The topic stated above, like I've said is my topic. I presented this topic for the people in my class. But, so unfortunately, there are not many people in the class when the topic was really interesting, for what I think of course. My opinion. Being a leader for a discussion group is not easy. I have to make sure that when people listen to what I'm saying, they will not feel sleepy. I do hope that people do not feel sleepy when they hear my explanation.
The way that I did my presentation was that I tried to explain everything and hope that people understand. How i did that was like I explained the facts and make it seem like a story for everyone. Who doesn't like story. And in the middle, I will try to put some fun fact in it so that it will not get more boring than my voice. I sound like a duck for people who didn't hear me speak before. So, the topic that I guided in the class was about Literacy, Writing and History of the Books in East and South Asian Civilisation.
The most thing that I discussed about is that China History of books. I wouldn't like to repeat it here again because the whole thing took one and a half hours for me to just explain about the books. So if you want to have an insight of what I've discussed in class, the link is https://prezi.com/uutcdvqowc0j/literacy-writing-and-history-of-the-book-in-east-and-south/.
Alright. Back to the question that I have now.
1. Was there first have books and literature or was there first have civilisation?
In my opinion, I think that it is a cycle. First, when there is existence of human being, there must have language and words that they used back then. After that, they will have improve their language and they will have civilisation. But, when they existed civilisation, they will also have newer language. The newer language was then being created and the improved version of civilisation will exist. So for me, it is a cycle.
The cycle started dated back since the history of human being started, as how I said just now. Every now and then, there will be people making different changes toward the language we have now. The most frequent changes that I can see for my civilisation now is the Malay language. Every few years, I will hear that this is the newer rule of how it should be used in writing an essay. But a few years later, they will have to change back to how they said it initially. It is really messy in a way because the graduates like me and a lot others would not be able to know. When we try to write an official Malay letter, we are not able to know what the rules are.
2. What are the differences in the Writing, Literature, and History of Books in the Western civilisation to the Eastern Civilisation?
How would I say this? In the western way of writing is like totally different in how we write in Asia. In my second reading that I failed to discuss because of time constrain, there are the Visitation of the Gods. Like they will get what ideas when they dreamed of god being in there with them. It made them write to like it is the story of Gods. That is why they have what we now called Legends. I think those stories came this way.
In the western country, dated so early back then, the way of the western writing are quite emotional as in like how Shakespeare writes. How he wrote was that all about emotions and all about love. The eastern people do not write that way. Comparing to the China people and the English people, they both have different way of writing. But, let's not forget about the similarities of how they write.
Right now as we speak, what do we mean by literature? Does it only mean that the poems that we study now? Again let's not forget that the indian people also have poems, but their poems are more to the godly stuff. Alright. Turning the time back till the twentieth century. People are getting educated by the english people and slowly, how we write are being influenced by the english people. For example, using Malaysia as one. We have been concurred for so many centuries back from 16 century till now. So our style of writing had been influenced so much by the conqueror. Like the poems now, we don't really use those that 'dreaming of meeting with god' stuff to write on our poems.
3. How was the writings back then influences our writings nowadays?
For my opinion, it was the legends stuff that influences us. You see, if we do not have those people who 'dreamed of meeting with gods', how will the legend appear now? And If we do not have those things as what we now call legend, how are we going to write all those storybooks that we have now? It is an endless cycle you see? These writing that we have now, might be the a variations of what our children might write in future days. So, I think that the core of the story written was still being used now as we are writing.
If you do not understand what I've wrote, from the question 2 onward, I am still partially asleep. So sorry if you do not understand it.
So something to think about. After I've talked so much on books and literature, I asked the class that day. Was ebook a book? So for some people, they might think that it is and some might think not. I always say this and I will say this again. It depends on how people thinks. Everything is based on people's mindset. For me personally, I don't think it is a book. A book has it own smell, the uniqueness of the smell, the feeling when you hold it, the feeling of having something vintage on your hands.
Whereas, ebooks. EBOOKS do not have all the smell, the feeling, and everything. As technology grows, it is easier for people to have ebooks. I admit that I also use ebooks. It is so much easier to come by. Why buy a book that is really heavy and it cost so much. But somehow, for me, I have the satisfaction of buying books. When I have a collection of books, it proves that how much I've grown since when I was a little boy without any books with me. Even though I have ebooks already saved in my phone, well if you are wondering, I'm using HTC One M8, but after I finished reading the ebook, I will still insist on buying the physical one for collection sake.
So It varies in people's perspective. I think that ebook is not a book, where it is just electronic file with many pages attached within. No offence to anyone here.
Last thing for the week. I am so happy for that people are visiting my blog and I am not doing this for my own self. Thank you guys for visiting and I hope that you do have a new perspective of what is going on. Please, if you have anything to say about the topic or even about me, you can comment below or if you would like to text me privately, email me at chingyixin1@gmail.com. I will reply you as soon as possible.
Thanks again and again. Tata for now.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Week 4 Discussion: Karma and Indifferences.
Prior to last week's topic that we talked about, it was logic. Well, for me, it was quite hard to understand and it is what I don't really get about. To be frank, I have no logic, which meant, my common sense is not as good as normal people. Laugh at me all you want but I am proud that I have less logic in my mind. I don't think things to deeply. So yeah. I am logic-less. Hahahahahahahaha..
Well, we went to the class yesterday and it was kind of what I'm quite interested in. Karma and indifferences. For me, it is what I'm really used to and what I knew since I was a little boy. Depend on what people thinks, karma is different. Some might perceive something and some might do others. Karma for me, is that what we did now, we will get it back later either in a few year or in your later life. So what do you think? Some people do not believe in karma but some will. Mostly for the Buddhist and the Hindus, they think very importantly on karma. Every little thing you do will affect what you are in past life.
Some other religion might think put it in different words, but it is all the same. Don't you think so? Yeah. Thanks to my classmate who spoke that idea out. He says that, Every religion we are, it is all interrelated, just the names and how we teach to our children and our newer generations are different. So don't you guys agree on him? I think it was Salleh who said this. So yeah. Thanks bro.
Yesterday's presentation was done by Aminath. She talks on First, Karma, Morality and Evil and Second, Indifferences and Negative Ethics.
Here's a picture of what I found on Google. It reads Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish it. I wanted to find the official symbol of karma but somehow there aren't any logo about karma. The most related one is that the recycling logo with the word karma on it. If anyone found something, please post it up here so that the world can know. At least I can know. I don't know anything, to be honest. >.<
So for a brief definition, karma is that when you did some action that is violating and wrong to people, it will affect you in the future time. Basically, what goes around comes around. So like I've stated above, karma is mostly believed in Buddhist or Hindus. So the teachings, or what we called, Karma Doctrine, is that, there are 3 things. It is Morally Vacuous, It involves in irresolvable dilemma and Blaming victims for their own afflictions.
Before we proceed, what is the meaning or moral Vacuous? Moral vacuous is that people who lacks of intelligence in what we call morality. What is the relationship between Moral Vacuous and Karma? Some people who did not have the intelligence of something, they will act in a way so that people will 'think' that they have it. It is the same case here. For a positive implication of moral vacuous, people that believes in karma gives them the idea to behave virtuously. It also mean that person will blame karma for the misfortune that one gets. For example, I am a person with minimal morality knowledge and somehow my friend got into trouble and what I will tell him is that karma. He deserve to receive what he got. Well, somehow I think that only the older generation people will think that way, like those people who got minimal education will think that way.
Next, it involves in irresolvable dilemma, and in other words, Karmic Dilemma. Here is the example, When a executioner delivers a lethal injection, Will the executioner face bad karma for performing the act? So here is the discussion about. Will the executioner gets the karma? For me, I think he will somehow. There is a choice for him whether to work there or not. It is his chance whether where he wants to work. So IF he choose to work there, he will get what he deserved. During the discussion on class that day, we said that he might have been appointed to do so. That might be true but back to the question. Why does he choose to work there? He can choose to work at a firm or being a taxi driver. So the whole class conclude that it is a cycle, a chain for a human life. When we kill someone, their family members would want to kill me, and if they succeeded, my family members will kill them. So this is how war forms.
Thirdly, It is the blaming of the victims. Well, let me put it this way. Malaysia had terrible flood even until today. The flood started since after Christmas. At first it got worse but somehow the water managed to flow back to the sea. Here's the question. Did they deserve to got these kind of treatment? Like karma. Did everyone of them who caught in the flood did bad things till they got the flood and all other types of sickness? I don't think so. What I think of is that the 'people' up there would like to punish certain people who did great sin till they decided to flood the whole thing. That is what I thought. Was it karma? I think it is for some of them and not all. IF they were caught in karma, and they really did bad things, that means they deserve it. If some of them managed to be rescued and be healthy after that, they might not have done really good things but they did not do bad things as well. So that is all about karma.
For what I think, Karma, it teaches me that what I do will reflect back on me. If I kill a chicken, in the next life, I will be the chicken and I will be slaughtered for my meat or something. So being a human, I believe that what I did in the past life which so I deserve to be who I am now. I have a wonderful family and I have so many great friends out there. I am blessed to have all these. I have to thank my past life for doing so much good deeds till I get what I got today. Well, I know I sound like a monk in the 14 century but I still feel this way.
On the second half of the day, we talk about Indifferences and Negative Ethics. So when we talk about indifferences, we can relate to the Taoism. They are those people who thinks that it is important to live in harmony with Tao, where in Chinese, 道. I can't explain verbally more to this. But there is a phrase to explain to this. Everything happens for a reason. Good things that happened might turn out bad and bad things happened might turn out to be good. Try and think of it. Sometimes we ourselves will have this occurred. For instance, I got a watermelon by the roadside and think that I could eat it at home. That is a good thing right? But when I slice it open and wanted to eat it, the watermelon is full of worms. I know this example is gross but somehow, it is a great example of thinking what is discussed so far.
Back to the Tao. Here is a scenario. When a child falls into the river, a Dao priest saw it and he save him up from the river. So when we are saving the child from the river, we will think that it is a good deed to do. But for the priest, he won't think this way. He will only think that it is natural to do so. So from my understanding, indifferences is that how we think differently than other people. The whole Taoist Community think this way, where they only act naturally where their instinct tells them to. Well, so think about this. If the whole world does this, will the world we have now change to be a better place, or a worse place? For what I think, It will be a worse one. For everyone to think indifferently, thinking to do what is natural to them, is not right. When people want to kill, they kill without any consequences. So i think it is not a good thing to do.
We as humans, born after many generations of civilization and teaching. We have our own set of norms and rules. We are following those rules that were made years ago. We were taught how to act now. So It is quite hard for me to feel how the people who thinks indifferently thinks. Everyday we learn new things and we will have to think about new things. But will these things affect what had been taught since we were little? No. We will follow to what we were taught.
As a summary, I think that all human lives through karmic life. We will know what to do and what not to do. Everyday when we did something, will you think back on what you have done? Like when you prank your friend. Will you think that one day you will be prank as well? Yeah. This week's topic is quite easy for some ways. For the next presentation, it will be a new one. We will be talking about books and literature.
So long for now.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Well, we went to the class yesterday and it was kind of what I'm quite interested in. Karma and indifferences. For me, it is what I'm really used to and what I knew since I was a little boy. Depend on what people thinks, karma is different. Some might perceive something and some might do others. Karma for me, is that what we did now, we will get it back later either in a few year or in your later life. So what do you think? Some people do not believe in karma but some will. Mostly for the Buddhist and the Hindus, they think very importantly on karma. Every little thing you do will affect what you are in past life.
Some other religion might think put it in different words, but it is all the same. Don't you think so? Yeah. Thanks to my classmate who spoke that idea out. He says that, Every religion we are, it is all interrelated, just the names and how we teach to our children and our newer generations are different. So don't you guys agree on him? I think it was Salleh who said this. So yeah. Thanks bro.
Yesterday's presentation was done by Aminath. She talks on First, Karma, Morality and Evil and Second, Indifferences and Negative Ethics.
Here's a picture of what I found on Google. It reads Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish it. I wanted to find the official symbol of karma but somehow there aren't any logo about karma. The most related one is that the recycling logo with the word karma on it. If anyone found something, please post it up here so that the world can know. At least I can know. I don't know anything, to be honest. >.<
So for a brief definition, karma is that when you did some action that is violating and wrong to people, it will affect you in the future time. Basically, what goes around comes around. So like I've stated above, karma is mostly believed in Buddhist or Hindus. So the teachings, or what we called, Karma Doctrine, is that, there are 3 things. It is Morally Vacuous, It involves in irresolvable dilemma and Blaming victims for their own afflictions.
Before we proceed, what is the meaning or moral Vacuous? Moral vacuous is that people who lacks of intelligence in what we call morality. What is the relationship between Moral Vacuous and Karma? Some people who did not have the intelligence of something, they will act in a way so that people will 'think' that they have it. It is the same case here. For a positive implication of moral vacuous, people that believes in karma gives them the idea to behave virtuously. It also mean that person will blame karma for the misfortune that one gets. For example, I am a person with minimal morality knowledge and somehow my friend got into trouble and what I will tell him is that karma. He deserve to receive what he got. Well, somehow I think that only the older generation people will think that way, like those people who got minimal education will think that way.
Next, it involves in irresolvable dilemma, and in other words, Karmic Dilemma. Here is the example, When a executioner delivers a lethal injection, Will the executioner face bad karma for performing the act? So here is the discussion about. Will the executioner gets the karma? For me, I think he will somehow. There is a choice for him whether to work there or not. It is his chance whether where he wants to work. So IF he choose to work there, he will get what he deserved. During the discussion on class that day, we said that he might have been appointed to do so. That might be true but back to the question. Why does he choose to work there? He can choose to work at a firm or being a taxi driver. So the whole class conclude that it is a cycle, a chain for a human life. When we kill someone, their family members would want to kill me, and if they succeeded, my family members will kill them. So this is how war forms.
Thirdly, It is the blaming of the victims. Well, let me put it this way. Malaysia had terrible flood even until today. The flood started since after Christmas. At first it got worse but somehow the water managed to flow back to the sea. Here's the question. Did they deserve to got these kind of treatment? Like karma. Did everyone of them who caught in the flood did bad things till they got the flood and all other types of sickness? I don't think so. What I think of is that the 'people' up there would like to punish certain people who did great sin till they decided to flood the whole thing. That is what I thought. Was it karma? I think it is for some of them and not all. IF they were caught in karma, and they really did bad things, that means they deserve it. If some of them managed to be rescued and be healthy after that, they might not have done really good things but they did not do bad things as well. So that is all about karma.
For what I think, Karma, it teaches me that what I do will reflect back on me. If I kill a chicken, in the next life, I will be the chicken and I will be slaughtered for my meat or something. So being a human, I believe that what I did in the past life which so I deserve to be who I am now. I have a wonderful family and I have so many great friends out there. I am blessed to have all these. I have to thank my past life for doing so much good deeds till I get what I got today. Well, I know I sound like a monk in the 14 century but I still feel this way.
On the second half of the day, we talk about Indifferences and Negative Ethics. So when we talk about indifferences, we can relate to the Taoism. They are those people who thinks that it is important to live in harmony with Tao, where in Chinese, 道. I can't explain verbally more to this. But there is a phrase to explain to this. Everything happens for a reason. Good things that happened might turn out bad and bad things happened might turn out to be good. Try and think of it. Sometimes we ourselves will have this occurred. For instance, I got a watermelon by the roadside and think that I could eat it at home. That is a good thing right? But when I slice it open and wanted to eat it, the watermelon is full of worms. I know this example is gross but somehow, it is a great example of thinking what is discussed so far.
Back to the Tao. Here is a scenario. When a child falls into the river, a Dao priest saw it and he save him up from the river. So when we are saving the child from the river, we will think that it is a good deed to do. But for the priest, he won't think this way. He will only think that it is natural to do so. So from my understanding, indifferences is that how we think differently than other people. The whole Taoist Community think this way, where they only act naturally where their instinct tells them to. Well, so think about this. If the whole world does this, will the world we have now change to be a better place, or a worse place? For what I think, It will be a worse one. For everyone to think indifferently, thinking to do what is natural to them, is not right. When people want to kill, they kill without any consequences. So i think it is not a good thing to do.
We as humans, born after many generations of civilization and teaching. We have our own set of norms and rules. We are following those rules that were made years ago. We were taught how to act now. So It is quite hard for me to feel how the people who thinks indifferently thinks. Everyday we learn new things and we will have to think about new things. But will these things affect what had been taught since we were little? No. We will follow to what we were taught.
As a summary, I think that all human lives through karmic life. We will know what to do and what not to do. Everyday when we did something, will you think back on what you have done? Like when you prank your friend. Will you think that one day you will be prank as well? Yeah. This week's topic is quite easy for some ways. For the next presentation, it will be a new one. We will be talking about books and literature.
So long for now.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Week 3 Discussion 2: Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization
It's me back again. The topic that we discussed on last Wednesday was, Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization. It was quite fun to discuss. We will be discussing about a lot of logic. Well, in some sense, people nowadays have lots of logics till they have non of those. As an example, there are so many people neglected their children for money and for work. So they gave up time to spend with their kids. Children learns from their parents and they will also do it later when they grow up. They will think that it is logical to do so. But it is not.
Interesting fact isn't it? Just something about logic nowadays. The topic that we discussed on Wednesday, again, was Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization. The group discussion was led by Wong Kah Yee, aka Jaise. Well, I knew her since my foundation years and we knew how each other works. So, it was lucky for me. She is a really good presenter, just that she need to polish her English. Just saying. No offence, Jaise.
So what Jaise talked about was that there are 3 readings this week. The 3 readings were all focusing on the 3 main influence or what we call ethnics in Malaysia, the Indian, the Chinese, and lastly the Islamic. It was all really long and confusing but thanks to Jaise who make all these things so much easier to understand.
So when we talk about 'logic', what comes to your mind? For me, it is something about common sense. Everyone have common sense. So, giving an example: A is C, B is C. So A is B. We can conclude it this way right? So yes. this is logic. In the 3 readings, they talk a lot about all these. In the first reading that we discussed, it was about Indian Philosophy. They have different type of argument when it comes to what centuries the civilization are. When there is a different period, there will be a different teaching. And in the conclusion, they have this Principles, where we can segregate people based on the way of their thinking. We have the Principle of Non Contradiction, the Principle of Excluded Middle and the Principle of Double Negation.
All these things are about what people thinks and how people thinks. And lastly on Indian Philosophy, we have Orthodox and Heterodox. It is different way of how people thinks. Orthodox people believes in the Trimurti and the Heterodox people are the other people that does not believe in the Trimurti. We know that India is a really big country and it can go as big as China. They have schools for all these people who teaches different logics, All these teachings somehow relates back to the historical background of what a country had gone through. Like for example, the Orthodox people learns logic through the books that were left by the ancestors about the trimurti. So, for what I think, it is all back to the roots.
In the second reading, we discussed on the Islamic Philosophy. For them, where I mean them is the Muslim people, their law is their logic and reasoning. Whatever they do, they must not disobey the law of their own. So when they think of logic, they are quite controversial about their thinking. There are different people stating different things like for instance, Abu Bishr Matta thinks that logic is not the superficial detail of a particular language and does not need to examine those ordinary lexical meanings when Abu Said al-Sirafi said that the logics that the Greek uses is only for their structure of the civilization and they do not do for others. This is like two different people saying two different things where one logic said that it should embrace other culture with different logic but the other says the opposite.
And when we talk about logic, Aristotelians thinks that logic is an Instrument and Platonists thinks that logic is as part of every civilization and philosophy and it is being related to some aspect of being. It goes very similar on what Abu Bishr and Abu Said says. But when I think of it, it just depends on how you want to put it in words. It's like how people think on one thing. It is the same as how people's common sense works. Different people have different logic and different way of thinking. There is also al-Ghazali and Avicenna's way of thinking. That is too much to talk about so I will just skip it. It's just basically what and how they define logic and philosophy.
Lastly on this, we have the famous debate of Essence vs Existence. This is a really famous debate. There is Avicenna's theory and Averroes's theory. They both have different way of saying this. Just a thoughts, it is essence that precedes existence. Things need to have an idea before that they were created. So this is what we meant by essence precedes existence. Just a thought. If you have different thoughts, please do not hesitate to comment below.
I know, I know. This is being very very longwinded. So I will cut things short. Last reading is on Chinese Philosophy. Chinese had been through so many dynasty and all those dynasty have their Own logic that was brought down to the next dynasty. And in the starting of everything we have the concept of Ying and yang. Ying is the negative and Yang is positive. Their logic is that when there is positive things, there will be negative things going together. It is very normal for them. Everything was created for a reason. Lastly we talk about the five phases which consist of Wood, Fire, Water, Metal and Wind. It is really famous is all of Chinese philosophy. It is by saying that which is suitable with witch and which is not suitable for which. Before marriage, we will be asking people of Feng Shui about this. They will tell us based on our Chinese Date of Birth.
So after we talk of all these, There are questions like is there really a god that exist? It depend on how people things actually. Some might think that there is and to those non believers, there are none. For me, As I am a Buddhist, while not a really deeply believing one, I do trust that there are god existing in this world. I also believe that there is not. In Buddhist's believe, we only think that there are Buddha and He is not a Creator. He is the first one who knew the life and death cycle while meditating for a week under the tree.
So another question that was asked by my classmate Jaise is that Civilization comes first or Logic and reasoning comes first? I would say that logic and reasoning surely comes first. While there is first thinking and only they will have a civilization.
Ending this chapter, It was really confusing for me as why people think so many things to confuse themselves. Hahahahahaha.. But it was really interesting to know that the logics behind the civilization. Every civilization starts from a believe and those believes soon to be manifested to the logic that we think now.
So long for now. I will be presenting and leading my class session next Wednesday. So if you want to know what I will be doing, just email me. I will tell you.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Interesting fact isn't it? Just something about logic nowadays. The topic that we discussed on Wednesday, again, was Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization. The group discussion was led by Wong Kah Yee, aka Jaise. Well, I knew her since my foundation years and we knew how each other works. So, it was lucky for me. She is a really good presenter, just that she need to polish her English. Just saying. No offence, Jaise.
So what Jaise talked about was that there are 3 readings this week. The 3 readings were all focusing on the 3 main influence or what we call ethnics in Malaysia, the Indian, the Chinese, and lastly the Islamic. It was all really long and confusing but thanks to Jaise who make all these things so much easier to understand.
So when we talk about 'logic', what comes to your mind? For me, it is something about common sense. Everyone have common sense. So, giving an example: A is C, B is C. So A is B. We can conclude it this way right? So yes. this is logic. In the 3 readings, they talk a lot about all these. In the first reading that we discussed, it was about Indian Philosophy. They have different type of argument when it comes to what centuries the civilization are. When there is a different period, there will be a different teaching. And in the conclusion, they have this Principles, where we can segregate people based on the way of their thinking. We have the Principle of Non Contradiction, the Principle of Excluded Middle and the Principle of Double Negation.
All these things are about what people thinks and how people thinks. And lastly on Indian Philosophy, we have Orthodox and Heterodox. It is different way of how people thinks. Orthodox people believes in the Trimurti and the Heterodox people are the other people that does not believe in the Trimurti. We know that India is a really big country and it can go as big as China. They have schools for all these people who teaches different logics, All these teachings somehow relates back to the historical background of what a country had gone through. Like for example, the Orthodox people learns logic through the books that were left by the ancestors about the trimurti. So, for what I think, it is all back to the roots.
In the second reading, we discussed on the Islamic Philosophy. For them, where I mean them is the Muslim people, their law is their logic and reasoning. Whatever they do, they must not disobey the law of their own. So when they think of logic, they are quite controversial about their thinking. There are different people stating different things like for instance, Abu Bishr Matta thinks that logic is not the superficial detail of a particular language and does not need to examine those ordinary lexical meanings when Abu Said al-Sirafi said that the logics that the Greek uses is only for their structure of the civilization and they do not do for others. This is like two different people saying two different things where one logic said that it should embrace other culture with different logic but the other says the opposite.
And when we talk about logic, Aristotelians thinks that logic is an Instrument and Platonists thinks that logic is as part of every civilization and philosophy and it is being related to some aspect of being. It goes very similar on what Abu Bishr and Abu Said says. But when I think of it, it just depends on how you want to put it in words. It's like how people think on one thing. It is the same as how people's common sense works. Different people have different logic and different way of thinking. There is also al-Ghazali and Avicenna's way of thinking. That is too much to talk about so I will just skip it. It's just basically what and how they define logic and philosophy.
Lastly on this, we have the famous debate of Essence vs Existence. This is a really famous debate. There is Avicenna's theory and Averroes's theory. They both have different way of saying this. Just a thoughts, it is essence that precedes existence. Things need to have an idea before that they were created. So this is what we meant by essence precedes existence. Just a thought. If you have different thoughts, please do not hesitate to comment below.
I know, I know. This is being very very longwinded. So I will cut things short. Last reading is on Chinese Philosophy. Chinese had been through so many dynasty and all those dynasty have their Own logic that was brought down to the next dynasty. And in the starting of everything we have the concept of Ying and yang. Ying is the negative and Yang is positive. Their logic is that when there is positive things, there will be negative things going together. It is very normal for them. Everything was created for a reason. Lastly we talk about the five phases which consist of Wood, Fire, Water, Metal and Wind. It is really famous is all of Chinese philosophy. It is by saying that which is suitable with witch and which is not suitable for which. Before marriage, we will be asking people of Feng Shui about this. They will tell us based on our Chinese Date of Birth.
So after we talk of all these, There are questions like is there really a god that exist? It depend on how people things actually. Some might think that there is and to those non believers, there are none. For me, As I am a Buddhist, while not a really deeply believing one, I do trust that there are god existing in this world. I also believe that there is not. In Buddhist's believe, we only think that there are Buddha and He is not a Creator. He is the first one who knew the life and death cycle while meditating for a week under the tree.
So another question that was asked by my classmate Jaise is that Civilization comes first or Logic and reasoning comes first? I would say that logic and reasoning surely comes first. While there is first thinking and only they will have a civilization.
Ending this chapter, It was really confusing for me as why people think so many things to confuse themselves. Hahahahahaha.. But it was really interesting to know that the logics behind the civilization. Every civilization starts from a believe and those believes soon to be manifested to the logic that we think now.
So long for now. I will be presenting and leading my class session next Wednesday. So if you want to know what I will be doing, just email me. I will tell you.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Week 3 Discussion 1: Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Asian Civilizations
Well, this week, the topic was Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Asian Civilizations. Yay!!! Just kidding. For me it was quite interesting as I did not know much of Judaism. This is a great chance for us to be discussing on this topic. The topic was lead by my classmate Shahrukh. Let me give a brief review on this topic first. When I first knew that I will be reading on this, It was a little scary as I never knew about Judaism before.
So, We first speak on, very briefly, about the story of Moses.Then, we discuss further on Christianity. Then Islam. I was told that Jesus was a Jew. Is it true? Can anyone confirm with me on this? And later after that, we disussed on Edict of Milan. So this is just a brief introduction about everything that we discussed.
Topic ended.
Just kidding. Hahahahahahahaha.. We still have not touched on those religions in Asian Civilization. Let's first talk on the Jews. The Jews can be founded at Kochi, Japan, China and SEA, specifically, in Myanmar. I think the Jews are later drove out of the country later by the Japanese during the World War for the reason that they were Allied with German.There are not much Jew in the whole continent in Asia. I think there are only 45k people in the whole of Asia. Well, it was wired. As I knew, Jews are quite a big society as in there are a lot of Jews. Speaking of Jews, what are they? I have still not much of understanding on the religion. What is to do with Germans and Jews? No idea. Anyone kindly enough, please comment below.
That is about the Jews. So about Islam in Asia. They are widely founded in Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey and some other more countries. For me, I knew how Islam was founded in Malaysia. It started around 15th century and the Kings of Malacca Empire. I think it's from the 4th King and it started since. He was the first King that was called Sultan where the Islamic people called their kings. How did they come to other parts of Asia? They started in the Middle East country where it is not called Asia right? This topic is getting more and more confusing by the moment.
So lastly, It was about Christian. How did they came into Asia? Last time we did learned that in our Malaysian History that when the Portugal people invaded the Malacca Empire, they came for 3 things, the gospel, gold and glory. So with the motto that they made, of course they came to spread out Christianity. They first came and they stopped at India. Only till the second time they came, they came to the Straits of Malacca. So is that where they stated to spread Christianity here? Are there not any signs of Christianity before that?
So time for the thoughts. Just be honest, I can't understand the leader of the group discussion. No offence. It was kind of hard for us to understand how he speaks. It was really quick. But, the better thing is that he did encourages us to keep on participating on the discussion as he will ask us some question and makes us to give out our own comments.
He did asked one question on the topic. Out of these 3 of the Religion, which one does endured the most? For my opinion, it was the Islam. Everyone seems to always been racist toward them in the past few years. No matter what they did, no matter what they say, It was those people of the stronger, who keeps on bullying them. This is civilization and from TITAS that I learned today, we discussed on the negative effects of civilization. When we discuss on this, the answer that the lecturer gave is that one big civilization always wants to stay on the top and it caused the people to go for war. Just to prove to people that they are the best and they are the leader of the world.
Not much to discuss. And so, I will be posting for the next discussion by today. The next discussion is on Logic of Thought in East and South Asian Civilizations. It is even more confusing than this topic.
Cheerios,
YiXin
So, We first speak on, very briefly, about the story of Moses.Then, we discuss further on Christianity. Then Islam. I was told that Jesus was a Jew. Is it true? Can anyone confirm with me on this? And later after that, we disussed on Edict of Milan. So this is just a brief introduction about everything that we discussed.
Topic ended.
Just kidding. Hahahahahahahaha.. We still have not touched on those religions in Asian Civilization. Let's first talk on the Jews. The Jews can be founded at Kochi, Japan, China and SEA, specifically, in Myanmar. I think the Jews are later drove out of the country later by the Japanese during the World War for the reason that they were Allied with German.There are not much Jew in the whole continent in Asia. I think there are only 45k people in the whole of Asia. Well, it was wired. As I knew, Jews are quite a big society as in there are a lot of Jews. Speaking of Jews, what are they? I have still not much of understanding on the religion. What is to do with Germans and Jews? No idea. Anyone kindly enough, please comment below.
That is about the Jews. So about Islam in Asia. They are widely founded in Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey and some other more countries. For me, I knew how Islam was founded in Malaysia. It started around 15th century and the Kings of Malacca Empire. I think it's from the 4th King and it started since. He was the first King that was called Sultan where the Islamic people called their kings. How did they come to other parts of Asia? They started in the Middle East country where it is not called Asia right? This topic is getting more and more confusing by the moment.
So lastly, It was about Christian. How did they came into Asia? Last time we did learned that in our Malaysian History that when the Portugal people invaded the Malacca Empire, they came for 3 things, the gospel, gold and glory. So with the motto that they made, of course they came to spread out Christianity. They first came and they stopped at India. Only till the second time they came, they came to the Straits of Malacca. So is that where they stated to spread Christianity here? Are there not any signs of Christianity before that?
So time for the thoughts. Just be honest, I can't understand the leader of the group discussion. No offence. It was kind of hard for us to understand how he speaks. It was really quick. But, the better thing is that he did encourages us to keep on participating on the discussion as he will ask us some question and makes us to give out our own comments.
He did asked one question on the topic. Out of these 3 of the Religion, which one does endured the most? For my opinion, it was the Islam. Everyone seems to always been racist toward them in the past few years. No matter what they did, no matter what they say, It was those people of the stronger, who keeps on bullying them. This is civilization and from TITAS that I learned today, we discussed on the negative effects of civilization. When we discuss on this, the answer that the lecturer gave is that one big civilization always wants to stay on the top and it caused the people to go for war. Just to prove to people that they are the best and they are the leader of the world.
Not much to discuss. And so, I will be posting for the next discussion by today. The next discussion is on Logic of Thought in East and South Asian Civilizations. It is even more confusing than this topic.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Introduction to Eastern Civilization Discussion Week 2
This is a continuation of what I've written above. As a recap of my last post, I was being absent in my last session which is yesterday and one of my classmates Stephan who was the leader of the class discussion. I was being really blur when I was asked to do this. I forgot that I need to do this. So here goes. Here are some question that was posted by Stephan and was discussed throughout the session. I have to do it on my own. Yay for me. :(
1. What are the sorts of philosophies the East Asian Culture/Civilization lived by?
Asia is a really big continent with many different but unique country. They all have their own unique structure that made what they are now. So talking about the East Asian countries, we are talking about Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China. These are the most notable country in the Eastern Asia. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan's roots were all part of the China civilization, if I am correct. In in 4 of these country alone, there are already countless types of philosophy. What do I mean by philosophy here? By definition, It was given by my friend Stephan here that Philosophy is the Study of Fundamental Nature of Knowledge, reality and existence. It is we can put as another word, believes and theories.
Speaking on Believes, like how I've mention in my previous post, it varies a lot with culture and cultures we often put them together with our religions. So, correct me if I'm mistaken here, can I assume that believes is also speaking about religion? Well, that is what I think of. There are so many religion in China. COUNTLESS if I may. China is such a big country and who knows when there exists so many types of religion. But we here today are going to discuss on Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shintoism.
2. Were there any differences between these philosophies in comparison to the Westerns at that time?
So relate back to the different materials that we are reading every single week, China was often marked as a curious land and remarkable. Well, I personally don't understand why they are marked as curious? Are there gold to dig in? I don't know. But Yeah. Westerners always mark this land as curious and remarkable. This made all these curious westerners research on the great land of China. What those westerners are doing is that they are looking across the ocean. So this is what the Westerners assume. They assume things that somehow are not true like how the China have all these religions.
Aside from that, there are these One World Cosmetology that was followed by the Chinese. It is somehow for me, like Feng Shui. Everything has to be in place. As we perceive, we Chinese people do believe in a lot of 'Qi' which translate in the Chinese Character as 气. This Qi is somehow like psychophysical energy that releases in various form and context. When we go into the jungle, we will pray and watch out for our mouth as there are spiritual energy in those forests. It may sound funny to some but this is what taught by my grandfather and what I will be teaching to my grandchild next time. It is all a part of the civilization. Back to our question. any differences? I say yes. Does the westerners thinks that there is qi? And we also have Ying and Yang which converse to Positive Energy and Negative Energy. Does the Westerners believe in those? I think they do. Only for the positive polar and negative polar. Just a Joke. Nothing too serious here.
Besides, we do also have Radial Harmony. It's that how we always revolves around a centre point. In my culture, we always do find a balance in things. Often we can hear that when there is too much Positive energy in one place, we will put some negative energy there. So to balance up something. Even our human characteristic. One couple, the female who talks a lot is better to find a male who listen more. This is where I agree that both the eastern and western culture have. They have the same thought on this thing but we do not know what it is called for each side. So, Cheers. It's simple science. When there is too much negativity, put in some positivity. So one more thing that I can conclude is that Civilization have a lot to do with science. We might talk about it later..
Lastly we have Philosophical Syncreticism. This means that even though there are differences in our culture and the civilization that happened, we still have things that are shared together. Not only western culture but also their teachings were brought into us when they came to us. Take Malaysia for an example. We are a multinational country that have different ethnicity and so with different believes and everything. So talking back to history. When the Britian came and concur us, they brought in their way of handling a country and so this is how we run our country now. Like the parliament and everything. So we learned things from them and not to say anything but they have also learned things from us. This is what we all can agree on.
3. What are the outcomes from these philosophies?
The outcome are so visible even those who are blind can see it. We are now living in a peaceful world and every country helps each other for things that they need. All these are moral values that came from those times when we were taught by our ancestors. They were brought down generation by generations, year by years, day by days. All the teaching from our culture and believes that we hugged so tightly on, embracing every single detail that were passed on by our ancestors, were it not part of the civilization we are talking about? All these are the good outcomes. The bad outcome is that one globe have to be separated into so many different parts. We all are human race. We should be as one. Everyday I can see news from everywhere saying that people died from being verbally bullied and the authorities could not do anything. Those bullies are the bad outcome of those philosophies. If there is no believes that teaches us to segregate among ourselves, there would not be any of these issues. This is just purely what I think of. Please don't be offended.
How does it been applied into present times? I must say that I'm currently out of ideas. Let me have a rest and I will edit this once I am clear of my mind.
So here is where I'm going to stop for this week's review. Tata for now.
Cheerios,
YiXin
1. What are the sorts of philosophies the East Asian Culture/Civilization lived by?
Asia is a really big continent with many different but unique country. They all have their own unique structure that made what they are now. So talking about the East Asian countries, we are talking about Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China. These are the most notable country in the Eastern Asia. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan's roots were all part of the China civilization, if I am correct. In in 4 of these country alone, there are already countless types of philosophy. What do I mean by philosophy here? By definition, It was given by my friend Stephan here that Philosophy is the Study of Fundamental Nature of Knowledge, reality and existence. It is we can put as another word, believes and theories.
Speaking on Believes, like how I've mention in my previous post, it varies a lot with culture and cultures we often put them together with our religions. So, correct me if I'm mistaken here, can I assume that believes is also speaking about religion? Well, that is what I think of. There are so many religion in China. COUNTLESS if I may. China is such a big country and who knows when there exists so many types of religion. But we here today are going to discuss on Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shintoism.
2. Were there any differences between these philosophies in comparison to the Westerns at that time?
So relate back to the different materials that we are reading every single week, China was often marked as a curious land and remarkable. Well, I personally don't understand why they are marked as curious? Are there gold to dig in? I don't know. But Yeah. Westerners always mark this land as curious and remarkable. This made all these curious westerners research on the great land of China. What those westerners are doing is that they are looking across the ocean. So this is what the Westerners assume. They assume things that somehow are not true like how the China have all these religions.
Aside from that, there are these One World Cosmetology that was followed by the Chinese. It is somehow for me, like Feng Shui. Everything has to be in place. As we perceive, we Chinese people do believe in a lot of 'Qi' which translate in the Chinese Character as 气. This Qi is somehow like psychophysical energy that releases in various form and context. When we go into the jungle, we will pray and watch out for our mouth as there are spiritual energy in those forests. It may sound funny to some but this is what taught by my grandfather and what I will be teaching to my grandchild next time. It is all a part of the civilization. Back to our question. any differences? I say yes. Does the westerners thinks that there is qi? And we also have Ying and Yang which converse to Positive Energy and Negative Energy. Does the Westerners believe in those? I think they do. Only for the positive polar and negative polar. Just a Joke. Nothing too serious here.
Besides, we do also have Radial Harmony. It's that how we always revolves around a centre point. In my culture, we always do find a balance in things. Often we can hear that when there is too much Positive energy in one place, we will put some negative energy there. So to balance up something. Even our human characteristic. One couple, the female who talks a lot is better to find a male who listen more. This is where I agree that both the eastern and western culture have. They have the same thought on this thing but we do not know what it is called for each side. So, Cheers. It's simple science. When there is too much negativity, put in some positivity. So one more thing that I can conclude is that Civilization have a lot to do with science. We might talk about it later..
Lastly we have Philosophical Syncreticism. This means that even though there are differences in our culture and the civilization that happened, we still have things that are shared together. Not only western culture but also their teachings were brought into us when they came to us. Take Malaysia for an example. We are a multinational country that have different ethnicity and so with different believes and everything. So talking back to history. When the Britian came and concur us, they brought in their way of handling a country and so this is how we run our country now. Like the parliament and everything. So we learned things from them and not to say anything but they have also learned things from us. This is what we all can agree on.
3. What are the outcomes from these philosophies?
The outcome are so visible even those who are blind can see it. We are now living in a peaceful world and every country helps each other for things that they need. All these are moral values that came from those times when we were taught by our ancestors. They were brought down generation by generations, year by years, day by days. All the teaching from our culture and believes that we hugged so tightly on, embracing every single detail that were passed on by our ancestors, were it not part of the civilization we are talking about? All these are the good outcomes. The bad outcome is that one globe have to be separated into so many different parts. We all are human race. We should be as one. Everyday I can see news from everywhere saying that people died from being verbally bullied and the authorities could not do anything. Those bullies are the bad outcome of those philosophies. If there is no believes that teaches us to segregate among ourselves, there would not be any of these issues. This is just purely what I think of. Please don't be offended.
How does it been applied into present times? I must say that I'm currently out of ideas. Let me have a rest and I will edit this once I am clear of my mind.
So here is where I'm going to stop for this week's review. Tata for now.
Cheerios,
YiXin
Introduction to Eastern Civilization Group Discussion 1
Well well well, It's me back again. Initially this blog was supposed to be for Introduction to Journalism class's tutorial. 4 months after that, I finished that class and I would not want to leave this blog to useless piece of junk. So I intended to make it a News blog for me to update the current news in the world. But somehow, I do not have the time to do so. So It was thrown a side by this irresponsible me, YiXin.
This blog is again revived by me. There is a reason for that. In my current semester in UCSI University, I was to undertake the subject Eastern Civilization and I am pretty happy to do it. To be honest, it was not my first choice and I would not even DARE to risk my CGPA for this. But after a few classes, I think, SCREW THAT MY MIND!!! So no offence made to anyone I hope.
Alright. Let's get to the main point shall we??
The lecturer of the class SL105 Eastern Civilization is Dr Clarrisa Lee. She is a wonderful lecturer although I've only met her twice now. Some of you might ask why am I doing all these nonsense blogpost again. Well, I was given a privilege to design all my own way of doing my class homework. So I will write out all my thoughts and things in this blog, partly to revive this blog and mostly for my homework.
This week was a really unlucky week as I was really sick and I could not attend to the session that my classmate Stephan Netto did. I really regretted for not going to the class. I was totally blur when I realised that I also have to be doing this. Sorry Stephan. (If you did ever see this). So, all I can do is to imagine what my classmates and my lecturer had discussed in that small little classroom who someone once said that could fit more than 60 students. It was real.
This week's topic was regards to Dialogue of Civilizations: East and West and the Idea of an Asian Civilization. The first half was done by Dr Clarrisa herself to show us how to guide a class discussion. Many thanks to that. So here goes my thoughts and summary.
Who in the world of youngsters knew there were so many meanings behind one SIMPLE word of CIVILIZATION? Well, now that I've known partially about it, I wouldn't call it simple. It's such a grand word and there are so many things that could be discussed in it. I remembered about a question that Dr Clarrisa asked me. It goes SOMETHING like this: How does civilization happens? Is it a large group of people or small group of people?
So the question was something like that. I was half dead that time as I was not feeling too well but I clearly remembered my answer about it. I answered that it was started with a small group of people. They started all the civilization and they passed it down through every generation. It couldn't be for a civilization to be large at the very start. So that is what I answered. But now that I've think of it, is culture the same as civilization? Culture is that everything is passed down through generation. For example, the way of how my father holds his chopsticks was pass down through his father aka my grandfather and how I hold my chopstick was imitated by looking at how my father holds his chopsticks.
Isn't civilization the same? How one era succeed and failed, everything was passed down to another era to be learned. Pick up from the succeeded, improve those who failed, build it up, to be a civilization. To me, civilization has pass through a lot. Really, a lot. There are so many changes made through the civilization and there are those who was kept till today. Like how China has it own Civilization for being in the history for so long. Marking from the date of the most prominent true fact, it was marked at 1264 B.C. And how many eras were there? How many changes made? How many years till now they have built their civilization? To cut the story short, to me, civilization is like culture. It is being pass down generations by generation.
So After this whole passage on me saying what I think about civilization, let's look back to what we discuss on. Eastern Civilization. Many people think differently about eastern civilization. Some may think that it was a copy of the Western civilization. Some might think that they have their own way of civilizing. But there is a quote from Huntington. It goes like this:
Does civilization varies with one's economical status? For me I doubt that. Is this saying that only rich people deserve to have civilization? So if that is what they are thinking, are we apes that still lives in the tree or the gorillas who still living in the forest? LOL! Funny thing they could think this way. No offence to anyone.
This blog is again revived by me. There is a reason for that. In my current semester in UCSI University, I was to undertake the subject Eastern Civilization and I am pretty happy to do it. To be honest, it was not my first choice and I would not even DARE to risk my CGPA for this. But after a few classes, I think, SCREW THAT MY MIND!!! So no offence made to anyone I hope.
Alright. Let's get to the main point shall we??
The lecturer of the class SL105 Eastern Civilization is Dr Clarrisa Lee. She is a wonderful lecturer although I've only met her twice now. Some of you might ask why am I doing all these nonsense blogpost again. Well, I was given a privilege to design all my own way of doing my class homework. So I will write out all my thoughts and things in this blog, partly to revive this blog and mostly for my homework.
This week was a really unlucky week as I was really sick and I could not attend to the session that my classmate Stephan Netto did. I really regretted for not going to the class. I was totally blur when I realised that I also have to be doing this. Sorry Stephan. (If you did ever see this). So, all I can do is to imagine what my classmates and my lecturer had discussed in that small little classroom who someone once said that could fit more than 60 students. It was real.
This week's topic was regards to Dialogue of Civilizations: East and West and the Idea of an Asian Civilization. The first half was done by Dr Clarrisa herself to show us how to guide a class discussion. Many thanks to that. So here goes my thoughts and summary.
Who in the world of youngsters knew there were so many meanings behind one SIMPLE word of CIVILIZATION? Well, now that I've known partially about it, I wouldn't call it simple. It's such a grand word and there are so many things that could be discussed in it. I remembered about a question that Dr Clarrisa asked me. It goes SOMETHING like this: How does civilization happens? Is it a large group of people or small group of people?
So the question was something like that. I was half dead that time as I was not feeling too well but I clearly remembered my answer about it. I answered that it was started with a small group of people. They started all the civilization and they passed it down through every generation. It couldn't be for a civilization to be large at the very start. So that is what I answered. But now that I've think of it, is culture the same as civilization? Culture is that everything is passed down through generation. For example, the way of how my father holds his chopsticks was pass down through his father aka my grandfather and how I hold my chopstick was imitated by looking at how my father holds his chopsticks.
Isn't civilization the same? How one era succeed and failed, everything was passed down to another era to be learned. Pick up from the succeeded, improve those who failed, build it up, to be a civilization. To me, civilization has pass through a lot. Really, a lot. There are so many changes made through the civilization and there are those who was kept till today. Like how China has it own Civilization for being in the history for so long. Marking from the date of the most prominent true fact, it was marked at 1264 B.C. And how many eras were there? How many changes made? How many years till now they have built their civilization? To cut the story short, to me, civilization is like culture. It is being pass down generations by generation.
So After this whole passage on me saying what I think about civilization, let's look back to what we discuss on. Eastern Civilization. Many people think differently about eastern civilization. Some may think that it was a copy of the Western civilization. Some might think that they have their own way of civilizing. But there is a quote from Huntington. It goes like this:
The
importance of regional economic
blocs is likely to continue to increase in the future. On the one hand,
successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness. On
the other hand, economic regionalism may succeed only when it is rooted in a
common civilization. The European Community rests on the shared foundation of
European culture and Western Christianity. The success of the North American
Free Trade Area depends on the convergence now underway of Mexican, Canadian
and American cultures. Japan, in contrast, faces difficulties in creating a
comparable economic entity in East Asia because Japan is a society and
civilization unique to itself.Culture
and religion also form the basis of
the Economic Cooperation Organization, which brings together ten non-Arab
Muslim countries: Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. One impetus
to the revival and expansion of this organization, founded originally in the
1960s by Turkey, Pakistan and Iran, is the realization by the leaders of
several of these countries that they had no chance of admission to the European
Community. Similarly, Caricom, the Central American Common Market and Mercosur
rest on common cultural foundations. Efforts to build a broader
Caribbean-Central American economic entity bridging the Anglo-Latin divide,
however, have to date failed.
We human evolves through period of times. Everyone does the same thing, When we evolves, our brain starts to generate ideas. THOSE ideas are the one who created what we have now and now, the civilization that we are so proudly holding on to. The civilized people that we are today. How can people say that civilization varies through economic?
So that was everything that we basically discuss on the FIRST session this week. I will post another one later today for the second session which is yesterday at 14/1/15. If so happen anyone who wants to comment on what I've said, please do. This is an open discussion to the whole world. Thank you and have a nice day.
Cheerios,
YiXin
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