Jesika's Blog

So for this blog post, I'll talk about the Canvas mobile app. I have an iPhone and the app was pretty easy to instal from the apple store app. This app is actually quite useful when you need to check something really quick and don't have access to a computer. You can access all your classes, check any emails from your professor, and check your grades. You can even get notifications from the app. Overall, it's a pretty useful app for students!

The Story of the Cane and the Fish The Master teaches a young prince Ajatasatru a lesson on how cunning does not always succeed and wickedness doesn't always prevail.  He told the young prince of a story. Story was about how there was two ponds. One that was quite small, while the other one was big and wide. Now, there was a crane who noticed fishes in the small pool. He came up with a plan to deceive the fishes by saying he'll carry each fish one by one to the bigger pond. However, he tricked them and didn't take them to the pond. Instead, he killed and ate them. Then, the crane tried to con the crayfish, but it outsmarted him and killed the crane. The crane got it's karma from the crayfish. The prince thanked the Master for the lesson before he left. The crane that fooled the fishes. (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Bibliography: " The Story of the Crane and the Fish "- The Life of Buddha by A.F. Herold.

This week I decided to watch more TED talks and there was one in particular that I found interesting. The TED talk was called "What makes a hero?" by Matthew Winkler. This caught my attention because I didn't really realize how many popular stories like the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and The Lord of Rings used a common layout. A common formula for a hero's journey includes the ordinary world and special world, along with certain key events. Those key events are status quo, call to adventure, assistance, departure, trials, approach, crisis, treasure, result, return, new life, and resolution. A hero's journey is basically written in a cycle where they go through those key events. I just thought that was interesting and didn't really notice until watching the video. Joseph Campbell even wrote a book on the dozen of stories on the mono myth of a hero's journey. A quote by Joseph Campbell. (Source: Pinterest ) Link: TED Talk " What Makes A Hero? &qu

The Three Encounters Prince Siddhartha has never been outside his palace, until he had a sudden desire to explore outside the palace. The king or Siddhartha's father couldn't say no to his son even though he feared something outside the palace would mess with his innocent soul. The king order for a path to be clear from evil things, beggars, and those who suffer, so his son could go into the city. However, the Gods were jealous of how people celebrated the Prince when he came into the city. They sent an old man who looked worn out, another who was sick, and a dead man on three different instances when the Prince went outside the palace. Each time the Prince saw those men it scared him and made him fear of growing old and getting sick.  The king did get upset that his fear came true and those bad instances messed with his son. Prince Siddhartha encountering old age, sickness, and death. (Source: Wikipedia ) Bibliography: " The Three Encounters "- The Lif

Maya's Dream Queen Maya had a dream where a young elephant came from the sky and entered her womb. Also, a bunch of gods appeared in the dream and sang her immortal songs. When she woke up, she was so happy and went to the woods. She told her maids to go get her husband, King Suddhodana. King Suddhodana reigned in Kapilavastu. Before he could enter the woods, he felt something weird. Then, he heard a voice from above telling him to be happy as he was expecting a son. He went to his wife and she told him about the dream. She asked him to tell some brahmans about it and to interpret what it means. The brahmans told them they are expecting a son, who will be great and a Buddha. They celebrated and gave back to the poor. I liked that this was a simple and cute story of Maya finding out she's pregnant. I could re-write this story in a more modern setting.  King Suddhodana asking brahmans to interpret the Queen's dream. (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Bibliography:

For this week, I decided to do a story lab and watched a Ted talk video about stories and storytelling. It was called "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I really enjoyed this Ted talk because it opened up my perception on how a single story doesn't represent a place entirely. She mentioned her personal experience dealing with this when she came to America for college, and that her roommate was shocked to know how well she spoke English since she was from Africa. She talked about how her roommate only had these assumptions of Africa because of the negative and one side things she's read or seen on different media platforms here in the U.S. At the end of the talk, I really liked what she said, "When we reject a single story and realize there's never a single story about a single place, we regain a kind of paradise." In addition, she talked about you could change this by writing the story from the other side's perspective. For i