Siddharthas Influences Essays - Buddhism, Indian Religions, Religion

Siddhartha's Influences Siddharthas Influences In the novel Siddhartha, Herman Hesse used other characters to let Siddhartha grow both intellectually and spiritually. During the course of his journey, Siddhartha encountered many people and experienced different ways of living and thinking about life. Each person taught him something about himself and the world around him. Siddharthas childhood friend, Govinda, educated him about the importance of choosing a path in his own life. Govinda had always been a step behind Siddhartha, following every decision he made. The one time he stepped out on his own, to accept the Buddha, he was merely following the path of thousands of others. Siddhartha saw this and he learned that he had to listen to himself even if he wound up making a wrong decision. Meeting with Govinda at the end of the novel reinforced his thought that one had to have experience in order to attain Nirvana -- not someone elses knowledge. After following Gotama for years Govinda still hadnt reached peace although Siddhartha had. Siddhartha had done things many would consider wrong and immoral and yet he reached something that many others wanted so desperately because he had experience. The beautiful courtesan, Kamala, taught Siddhartha the importance of love along with the pleasures of it. While in the town of Samsara, he was introduced to a life of luxuries by her. She taught him how to please a woman and how to keep her satisfied. He also learned how to gamble and the art of running a business from her friends. Although Siddhartha felt moments of joy, nothing fulfilled the longing in his soul. Over the years, one of the more important lessons he gained from Kamala was that he could have this life of pleasurable things and yet still yearn for a deeper meaning in his heart. Vasudeva, the ferryboat captain, was the most important person in Siddharthas life. If he hadnt allowed Siddhartha to live with him and share the beauty of the river, Siddhartha may have never reached Nirvana. Sitting with his pupil by the water and forcing him to listen and look into the depths led Siddhartha to his place of peacefulness. Educating Siddhartha was no easy task for Vasudeva. He let Siddhartha make mistakes with his son but gave him the knowledge and advice he needed. With this mans guidance, Siddhartha came into his life of happiness. Siddhartha met many people throughout his journey who had considerable impact on him. The experience he gained with each of these people gave him wisdom both intellectually and spiritually and eventually led him to Nirvana. Book Reports

The Ancient History of Silk Making and Silkworms

The Ancient History of Silk Making and Silkworms Silkworms (incorrectly spelled silk worms) are the larval form of the domesticated silk moth, Bombyx mori. The silk moth was domesticated in its native habitat of northern China from its wild cousin Bombyx mandarina, a cousin which still survives today. Archaeological evidence suggests that occurred about 3500 BC. The fabric we call silk is made from the long thin fibers produced by the silkworm during its larval stage. The insects intent is to create a cocoon for its transformation into the moth form. Silkworm farmers simply unravel the cocoons, each cocoon producing between 100-300 meters (325-1,000 feet) of fine, very strong thread. People make fabrics from the fibers produced by at least 25 different species of wild and domesticated butterflies and moths in the order Lepidoptera. Two versions of wild silkworm are exploited by silk manufacturers today, one in China and far eastern Russia called Chinese B. mandarina; and one in Japan and southern Korea called Japanese B. mandarina. The largest silk industry today is in India, followed by China and Japan, and more than 1,000 inbred strains of silkworms are kept worldwide today. What is Silk? Silk fibers are water-insoluble filaments that animals (chiefly the larval version of moths and butterflies, but also spiders) secrete from specialized glands. Animals store the chemicals fibroin and sericinsilkworm cultivation is often called sericultureas gels in the insects glands. As the gels are excreted, they are converted into fibers. Spiders and at least 18 different orders of insects make silk. Some use them to construct nests and burrows, but butterflies and moths use the excretions to spin cocoons. That ability that began at least 250 million years ago. The silkworm caterpillar feeds exclusively on the leaves from several species of mulberry (Morus), which contain a latex with very high concentrations of alkaloid sugars. Those sugars are toxic to other caterpillars and herbivores; silkworms have evolved to tolerate those toxins. Domestication History Silkworms are today completely dependent on humans for survival, a direct result of artificial selection. Other characteristics bred into the domestic silkworm caterpillar are a tolerance for human proximity and handling as well as for excessive crowding. Archaeological evidence indicates that the use of cocoons of the silkworm species Bombyx to produce cloth began at least as early as the Longshan period (3500-2000 BC), and perhaps earlier. Evidence of silk from this period is known from a few remnant textile fragments recovered from well-preserved tombs. Chinese historical records such as the Shi Ji report silk production and depict garments. Archaeological Evidence The Western Zhou Dynasty (11th-8th centuries BC) saw the development of early silk brocades. Many silk textile examples have been recovered from archaeological excavations of Mashan and Baoshan sites, dated to the Chu Kingdom (7th century BC) of the later Warring States period. Silk products and silkworm-rearing technologies came to play a critical role in Chinese trade networks and in the interaction of cultures among different countries. By the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 9), silk production was so important to international trade that the camel trails used to connect ChangAn with Europe were named the Silk Road. Silkworm technology spread to Korea and Japan about 200 BC. Europe was introduced to silk products through the Silk Road network, but the secret of silk fiber production remained unknown outside of eastern Asia until the 3rd century AD. Legend has it that the bride of a king of the Khotan oasis in far western China on the Silk Road smuggled silkworms and mulberry seeds to her new home and husband. By the 6th century, Khotan had a thriving silk production business. Sequencing the Silkworm A draft genome sequence for silkworms was released in 2004, and at least three re-sequences have followed, discovering genetic evidence that the domestic silkworm has lost between 33-49% of its nucleotide diversity compared to the wild silkworm. The insect has 28 chromosomes, 18,510 genes, and over 1,000 genetic markers. Bombyx has an estimated 432 Mb genome size, much larger than fruit flies, making the silkworm an ideal study for geneticists, particularly those interested in the insect order Lepidoptera. Lepidoptera includes some of the most disruptive agricultural pests on our planet, and geneticists hope to learn about the order to understand and combat the impact of silkworms dangerous cousins. In 2009, an open access database of the silkworms genome biology called SilkDB was published (see Duan et al). Genetic Studies Chinese geneticists Shao-Yu Yang and colleagues (2014) have found DNA evidence suggesting that the silkworm domestication process may have begun 7,500 years ago, and continued to around 4,000 years ago. At that time, silkworms experienced a bottleneck, losing much of its nucleotide diversity. Archaeological evidence does not currently support such a long domestication history, but the bottleneck date is similar to dates proposed for initial domestication. Another group of Chinese geneticists (Hui Xiang and colleagues 2013) has identified an expansion of silkworm population about 1,000 years ago, during the Chinese Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). Researchers suggest that may have been associated with the Song Dynasty Green Revolution in agriculture, predating Norman Borlaugs experiments by 950 years. Sources Deng H, Zhang J, Li Y, Zheng S, Liu L, Huang L, Xu W-H, Palli SR, and Feng Q. 2012. POU and Abd-A proteins regulate the transcription of pupal genes during metamorphosis of the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(31):12598-12603. Duan J, Li R, Cheng D, Fan W, Zha X, Cheng T, Wu Y, Wang J, Mita K, Xiang Z et al. 2010. SilkDB v2.0: a platform for silkworm (Bombyx mori) genome biology. Nucleic Acids Research  38 (Database Issue): D453-456. Russell E. 2017. Spinning their way into history: Silkworms, mulberries and manufacturing landscapes in China. Global Environment 10(1):21-53. Sun W, Yu H, Shen Y, Banno Y, Xiang Z, and Zhang Z. 2012. Phylogeny and evolutionary history of the silkworm. Science China Life Sciences 55(6):483-496.Xiang H, Li X, Dai F, Xu X, Tan A, Chen L, Zhang G, Ding Y, Li Q, Lian J et al. 2013. Comparative methylomics between domesticated and wild silkworms implies possible epigenetic influences on silkworm domestication. BMC G enomics 14(1):646. Xiong Z. 2014. The Hepu Han tombs and the maritime Silk Road of the Han Dynasty. Antiquity 88(342):1229-1243.Yang S-Y, Han M-J, Kang L-F, Li Z-W, Shen Y-H, and Zhang Z. 2014. Demographic history and gene flow during silkworm domestication. BMC Evolutionary Biology 14(1):185.

See attched Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

See attched - Essay Example The moral law is based â€Å"not in the nature of man, nor in the circumstances of the world in which man is placed, but †¦. A priori solely in the concepts of pure reason.†2 The categorical imperatives of Kant demand us not to tell a lie even when the life of someone may be at risk due to our rigid adherence to the moral rules.3 Helga and Springer have pointed out another outcome of the traditional rules of morality, that is, some feminists have started demanding the moral laws to be based on emotions and personal relationships. According to them, the traditional approach of moral rules places too much emphasis on abstract principles and the role of reason. Though both the views have some weight and there is also some room for criticism on the Kantian morality as well as the feminist approach of ethics of care and emotions, moral theory certainly should be based on rules. The main criticism of the moral theory based on rules is that these rules restrict our actions to do good which have good consequences. The human nature resists such restrictions and seeks liberty and freedom to do what pleases it. As the end of morality is to give happiness to the humanity, this happiness individual wish to seek through doing things according to their instincts rather than guided by some set of rules. That is why; the rules of morality often fail to bind human being to do good according to the set of rules. However, it is wrong to say that our ethical values should be based on our feelings more than the rules. Certainly, rules of morality provide us guidelines to do certain things and help us become civilized. For example, if people are let to do thi ngs instinctively, they would start fighting with other human beings just for the sake of their own pleasure. And if people are guided by their own feelings, they would prefer to do things according to what gratifies them rather than what is based on rational and reason. For instance, it is my feeling sometime that the