Group Activity-Chapter 5

Summary

In the several centuries around 500 B.C.E., a major transformation happened across Eurasia. Almost all at one, in China, India, the Middle East, and Greece, cultural traditions began that spread across the world and have continued in a variety of forms into this century.

In India, Hinduism arose, and the religious reformer, Siddhartha Guatama, taught the religion known as Buddhism. In the Middle East, a religion began that was derived from the teachings of the Persian prophet Zarathustra, known as Zoroastrianism. In Greece, a tradition began that was founded on the writings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others.

China was one of the first civilizations and during the eighth century B.C.E., China’s original peace and orderly society was gone. It was called the “age of warring states.” Because of this, Chinese philosophers began to wonder how order could be restored so China could be peaceful again. One answer was known as “Legalism,” which believed that China must be ruled by laws with a system of rewards and punishments. China honored two wise ancestors, or founders of its religions: Kong Fuzi (Confucius) and Laozi, whose teachings began Confucianism and Daoism. Confucius is the more widely known sage, who was probably alive at the time of the Buddha. Confucius emphasized sincerity and kindness between superiors and inferiors in order to bring harmony to society. He and his disciples had a prominent role in the life of China during the 6^th century B.C.E. Another school of thought arose, called Daoism, which disagreed with Confucius’ belief in kindness and sincerity and believed people should withdrawal into nature and encouraged people to be natural and individualistic.

In India, the religious tradition was called Hinduism, which thought was that attention must be paid to the gods, spirits. They embraced the divine in all things. Some Hindus branched out and expanded on the traditions of the Brahmins and Vedas. They concentrated on the universe and the reason humans are on earth. The gurus were teachers of the Upanishads. Gurus were thinkers whose understanding and reasoning led others to believe that they have been chosen by the gods. The gurus’ students thought that they were more than human and they saw the teacher’s presence as heavenly.

At approximately the time that Hinduism was beginning, Buddhism was taking shape. The Buddha was born about 563 B.C.E. His name was Siddhartha Gautama and he was born of a wealthy family. Even though he enjoyed a happy childhood, as he got older he became restless and wanted to see the world outside of his palace. He left home and wandered the world, reaching enlightenment at age thirty-five. Much of his teachings were based on the Hindu traditions.

The Bhagavad Gita is a Hindu book of 700 verses. This book gives a variety of options for people who do not want to be reborn. The Gita probably was written sometime during the fourth century B.C.E. The setting for the book is a battlefield in which the god Krishna is disguised as a human. Krishna is the driver for Arjuna and Krishna tells Arjuna it is his duty to fight in order to bring good out of a bad situation. He tells Arjuna that he would be rejecting his duty if he doesn’t fight.

During the evolution of Chinese and Indian cultural traditions, the movement toward a single religious tradition took shape. It was called Zoroastriansim, which became the basis for both Christianity and Islam, which have shaped much of history over the past 2,000 years. Zoroastrianism referred to a single, unique god, called Ahura Mazda, who ruled the world and was a source of light, truth and goodness.

Group Discussion Questions

1. _______ was one of the first civilizations and during the ________ century B.C.E.,

 China’s original peace and orderly society was gone.

China was one of the first civilizations and during the eighth century B.C.E., China’s original peace and orderly society was gone.

2. In India, the religious tradition was called_____?

In India, the religious tradition was called Hinduism

3. The ­­­____ probably was written sometime during the ______ century B.C.E.

The Gita probably was written sometime during the fourth century B.C.E. The setting for the book is a battlefield in which the god Krishna is disguised as a human.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is a story in the form of a poem that was written on tablets about the twenty seventh century. Gilgamesh was the a powerful king of Uruk and he was two-thrids a god, one-third a man. The people of Uruk asked the goddess Aruru to create another man just like Gilgamesh. The goddess created Enkidu who was a haired bodied and wild man and who lived with wild animals. A prostitute named Shamhat went into the wilderness and met Enkidu, and then took him back to Uruk to meet Gilgamesh. Enkidu and Gilgamesh fought each other to prove who was the strongest, and then when Enkidu realized that Gilgamesh was the strongest, he gave in and became friends with Gilgamesh. The two of them traveled to many places to fight evil beings and monsters. Enkidu eventually died and Gilgamesh mourned his friend. Then Gilgamesh decided he didn’t want to die so he traveled to many places to find the answer to how he could live forever. He wanted to change his life and wanted to be a better man to himself and to his people so he looked for guidance everywhere. Gilgamesh finally realized that there’s no way to escape death and that everyone must die.

            Life and death the major points of this story. It is the story of all people who are born with different powers and abilities and talents. When they are young they try to use their powers, and they also need friends, companionship, to help them through life. There are always enemies that people meet in life, and many times those enemies become friends, like Gilgamesh and Enkidu. It is our friends that help us to deal with the problems of life, like fighting the battles as Gilgamesh and Enkidu did.

When I read the story, what caught my eye is when Gilgamesh saw Enkidu, I thought he saw a reflection of himself. Many times our friends are also reflections of ourselves because they have good qualities, like the strength that Enkidu had, and also weaknesses that Enkidu also had. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu were getting ready to fight, it reminded me that we sometimes was similar to fighting parts of ourselves that we don’t like. Then when Enkidu realized that Gilgamesh was stronger than him, he gave in. That seems to me to be similar to giving in and realizing that we can’t always be the strongest and the best at everything we do. It could also mean that sometimes we have a weakness or problem in our personality, but if we realize that it’s not so bad, then we can deal with it by giving in to it, accepting it, and loving it just as it is. Then we can turn a negative situation into a positive situation.  When Gilgamesh and Enkidu were telling each other about their dreams, Enkidu kept telling Gilgamesh that his dreams have meaning and he interpreted the dreams as being positive. For example, when Gilgamesh dreamed about the mountain falling on him and Enkidu, the dream was telling him it was Huwawa that was attacking him. This was Gilgamesh’ mind telling him that danger was coming. I think my dreams sometimes tell me about what is going to happen, but the challenge is to understand the dream so it can help me. That’s not always easy to do, to read between the lines of a dream that doesn’t seem to make sense.

Also, when Gilgamesh climbed to the top of a mountain, he prayed to the goddess Shamash, “May the mountain bring a fortunate dream from Shamash.” (P. 21) I think this part of the story is similar to the way I pay for good things to happen. It can also be similar to visualizing for good luck and good fortune. So even though this story was written over 5,000 years ago, it shows that all of the things that Gilgamesh and Enkidu said and did are a reflection of the same things that happen to human today, and the same things people today are afraid of, like death. People today are still looking for ways to stay alive forever because of fear of the unknown. It is also a fear of having our body fall apart because we identify so strongly with our bodies. When Gilgamesh goes into the nether world, it is a dream. In the dream he meets Enkidu who tells Gilgamesh that he can’t tell him what the nether world is like because he doesn’t want Gilgamesh to tell others what it is like. I think this dream is similar to dreams I have had where I dream of a person who has died and even though I can have a conversation with that person, I never find out what it is like to be on the other side, in the nether world.