Daniel Kwon

On December 23rd a few friends and I decided to go christmas caroling to Onnuri Church. We sang several christmas songs including jingle bells, mistletoe, and rudolf the red nose reindeer. During our caroling session we noticed that the people in Korea arent as spirited as people back in America. Usually we would have a few people out of several hundred that would start singing along with us, but no one even gave us a look or even tried to sing along with us. It was quite sad to see how unspirited people were even though it was Christmas season. 

Shema:

God is always by us. God is everywhere to help and look over us. I believe that there is only one true god and that he looks after each one of us. God made each individual different so that everyone is special and that they have their own different adventures towards God. Some people will find their God in life and some people won’t. Among those people some will worship him and some won’t. Through my life I have learned that no matter how special and important something is it can never be more important than God himself. My God has always been with me leading me through the right way. I ask my God for forgiveness and thank him for the things he has done for me. God is never seen, but I know that he lives upon in our hearts and leads us through life and to himself.

TheDropa Stones

Dropas are still to exist?

They are surely not to be extinct

Descendants they have made with locals

Are sure to not be extinct

They are deep in the lands of Asia

In the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains

A series of caves there was to be seen

Where the Dropas were first to be seen

The stones are still a mystery

716 stones engraved with ancient letters

Thought to be a way of communication

Maybe they’ll come for it someday

“I know a way out of hell. Find a child with no parents and raise it. Only make sure it is a Muslim child and raise it as a Muslim.” 

India has its independence but is out of control with Muslim and Hindu killing one another in Calcutta.  His fasting finally helps end the rioting. During that fast, toward the end of the Gandhi movie, a Hindu came to him and said, “I am going to hell.” Gandhi asked him, “Why?” He said he had killed a Muslim boy. Gandhi replied, “I know a way out of hell. Find a child with no parents and raise it. Only make sure it is a Muslim child and raise it as a Muslim.” One of Ghandis most famous quotes “ Love your enemies” is well shown in this part of the movie. By telling a Hindu man who killed the child of a Muslim Ghandi is trying to change his mind by telling him to raise a muslin child to a Muslim one. By this act we can see that Ghandi is trying to bring the Hindu and Muslim together and unite them as one to create peace among them. Ghandi spent his whole life trying to create peace and even before dying he told the Hindu man to raise a Muslim child.

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

One of  Ghandis many quotes during the Muslim and Hindu conflicts. The Muslims and Hindus were in conflict seeking revenge on both each other and the Indian government which refers to the this quote.  During his act of non- violence he has his eye taken away. Now normal people would seek revenge and fight back but Ghandi focused on essentially getting an eye back. He does nothing about it for the better of the world- so that the whole world doesn’t “go blind”. Through this act Ghandi receives more support from the people and those people referred to this as saving the world by going blind.

Yoga experience

Now this was one of the most painful moments of my sophomore year. Personally I didn’t enjoy yoga because I was so bad it. When the instructor first demonstrated the yoga moves it had already been painful enough. When he finished his demonstrations I was full of concern and was worried that id make a huge crack and embarrass myself infront of the whole class. Thankfully Tobys grown covered up for it. At first I could hear my spine make huge cracks from bellow to top ,but after we got to our 3 round I was getting better and could get down more low when we did out stretches. I noticed I was getting more calm and peaceful as the yoga moves were repeated. Later on when we lay down and closed our eyes I fell asleep since I was so peaceful and calm.  Usually I would never fall asleep outside of my house, but my friends around me said that I was literally snoring. Big yoga effect I guess. 

During the meditation it took me along time for me to start getting focused because of several distractions. First off was Craig and Wonhee poking my hips constantly. Later on they stopped but I had a new problem that disturbed me while I was trying to focus. It wasn’t anyone doing anything to me but myself. My legs fell asleep and because of the strain I couldn’t focus properly. Changing poses helped concentrate and I found a method on focusing on meditation quickly. I emptied my thoughts first then closed my eyes just remembering the last glimpse of the classroom I saw.  It felt like as if I was lightheaded and floating in the air. It helped me forget about my stressful life and calmed my thoughts. I found out that I hold a lot of stress within me and when I let it out it calms me down and helps me think better.

At Bogwonsa the first place I went into was were the 3000 Buddha’s were placed. I thought they were ordinary statues but I found a room with smaller Buddha sculptures with names and dates engraved in them.  I noticed my hair was standing on the edge when I entered the room and I found it was a place where the ashes of dead people were placed . After I came out of the 3000 Buddha building I saw a small waterfall that you could drink from. It said that the water from the waterfall would clear your mind, but sadly I didn’t feel anything.  I also noticed there was a building to meditate and ask the Buddha to help them with their school life. It was quite interesting and I wanted to try it out too, but we ran out of  time so I just had a look at the other people meditate. After my visit at Bogwonsa my mind felt much clearer and but the 3000 Buddha’s kept on coming up on my mind.