Drugs, Alcohol, and Enlightenment cont.

The following is a summary of a site about drugs, alcohol, and enlightenment and part of the body of my essay: Basically, the path to enlightenment requires a very sound mind, which may be hard to achieve under the influence of intoxicants. At least, the Buddha’s idea of enlightenment. Some people might argue that the idea of enlightenment is very vague and can very well be found using these things. Sanja Blackburn claims that most of the people who follow the religion of Buddhism are not serious followers. They may look for enlightenment, but drink alcohol at times. Now, is this really a big deal? Can alcohol really affect the mind to a point where a person will simply be unable to awaken spiritually? I believe both prohibit a person’s efforts to find enlightenment. Do I think it is a bad thing to drink once in a while? No. However, it could definitely effect a person of the Buddhist faith.

            Kharma was brought up in this discussion. Using alcohol and or drugs is looked at as irresponsible. The Buddha believed that one’s awakening might be more difficult to come by if they have bad kharma. Each person should be responsible for their own actions, and should solve them by their own means. Using alcohol or drugs to attempt to cure a problem will oftentimes not work, and could possibly end up hurting the user or people close to them.

            Enough about alcohol, what about drugs? Drugs can destroy brain cells, which the Buddha would certainly be against. However, some drugs are said to open up the brain, allowing it the user to make observations and think in ways they have never thought before.

Unfortunately, I haven’t experimented with drugs lately, so I am unsure of how it affects a person. For the final paper, I will research the effects of different drugs and look for specific accounts of what the users have experienced. I will then discuss whether or not I believe that drugs have the potential to assist enlightenment, or to make the antithesis with this information. Personally, I do not believe drugs will awaken a better person.

Drugs, Alcohol, and Enlightenment

For my final paper, I will write about drugs, alcohol, and enlightenment. Enlightenment is a spiritual awakening that can oftentimes take a person many years to find. It is also a very vague thing, because it can be taken for thousands of different things, and can be found in many different ways. Enlightenment is individual based, so it means something different to every person. It could be a moral discovery, a personal discovery, a better idea of how the world works, etc. I believe enlightenment mainly is when a person finds their true purpose of being alive, the way they can, in their own eyes, improve the world. Now where do drugs and alcohol affect one’s path to enlightenment? And does it prohibit or inhibit previously made plans?

Like I said earlier, every person is different, therefore, the answer to this question can go either way. If a person is too stressed with life and can’t relax, maybe drugs and/ or alcohol is exactly what the person needs. Perhaps the person is narrow minded. Drugs could theoretically open a person’s mind to enable them to see something they’ve never seen before, or to change their imagination. Another possibility is that a path needs the absence of substances in order for the enabler to realize their own purpose. Either way, drugs and alcohol definitely have a profound impact on many cases of self-enlightenment.

In Buddhism enlightenment, Buddhists often meditate to help them on their way. Drugs or alcohol is not necessarily important for this. The question is: How does meditation help this task? In my opinion, meditation is a way to delve inside oneself by being one with your very cells of the body. Can drugs help in this matter? Certainly, but they are not necessary.

Fate

To what extent does fate play a direct role in our lives? Can we include fate as a life condition that makes us who we are today? In my opinion, everyone has their own fate, but it does not control their lives, it only influences it. Some things are obviously going to happen and we are all victims to fate for this reason. It is the fate of the entire human race to die, and we have some say in how this happens. Not much of a say, but some. If one wants to die from alcohol poisoning, it would be very easy to do so. Or get in an accident from drinking too much. We can also choose healthy lifestyles to tweak our fate of death. Eating healthy, exercising, and not making dumb decisions can help anyone to avoid fate for the time being, though not forever.

                Certain fates are much more controllable, i.e. career and financial choices. If a person decides to slack off in school and to avoid going to college, it could be difficult to find a sufficient job. Fooling around with money earned also makes it difficult to raise a family or even live well alone, so this can be controlled. Gambling, buying cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs makes it hard to have money, not to mention the risks with partaking in these types of activities or substances. Some people might say It was their fate that made them homeless, or gave them lung cancer, when sometimes it is, but most of the time it is because of a lack of good decisions.

                To implicitly believe in fate makes me think that the people who believe this do not believe they have an impact in their lives, when it is apparent that everyone controls their own state of being at least to a certain point. Placing one’s belief in fate as well as what they personally can do for oneself is important. These ideas and the idea of kharma can help a child become who (s)he wants to be, especially knowing that it is important to treat the world with respect.

life

As a kid, most people don’t realize that the small decisions they make will have an impact on the kind of person they will become in the future. Unfortunately, different people are pushed towards certain decisions, depending on their upbringing, family, friends, and an infinite amount of other variables. We each have our own paths in life that we can follow or stray from, depending on the small and big life decisions. A new movie that came out a few weeks ago, The Adjustment Bureau, concerns an organization that helps to push people in certain directions so they can follow their previously made life plans. The result of the movie was that the two main characters were able to alter the paths that a higher power made for them, based on what they truly wanted. One of the characters could have become a president, but he falls in love with a girl who distracts him from achieving his dreams. However, at the same time, she is his dream, so all is not lost. This proves that everyone has a direct say in their futures and what they will become.

Another movie I have watched recently is Yes Man. Jim Carrey plays a man who cannot say no to anything, which results in being forced down a certain road. However, in his case, he needed something like this to get him moving in the right direction. Previously, he said no to everything and ended up couped up inside his apartment having no true, close friends. In the end, he realized that he could say no if he wanted to but that it was important to say yes to want he desired. Most of the times he said yes were because he actually wanted to do what he said yes to, not because he had to. From watching this movie, I have realized that in order to explore life and to live one’s life, they have to take chances that at the time might not seem reasonable. Good things will come out of being ambitious and going out of the normal comfort box that confines some people’s lives.

But Beautiful

But Beautiful, by Geoff Dyer, discusses the lives of many jazz musicians. Prior to reading this book, I was unaware of what these musicians went through to get to where they wanted to be musically. Once musicians like Monk, Mingus, and Bud Powell achived fame, they oftentimes ended up spending their money on drugs, alcohol, and an excess amount of food.

Monk did not spend much of his time with these things, which I found interesting. I would have thought that this incredible jazz player would enjoy these luxuries of the time period. I also was unaware that Thelonius Monk was autistic. It is truly amazing how he could be so lacking in social abilities and still be a great pianist. Monk’s style of playing was unlike any pianist that has ever played. He slams his fingers onto the keys, uses his elbows, and also manages to play while he is wiping the sweat of his forehead. Once Monk finished playing, he occasionally would remain seated on the seat, simply staring at the keys.

Charles Mingus was an enormous guy. He could easily carry one of the biggest instruments around, the bass, over his shoulder like it was nothing. Amazingly, Mingus’ tough, angry personality subsided whenever he played the bass. His large fingers could play as softly as anyone else’s, which would be a difficult feat. Mingus played the piano and composed music as well, so he was a very accomplished musician. Unfortunately, he got to a point in his career where he could not play music anymore due to his body being frozen inside of him. “lf he didn’t practice constantly the strings sliced his fingers when he touched them. Not only that but the stiffness in his fingers never left now, some days they felt not simply stiff but numb…”(123).

I believe that Jazz musicians are similiar to Rock musicians, due to their excessive drug use and their excessive use of their pay. They both love to do what they do, but the way in which they do their work is somewhat suspicious. Musicians with money often decide to spend their money in unhealthy ways because they always have money coming in. But beautiful shows that being a musician and having a steady flow of money is not always a good thing.

Drove my chevy to the levee

For the first essay, I am planning on writing about Ma Rainey’s play and the parallels to the “Sunshine Special” and the fact that the railroad is being torn down, from a blues song by Blind Lemon Jefferson. August Wilson places an epigraph in the beginning of her play to stimulate thought about hopes and dreams being destroyed, as well as how a person can try to make their own trail to achieve what they desire. In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Levee and Ma Rainey attempt to go away to avoid their problems, just like in the epigraph.

Levee’s greatest dream is to have his own band, which proves to be difficult, so he attempts to “build his own railroad”, or to create his own path to his goals. One of Levee’s apparent issues is that he thinks too highly of himself. He always claims that he is an incredible musician, despite the fact that he makes many mistakes. The other members of the band repeatedly shut Levee down, either by stepping on his newly bought shoes or telling him that his written music is not good enough to sell. When his shoes are stepped on, Levee’s soul is being stepped on. His shoes are symbols of success, which are stepped on or basically destroyed. Levee is humiliated further when Sturdyvant tells Levee his songs won’t sell, offering him five dollars for every song he produces. Levee believes his talent is worth much more than that.

Ma Rainey’s dream is to be loved for who she is instead of solely being used for her voice. This is the main reason she tries so often to stall the recording of her music. She realizes that once she is done singing, the white men will disregard her importance and not treat her well. She believes way too highly of herself to let this happen, so she brings her stuttering nephew to the recording studio to try and sing part of a song. This does not run smoothly, and the recording crew become frustrated with her. Contrary to Ma’s belief that the stalling of time will result in the crew’s prolonged respect of her, Sturdyvant and Irvin’s respect for her decreases.

This is basically what I have so far. I will use direct and indirect quotes to show how both Ma Rainey and Levee attempt to follow their own paths in order to make something more of themselves. I will also compare these two musicians because while Levee strives to make a name of himself, Ma already has a well-known name. Ma Rainey is simply trying to make other people respect her, while Levee solely cares about the fame and money.

First Blog

So far in Literature of American Popular Music class, I have learned some things about music I previously hadn't known. Even some of the music I listen to now dates back to several decades ago, which I found to be an interesting concept. For example, the House of the Rising Sun begun as a blues song and has developed into rock, which, to me, seems unusual. I am now able to recognize both ballads and blues, although I don't listen to much music in these categories.

Reading some of the theory toolbox has shown me that opinions cannot be classified as incorrect but have to be examined based on the readers point of view. It also gave me some insight on culture and how everybody is multicultural. If a person is a buddhist, they are not christian, catholic, atheist, or any other type of religion. They choose to not be any of these, but all of these other religions. Everyone is different, which the poet