The Peach Orchard

      

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." -Lao Tzu

  For this assignment, I chose to watch the section from the movie "Dreams", entitled "The Peach Orchard. About two minutes into the film, I start seeing eerie similarities to modern day Japanese horror films that Americans seem to love. I keep watching and waiting for the girl from "The Ring" to pop out of the ceiling. Aside from being what I would call "cheezy", the film showed many religious aspects.
         The section of the film "The Peach Orchard", was very symbolic of the Shinto belief in Kami. The term Kami refers to the Shinto belief that everything is spiritual; therefore, there is a parallel between humans, nature and the gods. This belief was very evident in the scene of the boy in the peach orchard. In this particular scene, the boy follows a "goddess" into the peach orchard where he is met by several gods and goddesses. The boy begs to the gods and goddesses to bring back his beloved peach orchard one last time. The boy confesses his admiration for the orchard and the spirits work hand in hand to bring back the peach orchard in full bloom. This scene shows the connection between man, nature and the spirits in a powerful way.
        The peach orchard itself is also a symbol of the Shinto belief in Kami. The Shinto belief in Kami is also expressed through the connection between matter and spirit. According to Shinto belief, matter and spirit are present in all things, they are not separate entities. For this particular scene, the peach trees hold a spiritual meaning for the little boy. The boy expresses his admiration for the fruit trees and believes them to hold special powers. One could say that the peach orchard is a "spiritual refuge" of some sort, with deep meaning.

Winnie-The-Taoist?

In response to The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff

      "Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgements and clever remarks prove to be inaccurate with passing time, because it does not look very deeply into things to begin with". (37)  Maybe its just me. Maybe it's my own fault that I found this book stupid, but the "cleverness" of using familiar characters such as Winnie the Pooh and friends to explain Taoist principles left me with a lot of questions and even more confused than I already was to begin with. I found myself reading the passages over and over again trying to connect the stories with the Taoist principle that was trying to be explained in each chapter. While I do appreciate the author trying to "dumb down" Taoism, I do not like how he went about doing it. Maybe I am just not smart enough to follow "Taoism for Dummies."

     

      In response to the “Bisy Backson” chapter of The Tao of Pooh, I found a quote at the very beggininng of the chapter that perfectly describes the “busy backson” American culture.  “ Thinking that he was going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died.” (92) This quote perfectly descibes busy American culture. We are constanly in high gear trying to get things done. We are constantly on the move, in search of bigger and better. We never take the time to slow down and really see what is happening around us. As an American, I should be insulted by the critique of Americans as “Bisy Backsons”, but really, its all true, sadly. Hoff suggests that there is a “cure” to being a “Backson” in order to stray away from becoming a “Backson”, one must do opposite of a “Backson”. “Let’s put it this way: if you want to be healthy, relaxed, and contented, just watch what a Bisy Backson does and then do the opposite.” (95)  I guess there’s no saving me, I’m a natural born Bisy Backson. 

          I do not believe that Taoism is a “solution” to America’s “problem.” From reading this book, I did not really understand what the author was suggesting our “problem” is. Taoism itself is not the solution that we need to solve our so called “problems.” Though some Taoist principles may help in solving some of the predicaments that we seem to get outselves in, Taoism as a religious study would not help. We all need to help eachother and in doing so, much more will be able to be accomplished. There is no way that all Americans would settle on Taoism to solve our problems.