Natural Setting- Amanda Ewen

Natural Setting- The beach

            I find the beach to be a very spiritual place.  It gives me a feeling of calm.  I love sitting on the warm sand and listening to the wonderful sounds of the ocean.  Sitting on the beach allows me time to think about more important things.  Sometimes I just sit on the beach looking at the vastness of the ocean and realizing just how beautiful nature is.   The beach offers a place where I feel safe and comfortable and very in tune with God. It is the only place that I have found where I really feel connected to God. It is a scared place because it falls under the four axiums.  It is a very ordinary place made extraordinary by the natural beauty.   I did not choose this as a sacred place it chose to be sacred to me.  At first I did not know I was in a spiritual place until I finally felt closer to god.  The beach is only in one place but it can be spiritual to many.

Own choosing- Amanda Ewen

Sundance’s Trail Journal

            While I was reading Sundance’s trail journal I felt like I was on the trail with him.  He explained all about trail magic, the hospitality he received, and how he encouraged others.  Through reading his journal I learned a lot about how the hikers on the trail interact and how kind they are to each other.  He also told us about the struggles of the trail.  There are mental and physical struggles throughout the trail.  The mental struggles include not feeling like you can finish the trail, being lonely, and not being able to overcome the everyday struggles.  The physical struggles include the actual walking of the trail, the injuries that you encounter, and the hunger.  Sundance described nature and how the trail looked along the way.   Reading the trail journals helps me better understand why people commit to doing the trail.  You really learn something about yourself and other people while hiking the trail.

Landscapes of the Sacred- Amanda Ewen

Landscapes of the Sacred- pg.65-72

This chapter is called “Mythic Landscapes: The Ordinary as Mask of the Holy.”  The chapter starts off by explaining that the ordinary is no longer what it appears.  The chapter had an example of canoeing down the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.  He explained that the flowers, water, and silence were all so ordinary until he realized they were actually extraordinary.  The chapter also explains that people need to be shielded from the light of God’s glory.  They need to be hidden by a mask.  They are called masks of the holy.  The holy masks are displayed in a convincing way by artists and storytellers.  I found this chapter to be very helpful since we discussed the holy masks a lot in class. 

Prayer 2-Amanda Ewen

The Phenomenology of Prayer- Chapter 4

            The chapter starts off by explaining that prayer is both private and public and is one of the most common of human actions.  It is also said that we too often pray for things.  We pray for victory, objects, and positions.  When praying for victory or a certain position you don’t ever think about the people that aren’t getting what they want because you got what you wanted.  I found this to be extremely eye opening.  I realized that I too prayer for objects without regard for others.  I pray to have a certain person in my life not realizing what would happen to them and their happiness if they were in my life.  The fact that we pray for objects traps us in an “earthly economy.”  The chapter tells about the two concepts of the sacred.  Phenomenology is the study of appearing.  The sacred signifies things that cannot appear.  The second concept is the sense of the sacred world by incarnating himself.  The process of incarnation involves emptying out of God.  In order to encounter god we must empty ourselves.  The chapter closes with what we should pray for.  In the beginning of the chapter it was pointed out that we pray for things without regards for those who it may affect.  Does this mean that we can no longer pray for things we want?  The question was answered by saying that by denying ourselves we re saying that what we want is less significant then others.  I have conflicts about the answer to this question.  It was not very clear whether or not we should continue to pray for the things we want.

Prayer- Amanda Ewen

Phenomenology of Prayer- Chapter 3

Chapter three is broken down into six sections.  The first section explains to us about true prayer.  True prayer can come from two different inspirations.  The first is love and poetic inspiration and the second is a clear way for action or be a reflection on past deeds. 

            The second section is title “the happy Inevitability of Passion.”  This section focuses the different views of passion.  Plato sees passion as outrage at indignity.  David Hume said that without passion he sees no way for reason to gain traction.  Bertrand Russell says, “three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” The thing that I found most interesting about this section was that Darwin noted that there were passions of grief, delight, and melancholy.  I never really thought about the fact that there could be passion of emotions other then happiness.

            Section three is called Passion of Prayer.  It was said that prayer is passion that is quiet but inwardly intense.  I feel that prayer is something that is very inwardly intense.  This section also talks about the different types of prayer.  There is prayer from fear, anger, despair, or one for the recognition of a need. 

            Section four is called “Is passion Self-Correcting?”  Hume said, “Sentiments can be self-correcting.”  This is saying true prayer corrects a passion for violent confrontation.

            The fifth section is centered on who a prayer is addressed too.  When people pray they do not really know whom the prayer is going too.  They have whom they believe the prayer is going too.  When I pray I do not actually know whom the prayer is going to, however, I think it goes to God.  We address our prayers to an unknown recipient but in our bones we can sense whom it is going to go too.