Ramayana

The fascination of Ramayana is its moral content and its some ideal characters.
From reading Ramayana, I find many aspects of being moral. When Rama accepted he order of being exiled from his father, he did not complain which show us his extremely respect to his parent. Otherwise, because of helping Sugriva, Rama and Lakshmana received a great “gift” from Sugriva. Sugriva’s full of gratitude was repaied by Hanuman, who became a big helper on Rama and Lakshama’s journey to rescue Sita. Hanuman, who was loyal to Rama, led his monkey to cross the ocean and tried to help Rama to rescue Sita. As a subordinate, Hanuman’s loyalty was commendable. For Sita, even though Rama tried to dissuade her from following him to the forest, she stated that she would like to share her husband’s life; although she was abducted by Ravana, she was still untainted. Sita presents us a paragon of being a wife.
These unimpeachable moral characters, not only consisted in Ramayana, but also became the moral models for Hindu.

Lysistrate

Unlike what Kleonike says, Lysistrate does not like those normal Greece women, who take care of their families. At the beginning, the explosion of Lysistrate’s plan to end the war shows us her special because, back then, that kind of topic always belongs to men rather than women. Her special is not only reflected in that, and also her idea of how to end the war is pretty interesting.

As a woman, she truly knows what social status women have, which restricts their right, besides, indeed, she knows that, for men, women are sexual creatures that they can not live without. She exploits her awareness to create her idea to gather all women and to get peace rather than war.

Lysistrate does not shame about talking sex, instead, she considers the safety of the country lying with the Greece women based on their sexual attraction. Finally, the whole story is ended by the agreement of truce, which explains Lysistrate’s idea is feasible. Eventhough women are tools of producing babies for men, their livings without females are miserable; that’s why God creates Adam and Eve.

For me, I consider that women who use sex to resolve the problem are shameful. However, sometimes (or most of the time), that is the easiest way to make your man obey. I hate to say that, but…

Antigone

The story of Antigone starts with the problem of Polyneices’ burial. Antigone, as his sister, thinks her brother should deserve a formal burial; however, her uncle Creon, the king, considers Polyneice as a traitor, who fights against his own city. And then, Creon pays the price for his wrong decision. Even though, at the end, he changes his mind, it is too late, and he lost his family.
After reading Antigone, there is a question coming out. As a leader, how to determine whether a person is a traitor?
Being a top person in a society, authority always makes he or she blind or deaf because the certain power satisfies his or her desire of being respected. It is a common personality existing in human beings (specially leaders in undemocratic countries). In the story, Creon thinks his decisions should not be questioned because he is the one. He even ignores his son’s advice. The character of Creon reminds me a person.
Do you know Kim Jong-il, the supreme leader of North Korea? That man is kind of a king who rules everything in that country. I remember I have heard a fallacy from him. He said, the more hungry your people are, the more obedient they are. I feel so sympathy for people of North Korea.

Back to Antigone.
When I read the suicide part of Creon’s son and his wife, I had the strong feeling of retribution. Finally, Creon pays for his arrogance and opinionated.

The Old Testament

I really had a hard time to read The Old Testament last week because it seemed to be the first time for me to read something about the Christian scripture. Like other religions, the beginning of Christianity had been collected and edited, such as The Old Testament, which is written by Hebrews and used by the Jewish scripture.
Although people all consider God is the one, who creates the universe, and we are all descendants of Adam or Noah, there are some distinctions among different religions.
As a Buddhist, after reading Genesis, Psalm, etc, I realize some differences between western Christianity and Buddhism.
In Genesis of The Old Testament, it illustrates that human beings are created with guilt. Eve, the mother of human beings created by God, ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden which began the crimes of humankind. This kind of humanity is quite different from what Buddhism advocates, the universe is created with good, as well as the nature of human beings.

Actually, I do not have some strong opinions about The Old Testament because of lacking of the knowledge of this regligion. What I was trying to do is read it and trying to understand it.