Sculpting Humanity

After Gautama Buddha's death, Buddhism would remain relatively local to India until adopted by King Ashoka during his rule (268-232 BCE). Upon his conversion to Buddhism, Ashoka would become a valuable sponsor for Buddhism and missionary work that spread Buddhism beyond India. One of the most notable accomplishments of this missionary work was the introduction and adoption of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, where Buddhism would strongly take root. After Ashoka's death, royal sponsorship of Buddhism ceased and Buddhism entered a period of decline, with one exception. "Only Theravada and its sister traditions, safely ensconced on the island of Sri Lanka, managed to survive and remain healthy." (Bresnan 251)  Theravada would establish itself as one of Buddhism's great traditions and, through dissatisfaction among some practitioners, would give rise to another great tradition called Mahayana. This post will outline what was happening to Theravada Buddhism that opened the way f...

       The Bhagavad Gita (also referred to as the Gita ) is an incredible piece of Hindu scripture. Consisting of 700 verses, the Gita is a small piece of a the much larger, 200,000 verse epic,  Mahabharata . There is no consensus as to the authorship of the Gita , some attribute the piece to the sage Vyasa (also Veda Vyasa) who is a key character in the Mahabharata. The dating is estimated anywhere between the 5th and 2nd century CE, depending if one believes the Gita was written at the same time as the Mahabharata  or written after and inserted into the larger text. In this post I'll be focusing on the Gita, providing a brief synopsis, my reactions, and a case for why you should consider reading it, if you haven't already. For those of you interested in the Mahabharata,  here's a video (the first in a series) to help introduce you to the massive epic.      The Bhagavad Gita presents itself as a conversation between Arjuna and his chari...