Buddhism and Islam throughout the world Essay

Buddhism and Islam throughout the world Essay Buddhism and Islam throughout the world Essay Michael Ahn Fung Laoshi The Buddha: His life and Teachings 2/25/13 Short-term Paper Mahayana, meaning â€Å"Great Vehicle†, is considered itself as a more authentic version of Buddha’s teachings. Mahayana Buddhism is essentially a vision of what Buddhism is really about and contains a vast corpus of philosophical and devotional texts and Buddha’s teachings. One of the most distinctive themes in the Mahayana Buddhism is Emptiness of mind. According to the Mahayana teaching of Emptiness, sunyata, refers void or openness, symbolizing that all beings and phenomena have no intrinsic existence in themselves. From Mahayana teachings, Emptiness is the understanding that the things of the phenomenal world do not exist as separate, independent and permanent entities, but rather appear as the result of an infinite number of causes and conditions, are a product of dependent origination. From the Mahayana Buddhism, Sunyata refers to the fact that everything is dependently originated, including the causes and conditions. â€Å"All phenomena are dependent for their existence on complex networks of causes and conditions† (pg.26). For example, suppose there is a book. A Book is dependent on the printing press that printed it, and dependent for its existence on the papers and ink that constitute the book. Printing press, ink and papers are dependent to each other to create the book itself. There is no inherent book essence inhabiting the ink and papers. The material is not the book, the shape is not the book, and the function is not the book. All these combined features make up the book. In addition, Emptiness means no permanent and unchangeable existence. â€Å"All phenomena are empty of essence, but exist impermanent† (pg.26). For instance, the human body is changing every second like any phenomenon. It does not have permanent and unchangeable existence. Body can be the emptiness. From the Buddhism teachings, this is the truth of nature which is a continuous process. Beings and phenomena arise and perpetuall y cease for other new beings and phenomena. Rising and falling are the common characteristics of worldly existence. All phenomena are always in the cycle of rising and falling. Thus the truth of sunyata is the nature of each individual existence. Each step in understanding that each minor form has a nature that is not described by words is steps to the realization of sunyata. According to Buddhist teachings, when people realize that we ourselves are empty, freedom from suffering accomplished. The fourth noble path is closely related to sunyata. In fourth noble path, the third one is â€Å"the cessation of suffering is attainable.† From this path, it states that the state of Nirvana means freedom from all worries, troubles, complexes, fabrications and ideas. The state of Nirvana can be reached when the emptiness is

5 Rules for Using Logic to Order Lists

5 Rules for Using Logic to Order Lists 5 Rules for Using Logic to Order Lists 5 Rules for Using Logic to Order Lists By Mark Nichol At least five factors dictate how items in an in-line list a series of items within a paragraph, as opposed to a vertical list are organized. (See an earlier post about in-line lists.) It’s all about the context: alphabetization, chronology, complexity, interrelationship, or sequence. (Guess which context I chose for the preceding sentence.) 1. â€Å"Our shop specializes in teak, ebony, and mahogany furniture.† The store may stock more teak than ebony and more ebony than mahogany, or the order may reflect relative prices, but the sentence does not explicitly or implicitly express either idea. In such ambiguous cases, alphabetical order is an appropriate default setting: â€Å"Our shop specializes in ebony, mahogany, and teak furniture.† 2. â€Å"The major US wars of the nineteenth century were the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the War of 1812.† The presentation of information in this sentence does not justify the order in which the list items are given. If it specifically referred to the relative cost in human lives or in dollars, for example, then the sequence would follow that theme, but in the absence of an obvious context, reference to historical events should be chronological: â€Å"The major US wars of the nineteenth century were the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War.† 3. â€Å"Among his favorite musical pastimes are drumming in a world music ensemble, yodeling, and playing the harpsichord.† Again, absent a contextual framework for a list, it’s best to impose order. In this case, the somewhat amorphous descriptions don’t readily admit an alphabetical scheme, so perhaps, for euphony, the items should be arranged from simplest to most complex in terms of syllabication: â€Å"Among his favorite musical pastimes are yodeling, playing the harpsichord, and drumming in a world music ensemble.† 4. â€Å"It is allowed in some countries, forbidden in a few, and tolerated in others.† This list describes three degrees of tolerance for a certain policy, so the items should be listed in an ascending or descending order: â€Å"It is allowed in some countries, tolerated in others, and forbidden in a few.† 5. â€Å"Take a look at the map, and you will see that Scandinavia consists of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden.† Without the reference to the map, this sentence could be organized by any one of several schemes, including alphabetical order, geographical location, and relative size. But because speakers of English generally read left to right, and maps are usually oriented to the north, a west-to-east organizational scheme seems most appropriate: â€Å"Take a look at the map, and you will see that Scandinavia consists of Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.† (OK, Denmark’s westernmost point is slightly to the east of Norway’s, but would you separate the twins Norway and Sweden?) These contexts are not always mutually exclusive: In a sentence like â€Å"The Olympic medals are gold, silver, and bronze,† the scheme could be described as one of interrelationship (gold is more valuable than silver, which is more valuable than bronze) or sequence (gold is for first place, silver for second place, and bronze for third place). But that’s not the point; the idea is to provide some framework any framework for a list so as not to distract the reader. Sometimes, a list’s lineup is determined more by tradition than anything else: â€Å"The original Three Stooges consisted of Moe, Larry, and Curly.† Moe was the leader of the group, but there’s no reason to mention Larry before Curly rather than the other way around except that it seems to trip off the tongue more easily that way. Sometimes, that’s as good a reason as any. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating Conjunctions50 Synonyms for "Assistant"Ebook, eBook, ebook or e-book?