Angela's Humanities Story

Part I

Hawley, Jack. Bhagavad Gita - a Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

• I read this book as a requirement for Asian Humanities 320. This text is about the great warrior Arjuna and his good friend Krishna who will guide Arjuna to find his dharma. The text was interesting to begin with. Towards the middle to the end of the first part, it was honestly pretty boring to me. Although that part of the text came off as boring, the story of Arjuna and Krishna was very interesting to me. What made it so interesting was the things that I was learning while reading the text and what the ending was going to be like. I encountered some meaningful sentences and verses, which made me reflect on my life where I can learn from these sentences and verses to make my life better. I'm always trying to find ways on how to improve my life, my personality, how to get along with others, and being able to have compassion for others. So going back to the story of Arjuna and Krishna, I was glued to the second part. It was actually hard for me to stop reading the text during this part. Overall, I'm really happy that Professor Moore chose this text as a requirement for this class because if it wasn't a requirement, I would have never come across this text. 

Ignatavicius, Donna D., and Chris Winkelman. Clinical Companion for Medical-Surgical Nursing: Patient-Centered Collaborative Care. Elsevier Health Science, 2016.

Medical-Surgical Nursing 8th Edition

• Medical-Surgical Nursing or what my nursing professor would call it, "The Iggy Book" because of the author's last name, which looks difficult to pronounce. This textbook was a requirement for all four of the nursing semesters during nursing school. This textbook is about 2.25 inches thick with every medical diagnosis in it and it guarantee will make you cry (if you're in nursing school). There are so many emotions that I had when I was reading this text. Thinking back to when I had to read this text, I would read it not just once, but sometimes twice or three times in order to understand what (tf) I was reading and having to comprehend what I just read. Some days if I'm lucky and my brain is working, I'll only have to read it once. But thinking about when I had to read and learn about the diagnosis, its signs and symptoms, and the nursing interventions, as well as reading, re-reading, and re-reading it again until I understood the materials for exams, my heart aches. But I learned most of the adult medical diagnosis and its nursing interventions from this text, which really helped me be prepare to care for adult patients. (But my goal is to be a labor and delivery nurse one day.)

Part II

The theme that I worked on for the group project was What is the Role of Religion? What I like best about the project was the repetition of the materials learned. Through that I am able to remember the information that was being taught. I believe this class provided information that's useful for my career because I encounter many different kinds of culture. In the beginning of the project, I was putting in a lot of time. The first week, I remembered putting in six hours into the project. However, as time goes on and depending on which week it was, the hours were less than six. Here is the project that I worked really hard on.

Part III

Hori Ichiro - Glazed Stoneware
Japanese, born 1952
 Located at the Crocker Art Museum

When I decided to take this class, I didn't have much expectations of it. I was just hoping that this class wasn't going to be hard and that I would be able to gain some insight about Asian Humanities. My goal coming into this class was to take this class so that I can be a step closer to applying to a RN to BSN program. I hope that I completed the goal of passing this class. Reading The Bhagavad Gita and attending Crocker Art Museum was the most interesting thing about this class. The picture to the left is a glazed stoneware from Japan called Hori Ichiro. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a beautiful stoneware that was glistening hues of light purple, pink, and white. For The Bhagavad Gita, I really like some of the sentences and verses from this text. I will share one sentence below that I really liked and underline in my book.

Know that you can achieve this by first uniting your heart with God and only then pursuing worldly things. (Hawley, 22)

I learned so many aspects of different religions in this class and how each religion came about and how it is practice. Coming into this class, I didn't know much about each religion, but I enjoyed learning about it. 

Works Cited

Hawley, Jack. Bhagavad Gita - a Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

Buddha Calling for Rain

Standing next to the Buddha Calling for Rain

On a rainy Sunday, my daughter and I visited Crocker Art Museum. It was not crowded at all and we were helped immediately upon arriving. I paid the college student price and my daughter was free because she’s five years old. Although I made the trip to the museum, I did not have very much time to explore the whole museum. We spent about 1.5 hours in the Asian section looking at every piece of art work, and did a very quick walkthrough in the Europe section.

There were a lot of beautiful art pieces that I encountered, but the one that stood out to me the most was the Buddha Calling for Rain. It just felt right choosing this statue since it was raining. Per the information provided by Crocker Art Museum, the artist to this statue is unknown and its location is either in Northern Thailand or Laos from the 19^th century. In this region, their religious belief is Theravada Buddhism, which is the basic doctrines of early Buddhism.

Buddha Calling of Rain
from the 19th century
located at Crocker Art Museum

It was hard to find resources about Buddha Calling for Rain. However, the text Cultures of the World Laos stated that the Buddha Calling for Rain is rarely found outside of Laos. As stated by Crocker Art Museum, “This pose does not reference any specific event in the Buddha’s life. It is unique to the region.” The mudra has its fingers pointed down towards the ground. Because of the concern for the crops and the crops inability to stay alive without water, the purpose of this mudra is to call for rain, thus was made for the people living in Northern Thailand or Laos region. According to Trade Wind Statue, “The “calling for rain” mudra was one of the miracles in the story and life of Lord Buddha when after years of drought, Buddha stood in meditation and summoned the rain, ended the drought, and created a rainfall that brought nourishment to the rice fields.”

Information provided by Crocker Art Museum
regarding the Buddha Calling for Rain

The material used for this statue is wood and covered with gold gilt. This material was often used during the 19^th century as it is also the material used for other statues. I was able to find another standing Buddha made in the 19^th Century from Laos, and its material is also gilt wood. Therefore, the Buddha Calling for Rain represents the 19^th century fairly well because craved wood was one of the common material used for sculptures or art pieces during this era. The Buddha Calling for Rain differs from other Buddha statue because it is standing with its arms straight down. While there are other standing Buddha, its hand gesture is different.

In the future, when I have more free time, I definitely want to visit Crocker Art Museum again and be able to explore the whole museum. Through Asian Humanities and Introduction to Humanities, I no longer think narrowly when it comes to looking at art. I’m not an expert yet, but I appreciate art more and am able to see the importance of the art piece and its details.

Works Cited

“6ft Rare Big STANDING BUDDHA Statue Laos Rain Mudra GOLD GILDED Teak Wood.” Www.tradewindstatues.com, www.tradewindstatues.com/6ft-Rare-STANDING-BUDDHA-Statue-Laos-Rain-mudra-p/623-i.htm.

Crocker Art Museum. 216 O Street, Sacramento. 1 Dec 2019. Place

Mansfield, Stephen, and Magdalene Koh. Laos. Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009.