Ancient Civilization Chants

The students composed these chants about ancient civilization with Ms. Redfearn-Cave. I love the variety of rhythms and words!

Enjoy the chants and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pen Pal Letters with Students from the Ura Gate School

How Did Buddha's Family Feel?

Some more great questions about Buddhism:

Sami: How do historians know that Siddhartha really existed?

Rosalie: Did Siddhartha's wife and parents disagree with him about his new religious beliefs?

Nick: According to the reading, Buddhists want to know why people suffer.  Would it be good or bad if we didn't suffer?

Charles: Is it really impossible to step in the same river twice?

Julia: Does the band Nirvana have anything to do with Buddhists' description of nirvana?

Cole: How does a Buddhist know for sure that he or she has achieved nirvana?

Initial Questions About Buddhism

We began studying Buddhism today, and the students had lots of great questions:

Amrit: Are Buddhism and Hinduism a little alike, since Siddhartha was a Hindu to start with?

Ethan: Do you think you could compare Siddhartha to Abraham, since they both grew up in a certain religion and then started a new religion?

Dawson, Leah and Lucas M.: If the major goal of Buddhism is for people to overcome their suffering, then why are so many of their beliefs focused on suffering?

Thomas: Do you think anyone has tried to be like Siddhartha and sit under a tree and meditate to learn the meaning of things? 

Jay: Why do Buddhists wear simple clothes while followers of other religions wear good clothes like the girl on the cover of the textbook?

Musical Mondays: We listened to the Buddhist chant Om Mani Padme Hum.

Judaism: Moses and the Pharaoh

The Thunderstorm of Hail and Fire

Today we watched excerpts from The Ten Commandments, the famous movie that depicts one of the most important stories from the Torah: Moses's leadership of the Jews out of slavery in Egypt.

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Several students asked for a complete list of the ten plagues that befell Egypt while Moses was demanding that the Jews be freed.

Here's the list:

1. Water turned to blood
2. Frogs
3. Lice
4. Flies
5. The plague against livestock
6. Boils
7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire
8. Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death of all firstborns

A Reliable Website About Judaism

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism

History Video #9: Israel

Gresh, Sophie and Thomas: Why is the Wailing Wall called the Wailing Wall?  What does the name mean?

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A Map of Israel:

Judaism: The Covenant Between God and Abraham

Today we discussed the Jewish belief in the covenant between God and Abraham.

According to the Torah, God told Abraham that his descendants would be the Chosen People, and that they would be as plentiful as the stars in the sky, if they followed the one true God and if they obeyed his commandments.

Here is a part of the story, from the Torah:

And God took Abraham outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." 

And He said to Abraham, "So shall your descendants be."

Several students asked whether Jews believe that they have broken the covenant with God.

The answer is yes: Jews believe that all people have broken the covenant with God, and they believe that God's messiah will eventually come to Earth in order to save believers from their wrongdoing.

Judaism: The Creation of the Universe

Today we read a portion of the creation story from the Torah, one of Judaism's sacred texts:

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 

The earth was without any form. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved upon the waters. 

God said, Let there be light: and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The students discussed aspects of the creation story that surprised them. 

 Gresh said that he was surprised that God rested on the seventh day, because this part of the story makes God seem more human than Gresh would have expected.

We also talked about the creation of fish and birds (on Day 5) prior to the creation of land animals (Day 6).

Stewart explained that other details in the story make clear that God was initially focused on the elements of water and air (rather than the earth). Therefore, said Stewart, it makes sense that God first created the creatures living in the water and air, and then moved on to create the creatures that live on the earth.

We discussed the statement that "God created man in his own image" and asked whether this means that Jews believe God looks like a human being. 

Gardiner helpfully pointed out that the phrase "in his own image" might mean that God thinks like a human being, rather than looks like a human being.

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Musical Mondays: Today, we listened to traditional Indian music.

Pilgrimage

Today we discussed the idea of a pilgrimage: a religious journey to a sacred place.

Several students pointed out that a pilgrimage is a physical way for religious believers to experience the long, difficult, spiritual struggle of religious belief.

In Hinduism, many believers take a pilgrimage to the Ganges River.  Hindus believe that the water in the Ganges helps to cleanse a person's spirit. The pilgrims bathe in the river, and they also put the ashes of the deceased into the river.

Samantha and Natalie: Why is the Ganges River so sacred to Hindus?  What about the other rivers in India -- couldn't they be sacred, too?

This is a fantastic question.  My understanding is that the Ganges River was especially important in the birth of Indian civilization (similar to the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Yellow Rivers in each of their civilizations).

The fertile soil along the Ganges enabled the early Indians to grow crops and develop cities.

Ever since those prehistoric times, Hindus have viewed the Ganges as a life-sustaining force, and they have associated it closely with their religious beliefs.

Maeve: I think the Ganges is a kind of physical symbol of Brahman. Once you are in the water, you are surrounded by life (the other pilgrims) and death (the ashes of the people who have died).  The water is everywhere, kind of like Brahman is everywhere.  It contains everything.

This is a fantastic analogy, Maeve! It helps me better understand the idea of Brahman.

An update about Shiva

Yesterday I mentioned that I was curious about the man that Shiva stands atop, in many Hindu pictures and sculptures.  

I wondered whether this man was supposed to represent someone or something.

Riley and Samantha did some independent research and have come up with an answer. Here is Riley's helpful e-mail: 

Dear Mr. Richmond, 

I recently figured out who the god Shiva is standing on top of in those pictures. I went to a website on Hinduism and found out that Shiva is standing on top of a dwarf named Apasmara who symbolizes ignorance. That is all I have found out about Shiva. I hope that answered your question! 

From, 

Riley

Thanks so much Riley and Samantha for helping us all to understand a bit more about the Hindu gods and goddesses!

History Video #8: Yoga

Hinduism: What is Brahman?

Today we talked the Hindu concept of Brahman.

Brahman is frequently described as the "universal soul" or an all-encompassing force in which we all live.

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It can be difficult for people not raised within the Hindu tradition to understand the idea of Brahman, because many non-Hindus are more familiar with the idea of "God" or "gods." Brahman is not the equivalent of God.

Hindus do, however, believe that there are many (thousands!) of gods and goddesses within Brahman.

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Three of the primary Hindu gods are Brahma the Creator (try not to get confused between Brahman and Brahma; it can be tricky, since the two words are so similar to each other), Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer.

The students had a lively discussion about Brahman and other Hindu beliefs, focusing on these questions:

Ryan: If Hindus believe in thousands of gods and goddesses, how does each Hindu choose the specific god or goddess that he or she will worship? (Gardiner asked a great variation on this question: If you believed in Hinduism, which god or goddess would you choose to worship?)

Halle and Lucas: Why do you think many of the Hindu gods and goddess have something that humans don’t have (for example: four heads, four arms, blue skin, etc.)?

Monotheism and Polytheism

What does a monocle have to do with studying religion?!

Today we talked about the differences between monotheism and polytheism.

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Theism is the belief in the existence of god or gods. There is more than one type of theism:

• Monotheism is the specific belief in one god.
• Polytheism is the specific belief in many gods.

Some religions are monotheistic, whereas other religions are polytheistic.

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We talked about the prefixes "mono" (one) and "poly" (many), and we discussed other words that can help us remember the definitions of monotheism and polytheism:

• Monocle (a single eyeglass)
• Monopoly (a single person or business that controls an entire industry)
• Monotonous (a single toned style of speech (often considered boring))
• Monopod (a single-legged support for a camera (thanks very much to Cole for introducing this word to all of us!)


• Polygon (a many-sided shape)
• Polyglot (a person who speaks more than one language)

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Several students pointed out that the civilizations that we have studied so far (in particular, Egypt and Greece) had polytheistic belief systems. We haven't yet studied a civilization with a monotheistic religion.