Emma Sheldrick

Silent night

Lyrics were written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr (originally in german). Translated into English by John Freeman Young.

It’s a song celebrating the night that Jesus Christ was born. It describes how the night was peaceful and everything was right at that one moment. It also describes the angels coming down from the heavens to tell the shepherds of his birth and their fright.

⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Jesus is potrayed as a baby: “Holy infant so tender and mild”, “Christ, the savior”, “Love’s pure light”

He’s called: Christ, Jesus, Saviour, Son of God, Lord

He brings the people a savior, redeeming grace, heavenly peace

My Shema

1.     -It stays the same but our understanding of it is constantly changing

-       Respects the brilliance of the universe and the abilities and potential of living things and the complexity of everything

-       Accepts that everything just exists

2.     The better understanding of science and its explanations and everything just exists than that of religion or a higher power.

3.     Thinking about everything around me and learning more about it

The Universe is all around. You shall always remember the complexity of the universe and in it and respect its potential. You shall spend your life educating yourself about the Universe and inspire your children to do so too. You shall do everything in your power to preserve our Earth and our world so that it will always be healthy and so that we will always be in awe of it.

Buddhism Reflection

During our topic on Buddhism we spent a class meditating in class and in various locations around the school. I found that these exercise not only helped me compose my thoughts which were all over place, but the breathing exercises calmed me down and allowed me to focus my mind on the meditation mantras.

            Step one of the meditation was Right View where we were concentrating on our blessings. My biggest blessings that I my mind kept going back to were the fact that I have an education, a home and food. Step 3 was Right Speech.  The thought that I had that stood out to me the most was the thought of how lucky I am to be in an environment where I have the chance to express myself so I shouldn’t exploit that.  My thought for Right Livelihood was that everything we do harms something somehow. But I thought that rather than living like a hermit, than we should consider whether the things we do is worthwhile even if we are harming something.

Those steps are the ones that really stood out to me, but other things that I noticed is that my thoughts became more and more focused instead of thinking of multiple things at once. I also found myself being better at ignoring the distractions around me. I also had my own little “enlightenment” when I found a solution to a personally problem that I was having at that time.

            Even though I am very atheist, while I was at the Buddhist temple I found it very beautiful and I was aware of the spirituality of the area and the people there. The walk there and back I was walking in silence pretty much the whole way and I felt (just like while meditating) really peaceful and felt like I had no thoughts. I also started to really appreciate the nature around me and concentrated on nothing but the nature around me.

Reflection 2 - Hinduism in Action

Gandhi

 “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”

This quote is one of my favourite quotes by Gandhi. This quote was most relevant in the scene where the Indian government officials are gathered with the public and are having speeches. The people of the government were offering things to the public that the Indian people aren’t interested in, but once Gandhi starts speaking about trying to get the British to leave India for the good all the people, he gets a huge amount of support from everyone. He also says that the government officials can’t make choices for the people without understanding the people. This showed that Gandhi really understood the needs of the public all over India and doesn’t really support the caste system (since he talks about needing to understand the lives of all the farmers and workers in India). His promise to travel around India, for the purpose of understanding the people, was popular with the audience of the meeting and the government officials of India; giving him a huge amount of support from his countrymen.

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

This quote really emphasizes Gandhi’s disapproval when it comes to violence. The saying ‘an eye for an eye’ means that if someone harms you or your family, you have the right to do the same back to them. Gandhi uses the literal meaning of the saying to create another metaphor that contradicts the other. His big point throughout the whole of the movie is that if the British fight you, you must not fight back. He tries to get across that if both sides just keep fighting each other, nothing will ever be accomplished and all it will result in is loss of lives. This also shows the violence and cruelty of the British in scenes like the Amritsar massacre where the military killed a thousand people during a gathering of thousands of Indian women, children and men who didn’t fight back because of Gandhi’s point of no violence. Gandhi’s rule of no violence reflects how devout of an Hindu he is, and also how much he respects all living things.

Yoga

I was kinda scared of going into the blackbox to do yoga at first. I though it would be one of those intense workout sorts of yoga. But it turned out to be really pleasant and really refreshing. I found it to be extremely useful for me because I had been stressing out a lot lately over school and over back pains and so on, but the short session of yoga that we had gave me a chance to wind down and not think about anything. It really made me understand why Hindus do yoga for religious purposes. It was very meditative and allowed me to breath and really clear my thoughts. The reason why people practice yoga, according to our instructor, was that through being able to control your breathing and body, you can control your mind. I found this to be very much true. I was able to focus really well on the activities and found myself to focus really well in my class after our yoga session.

Reflection 1

The See-through Mask

Carving in to the see-through rock

The mask of death to save our life

To please the Gods above us.

Give us strength to brave the mountains,

The sun and give us rain.

Let the Gods heal our ill,

Our old and feed our hungry.

Let our crops grow and thrive,

And let our animals grow strong.

Let our new lives in with safety

To grow and help us all.

And once our time has finally come

Let us be forever in harmony.