Buddha and the Buddhism based on the Journey to the West by Wu Chengen Research Paper

Buddha and the Buddhism based on the Journey to the West by Wu Chengen - Research Paper Example The reward is that they get admitted back to heaven. This description is in tandem with Christian principles of faith (Miller, 2006). Another depiction of Christianity is from the monkey king who eats the holy peaches. Like forbidden fruits portrayed in the bible, the monkey king eats these fruits reserved for special guest to heaven. He gets enlightened and for his acts, he is kicked out of the Heavenly Garden. A symbolic representation of what unfolded in the Garden of Eden (Miller, 2006). In the novel, Taoist heaven, found in China, coexist with Buddhist western paradise, implied in the novel as a location in India. Taoist gods like the Jade Emperor and Buddhist venerable like Buddha even consult and help one another. When the Jade Emperor becomes overwhelmed by the monkey king’s antics, he presents his lamentations to Buddha who subdues the monkey (Wilkinson and Teague, 2003). The Journey to the West relays a simplified and literalized ascetic Taoism in the Chinese popular origin. Taoist ascetics for instance consider that the final stage of discipline is to attain immortality (Fowler and Fowler, 2008). Since most Chinese were confused about elements of Taoism, this was simplified by popular legend as presented in the novel. As the monkey goes to see Taoist god, he steals pills from Taoist alchemy laboratory. The pills are to prolong life of a human being by a few thousand years (Kherdian and Wu, 1992). This becomes a simplified explanation of ascetics that is easily discernable by the Chinese. The gods of the different religions presented in the novel differ in hierarchies and roles. For instance, Jade Emperor is depicted as the ruler of Earth and Heavens, though he is not as supreme as Confucius, Buddha and Lao Tzu administratively. These gods are also subject to much superior universal forces. The folk heaven which the novel mainly draws from Taoist mythology is a model of the government of Chinese emperors (Flanagan, 2011). The Chinese folk heaven is therefore conveyed as bloated bureaucracy with numerous officials holding grandiose titles. This scenario is underscored by the rewards Xuanzang disciples receive after delivering the sutras. It is also worthy to note that these heavenly administrators are mortals whose virtues in their earthly lives got them their current positions (Cuevas and Stone, 2007). The different religions in Journey to the West find a striking balance and try to accommodate one another (Buswell, 1990). They are not into direct competition with one another. Buddha helps Jade Emperor when he is besieged by the monkey king, whereas Bodhisattva Kwan Yin plays an important role in the novel by helping the pilgrims when on very difficult situations. Although the disciples are promoted to heaven, Xuanzang remains on earth to translate the sutras.

The presentation for nursing research PowerPoint

The for nursing research - PowerPoint Presentation Example Even though the author does not directly communicate a research question for the study, this can be deduced from the research objective and the title. The research question would therefore be, ‘what are the effects of alcohol consumption on sexual behaviour of young women, between 16 and 24 years?’ The article also lacks a research hypothesis but this can be implied from the research question and the research objective. The implied null hypothesis is the statement that alcohol consumption does not affect sexual behaviour of young women between, 16 and 24 years (McMunn, 2008). The article’s literature review is explorative and establishes sufficient background information for the research. It for example explores literature on alcohol consumption by age and gender to identify a specific interest in young women, and impacts of alcohol on their behaviour. The review’s findings are also consistent with existing literature that the group of women between the age of 16 years and 24 years are heavy drinkers. The literature review is therefore comprehensive enough to identify the research problem (Plant, 2009). Strengths and weaknesses of sampling procedures The research applied simple random sampling approach, based on attendance to a given care facility. This is defined by the fact that the young women who attended the facility were a sample of the entire population of women of the particular age group. Simple random sampling has a number of strengths and weaknesses in its application in a research. One of its major strengths is its simplicity that allows a researcher to implement a research design with ease. It therefore offers no technicality that may further induce inefficiency in the data collection process (Ellison, Barwick and Farrant, 2009). The sampling design also has the ability to be used even without a prior knowledge of the target population by the researcher. This also facilitates its ease of application (Aday and Cornelius, 2 011). Simple random sampling also has the strength of eliminating bias in sampling as the each element in the sample space has equal chance of being included in the sample and the researcher lacks control on specific members of the population to be sampled. In the case for instance, the research was limited to those women who attended the facility and the researcher could not study other women who did not register for the facility’s services (McMunn, 2008). The applied sampling procedure also has a number of limitations. While it is simple to apply, it may fail to generate a representative sample. Especially in cases where the target population has identifiable sub groups. Consequently, the applied sampling approach, simple random sampling, may not be suitable for making inferences. This is because in differentiated subgroup and in case the random approach only selects members of a few sub groups, then the generated results would be limited to such groups and not the entire p opulation (McMunn, 2008). Another weakness of the applied approach is the fact that it might not yield efficiency in sampling. This is a consequence of the possibility of a non representative data, especially in a quantitative research (Aday and Cornelius, 2011). Simple random sampling is also a weak approach in a time series research as well as in handling data whose