Final essay

To what extent does the Sistine Chapel represent the spirit and accomplishments of Humanism and the Renaissance in the 1400s-1500s?

One of the defining philosophies during the Renaissance was humanism; the focus of human power and expression. There was a drift away from the notion of man existing under a supernatural force with no distinguishing potentialities to man being a complete moral and intellectual being capable of beauty. This new spirit was represented in the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Julius II between 1508 and 1512.

   The ceiling is painted with nine scenes from the book of Genesis, or the creation story as told in the Bible. It may seem that since the underlying theme is the creation of the world by God as perfect, and humanity making it fall into disgrace that we would think of ourselves as having to succumb to God for salvation, and having to render ourselves worthless in His sight. But Michelangelo painted one scene in particular illustrating God and man on the same plane of existence. The scene shows God actively reaching out his fingers to reach Adam, who is passively laying out his hand to receive God’s spark of life. The space between the fingers creates an energy that can be felt by all. This was the first time anyone had attempted to visualize God, and it created a sense of equality or tangibility. God was no longer a mysterious spirit creating fear, but an old man. Adam’s body is muscular and relaxed, showing that the human body and soul should be celebrated and appreciated as beautiful.

 The facts that bodies were nude in the paintings were a source of conflict. It was thought that there should be no nakedness in a church, a place of sanctity. Pope Adrian VI described the ceiling as ‘a stew of naked bodies’. But in Michelangelo doing this, it represented the new wave of thought appearing. It conveyed the humanist vision that people should respond to people, social responsibility and God in a direct way and not through an intermediary such as the Church. Humanity is emphasized as noble and beautiful.        
The focus wasn’t only on God anymore. Man was brought into the picture, and as not as insignificant but as powerful and noteworthy. Now we see the Sistine Chapel as an accomplishment and realization of humanism in the renaissance during the 1400s to 1500s. Gabriele Bartz and Eberhard König say "In a world where all experience was based in the glorious lost past of Antiquity, he made a new beginning. Michelangelo, more even than Raphael or Leonardo, embodied a standard of artistic genius which revealed a radically changed image of human beings and their potential..." Human dignity was becoming the norm; people were putting more faith in themselves and their own potentialities rather than an external force.

Plato's Cave

The fall of Rome

An empire is created when more power is put into fewer hands. Although seemingly imperishable nothing lasts forever, and the Roman Empire was not exempt from that statement. The Roman Empire, characterized by fame and ambition, was the largest of its time and thrived in its achievements but inevitably fell.

Many attribute decadence to the state of the Roman Empires society, contributing to its collapse. The moral fibers of Rome were falling apart, and slavery contributed to this. Many were discontent as told in the example of Spartacus who led the slaves in an uprising against the Republic. Entertainment, literature, sport and lifestyle were saturated with sex and violence. None of which enriched the ethical values of roman civilians. Gladiator fights in the Coliseum, and acts of adultery and incest are examples of their lack of moral conduct. The corruption in the lives of the people spread, and was the byproduct of the perversion of the wealthy that held most of the power.

The roman government kept becoming increasingly powerful, run by the rich and the military. As this happened, the people began to feel more distanced and lost interest. Rome’s borders were rapidly growing, making it more difficult to defend and control. Barbarians surrounded Rome on all sides, and with their expanding borders they began to feel their pressure even more. Some of the barbarians surrounding Rome included the Huns, Visigoths, and Vandals.
         At a time of such low ethics, the teachings of Christ would come as a shock to many. His teachings said that the Kingdom of God would belong to the poor and meek. He taught of love and forgiveness. This new wisdom gave the lowly hope and courage, changing the attitude of social classes. Christ’s ideas challenged Rome’s ideas, but didn’t contribute to its fall. All it did was bring forth a long awaited putting in perspective of their rambunctious lifestyle, which was headed towards failure. Sybils curse prophesized that Rome would be defeated by itself, and that was so.   

The fall of Rome wasn’t a single event, but a myriad that led to a steady decline. New virtues for the society brought by Christianity defied their moral decadence, which was one of the contributing factors to Rome’s collapse. Rome slowly became overwhelmed by its shear size, and began to lose control. Now, the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire has become an obsession to western culture, seeing how we can learn about our own eventual downfall from theirs.   

Renouncement is a critical value in Buddhism. How does this principal operate in Siddhartha’s life? Is it a positive or negative force?

To be able to renounce is ultimately a show of someone’s control over himself or herself. Whether it be renouncing material objects or relationships, it prevails to be a difficult yet significant undertaking in one’s life. In Buddhism, it is seen that being attached to sensual pleasures is a hindrance to reaching enlightenment. Hermann Hesse exemplifies this view in his book Siddhartha. The main character, Siddhartha, practices renouncement during his life long journey for enlightenment, a force that positively impacts him in the end. 

Leaving his hometown, family, and predetermined future is the first set of things Siddhartha renounced. “…the intelligent boy, thirsty for knowledge; and he saw him growing up to be a great sage and priest, a prince among Brahmins.” During his life as a Brahmin, Siddhartha was well loved by everyone, it was apparent to all that there was greatness latent within him and with it expectations of his future. It may seem harsh that Siddhartha renounced that life so easily and without ever contacting his parents again, but the importance of his personal accomplishments outweigh that. The act of his father letting him go become a Samana is significant in showing that he knew the nature of his son’s essence, as exemplified in the quote “Now the father realized that Siddhartha was no longer with him and in his homeland, that he had already left him.” Siddhartha simply perceived what was making him unhappy and renunciation naturally followed. It was a liberating act on his part, not a punishment on himself or his family. In this case, he renounced everything familiar to him, his comforts. Later on in the book, we see that he relinquishes the physical world, followed by, in turn, the spiritual world.

            The next step in Siddhartha’s journey was becoming a Samana. With the Samana’s, Siddhartha is taught that enlightenment can be reached through the denial of worldly desires. He ignored his hunger, endured heat and cold, and long periods of meditation. Through these extreme practices, Siddhartha created a harmonious relationship within himself. After some time, he came to the conclusion that ignoring the physical world completely is not the answer. Siddhartha wanted  to create a harmonious relationship not only with himself, but also with the world around him. Throughout, we see the polarity of Siddhartha’s actions. With the Samana’s, he renounced the world of flesh tremendously, and during the next stage of his life with Kamala we see another extreme.

            During the next phase of Siddhartha’s life, we see that he renounced all, if not most, of his spirituality for an existence defined by lust. Kamala taught him the art of love, and Kamaswami the art of business. He learnt “..how to do business, wield power over people, take pleasure with a woman, wear beautiful clothes, command servants, bathe in fragrant water.” But eventually, Siddhartha realized that he was suffering from “the spiritual illness of the rich,” and that once again, he needed to reassess his renouncement. It became clear to Siddhartha “how closely lust is related to death.” So with that, he decided to leave his life of physical bliss.

            Throughout Siddhartha’s many polar renouncements, he found that enlightenment doesn’t come from mastering either the spiritual or physical world, but by finding a balance between the two. But his efforts weren’t in vain, because if he hadn’t experienced each side of the spectrum he would never have reached his conclusive realization. Every struggle in Siddhartha’s life was there to teach him a lesson, and the end result was him reflecting on each lesson and eventually the bigger picture of his pursuit; leading him to enlightenment. Each experience required some form of renouncement, and whether it seemed positive at the time or not, at the end of his journey it proved to be a progressive force culminating to enlightenment.  

Does the history of world civilizations suggest slavery and oppression coexist with the greatest achievements of humankind through the ages and can we escape this paradigm today?

 “The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.”

- Oscar Wilde

Every civilization is characterized by their achievements. Looking back at the many ancient civilizations of the world, we specifically identify with each an architectural accomplishment; some examples being China with the Great Wall, Egypt with the pyramids, and Greece with the Parthenon. Though each of these great feats are magnificently different from each other, they all share the common question of who built them, the answer being slaves. Although the history of civilizations shows that slavery and oppression coincide with great physical achievements, today, a day and age where we are still producing an array of accomplishments, is proof that slavery is an escapable paradigm.
            The Great Wall of China is a perfect example of slave labor. The Great Wall wasn’t built overnight; its creation spanned across 1700 years with each dynasty adding pieces together to eventually form it in its entirety. It started being built in the Qin dynasty, from 221 – 206 BC, by the emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect Chinas northern borders. Anyone who irritated the emperor was put to work on the wall, along with captured enemies, peasants, criminals and scholars who weren’t paid for their labor. They were only fed enough to say alive, and many of the slaves died because of rocks caving in, exhaustion and disease. There’s a Chinese saying, ‘each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the wall’s construction.” Similarly, the Great Wall of China is often referred to as the world’s longest cemetery.  Two more leading examples are the pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon. The pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World built by slaves as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (or Cheops) over the period of 20 years. The Parthenon in Greece is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. It took 15 years to build with the use of many slaves. The lives of many were degraded in order for civilizations to leave behind some sort of dent history, and it is questionable as to whether this is more valuable than a human life.

Today, although slavery is not entirely eradicated, it is very possible to advance and create great achievements without the use of slaves. A major factor to this is that we can put forth non-physical achievements such as the human genome, which is regarded as the ‘biological Rosetta Stone’. Our technology has also critically advanced, taking the place of what was once slave labor. The industrial revolution was a turning point in human history, and we can see the products of it replacing human slavery. Because of it, we can now use machines to complete tasks faster and as a much better option than enforced human labor. Now, knowledge is being spread at exponential rates rendering the use of slaves unimaginable. This is because everyone’s equally becoming more aware, and the facts are being spread to all and not just an elite few. The Internet is a major component of this spreading of knowledge. It is one of our greatest feats allowing awareness to spread to every corner of the earth, thus extending the thought that slavery is wrong, uncivilized, and a way of the past. 

Slavery in the past was used to help declare a civilizations advancement through architectural feats. Although this method appeared to advance a culture, it did just as much harm in propelling it backwards in regards to human rights. We have reached a point in time where we have advanced in such ways that we can stop the use of slaves, and rely on our knowledge and intellect to develop further; destroying the paradigm of slavery.

           

           

           

Who are the Child People, what are their values, concerns, weaknesses, and secret?

The child people are the “average people”, individuals who are concerned with material comfort, and things of the physical world. They are called the child people because they live like children or in an “animal like fashion”. Opposite from the Samanas who are seeking spiritual enlightenment, the child people are content in their ways and are only seeking material gain. The child people scold and insult one another, attesting to their immaturity, they “lament about paints the Samanas smile at”. They value wealth and success, and are concerned with money, petty pleasures and petty honors. One of their weaknesses is their lack of inner sanctuary, the ability of self-knowledge. The child people can love; that is their secret. They can love one another, themselves, and money.    

What does the river teach Siddhartha?

The river in Siddhartha represents life. In the end, it is the river that’s Siddhartha’s final teacher. One of the most important lessons the river teaches Siddhartha is that time doesn’t exist; the present is all that matters. The river, by being in all places at one time, teaches that all life is unified. Every single voice of the river comes together and they're no longer distinguishable; "And all of it together, all voices, all goals, all yearnings, all sufferings, all pleasures, all good and evil- the world was everything together". All these voices together consist of a single word; Om "perfection". The river shows that it is possible to be in all places at once and not loose your essence. Another major lesson Siddhartha learnt from the river is “how to listen with a silent heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinion”. Anything that hasn't been resolved or fully suffered will come again to be suffered over and over again. The river taught of this fateful circle. Siddhartha would suffer just as his father did, in losing a son.