The Civil War Essay Example for Free

The Civil War Essay After the Civil War, the South was solidly and reliably Democratic for a full century. In large part, this was a reaction to Lincoln, who most southerners saw as a tyrant and an aggressor. Since Lincoln was the first Republican president in American history, it was guaranteed that the Republican Party would be widely unpopular in the South. In the mind of the South, the Civil War was not about slavery, but about the right of southern states to have large amounts of independence from the federal government in Washington. After the Civil War, southerners saw the Republicans as the party of â€Å"big government† or â€Å"centralized power†, who cared little for the autonomy of individual states within the union. After the Civil War, the Republican Party forced white southerners to allow newly-freed black to exercise their constitutional rights by voting, running for office, and serving in local governments. This caused further resentment for the Republican Party by southern whites. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, allowed white supremacy to return to the South after Reconstruction ended. It portrayed itself as the party of states’ rights, as opposed to the overbearing and domineering Republicans. The southern shift away from the Democratic Party was largely a result of the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Many southerners saw blacks not as Americans simply demanding their constitutionally-guaranteed rights, but rather as troublemakers, perhaps backed by the communist party. As the moral clarity and the inevitably triumph of the civil rights movement became clear to increasing numbers of Americans, the federal government was forced to act. After all, the protestors were demanding nothing radical; they simply wanted the federal government to guarantee that no state could deprive a citizen of his or her civil rights. Due more to coincidence than anything else, a Democrat was President when these issues came to a head. It was Lyndon Johnson, a southern Democrat, who signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in the mid-1960’s. Southerners felt betrayed by these actions. To them, these acts were further examples of the federal government dictating from Washington how individual states should run their affairs. The South’s argument had little or no constitutional merit, but great emotional weight. When soldiers protected black children who were attending newly-integrated schools, for example, many southerners felt it was the Civil War all over again; the prosperous and arrogant North was enforcing its own values on the South. Due to these feelings of betrayal, vast numbers of Southerners switched to the Republican Party, and they did so rapidly. Richard Nixon was the first to exploit the â€Å"southern strategy†, using thinly-veiled racist paranoia to convince southerners that the Democratic Party had sold them out. Nixon convinced the conservative South that law and order was threatened by the Democrats’ big-government excesses, as protests and race riots raged throughout the nation. Almost overnight in political terms, this shift of allegiance took hold and Nixon achieved what had been unthinkable for a century; he was a Republican who won the presidency in large part due to southern support. This trend has held solidly for the last forty years. While southerners are no longer overtly racist, they still point to culturally conservative values, small government, and states’ rights as the reasons for their once- unimaginable shift to the Republican Party.

Belfast Travellers: Services and Policies

Belfast Travellers: Services and Policies Case Study – Belfast Travellers The case study examines the provision of accommodation and other services for the travelling community in the Belfast area over a 30 year time period. During this time many different agencies, including the Department of the Environment (DoE), the Belfast City Council (BCC), the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) and a number of voluntary sector organizations, were involved in attempting to provide services to the travellers. This essay will examine the degree to which the travellers participated in specifying their needs and in designing policies to address them, and relate such consultation to different concepts of participation mentioned by Cornwall (2003). The concluding paragraph will evaluate the success, or otherwise, of such participation in delivering a sense of empowerment and self-reliance to the travelling community. Although community development has been a strategy of both statutory and voluntary sectors in Northern Ireland (NI) for many years[1], until relatively recently it does not seem to have been applied to the travelling community. This process works at a community level, through community groups and the appointment of local community development workers who â€Å"engage with the community to identify needs, raise issues, and develop programmes †¦ to address those needs†.[2] Although this strategy was no doubt consciously applied to the settled community, there is little evidence of it being used before 1992 with the travelling community. For example, the initial issues for providing accommodation for the travellers involved the provision of camping sites. At the Colin Glen site there were problems of overcrowding, compounded by the relocation to the site of families unrelated to those already there, which caused conflict between the groups. A contributing factor to this dete rioration was the lack of consultation with the travellers before moving additional families to the site. The entire site was eventually abandoned[3]. Initially the BCC provided sites, but these were often poorly serviced and were built without proper consultation. Responsibility for providing accommodation for travellers was later moved to the NIHE, and travellers were consulted about which families would be housed in group housing, developed through the use of housing associations.[4] However, they were not active in the running of the housing associations.[5] A report from 1980 titled Services for Travelling People in NI, issued by the Coordinating Committee for Social Problems, stated that the various voluntary sector agencies involved with the travelling community felt that they had effective policies, even though there had been no consultation with travellers.[6] More encouragingly, the Belfast Travellers Site Project (BTSP) was set up in 1985 with a committee consisting of 50 % travellers and 50% settled people. Its aims were to improve sites in Belfast and to have an input into policies regarding travellers in general.[7] In 1992 BTSP initiated a number of community-based activities, and one of their most important initiatives was that travellers were employed to work as community workers in their own communities. This initiative seems to fall within Cornwall’s description of â€Å"invited participation†.[8] Amongst the successes of the community development approach, the committee felt it had contributed to â€Å"an increase in the travellers’ sense of worth and the value of their particular culture†.[9] The state also played its part in trying to create an environment in which citizens could give input about issues affecting them. More attention was given to a rights-based approach to development, and in 1998 the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was established, which gave the travellers an opportunity to make official complaints.[10] This resonates with what the study guide has to say about the â€Å"concept of citizenship† [11] as well as with Cornwall’s concept of an â€Å"aware citizenry†[12] Probably the most important improvement in the possibilities for participation came from the creation of An Munia Tober ((The Good Road) in 2005, from an amalgamation of a number of smaller community groups. Their objectives are â€Å"to provide services and act as an advocate for travellers, as well as offering opportunities for travellers to be involved in their own development† [13] In general, the voluntary sector has been consistent in trying to encourage the travellers to share in decision making and to participate in the management of projects, and several agencies have included representatives from travellers. However, travellers still feel that there is insufficient consultation. Those that do participate often feel that their views are not given due weight. For this reason, groups that work with travellers continue to promote their active participation, and try to help them to obtain the skills they need to contribute effectively. A proposed â€Å"All Ireland study on Travellers†, due to have started in 2007, intended to train travellers as researchers. The intention was not only to teach new skills, but also to impart increased ownership, improve confidence, and thereby reduce any inhibitions against forcefully arguing their case. [14] The success or failure of the various interventions in obtaining participation from the travelling community, and thereby imbuing them with a sense of empowerment and self-reliance, is difficult to judge. Certainly, the failures to obtain input and participation resulted in notable disasters, such as at Colin Glen. The Traveller Movement (NI) concluded that there had been â€Å"a policy failure of staggering proportions† in the treatment of travellers in general.[15] However, the success of the NIHE in accommodating over 50% of the travellers in group housing, consulting with them about which families to house together, demonstrates that a participative approach can produce good results. The policies of the BTSP in employing travellers as community workers, and in involving greater numbers of travellers in educational and health related activities, have contributed to an improvement in their sense of worth. On balance, both the negative consequences of non-participation, and t he positive results from consultative approaches, tend to indicate that participation does contribute to a sense of empowerment and self-reliance. Bibliography Course Book Cornwall, A. (2003) Looking back to move forward in Cornwall, A. Beneficiary, Consumer, Citizen: Perspectives on Participation for Poverty Reduction, Stockholm, SIDA. Le Mare, A (2006) Belfast travellers: a case study of the provision of housing and services for the travelling community in Belfast Word Count: With footnotes:1065 Without footnotes:1006 1 Footnotes [1] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 7 [2] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 7 [3] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 9 [4] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 10 [5] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 15 [6] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 11 [7] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 11 [8] Cornwall, A. 2003: 76-7 [9] Belfast Travellers, 2006 12/13 [10] Belfast Travellers, 2006 14 [11] Course Book: 65 [12] Cornwall, A. 2003: 76 [13] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 16 [14] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 17 [15] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 13 Should The Governments Regulate The Internet? Should The Governments Regulate The Internet? In 20th centuries, number of net citizen is growing fast around the World. Survey conducted by Internet Usage Statistics shows that over twenty-five percent of world population are internet users [11]. Because of the internet popularizing trend, the importance of Internet censorship has also risen. As a result, I believe that the Internet should be regulated by the Governments. This article is going to discuss mainly three areas. They are social, economical and political. Exploring the advantages and disadvantages on implementing regulation on the Internet, by reviewing current situations between United States, China and Hong Kong, what regulation have been done on the Internet. I picked Hong Kong as my studied area, as it is my living place, it is necessary to be concerned. While Hong Kong is executing One Country Two System, my motherland China, carrying out one system only, is also reviewed in this article. United States, which is claimed to be a model country of advocate peoples freedom, is chosen for comparison as a role of foreign country. There would be different aspects and outcomes of regulating the Internet within these three countries. Followed by, my reason on supporting Government should regulate the Internet. Firstly, I am going to discuss social issue. Public health is one reason supporting regulation on the Internet. Nowadays, many pornography sites can be accessed easily by just clicking Im above 18.. Children would get sex and harmful information from these sites easily without parent guidance. Thus, Internet control has become important to protect children. In United States, Communications Decency Act (CDA), established in 1996, regulates on offensive and obscenity content [23]. For Hong Kong, there is also law for obscene and violence control. It is called Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Chapter 390) [14]. According to South Sina News (2007), a Hong Kong netizen, Mr. Woo, was sentenced as he published obscene links on the Internet [13]. When compare to Chinese Government, they only have some agreements on Internet control, there is no a concrete law that the internet censorship should follows. Thus, internet censorship in China is mainly held by filtering systems , or firewall. A common blocking system in China would be Green Dam Youth Escort (Green Dam) [20]. It is designed to filter illegal contents. Start from May, 2009, the software is required to pre-install in personal computers produced by China. The system protects children from violence and pornography. Problem of cyber-bullying is also one factor affecting public health. It causes psychological harm to netizens. In America, Megan Taylor Meier was committed suicide because a friends mother, Lori Drew. She humiliated Megan. Drew created a male account named Josh Evans, and bully Megan on the Internet. After investigation, Lori Drew was caught. This is not the only case that would cause psychological harm. In Hong Kong, net citizens would post persons data on the internet when they think the person is misconducted. Privacy like phone numbers, address, working place, etc., is exposed. Daily lives of many victims are badly affected. They are afraid to be recognized outside home. Tsui Yu Hin [5] is one of victims in Hong Kong. He was insulted by netizens pushing his pregnant girlfriend down elevator. Netizens setup a facebook group blaming his misbehavior. This affair was interrupting Tsuis living, he kept receiving disturbing phone calls. Cyber-bullying would cause victims more depressi on, negative impact on working or academic performance, extreme violent behavior such as murder or committed suicide. To prevent cyber-bullying, American has established the Megan Meier Cyber-bullying Prevention Act, this is one of the first cyber-bullying laws that protects children and adults from disturbs. This is a case that showing netizens are needed to take consequences for what they have done on the internet. I believe it is a good way to lighten the problem of cyber-bullying. Chinese and Hong Kong Government should follow the actions taken of U.S. Secondly, the economy issue is discussed. Foreign-invested enterprise, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc., that are widely-used, has potential to strengthen the links between countries and global economy. Businesses such as mobile phones connecting Google, are being popular. Besides, companies can gain from owning the copyright. Protecting copyright would help providing a fair competition environment. As a result, Governments establish laws to accuse infringing on Copyrights currently, including film industry, music industry, etc., mainly related to creativity. One law in United States, Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999, [21], legislate the registration of domain names with trademarks. Though Hong Kong does not have same law, there is another potential law for protecting rights of trademark owners. The Intellectual Property Department [7] is set up to handle copyright, designs, personal intellectual properties and trademarks. Rules correlated to Trade Mark s Ordinance, Patents Ordinance, and Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance are introduced to protect creativity and balance the interest of the right owners and society. CHAN Nai Ming, a Hong Kong citizen, was jailed as he uploaded Hollywood films onto the Internet, while it is violating the copyright. While in China, there is also copyright registry on the website of National Copyright Administration of the Peoples Republic of China [12]. It is clear that regulating internet by the Government could be beneficial to economy factor. Lastly, political issue is discussed. Sensitive contents, mainly related to religion and politics, are usually filtered. In United States, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was introduced on May 18, 1977. [22]. It limits foreign governments, groups, or individuals (e.g. spies), that would cause international terrorism, and attacks. It prevents citizens to perform illegal activities. In China, filtering is required for protecting citizen from misconduct contents. MySpace China is one of the samples applied filtering. [2]. Sensitive topics are filtered, for example, Taiwan independence. In MySpace China, there is an abused report function for users. Abused account would be block when found that the abuse is true. This could help catching illegal netizens. Chinese Government would even interfere in administration of company or limit individuals freedom. Huang Qi [10][18], a website owner criticized the role of government in the student massacre June 4th 1989 in his website. G overnment considered his website content as illegal, as a result, Huang Qi was arrested on 3 June 2000, and facts stated on his website were blocked. In 2009, thousands of protesters took to the streets in Xinjiang Riot. Officials reported that protesters made use of Twitter/Facebook to gather themselves in Xinjiang Province. Many unauthorized postings on local sites and Google were limited by censors during and after the riots. Based on BBC News, search engine Google was blocked by China [1][3]. It was because China requested Google to filter controversial materials but Google denied. As a result, there is no Google.cn found on the internet. This shows that, when filtering or blocking is carried out, information transmission is limited. This would be beneficial to the Government. By controlling the access right, negative information about the government can be blocked. By looking at the cases in China and America, they show that filtering and setting up laws can help protecting national security, keeping netizens away from getting offending information. However, on the Internet users point of view, filtering would have an impact on getting updated news because filtering may block more than expected. Lots of useful information may be blocked. The regulation is far from perfect. Though there is such disadvantage, I believe internet should still be regulated by the government. When compared the level of internet censorship between Hong Kong and China, it is less strict in Hong Kong. Net citizens in Hong Kong have rooms to criticize the Government on the Internet, which would help monitoring the Government. When Hong Kong Government was introducing 2012 Act Now, net citizens were teasing by creating similar slogan and logo 2012 All Wrong. Though the censorship level is lower, there are still laws managing the disciplines on the internet. According to Ming Pao Newspaper (2008), netizen spread the message Hong Kong will become a city of SARS [4][6]. Large numbers of people were frightened and thus bought and stored rice bulkily. The netizen was sentenced Access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent [9][24]. It shows that net citizens are still required to take responsibilities. To summarize, internet censorship would be beneficial on social, economical and political areas, protecting privacy and intelligence property, keeping social order and public health. It is clear that Internet-censorship is necessary as Governments in different countries are already taking actions to control the Internet. Despite the advantages, in my point of view, Governments should regulate the Internet because it is more effective to carry out the disciplines from top-down strategy. Followed by, having the cooperation from other roles, such as webmaster. To me, an effective regulation should extend to set up laws only. Citizens would know that he/she need to take consequence even on virtual world. Person violating laws would be arrested, where there is room for the freedom of speech on the Internet. In conclusion, regulation is beneficial on many aspects. It could help protecting privacy and intelligence property, keeping social order and public health. Though Internet censorship is a difficult task to perform, it is a necessary action taken.

The Teachings Of Buddha And Buddhism

The Teachings Of Buddha And Buddhism Buddha is the principal figure in the religion of Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses and simple rules, which involve the renouncing of earthly pursuits in order to wholly devote ones self to spiritual work, are believed to have been summarized after his demise and are memorized by his followers. Collections of the teachings attributed to him were originally passed down to generations by oral tradition, and were first committed to writing about 400 years after his death. In other religions such as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Hinduism, Buddha is regarded as a prophet and in others, a god. Followers of this religion recognize Buddha as an enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help beings that are not enlightened and are therefore confined to death, rebirth and suffering to achieve nirvana. Nirvana refers to a supreme state which allows one to be free of suffering and selfish or individual existence. Nirvana allows an individual to blow out the fires of hatred, greed and delusion and therefore end the cycle of suffering in the individuals life. The two major branches of Buddhism are Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada, which is the oldest surviving branch, refers to the school of elders, and is widespread in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Mahayana is widely practiced in East Asia and Vajrayana, a subcategory of Mahayana, is recognized as a third branch and is practiced in Tibet and Mongolia. Though Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now seen to spread throughout the world with estimates of around 350-500 million followers worldwide. The core foundation of Buddhist belief and practice are the three treasures or jewels i.e. the three things that Buddhists look toward for guidance and take refuge in, are the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Buddha refers to the historical founder of Buddhism or can be interpreted to mean the highest spiritual potential that exists within nature. The Dharma refers to the teachings of Buddha while the Sangha refers to the community of those individuals who have attained enlightenment, and who may help a practicing Buddhist attain the same. Taking refuge in the triple jewels distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist and traditionally, it has been a declaration and commitment to following the Buddhist path. Other practices in Buddhism may include renouncing conventional living, becoming part of and supporting the monastic community as well as practice of meditation. Even though less than 1% of Americas are Buddhists, it is difficult to overlook the prominence of Buddhism today in American culture. This can mainly be attributed to the media focus on celebrity converts, popular films and the increasing popularity of the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist leader of spiritual officials of the Gelug people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism has expanded through a broad spectrum of American culture, including film, art, literature, and psychology. The history of Buddhism in the United States can be traced back to the Chinese laborers who came to the United States in 1820, to work on the railroads. Henry David Thoreau, an American poet, also played an important role in the popularization of Buddhism with his translation of the Lotus Sutra, a 3rd century Buddhist text. By 1993, there were over 1000 Buddhist temples and monasteries in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. As recent public opinion surveys illustrate, Americans typically seek for new religious expression. Additionally, Americans demonstrated the desire to be different from the living styles offered by conventional religions. According to this same survey, more than 44% of Americans had left their original religions to seek for other religions they thought to be more fulfilling; Buddhism being one of them. Though ambiguous, Buddhisms appeal to the contemporary American society can sometimes be contradictory, with a thin line being between the end of practicing Buddhism as a fashionable and trendy practice, and the beginning of devotional focus on this ancient religion. Buddhism has predictably invaded the American culture with vegetarian restaurants, health food stores and even some movies attributing part of their success to this religion. To many Americans, Buddhism has become an all-encompassing, primary gateway to meaningful life. Buddhist concepts on life and the world are continuously being adopted into the American culture. A good example is Karma which according to the Buddhist teachings, is the force that drives the cycle of actions that produce seeds in an individuals mind that are sure to come true either in this current life or in a subsequent rebirth. The avoidance of unpleasant actions and the nurturing of positive actions is called sila, which can be translated to ethical conduct. According to Buddhist teachings, karma is used to refer to the actions of the mind, body, as well as speech, that originate spring from the psychological intent and which bring a result or consequence. In Theravada Buddhism, since karma is a purely impersonal process that is part of the structure of the universe, there can be no divine deliverance or forgiveness for ones action. However, other forms of Buddhism, such as the Vajrayana, regard the recitation of mantras, a sound, syllable, utterance or a group of words, as a way of cutting off previous negative karma. This concept helps an individual understand that everything that happens to him or her is as a result of their actions and we should therefore struggle to do good deeds. Buddhism rejects the concept of an unchanging or permanent self with an eternal soul as in other religions like Hinduism and Christianity. Instead, Buddhist teachings emphasize on rebirth, the process whereby beings go through a series of lifetimes as one of several possible forms of sentient life, with each running from conception. Rebirth can be understood as the continuation of an ever-changing process which is determined by the laws of reason and karma, or effect, as opposed to that of one life form incarnating from one life to the next. This concept of Buddhism emphasizes on the need for a being to do good while in the current life in order to attract good karma in their subsequent lives. Sentient beings desire pleasure and are averse to pain from their birth to death. In being controlled by these desires, they bring about the cycle of habituated suffering and existence, and produce the causes and conditions of the subsequent rebirth after death. Every rebirth repeats this process in an uncontrolled cycle, which Buddhists try to end by applying the teachings of the Buddha and subsequent Buddhists, as a way of eradicating these causes and conditions. Buddhist teachings accentuate that all the sufferings that any sentient being goes through has causes and solutions. This is especially revealed in the four noble truths which were the first teachings of Buddha after he attained Nirvana. They contain the essence of Buddhas teachings which maintain that life ultimately leads to suffering, which in turn is cause by desire. This is frequently expressed as a deluded clinging to selfhood or a certain sense of existence which we consider to cause happiness or unhappiness. Suffering only ends when desire ends, which can only be achieved by eliminating delusion, thus reaching a liberated state of enlightenment i.e. Nirvana. The only way to reach this state is by following the path and teachings laid out by the Buddha. This concept emphasizes on the renouncing of ones self in order to free his or herself from worldly sufferings. The Middle Way, which is said to have been discovered by the Buddha before his enlightenment, is one of the most important guiding principles of Buddhist practice. It can be defined as a path of moderation, away from the limits of self indulgence and can explain Nirvana, a state in which it becomes clear that al dualities in the world result to nothingness. In order o be liberated from suffering, one develops dispassion for worldly objects which can be achieved by viewing things as characterized by the three marks of existence which are suffering, impermanence and not-self. Impermanence expresses the Buddhist notion that everything is in constant flux and nothing lasts. Therefore, we should not fix our nature to any object or experience. The notion asserts that everything is impermanent, and attachment to anything is futile and only leads to suffering. Suffering, on the other hand, can be equated to misery and according to the Buddhist teachings; it is often as a result of the individuals actions. Not-self, the third mark of existence is an approach for gaining release from suffering. The phenomenon of I or mine, are constructed by the mind and are metaphysical assertions that bind an individual to suffering. By carefully analyzing the continually changing physical and mental constituents of a person or object, one comes to the conclusion that neither a person, nor any individual parts as a whole comprise a self. Nirvana, which can be translated to extinction, allows a being to be freed from suffering and the cycle of involuntary rebirths. In some Buddhist categories, it refers only to the elimination of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in an individual who attained nirvana and that one needed to attain bodhi, the awakening of arahants (those who have achieved awakening). This is the only way that an individual attains complete nirvana at the moment of death, the time when the physical body expires. In the Theravada doctrine of Buddhism, a person may arise from the sleep of ignorance and directly realize the true nature of reality. Such people are referred to as arahants and occasionally as buddhas. After numerous lifetimes of religious strivings, arahants reach the end of the cycle of rebirth, and no longer reincarnate as human, animal, ghost, or any other being. In Mahayana, the Buddha is viewed as merely human but as an earthly projection of an endless, omnipresent being beyond range or reach of thought. Moreover, the Buddha, Sangha and Dharma are seen as the eternal Buddha in certain Mahayana sutras. Celestial Buddhas though they no longer exist on the material plane of existence, still aid in the enlightenment of all beings. Devotion and practice are an important part of the Buddhist way of life. Devotional practices include offerings, bowing and chanting. It incorporates states of meditative absorption with liberating cognition. According to Buddhas teachings, meditative states alone are not an end to liberation. Instead, some mental activity must take place, based on the practice of mindful awareness in order to attain complete liberation. In the centuries preceding the Buddha, meditation was a feature of the practice of the yogis. Later on, the Buddha built upon the yogis concern and developed their meditative techniques, though he rejected their theories of liberation. In Buddhism, clear and mindful awareness was to be observed at al times, which was not the case in pre-Buddhist yogic practices. According to the Buddha, religious knowledge or vision was as a result of perfect meditation coupled with the perfection of discipline. The contemporary American culture has heavily borrowed this section of t he Buddhist doctrine by the practice of yoga as a means of liberation. Buddhist ethics, Sila, which is translated to virtuous behavior or morality, is an action involving intentional effort, and is committed through the body, speech or mind. It refers to maintaining the moral purity of word, thought or deed. It involves four conditions; chastity, quiet, calmness, and extinguishment. It is the foundation of meditative or mind cultivation. Observance of these precepts not only promotes the peace of mind for the individual observing them, but also peace in the community, which is external. According to the law of karma, observing these precepts is estimable and it promotes causes which bring about happy and peaceful effects. Buddhas monastic rules are designed to assure a satisfying life and constantly remind his followers that it is the spirit that counts. Buddhist meditation is concerned with transformation of the mind, and using it to explore other phenomena. Zen Buddhism became popular in Japan, Korea and China, and lays special emphasis on meditation and prefers to focus on direct spiritual breakthroughs to truth, unlike other forms of Buddhism which lay emphasis on scriptures. According to the Zen Buddhist teachings, thinking and thought must not be permitted to confine and bind an individual in order to penetrate the realm of the Formless Self. Many Americans have borrowed liberally from the wide variety of Buddhist traditions in an effort to seek a calmer and more satisfying way of life. Though there is tension between the Buddhistss vision of reality which emphasizes on the renouncing of ones self with the American culture which emphasizes on individualism, Buddhism has continued to thrive in America. This could be attributed to the American Buddhists who have developed reciprocity with this faith: as the faith changes them, they have changed the faith also. Historically, wherever Buddhism has spread, it has responded as a dynamic improvement to the emotional needs and customs of the locals. Buddhism has a wide range of spiritual practices and the adoption of its spiritual techniques is especially appealing to some Americans who find activities like meditation and chanting useful in helping to find a path to increasing compassion and wisdom. This is because Buddhism has no devotion to a god or a firm belief in deity, but emphasizes the introspection of ones true nature and kindness to all sentient beings. It is this Buddhism flexibility that allows it to be copied by other religions without significant conflict with the beliefs. Majority of Americans seem to appreciate the fact that Buddhism has managed to escape the depressing history of sectarian violence that has been seen to characterize majority of the Western religions. Instead, Buddhism continues to focus on the affirmation of an individuals potential and teaches that enlightenment is not only achievable but also unavoidable. American culture has also had a positive effect on Buddhism tradition too. The American commitment to feminism can be seen to balance the prejudiced aspects of Asian culture that have permitted the existence of Buddhism over the centuries. With more Americans discovering the value of Buddhist religious practices and the Buddhist way of life, Buddhism is now becoming an accepted path within many religions in the country. Buddhism is being modified to meet the American peoples needs for a socially engaged and democratic form of religious practice. In the American culture, the concept of God has been seen to evolve from that of an omnipresent, omnipotent presence to define various concepts like love, energy or spirit. Despite the continuing evolutions of the Americans conception of God, other religions, such as Buddhism, have not changed significantly. By contrast, Buddhism has changed its major emphasis from theism to spiritual humanism. Core beliefs in Buddhism include finding immortality in the examples that individuals set and the work they do as well as showing love to all other beings. As in does not emphasize on deities, Buddhism helps individuals gain insight on from other religions and cultures and recognize the power within ones self. Through Karma, which though, originally from India is inscribed in Buddhists teachings, individuals learn and understand that they are responsible for what they do and become, both as individuals and as members of a community. By meditation, individuals deeply connect personally with themselves and through prayers and reverence; they acquire purification, or cleansing of their emotional, physical, spiritual and mental parts. Physical cleansing is acquired as the sweat carries out the toxins out from the individuals body while the mental cleansing is achieved from the individual releasing their worries and troubled thoughts to the surrounding. The spiritual cleansing offers a connection to the spirit while emotional cleansing is a combination of al the above. The process of the se cleansings brings an individual to a calmer and more grounded state, leaving them more peaceful with themselves and their lives. In Tibetan Buddhism, the mandala is seen as an aid to meditation and it expresses the intuition of the mysticism in humanity as a diagram of the spiritual life. In Buddhism, it is an image constructed through powerful meditation, discipline, and concentration. It is aimed at finding a balance between the inward and outward conflicting opposites of life in order for individuals to coexist in harmony with nature. The mandala philosophy is based on the fact that one-sidedness, of any nature, can lead to illness, depression, loss of energy flow or stagnation. Many Americans have borrowed mandala, meaning magic circle, from the Buddhist tradition in order to reconcile and harmonize various aspects of their lives. Mandala cannot be brought about by force or will but is a natural, unending process of development which expresses itself in symbols of cosmic and spiritual completeness. In American culture, mandalas occur in dances and artwork, where like snowflakes, mandalas occur in countless forms, with the most common being the cross, flower or star and they have a tendency toward fourfold structures. This fourfold unity reflects the natural division of the universe into four directions, four seasons, four elements as well as the fourfold structure of the soul. Buddhism teachings

Free Scarlet Letter Essay: Is Hester Patterned after Anne Hutchinson? :: Scarlet Letter essays

Is The Scarlet Letter's Hester Patterned after Anne Hutchinson? Four Works Cited There are some things that could have happened to Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter if she had followed the footsteps of Anne Hutchinson. Anne Hutchinson believed differently from most Puritans in the 1640's. She held these beliefs with all her heart. People did not like her for that so they banished her. Hester Prynne commits adultery, but she handles it differently than Anne. She does not believe with all her heart that it was the right thing to do, so she is not punished as severely as Anne was. Hester begins by doing something against the authorities but she handles it differently than Anne did. In chapter one of The Scarlet Letter, Anne Hutchinson is considered a heroine because of her imprisonment. The chapter describes a rosebush that grew from where Anne had stepped into the prison. Rose bushes are usually associated with passion (beauty plus pain) or the church (as in Dante). Anne had a passion about her beliefs about the church and is a heroine. This rose bush grew in memory of her. Hester Prynne herself walks into this prison for almost the same reason as Anne Hutchinson. Hester had a passion symbolized by the rose also. She had a different kind of passion, though. It was not for her beliefs, but for a man of the church, Rev. Dimmesdale. This passion was in the church (the rose) but people in the church opposed this passion, just as they opposed Anne Hutchinson. The rose symbolizes what happened to both women. Right away Anne was considered a threat to authority because of her growing number of followers. People said her meetings were disorderly, but she said she was following God. Mostly because she was being more than a wife and mother and going above her place as a woman, the church banished her. The church leadership was getting upset because she had said that certain pastors were wrong and that people should live only under a "Covenant of Grace," not works, something which sounded like antinomianism. They figured that getting rid of her was the only answer. Hester had really done something wrong and deserved punishment according to the law. She had to wear a scarlet letter A. The way she handles the punishment is very different from Anne Hutchison.

Title Of The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

Gatsby's Greatness   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is much controversy on why F. Scott Fitzgerald chose his masterpiece to be title The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald chose The Great Gatsby as the title to show the duality of how the central character of Jay Gatsby is great in trying determinedly to achieve his goal of Daisy, but how his 'greatness'; brings about his own downfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gatsby is, at first glance, truly great, for he pursues his dream of Daisy relentlessly. Jordan Baker, in a conversation with Nick Carraway, lets him know that Gatsby wanted to let Daisy know how rich and powerful was; how 'he [wanted] her to see his house,'; which is extravagant. Gatsby wants to impress Daisy with his newfound wealth in order to bring her back to him. Gatsby is also highly optimistic about achieving his goal, and thinks that he 'is going to fix everything just the way it was before.'; Gatsby does not want to lose sight of his dream through petty pessimism. Gatsby also has unending loyalty to his goal of pursuing Daisy. When Daisy strikes and hits Myrtle with Gatsby's car, Gatsby takes the blame for it. He believes that lying for her will help him in his quest to get Daisy to love him. Gatsby is great in his unyielding pursuit for Daisy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately, however, Gatsby can only be considered great in a sarcastic tone, for the way in which he pursues his noble goal brings results in some one getting hurt. His great optimism that everything will be just the way it was delays and intensifies the effects of the inevitable fact that his encounter with Daisy was nothing but a 'presumptuous little flirtation'; to Tom, which Daisy tacitly agrees with. Gatsby also has acquired his great wealth from bootlegging the sale of illegal liquor. Liquor ends up most of the time in helping people such as the ones at the one of the many huge parties get hurt, such as the time in which Tom breaks Myrtle's nose. By helping the distribution of liquor, Gatsby is hurting people, though he cannot see it. Title Of The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers Gatsby's Greatness   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is much controversy on why F. Scott Fitzgerald chose his masterpiece to be title The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald chose The Great Gatsby as the title to show the duality of how the central character of Jay Gatsby is great in trying determinedly to achieve his goal of Daisy, but how his 'greatness'; brings about his own downfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gatsby is, at first glance, truly great, for he pursues his dream of Daisy relentlessly. Jordan Baker, in a conversation with Nick Carraway, lets him know that Gatsby wanted to let Daisy know how rich and powerful was; how 'he [wanted] her to see his house,'; which is extravagant. Gatsby wants to impress Daisy with his newfound wealth in order to bring her back to him. Gatsby is also highly optimistic about achieving his goal, and thinks that he 'is going to fix everything just the way it was before.'; Gatsby does not want to lose sight of his dream through petty pessimism. Gatsby also has unending loyalty to his goal of pursuing Daisy. When Daisy strikes and hits Myrtle with Gatsby's car, Gatsby takes the blame for it. He believes that lying for her will help him in his quest to get Daisy to love him. Gatsby is great in his unyielding pursuit for Daisy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately, however, Gatsby can only be considered great in a sarcastic tone, for the way in which he pursues his noble goal brings results in some one getting hurt. His great optimism that everything will be just the way it was delays and intensifies the effects of the inevitable fact that his encounter with Daisy was nothing but a 'presumptuous little flirtation'; to Tom, which Daisy tacitly agrees with. Gatsby also has acquired his great wealth from bootlegging the sale of illegal liquor. Liquor ends up most of the time in helping people such as the ones at the one of the many huge parties get hurt, such as the time in which Tom breaks Myrtle's nose. By helping the distribution of liquor, Gatsby is hurting people, though he cannot see it.

Marketing Mix Essay

Marketing is a business function that identifies consumer needs, determines target markets and applies products and services to serve these markets. It also involves promoting such products and services within the marketplace. Marketing is integral to the success of a business, large or small, with its primary focus on quality, consumer value and customer satisfaction. A strategy commonly utilised is the â€Å"Marketing Mix†. This tool is made up of four variables known as the â€Å"Four P’s† of marketing. The marketing mix blends these variables together to produce the results it wants to achieve in its specific target market. The following describes the four P’s of marketing: Product Products are the goods and services that your business provides for sale to your target market. When developing a product you should consider quality, design, features, packaging, customer service and any subsequent after-sales service. Place Place is in regards to distribution, location and methods of getting the product to the customer. This includes the location of your business, shop front, distributors, logistics and the potential use of the internet to sell products directly to consumers. Price Price concerns the amount of money that customers must pay in order to purchase your products. There are a number of considerations in relation to price including price setting, discounting, credit and cash purchases as well as credit collection. Promotion Promotion refers to the act of communicating the benefits and value of your product to consumers. It then involves persuading general consumers to become customers of your business using methods such as advertising, direct marketing, personal selling and sales promotion.

English Language Learners Essay

English Language Learners (ELLS) are usually foreigners who composed the minority students of the country. Even if they are not native citizens of the United States there needs and rights should be properly respected and protected especially in terms of the process of their learning of the English language. The succeeding paragraphs will discuss some cases that affect the rights of these ELLs. The cases of Lau v. Nichols (1974) and Plyler v. Doe (1982) have substantial improved the education of ELLs. The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Lau v. Nichols orders that all students should have an equal access not only to facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculum but also in learning the English language. The court believes that difficulty in comprehending the English language deprives the student of meaningful education. Moreover, the case of Plyler v. Doe opens the doors for immigrants to enroll their students in public schools. This gives immigrant children the right for free public education regardless of whether their parents are documented or not (Legal Responsibilities of Education Agencies Serving Language Minority Students). Other judicial rulings like in the case of Serna v. Portales (New Mexico, 1974), Cintron v. Bretwood (New York, 1978), and Castaneda v. Pickard (Texas, 1981) have also contributed in enhancing the rights of ELLs as well as in addressing their needs. These are clearly shown by the bilingual and bicultural instruction programs that were implemented after the court found out that Spanish students are discriminated in the Serna v. Portales case. Equal treatment among ELLs are also further emphasize by the remaining two cases wherein it made sure that the bilingual programs would uphold both languages rather than subordinating the other one. Lastly, the Castaneda v. Pickard case has a very important role in the enhancement of the right of ELLs because it served as a basis in assuring a school’s compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974 (Legal Responsibilities of Education Agencies Serving Language Minority Students). In all these, it is seen that judicial rulings are indeed important because there interpretation of the law had been a way in order to improve the situation of ELLs in their learning process. Work Cited â€Å"Legal Responsibilities of Education Agencies Serving Language Minority Students†. 1995. 28 August 2008 .