Smells and Bells

What should we see? What should we hold witness to?  "Since, in the Hindu understanding, the deity is present in the image, the visual apprehension of the image is charged with religious meaning. Beholding the image is an act of worship, and through the eyes one gains the blessings of the divine" (Eck, 3) After reading this quote, I started to think about the power of sight and what it means to see. According to Eck blessings are to be received through the eye; making the eye the orifice or connecting point in which the divine 'touches' a person. Te eye itself is an organ which depends on the brain's interpretations of the outside world. No matter the culture, a brain (normally) can see what is there - but can it feel what cannot be seen? Through the eye, the divine may be able to 'physically' touch, not the eye itself, but rather, the mind of the devout. Most know the phrase "eyes are the window to the soul" - so would the opening o...

Street musicians in Chicago performing on buckets Throughout the reading, the same though continue to remain in my mind that Anne Rasmussen posed in the beginning of her writings: What is music?  Although the answer seems clear, there are people who find find ambient "background" noise as music. Is the difference in music or not that intention and effort put in? Even the presence of an instrument doesn't exactly equate to people considering it music. Think, for example, about a novice playing the saxophone (or many wind instruments, actually), people around them may say that it's not music and may even call it "racket". Older people talking about music of a younger generation may call it noise ("turn off that noise!"). This eliminates the idea that just an instrument is needed to indeed make something musical. For that matter; What is an instrument?  Colloquially, instruments pop into our heads that are made with the intention to produ...

Earlier in the semester I got to go to the sri lakshmi temple with professor Timm. This was the first time I had been to a hindu temple in a more formal setting. When I was younger I went to a few when  I was in india, but i did not look at them very closely, and actually found them very boring at the time. Now that i am studying religion, and understand Hinduism more the experience was much deeper. the most interesting thing to me is looking at the gods in the temple once you observe your mind of the duality between you and any particular god. When you look at the gods with an understanding that they are not really different or separate from you in any way their image hits you in a much more profound way. I was specifically drawn to Ganesh, as I think many people are. To witness him, and have him witness you really does give you a sense of empowerment, after being to the temple I felt much more able to overcome some of the stresses in my days.

Different religions relate to the sense of sight in different ways. In Diana L. Eck's book Darsan: Seeing The Divine Image In India  she compares and contrasts the difference between the traditions in the east and the west in relationship to sight. She writes that western traditions who have a propensity to hold God as something separate from what we can see condemn practices such as darsan that worship of a deity through sight. In contrast Eastern traditions tend to believe that one can see and be seen by the deity, a manifestation of God, because God is in all things. The investigation of worship through sight in Eck's book has been truly illuminating and inspiring. It is especially fascinating to me in the context of Buddhist philosophy. Hinduism and Buddhism have many things in common. For example, the concept of every person having the light of God within them as referenced by the greeting Namaste corresponds to the buddhist principle that all living beings have Buddha n...

On Friday I went to a hindu temple about 45 minutes away from the school. On the way there I started to get nervous. I was about to be seen by Sri Lakshmi (the goddess of good fortune). When I got to the temple we had to take off our shoes and wash our hands. I walked into the main chamber and was immediately taken aback by the number of gods and goddesses present. All of them had their own chamber that was decorated to their liking. I immediately recognized Shiva and upon later inspection found Krishna. I personally love Krishna very much and took a moment to pray to him.  The first thing that the priest did for Sri Lakshmi was offer her incense and sing a beautiful Sanskrit song to her. The priest brought around the Kum Kum and all present said their first name and the names of relatives that should also be blessed. Then it was time for Lakshmi's bath. She was bathed in water first, then milk and a third bath of turmeric water. Her third eye was covered in a Kum Kum paste and ...

We've all heard the expression "You have to see it to believe it!" When people talk about a particularly shocking or unbelievable experience, they confirm its validity by stating that they "saw it with their own eyes!" We take that to be an ultimate truth. But is it? Maybe vision is not the absolute end all, be all for truth. Maybe, as Diana Eck puts it, seeing is really just another form of touch. This extends into our lives today; when someone has an object that we are interested in, we ask "Can I see?" and proceed to hold out our hands. I can remember being young and being told that we see with our eyes, not with our hands (as a means of not grabbing and taking things from others). But is that true? And if seeing is another form of communion and communication, is touch another form of seeing? Professor Nelson's talk made me wonder how much we can actually trust our eyes. Our language puts a great emphasis on sight- think of words like insigh...

In Professor Nelson’s lecture, he explained that vision can be a synesthetic experience. One of these connections is between vision and touch is expressed many times through language, using specific phrases such as, ‘I felt his/her gaze’.   This expression uses language of touch to express the feeling of being watched or observed by another individual.   Diane Eck discusses the connection between touch and vision in her book Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India .   She explains that the eye of the devotee touches the deity to understand what is being touched; in fact they are ‘touching truth’.   The Vision group spoke extensively on this subject during their presentation, describing it as ‘an exchange of glances’.   The exchange is a contact between devotee and deity that takes place through the eyes of both individuals.   Eck describes the eyes of Gods as unblinking and there are ceremonies that surround the ‘opening’ of a deity’s eyes.   She des...

After our class on Thursday I felt that I did not grasp the concept of Hinduism and its deities. After a fair bit of online reading I came to realize that there are several basic principles: karma, reincarnation, dharma, and all pervasive divinity. Karma is the idea that good intentions and good deeds contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intentions and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and future suffering. Reincarnation is the idea that the body may die but the soul is transferred or reborn, into another body until it is let out of the circle of death and rebirth and transcends.   Pervasive divinity was defined in the video A Short introduction to Hinduism posted by BhahavadGita: “All worship the one all-pervasive supreme being…God is unmanifest, unchanging and transcendent; the self-god: timeless, formless and spacelss . As pure consciousness, god is the manifest primal substance of pure love and light; flowing through all form, existing everywhere time ...

In Rolf Nelson's lecture today, we discussed synesthetic perceptions, a topic we have touched on many times previously. I think our fascination with this topic is because synesthesia is a concrete example of how our perception can differ from other's and from reality. But who is to say that one reality is correct over another, especially when perception is so flawed and changing?  In Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India , perception is used as an intense form of worship. We learn of sight as a connection with others and the divine. The act of looking at a depiction of a deity is a way of linking oneself with that god, and vice versa. Essentially, I see the god, and the god sees me. This exchange is vulnerable and opening, and Hindu culture and religion equates this sight with honesty. The Brahmanas state that "the eye is the truth" (Eck 9), because the god sees the authenticity and reality of a person. Eck presents that "In India, as...