One important idea that we discussed in this section would be plato's allegory of the cave. This story discusses how humankind lives their life. In the story plato says that everyone starts off as prisoners and are only ablke to see shadows. Then one of those prisoners gets to look into light adn see the real world. At first he is struck with pain and wants to retreat back into the cave. Eventually he gets used tot he light and is awestruck at how massive the world is and how the light broadened his own vision of the world which was limited only to the cave. Plato says that all humans are born into the shadows only seeing the distorted version of real life. And when they are brought to the light the first reaction that everyone feels is pain and a feeling of crawling back into our own "cave". Sometimes, people can endure the pain of the light adn begin to see the real truth of life and are often crticized for talking crazy when, the people criticizing are the ones who live in the cave of shadows.
Another important idea from this section would be from the story of the blind man and the elephant. In this story people are often asking buddha if the universe is infinite or not and Buddha tells them a story about the blind men who observed what an elephant was. Since they couldn't feel the whole elephant they only felt parts of it like the trunk or the tail or the leg and assumed thats what an elephant really was. Buddha told this story because he wanted to show people that you cant be blinded or limited by what you see because there is things that you don't see that are also there. BUddha also beleived that being wise is knowing that you don't have the answers to everything. He says to just accept the fact that are some things in hte universe that cannot be explained in words or facts.
Lastly, the third most important idea that we learned in this section would be the five foundational lessons. 1. I am Necessarily and unavoidably making decisions all the time. 2. I am unavoidably and necessarily biased(to a certain degree). 3. The value judgments I make determine my action. 4. Any change in my belief cannot help but modify and change my life. 5. The most significant decisions i make in life need to be faith decisions. All 5 of these lessons are seen as the closest thing that can be interepreted as the truth. This si true for usually all people because everyone of us refers to one or all of these lessons each day of our lives. They are seen as the guidelines to all the things that happen in our own questionable lives.
A question that I have been pondering on for awhile is Am I carving my own individual path in this world or do I stand behing the great leaders and mimick what they have accomplished already to make myself feel safe and secure?
The one thing that has been sticking in my head since friday that would help me become a better person would be from the movie about Eric Clapton. In that movie one of the most important quotes he said was "Its not about what I want but what I can give" I feel that I should think about this quote and try to give as much as I can to the less fortunate because helping other is the ultimate feeling of goodness and will eventually transform you into a more faithful person.