If you can. If you do not have one, we will have access to a computer lab perhaps, and we can share other people's laptops. From shamanism through the ancient and axial age religions through the modern scientific atheism of KArl Marx, sharing is a value!
Again, see my earlier announcement, but my discussion with Zach in class made me realize that a large and ignored mostly, part of Buddha's life was that of exactly a Jesus, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Martin Luther King type guy. That would be a fantastic project for a group even to work on! Each person takes an element in the life of one of the above guys and finds a counterpoint - or not - in the life of theBuddha.
No kidding, anti-slavery, anti-caste, pro-women's education, super environmentalist, allowed gays and lesbians right on in to his gang.
No wonder he was super popular! If you listen to the Dalai Lama, you'd think he was just a compassionate, mild guy. LEt's all think before class about this issue of "color" - varna - and "code" or gradation or stage - ashrama and what that system was in the Buddha's day. I don't really know, so if this project interests you let me know and we will sort it out Thursday. Remember: slavery is universal. Chinese had Mongol slaves and vice-versa, Greeks had Slavic Slaves...none of this is necessarily based on complexion, but in some cases it has obviously been, right in our midst in the US and South Africa and the entire British Empire.
so the implication is that if those who taught me are right, the British and Aryan conquests shared that complexion-based social distinctions, even though by the pale British standards, the Aryans would've been deemed on a level with people having Mediterranean- like complexions themselves! However, perhaps peaceful trade accounts for the language similarities...but I personally doubt it, even having lost my Beaker People culture to those churls!
Further, my advisor Dr. Yamada informed me that Japanese journals reported the Buddha to 5 feet tall and Africanoid, based on the excavations in Nepal. If anyone would like to tackle the Buddha's tribal origins back in his day, what family of language he spoke, maybe such data is available in more than Japanese journals in print these days.
So let's dig into that issue as class progresses and get everyone's input. jp
Again, see my earlier announcement, but my discussion with Zach in class made me realize that a large and ignored mostly, part of Buddha's life was that of exactly a Jesus, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Martin Luther King type guy. That would be a fantastic project for a group even to work on! Each person takes an element in the life of one of the above guys and finds a counterpoint - or not - in the life of theBuddha.
No kidding, anti-slavery, anti-caste, pro-women's education, super environmentalist, allowed gays and lesbians right on in to his gang.
No wonder he was super popular! If you listen to the Dalai Lama, you'd think he was just a compassionate, mild guy. LEt's all think before class about this issue of "color" - varna - and "code" or gradation or stage - ashrama and what that system was in the Buddha's day. I don't really know, so if this project interests you let me know and we will sort it out Thursday. Remember: slavery is universal. Chinese had Mongol slaves and vice-versa, Greeks had Slavic Slaves...none of this is necessarily based on complexion, but in some cases it has obviously been, right in our midst in the US and South Africa and the entire British Empire.
so the implication is that if those who taught me are right, the British and Aryan conquests shared that complexion-based social distinctions, even though by the pale British standards, the Aryans would've been deemed on a level with people having Mediterranean- like complexions themselves! However, perhaps peaceful trade accounts for the language similarities...but I personally doubt it, even having lost my Beaker People culture to those churls!
Further, my advisor Dr. Yamada informed me that Japanese journals reported the Buddha to 5 feet tall and Africanoid, based on the excavations in Nepal. If anyone would like to tackle the Buddha's tribal origins back in his day, what family of language he spoke, maybe such data is available in more than Japanese journals in print these days.
So let's dig into that issue as class progresses and get everyone's input. jp
