the peach orchard

In Kurosawa’s film “Dreams”, “The Peach Orchard” demonstrates very clearly one of the three major beliefs in the Shinto religion. The first belief we learned about in class which was to be grateful to the Kami and their preservation. In the case of this movie there were Kami that represented the peach orchard. The clips I watched showed the outrage of disrespect from the Kami to the boy and his family. In Shinto the people believe that you can be punished by not continuing the religious rite’s to the Kami, which cutting down almost the entire orchard would be a blatant discontinuing to the spirits of the trees. One of the worse sin’s in Shinto are the sins against scared objects and places. So in return for the defilement of the orchard the Kami tell the boy they won’t ever visit his home again, which would have been a horrible punishment and disgrace to the family.

The Pooh Way!

Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh was the easiest religious book I have ever had to read. He was very opinionated but not pushy like a lot of religious texts can be. His book had a very easy, worry free feel to it, which is very in sync with the Taoist way. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact he used a very American child icon as the teacher, cleverly nicknaming it “The Pooh Way”. After understanding the sort of guidelines that the book sets about Taoism, Pooh Bear seems absolutely perfect to be the mascot. That being said I doubt I could ever personally empty my mind of all worries and take life as it happens to unfold. Being born and raised in a very competitive world I don’t think it would be very wise decision to lay down my school books and just hang out in the forest listening to the birds with Pooh Bear.

Although the Idea of simply being and letting life happen sounds amazingly tempting, western society especially wouldn’t cope very well with it. This society is all about who can achieve the most worldly credit to their names the fastest. Who has the most degrees, cars, and the biggest homes. America is known for being full of doers and independent busy worker bees, or Busy Backsons as referred to multiple times in The Tao of Pooh.

With everyone searching for more knowledge and more power, more everything I feel like Benjamin Hoff had very accurate nicknames for the people in the world. We are defiantly in an abrasive society were a clever tongue, and mind is very useful, what Hoff would refer to as “Clever Rabbits”. Even “Knowledgeable Owls” plays a huge role in this world; people are ever seeking more information and knowledge. Although I definitely see that in excesses stressing ourselves out about every little detail isn’t the best way to enjoy life. We being “Busy Backsons” help give us cures for illnesses. It gives us teachers and philosophers; it actually makes learning about other religions even a possibility because if no one tried to further their education and persevere we wouldn’t have these options’ and successes.

Maybe Taoism could be the solution to slowing everyone down to metaphorically “stop and smell the roses” but I just don’t see it as happening anytime soon. It would completely unravel the way America functions. Not saying that it would be a bad Idea to start fresh especially seeing as America is in shambles with war and financial depression but the sit back and relax approach I feel could just make the issues worse by causeing to much confusion with our sudden inactivity.

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