Touch - Aidan Travis

By -

Touch is all throughout religion, in hinduism, the sacred Murti that must be rubbed with ghee or honey and in catholicism, the parishioners give peace to one another through touching of the hands or hugging. I have grown up catholic and I went to church almost every Sunday from when I was very small and up until I went to boarding school my sophomore year of high school. Personally, the giving of peace was one of my favorite times of mass since it meant that I could try and out squeeze the grip of my brother and my dad. I was an antsy kid, sitting still for 45 minutes to an hour wasn’t my highlight of the week. But, standing up and saying “peace be with you” to my family and to strangers, it gave me something to look forward to. 
Glucklich speaks of ‘Sacred Pain’ in her book and I found it very intriguing. Early on he explains the difference between reductive and non reductive theories behind sacred pain. A non reductive theory explains the reasoning behind the pain, but not the symbolism behind it. A reductive approach tries to explain the symbolism of things such as ‘death in pain’ 

File:Virabhadrasana II - Warrior II Pose.jpg - Wikimedia Commons I enjoy yoga, and sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable, one could even say painful. I know that I can let go anytime I want and just stop the practice and turn off the instructional video, but there is some part of me that knows this pain is something that I need, that if I let this pain control me, then I won’t feel accomplished, mentally relaxed, and physically looser when I am done. On the surface, I understand why I feel the pain, my muscles are tight and they are stretching out, or I am using strength to hold myself in a certain position. So in a sense, the pain is obviously going to happen, but, what I will now look to find, is the reductive answer, what does this pain symbolize for me? What am I feeling because of this pain? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirpin...
Read more

Food in the Afterlife

By -
Image
In Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Perez talks of Ashabi and her grandchildren providing food offerings to their ancestors. This immediately reminded me of the practice of food sacrifice in early China. I've taken Chinese language classes for about 7 years now and in one of the lessons, we learned about food as well as the history of food in Chinese culture. Ashabi and her grandchildren would give food offerings to their ancestors every day. This included nine beverages (coffee, liquor, and water mixed with sugar and molasses) and nine square pieces of coconut topped with red palm oil and guinea pepper. The offerings would also include whatever food was dropped on the ground. In their house, food dropping on the floor signified more than it would in common American households. It signified that the ancestors wanted that food and had willingly made it fall to the floor. They also used dishware that had been chipped which was...
Read more