Personal Philosophy
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“Personal Philosophy”
There are several pieces of Ancient literature that contain actions and choices that are parallel to my own personal philosophy and some that provide stark contrast. In this essay I will state the philosophically points found in ancient literature and those that are my own and compare them The first piece of Ancient literature that I will be using as reference in this essay is the story of the fisherman and the genie. A fisherman who wished desperately to catch a good haul prayed to his God Allah for guidance and help. Through continuous trials he retrieves in his net a bottle, and when he opens the bottle a grand genie appears. The genie is furious that is escape took so long that he even demands the fisherman say what means of death he will kill him by. The fisherman pleads the powerful genie not to kill him but he does not listen. The fisherman decides to trick the genie by using his own ego to trap him inside once again. The fisherman accomplishes this task and will not let the genie back out regardless of how much it begged.
Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and one-third man who built a great city with temples and towers. He began his kingship of Uruk as a cruel leader that terrorized his citizens. The epic begins with Enkidu who lives with the animals. A hunter discovers him and sends a temple prostitute into the wilderness to tame him. When Enkidu sleeps with a woman and so the animals reject him because now he is part of the human world. He travels to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh. Enkidu become friends with Gilgamesh and decide to steal trees from the terrifying demon named Humbaba guards it. Gilgemesh and Enkidu were able to kill the demon with the help of the Gods. Gilgamesh Enrageges a goddess and she in turn asked her father, Anu, to send the Bull of Heaven to punish him. Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle with the bull and kill it. Enkidu takes ill due to the councils wrath for killing the bull, Gilgamesh cant stop grieving, and he cant stop brooding about the prospect of his own death. He sets off into the wilderness, determined to find Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah. After the flood, the gods had granted Utnapishtim eternal life, and Gilgamesh hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how he might avoid death too. Utnapishtim. A woman named Siduri warns him that seeking immortality is futile and that he should be satisfied with the pleasures of this world. When Gilgamesh says that he should be allowed to live forever so to prove this Utnapishtim gives him a test to stay awake for one week. Just as Gilgamesh is departing, however, Utnapishtims wife convinces him to tell Gilgamesh about a plant that restores youth. Gilgamesh finds the plant and takes it with him. But a snake steals the plant one night while he was camping. Gilgamesh retuned knowing that he cant live forever but that humankind will. Now he sees that the city he had repudiated in his grief and terror is a magnificent, enduring achievement the closest thing to immortality to which a mortal can aspire.
The Book of Genesis opens the Hebrew Bible with the story of creation. At the beginning there was only a void of nothingness; God creates the world by speaking into the darkness and calling into being light, sky, land, vegetation, and living creatures over the course of six days. On the sixth day, God and he create humankind. He fashions a man out of dust and forms a woman out of the mans rib. God places the two people, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, encouraging them to make children and to enjoy the created world; he forbids the two from eating from the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil. In the garden, Eve encounters a serpent that convinces her to eat the trees forbidden fruit. While walking in the garden, God discovers their disobedience. After cursing the serpent, he turns and curses the couple. Eve, he says, will be cursed to suffer painful childbirth and must submit to her husbands authority. Adam is cursed to work the ground for food. The two are banished from Eden. Adams son Cain, a farmer, offers God a portion of his crops one day as a sacrifice, only to learn that God is more pleased when his brother Abel, a herdsman, presents God with the biggest portion of his flocks. Enraged, Cain kills his brother. God exiles Cain from his home. Generations pass, and humankind becomes more evil. God decides to destroy humankind completely. One man, Noah, has earned Gods favor because of his righteous behavior. God speaks to Noah and promises to establish a special covenant with Noah and his family. He instructs Noah to build an ark, large enough to hold Noahs family and pairs of every kind of living animal while God sends a great flood to destroy the earth. Noah does so, his family and the animals enter the ark, and rain falls, submerging. When the waters finally recede, God calls Noahs family out of the ark and reaffirms his covenant with Noah. Upon exiting the ark, Noahs family finds that the earth is moist and green again. God promises that the new fertile earth is for Noah and his children. But humankind must follow certain rules to maintain this. God vows never to destroy the earth again. King Sibi was a kind soul, and one day he had a great feast. As he and his guests all lay about outside, resting and being happy, a dove came to him and hid in his lap. Shortly after it a hawk came who was hunting it. Sibi wanted to protect the dove, but it turned out the hawk had a family at home who was starving. He offered the leftovers of the feast, but it wanted flesh. So Sibi offered the flesh of his leg, cut and ripped from him personally, equal to the doves weight, but it did not weigh nearly as much as the dove. Sibi ended up putting his whole body on the weight, and then it weighed the same. Fortunately, it was just a test by the gods he had earned his place among the gods.
These stories are filled with inspirational messages and renowned throughout the world.The certainty of Death