Mrs Sutherland's English Classroom



Groundhog DayCastBill Murray as Phil ConnorsAndie MacDowell as RitaChris Elliott as LarryStephen Tobolowsky as Ned RyersonBrian Doyle-Murray as Buster GreenRick Ducommun as GusRick Overton as RalphRobin Duke as Doris, the WaitressMarita Geraghty as Nancy TaylorHarold Ramis as NeurologistWillie Garson as Phil's Asst. KennyKen Campbell as Man in HallwayIntroductionGroundhog Day has been considered a tale of self-improvement which emphasizes the need to look inside oneself and realize that the only satisfaction in life comes from turning outward and concerning oneself with others rather than concentrating solely on one's own wants and desires. The phrase also has become a shorthand illustration for the concept of spiritual transcendence. As such, the film has become a favorite of Buddhists because they see its themes of selflessness and rebirth as a reflection of their own spiritual messages. It has also, in the Catholic tradition, been seen as a representation of Purgatory. It has even been dubbed by some religious leaders as the "most spiritual film of our time."In everyday language, "transcendence" means "going beyond", and "self-transcendence" means going beyond a prior form or state of oneself. Mystical experience is thought of as a particularly advanced state of self-transcendence, in which the sense of a separate self is abandoned. "Self transcendence" is believed to be psychometrically measurable, and (at least partially) inherited.The Buddha described nirvāna as the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger, and other afflicting states (kilesas). It is also the "end of the world;" there is no identity left and no boundaries for the mind. The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all, and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In nirvāna, the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished, so that one is no longer subject to human suffering (Pali: dukkha) or further rebirth in samsāra.lar Herbert Guenther states that with nirvāna "the ideal personality, the true human being" becomes reality.The term Samsara has been translated many ways which include but are not limited to endless suffering, cyclic existence, perpetual wandering, and transmigration. According to the Buddha, the beginning point of Samsāra is not evident, just as there is no beginning point to a circle. All beings have been suffering in Samsāra for an unimaginable period, and they continue to do so until the attainment of Nirvana. The basic idea that there is a cycle of birth and rebirth is, however, not questioned in early Buddhism and its successors, and neither is, generally, the concept that samsāra is a negative condition to be abated through religious practice concluding in the achievement of final nirvāna.Samsāra is uncontrollably recurring rebirth, filled with suffering and problems (according to Kālacakra tantra as explained by Dr. A. Berzin). In this sense, Samsara may be translated "Wheel of Suffering." The Buddha taught that there are six realms that one can go to through this cycle of Samsara, though Buddhists differ as to whether the realms are actual places or figurative states of mind. Many believe that when one goes through the process of rebirth that they are the exact same person when they are reborn, but this however is not true according to the teachings of Buddha. Beings bear many similarities with their former selves but they are not the same person: this is why many Buddhists use the term rebirth instead of reincarnation. The term reincarnation implies that there is a transfer of one’s soul to the new life, but Buddhists believe this is not the case in Samsara, rebirth is generally considered to be a stream of evolving consciousness. A good example to better understand the transfer of consciousness is “Like a billiard ball hitting another billiard ball. While nothing physical transfers, the speed and direction of the second ball relate directly to the first." This explains how the previous life has a direct impact on the next life.There are also some Buddhists who believe that Samsara is not the question but the answer to what we are doing here. Some consider it to be a process that explains why we are here; they believe that we create our own individual worlds on our way to enlightenment, meaning that when our present world collapses (due to death) we create a new world and move into it. It is common for Tibetan Buddhists to believe that while we continue to go from world to world we encounter other beings who are on the same path as us, and some also believe that all of these different worlds impact the worlds of beings who happen to share a similar place or path as us. Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of sentient life, each running from conception to death. Buddhism rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity. According to Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self independent from the rest of the universe (the doctrine of anatta). Rebirth in subsequent existences must be understood as the continuation of a dynamic, ever-changing process of "dependent arising" determined by the laws of cause and effect (karma) rather than that of one being, transmigrating or incarnating from one existence to the next.Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering/uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another.Suffering is caused by craving. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness. Craving also has its negative aspect, i.e. one craves that a certain state of affairs not exist.Suffering ends when craving ends. This is achieved by eliminating delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the BuddhaThe Three Marks of Existence are impermanence, suffering, and not-self.Impermanence (Pāli: anicca) expresses the Buddhist notion that all compounded or conditioned phenomena (all things and experiences) are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Everything we can experience through our senses is made up of parts, and its existence is dependent on external conditions. Everything is in constant flux, and so conditions and the thing itself are constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be. Since nothing lasts, there is no inherent or fixed nature to any object or experience. According to the doctrine of impermanence, life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of rebirth and in any experience of loss. The doctrine asserts that because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile and leads to suffering (dukkha).Suffering is also a central concept in Buddhism. The word roughly corresponds to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration. Although the term is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being disturbed. As such, "suffering" is too narrow a translation with "negative emotional connotations"which can give the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism, but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic. In English-language Buddhist literature translated from Pāli, "dukkha" is often left untranslated, so as to encompass its full range of meaning.Not-self is the third mark of existence. Upon careful examination, one finds that no phenomenon is really "I" or "mine"; these concepts are in fact constructed by the mind. In the Nikayas anatta is not meant as a metaphysical assertion, but as an approach for gaining release from suffering. In fact, the Buddha rejected both of the metaphysical assertions "I have a Self" and "I have no Self" as ontological views that bind one to suffering. When asked if the self was identical with the body, the Buddha refused to answer. By analyzing the constantly changing physical and mental constituents (skandhas) of a person or object, the practitioner comes to the conclusion that neither the respective parts nor the person as a whole comprise a self.The Wheel of LifeThe wheel itself is a circle, symbolising the endless cycle of existence and suffering.In the middle of the Wheel are the Three Fires of greed, ignorance and hatred, represented by a rooster, a pig and a snake. These are the cause of all suffering and are shown linked together, biting each other's tails, reinforcing each other.In the next circle out, souls are shown ascending and descending according to their karma.The next ring out is composed of six segments showing the six realms: gods, humans and Titans above and hungry ghosts, animals and those tortured in hell below.The outer ring shows twelve segments called nidanas, illustrating the Buddhist teaching of dependent origination, the chain of causes of suffering (explained in the following section).The wheel is held by Yama, the Lord of Death, who symbolises the impermanence of everything. The beings he holds are trapped in eternal suffering by their ignorance of the nature of the universe.Existentialism - (philosophy) a 20th-century philosophical movement; assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves.A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts. ................
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