Ramana Maharshi

I loved the part about being happy. "If the mind is happy, not only the body but the whole world will be happy. So one must find out how to become happy oneself. Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes." I think what the first part of this quote is about is that you cannot make anyone else happy if you yourself are not happy first. This makes perfect sense and i love it. Life is what you make it if you are happy life will be a happier place. The part about covering the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking i could not help but laugh. Because we make things so much more complex than they need to be. Just wear shoes!!!

The Upanishads

I really enjoyed this reading alot it definatly made me think. At the beginning i was extremely confused. As i kept reading it began to come together. I think the whole reading was about how God is everywhere and in everyone. God is in every aspect of your life even in thought. I really like the line, " Those who realize that God cannot be known, truly know; those who claim that they know, know nothing. The ignorant think that God can be grasped by the mind; the wise know It beyond knowledge." God cannot be known. He can not be seen, or touched but he is there. This is the point i believe The Upanishads are trying to get across. "If you think that you know God, you know very little."

Chief Seattle

When reading Chief Seattle's speech i couldn't even imagin being in his shoes. He talks about how how once his "people covered this land like a flood-tide moving with the wind across the shell-littered flats. But that time is gone, and with it the greatness of tribes now almost forgotten." Wow... He also talks about how God has forgotten about his red children and leads his white children like a father leading this son. Not only is he talking about losing his land and being forgotten by the white people but also by God. How lonely that must have felt and then been asked to take a deal to only live on a designated part of the land where the white people tell them to go. I think that something that really stood out to me was that he was accepting of the deal with only one condition. "We will never be denied the right to visit, at any time, the graves of our fathers and our friends." That line is what really hit home for me. He talks about how his people love the land and will not leave when they pass on but stay around. I really liked the messages that Chief Seattle sent in his speech but I couldnt help but feel sad for him and his people.

Sa-go-ye-wat-ha

“We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers and has been handed down, father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers and has been handed down to us, their children.” When reading Sa-go-ye-wat-ha’s speech these two lines really stuck in my mind. This really is true, we believe what our parents and grandparents have passed down to us whether others believe its true of false it does not matter. Nobody should be pushed into a religion or belief because you believe it is true of because someone tells them that their religion is untrue. What makes Sa-go-ye-wat-ha’s religion any less accurate than the missionary’s or mine. People like this Christian minister are who push people away from religion not draw people in. Sa-go-ye-wat-ha tells the Christian minister at the end of his speech, “We do not want to destroy your religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.”
I really enjoyed Sa-go-ye-wat-ha’s speech. It really gets me excited and ready for this class and all that we will learn and discuss.