ISALC: ESL 382: Computer Applications - Spring 2000

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Fred Mihara requested that his photo not be shown.

Culture Capsules: People, Places, and Processes Mohamed Al Hurmoodi and Fred Mihara

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Greetings from Mohamed and Fred (78K)

Ramadhan
Mohamed Al Hurmoodi

 For over one billion Muslims throughout the world, Ramadhan is a special month of the year. During the month of Ramadhan, Muslims fast from daylight until sunset ¹every day. For example, Muslims can't eat, drink or smoke during the daylight. Muslims don't have to fast if they are sick, but they have to fast after Ramahdan when they become better. During this month, Muslims do a lot of activities to have mercy from God. For example, they read the holy Quran² a lot during this month. Also, they visit and congratulate each other about Ramadhan and there is a small meal for the guests¹ and a drink ; this will be in the evening. After the sun sets, Muslims start to eat small meals and go to pray. When they get back from their mosques², they start to eat the main meals with the family.

There are two reasons to fast. First, to let rich people think about poor people by fasting all day and to know how poor people live and eat. Also, fasting is healthy for the body. For example, if somebody is addicted to smoking he can quite smoking forever during this month. Also, Ramadhan is divided into three parts of worship. During the first ten days of Ramadhan, Muslims always ask God for mercy. The second ten days they ask God for pardon of their sins, and the last ten days they ask him to let them go to heaven and not hell.

All in all, we believe Ramadhan, with its fasting, is the main cornerstone of Islam. It helps us understand poor people, and fasting is very healthy for the body.

¹http://www.ummah.org.uk/ramadhan/
²http://www.khoori.com/islam

First, I want to mention that I believe in Zen Buddhism. We have some ascetic celebrations² in this religion. Among those celebrations, I want to tell you about Sesshin², which is known as super strict training. It is about a one week term when we concentrate on sitting for a meditation, what we call Zazen². Let me talk about Zazen a little. If I tried to tell you about the specific details of Zazen, I would have to publish a book because there is so much information about that. Since I don't have much space, I will write only about the basic concept. For that reason, the following paragraphs may not be enough for some people, but I'm sure you can understand our main idea. But please remember that we have many ways of dealing with Zazen, so this is no more than my opinion. I recommend that you study deeply about Zen¹ if you are interested in this article and you will find the other views.

Zazen is a sitting meditation and we have a certain³ way to sit: "First, place your right foot on your left thigh, and afterward put your left foot on your right thigh, likewise. Regarding your hands, place your right hand on your right foot and put your left hand on your right palm." We have to stretch our body and just keep still for a long time while keeping our eyes open and thinking about thinking nothing. It is said that Buddha attained enlightenment with this style. You may have a doubt about the significance of Zazen, but I think humans are not foolish enough to continue a meaningless thing for more than a thousand years.

We believe that the most important purpose of Zazen is to find one's own essence. I don't actually say you will be able to find your real character after a couple of times of Zazen, but I think it will be a trigger of something which makes your life better someday at least, or else people would not to continue to do that. Do you understand Zazen yet from this information? Let me go back to an explanation of Sesshin. All we do during Sesshin is Zazen. We do Zazen for about 20 hours a day and we keep sitting as long as the Sesshin period continues. We don't undo our legs and don't stir except when we to the bathroom and eat² food (we sit up straight). Surprisingly, even the time when we can go to the bathroom is regulated, which is called, "LIBEN OURAI" (OURAI sounds like "all right" but doesn't mean that).

The reason why we have Sesshin depends on the person, but fundamentally, people meditate because they think this is good thing. Here, I will give an example of a reason why they join this celebration. By doing Zazen for a long period, people begin to feel like something in their mind becomes clear. Sometimes we liken this to a pail of water. A pail of water represents one's mental situation. Before Sesshin, the surface of water has waves because people have many worries about their life, but after Sesshin, the surface of the water becomes quiet and people can see the bottom of the bucket, which represents one's real character. Anyway, in my country, we have a celebration which is called Sesshin and people are willing to do strict training to figure out their own essence.

¹http:/www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/9758/zenina.html
²http://three-treasures-sangha.org/sesshin.html
³http://pweb.netcom.com/`zenquake/choboji7.html

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