Monifah Kidd
4/24/2017
Philosophy of Religion
Wheel of Life
           
When I see the picture of the wheel of life I see the beginning of life until the end of life. It shows the different ways the slaves lived their life. Also, I choose this artwork is because it was very detailed and I understood a lot what’s going on in the picture
    Looking at this artwork it symbolizes slavery because in the circle you can see these men bowing down to another man. Moses was found by the river by pharaoh wife sister and one of the pictures are showing her save his life from the death of being killed by Pharaoh. Pharaoh had to kill all the first born because god told him one of the children will free all Jews. Moses wants power from Crist. Also it shows when god created two of both kind Man and women so that they can reproduce. It also shows eve eating from the tree of life. It shows pictures of how guys use to live without clothes. Angels riding the clouds. It also represents the devil in the very center of the circle.


According to the religion facts, it says “the wheel of life illustrates in a popular way the essence of the Buddhist teachings the four truths the existence of earthly suffering, its origin and cause the entity of prevention of liberation from suffering” (facts). The wheel of life is a way to show freedom of truth. What that mean is that people deserve to see and hear the truth about the past life. Showing pictures of what these slaves had to go through can make others take life more serious. That picture is very inspiring for people that don’t know much about the Buddha religion.it also represent cause and effect, which are caused by the things you do. What goes around come right back around, it’s like karma. The wheel of life shows a cycle of life death to rebirth and suffering that they seek to escape altogether.
The center of the wheel represents three poisons, the second layer represents both positive and negative actions and karma, the third layer represents the twelve links of interdependent origination, the monster holding the wheel represents impermanence, the moon above the wheel represents liberation from samsaric cycle of existence, the Buddha pointing to the moon indicates that liberation is possible. (Facts). This break down the entire wheel of life. Each part holds a different meaning to life. Knowing which each part represents gives you a better picture of what like use to be like. It shows empowerment through these people because others may not have been able to get through this life like they did. It shows hard work and power because people worked very hard to survive because that’s all they knew.

   
According to Sunapati  Thangka School, “one of the reasons why the wheel of life was painted outside the monasteries and on the walls was to teach this very profound Buddhist philosophy of life and perception to  more simple minded farmers or cowherds so these images on the wheel of life is just to communicate to the general audience. To also learn and understand the teachings of the Buddha” (school). I believe the reason of this is very important. Looking at just the image itself you can come up with some ideas from it. Buddha made this so people can understand the religion itself.  
This artwork illuminates the Buddha because it’s a represent of him, he made it. It shows the way he sees the Buddhism religion. Buddha means the awaken. When the Buddha realized you cannot have happiness forever it was the nature of mind. He accomplishes unconditional happiness through the state of enlightenment of the Buddhahood.  “He says this state of mind is free from disturbing emotions and expresses itself through fearlessness, joy and active compassion. For the rest of his life, the Buddha taught anyone who asked how they could reach the same state” (school). This shows that he meant to harm to the people he wanted to help out the best way possible which shows he’s a strong person inside.  He taught because he believed that all beings wanted to have happiness and want to avoid suffering, he taught how things are. He was very spiritually open. He wanted to help others see that there’s more to life than what they think. His words were very encouraging, he helped many people all around to become happy.   


Buddha comes from the Buddhism religion and one of many who believed that there is an afterlife not everything ends with death. Buddha wanted people to overcome their suffering through life. He was helpful to others trying to give people knowledge. He believes that one day everyone would be happy. He believed in karma to helping people would be good for him in return.
Brahman was the highest gods of Hinduism religion. He is the efficient and material cause of creation. There is also a considerable theory about the relationship between Brahman and the individual souls. There is no evidence. Barman also means power, so Brahman had the most power to do anything.
The similarities that Buddha and Brahman have are that they share some of the same beliefs like they both believe in reincarnation. They both believe there are many different paths to enlightenment.  Also, they both believe that our suffering is caused by excessive attachment to things and people in the physical world. 
What I learned from this experience is that sometimes doing things on your own is not so bad. I never visited a museum alone before and it was a great experience. Looking at the different artworks and reading up on it just made me want to learn more. Actually going to the museum game me a better understand of the class.
 I learned about some different artworks from the Buddha religion. It helped me understand religion in a
 different way because everyone has a different outlook on life and sometimes people believe in things that others don’t and that’s good. Sometimes people go through things in life because they have to and others are happy with the life they live. Never judge a book by its cover, be true to yourself and what you believe in.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alex Quito's Rubin Museum Project

Image
Alex Quito Professor Trusso   HUP 105 April 19, 2017 Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara Buddhism, A Unique World Religion Upon visiting the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, I was intrigued by all the Hindu and Buddhist artwork in display. There was one Buddhist artwork that especially grabbed my attention and became the center of my focus in this paper. This specific Buddhist artwork was a painting named the “Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara,” which dates back to Central Tibet during the 20th century. There were several details that made this specific art piece so attracting and through my own observations, I was able to connect the painting to a Buddhist doctrine. Further interest in the artwork then led me to conduct more detailed research. All in all, the “Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara” represented an important Buddhist doctrine very different to that of a Hindu doctrine and led us to ask even bigger questions of Buddhism.       ...
Read more

Hadir Harfoush

Image
Hadir Harfoush. HUP105. Project The Rubin museum. #1 Title/artist: Buddha Shakyamuni – Buddha. Date: 16 th century. Doctrine: Buddha. According to the art work I saw in the museum it seems to me that the doctrine is Buddha, because the literature beneath the art work explains what does Buddha means which means “a wakened or enlightened”. And also it talks about the history of “Shakyamuni” who was the first Buddha. #2 Title/artist: the wheel of life – Instructive Pantings. Date: 18 th century. Doctrine: Samsara. According to the art work I saw in the museum, this art illustrates the cyclic of life, death and rebirth. In Buddhism this doctrine is called Samsara. #3 Title/artist: Buddha Sitatapatra – Merit. Date: 1864 Doctrine: Karma. According to the art work at the museum Sitatapatra symbolizes someone who is striving for a better rebirth by watching over those in need with her ten million eyes. It also shows that she has had many of her o...
Read more