Tu-Shun

This passage makes the point of how we are all one. Not only with eachother, but with everything around us and every other aspect of reality as well. When we change, it is not really us that change, but the entire world and universe that changes as a single being. We are all different parts and pieces with different functions and purposes, but in reality, we are all the same- parts of something far bigger and incomprehensible to us.

We like to think of ourselves as individuals, and as our own beings, when in reality, we are nothing more than parts that make up a whole. When one of us changes, the whole changes. It does not matter who changes, it does not matter what changes. The change that occurs is never a change in an individual, but rather a change in reality, and a change in the universe.

I feel these are the points the reading is trying to make, and I feel they are very true and very relevant to our lives and understanding ourselves.

The Upanishads

The way that this reading depicts and describes God is very similar to the way I have conceptualized and come to understand God myself. Those who don't believe in God often claim that there is no proof of existence, and I would argue that to understand God is to understand that God does not follow what we call "logic" necessarily. God is greater and more complex, more profound than anything our minds could possibly get around and simplify, and until someone understands this they will never truly understand the concept of God. In this way I completely agree and relate to what is being said in this passage, and I feel it is a concept that very few people (at least the ones I've spoken with regarding it) have really seen or understood.

Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle makes many interesting points about life and the nature around us. I admire the way he can talk about the land beneath his feet, and the fact that his ancestors, and their ancestors have all walked and lived, struggled and thrived, on that very same land. The oneness with a place that has such meaning to it is very powerful to me, like the connection to where Jesus was born, or where Muhammad rose to heaven or traveled to mecca.

Modern society has lost touch with the idea that there is any meaning to the lives before us. People are seldom remembered vividly or actively throughout the lives of their grandchildren, and never in their grandchildren's children. It is sad that while we learn of major events of the past which we call history, we have no sense of our own histories and our own pasts. We know what is deemed necessary to know by the rest of the world or country, and no longer put much, if any at all, importance on knowing who we are and who and where we come from.

Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha

In readings like this, the hypocrisies that white Christian's displayed is undeniable. They preach love and good values, but in reality practice more hate and exhibit more poor moral standards than the Native people who they call savages.

The words of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha couldn't be more true. Their eyes are wide opened, while those of their oppressors are shut, as it is in almost any case involving an oppressor and his or her victims.

The persevering kindness and selflessness of the Native Americans in itself, to me, is an indicator of their heart. After being betrayed, lied to, and mistreated by the white settlers, they continue to try to work with them and be open-minded to what they are saying. It is truly disgusting, in my opinion, the way the chief is treated after his speech when trying to extend a hand of understanding to the Christian minister.