travelled to Korea and teach yoga here. He was able to take his time to visit our school and teach us some yoga. We were able to experience some yoga all together and get to know more about the concept of Yoga relating to Hinduism. I have personally never really done yoga before, therefore I already knew that yoga class would definitely be a huge challenge for me. The yoga session we had during class was quite short, however I felt that time went really fast as we were doing yoga exercises. At first, I was having difficulties moving stretch motions and using my flexibility, but later on, as I warm my body up, I felt relaxed and calm. This is because my muscles were all loosened up which made me feel calm as well. This is how yoga not only works your body to be flexible, but also helps to cure your mentality to be calm and peaceful.

I have never really thought in depth about Yoga and relating it as a ritual to the concept of Hinduism. I was able to learn more about the interpretation of yoga after taking this session. Yoga is able to bring an individual’s body and soul to rest, which I have felt especially when we were doing the resting position in our session. I was able to relax my self and bring discipline to the body. This is where I was able to relate yoga and nirvana, where yoga is a great way to maintain focus and peace to our lives through such movements that is able to relax both our body and soul. Yoga was never my thing to do, but after this day on and knowing the purpose of yoga, it has truly sparked my interest to do it again.

Had the Mayans predicted it?

The conclusion of the world we live in

As the End awaits,

We question each other if its true or not.

The phenomenon awaits,

Shall Man will answer the mystery of the afterlife,

Or shall Man live by the hoax?

Of the calendar by the Mayans

Only Time shall seek the answer

As humanity can only wait

For the conclusion of this earth,

2012-12-21

The calendar by the Mayans.