Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Rozabal Essays - Tulkus, Bodhisattvas, Dalai Lama, Lamas, Gelug

Rozabal The Dalai Lama is the leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolianword dalai meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma (with a silent "b") meaning "chief" or "high priest".[1] "Lama" is a general term referring to Tibetan Buddhist teachers. In religious terms, the Dalai Lama is believed by his devotees to be the rebirth of a long line of tulkus who are considered to be manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitevara. Traditionally, the Dalai Lama is thought of as the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who have chosen to be reborn in order to enlighten others. The Dalai Lama is often thought to be the director of the Gelug School, but this position belongs officially to the Ganden Tripa, which is a temporary position appointed by the Dalai Lama who, in practice, exerts much influence. For certain periods of time between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lamas sometimes directed the Ti betan government, which administered portions of Tibet from Lhasa. The 14th Dalai Lama remained the head of state for the Central Tibetan Administration("Tibetan government in exile") until his retirement on March 14, 2011.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Tips on How to Avoid the Plague

Tips on How to Avoid the Plague The bubonic plague that ravaged the world in the Middle Ages is still with us in the modern world, but medical knowledge has increased enough so that we now know what causes it and how to successfully treat it. Modern-day remedies for the plague involve the liberal application of antibiotics like streptomycin, tetracycline, and sulfonamides. Plague is very often fatal, and people with the disease may need addition symptom relief, including a source of oxygen and respiratory support, as well as medications to maintain adequate blood pressure. 12 Medieval Tips that Probably Didnt Help In the middle ages, though, there were no known antibiotics, but there were plenty of home and doctor-prescribed remedies. If you had the plague and were able to get a doctor to visit you, he would likely suggest one or more of the following, none of which would do any good at all. Rub onions, vinegar, garlic, herbs, or a chopped up snake on the boilsCut up a pigeon or chicken and rub the parts over your entire bodyApply leeches to the buboesSit in a sewer or rub human excrement on the bodyTake a bath in urineWhip yourself to show God that you are penitent for your sinsDrink vinegar, arsenic, and/or mercuryEat crushed minerals such as emeraldsInfuse your house with herbs or incense to purify itPersecute the people you dont like and think might have cursed youCarry sweet-smelling spices like ambergris (if you are wealthy) or plain herbs (if you are not)Suffer through repeated purges or bloodletting One Tip That Might Have Helped: Theriac The universal recommended medication for the plague in the medieval period was called theriac or London treacle. Theriac was a medicinal compound, a medieval version of remedies first concocted by classical Greek doctors for a number of ills. Theriac was made up of a complex mixture of multiple ingredients, indeed some recipes had 80 or more ingredients, but most of them included significant amounts of opium. Compounds were made up of a wide variety of dietary supplements, infusions of scabious or dandelion juice; figs, walnuts or fruit preserved in vinegar; rue, sorrel, sour pomegranate, citrus fruit and juice; aloes, rhubarb, absinth juice, myrrh, saffron, black pepper and cumin, cinnamon, ginger, bayberry, balsam, hellebore and a  whole lot more. The ingredients were mixed with honey and wine to make a thick, syrupy cordial-like consistency, and the patient was to dilute it in vinegar and drink it every day, or at least two to three times a week before meals. Theriac comes from the English word treacle and was said to cure fevers, prevent internal swellings and blockages, alleviate heart problems, treat epilepsy and palsy, induce sleep, improve digestion, heal wounds, protect against snake and scorpion bites and rapid dogs and poisons of all sorts. Who knows? Get the right combination and the plague victim might feel better, anyway. 12 Tips that Would Have Worked   Interestingly, we now know enough about the plague to go back in time and make some suggestions to Medieval people on how to avoid getting it. Most of them are only available to people rich enough to follow the directions: stay far away from people and other animals that carry fleas. Keep some clean clothes tightly folded and bound up in cloth treated with mint or pennyroyal, preferably in a cedar chest far from all animals and vermin.At the first whisper of plague in the area, flee any populated town or village and head for an isolated villa, far from any trade routes, with your cedar chest.Vigilantly clean every last corner of your villa, killing all rats and burning their corpses.Use plenty of mint or pennyroyal to discourage fleas, and  allow no cats or dogs to come near you.Under no circumstances enter an enclosed community like a monastery or board a shipOnce away from all human contact, wash in extremely hot water, change into your clean clothes, and burn the clothes you traveled in.Keep a minimum distance of 25 feet from any other human being to avoid catching any pneumonic form spread through breathing and sneezing.Bathe in hot water as frequently as you can.Keep a fire burning in your villa to ward off the bacillus, and stay as close to it as you can stand, even in summer. Have your armies burn and raze to the ground any nearby houses where plague victims have resided.Stay where you are until six months after the most recent nearby outbreak.Move to Bohemia before 1347 and dont leave until after 1353 Sources Fabbri, Christiane Nockels. Treating Medieval Plague: The Wonderful Virtues of Theriac. Early Science and Medicine 12.3 (2007): 247-83. Print.Holland, Bart K. Treatments for Bubonic Plague: Reports from Seventeenth-Century British Epidemics. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 93.6 (2000): 322-24. Print.Keiser, George R. Two Medieval Plague Treatises and Their Afterlife in Early Modern England. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 58.3 (2003): 292-324. Print.Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Anti-Semitism in Western Europe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Anti-Semitism in Western Europe - Essay Example History has witnessed the anti-Semite attitude in the form of the Holocaust and this attitude continues to exist even today. In this paper, I intend to explore the current presence of Anti-Israel sentiments in Western Europe, particularly in the political sector. I would like to explore whether or not Western European politics have become more biased against Israel in recent years or is it just a social and media-based war. I have chosen this topic because as a Jew who lived in Jerusalem for a year, I have very close ties with Israel and consider it my home. I have witnessed the atrocities committed by terrorists who wish to eradicate Israel and its people from the face of the earth. I would like to research the influence of major political figures, most importantly Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Western European politics. I plan on bringing forth evidence and examples from the recent Durban II conference in Geneva, the United Nations’ support for the Goldstone Report and specific incidents in certain European countries. For that matter I intend to address the following questions in my paper to support my argument: The methodology used for research for this paper was an analysis of secondary data. Journal articles were read and analyzed. Online articles were searched and made use of and it was made sure that the information obtained was only from trusted websites rather than the popular ones like Wikipedia and blogs. Data was gathered after a thorough study of the relevant literature. After proper reading, the information was reviewed and written about and a conclusion was arrived at. Jews have long been considered as scapegoats and as such have been used to expel evil. Such was the spiritual and religious notions attached with the Jews and it gave rise to anti-Semitism. However recently the term anti Semitism has been expanded and redefined as â€Å"new antisemitism† which includes hatred for Israel and Israelis. New Anti Semites preach hatred for Jews and Israelis to such an extent that they challenge the sovereignty of Israel simply because it is a Jewish state (Simon and Schaler, 2007).Â