A) Shopping Malls as Sacred Places

Jon Pahl in his article “The Desire to Acquire: Or, Why Shopping Malls are Sites of Religious Violence” makes very interesting parallels between the church and the mall. I never thought that between these two such different buildings can be something similar. The sacredness of malls has become even noticeable nowadays than ever before. With companies trying to sell their products has gone to another level of unconsciousness of one’s who do not have no clue of that’s taking in effect. When going to the church like the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Seattle, the people who are attending church are there to praise God like no other church. When entering the mall, there are many similarities and differences that create this enchanted Bellevue Square mall become other than a place to shop, but a place embodied with sacredness of their architecture.
Being a public place, it has its own religion that is welcomed for everyone. As the first thing I’ve notice at Bellevue Square mall was the huge building. It gave the place a visual of power of being oversized, as the church has the power of God. The first thing that caught my attention was the huge water fountain. Streaming full of water, people are throwing coins in the fountain to receive a granted wish. As for most shoppers, people are going to the mall to buy something in particular or to look around. As the usage of natural architecture of plants, stones, and water has brought these people into a place of sacredness. The stimulation of purchasing has become even greater than everyone is underestimating.
As I first walked into the mall, there were many signs already saying there are sales. All these deals were able to cure these customers of materialism. This leads to the fact of how everyone may dress, as they like from their taste and what not. As the church strictly have rules of dressing formal if not casual with respective clothing of not skin showing. Back to the sale, it was only for a few days, becoming not just a must have deal, but a must have within a certain time. The deal was only for another day, that pressures one into purchasing something for not just what they’re expecting to look for, but for the extra cash spent for what is known as a deal.
The temperature of the mall has become to a perfect feel yet a little below room temperature for one’s to feel comfortable walking around. The lighting was perfect, feeling no difference of the time of the day it was. The lack of windows and access to the outer world has become covered. The mall was its own world, with its own habit of people who are hungry to eat up all the products that are available. The sacredness of all these plants, trees, water, and the architecture of laziness and perfection for shopping has become the perfect environment of a mall. It’s as if the mall has its own God of products for these people to filter themselves with.

B2) Early Teachings

Daoism, taken from Lao-Tzu’s Tao-Te-Ching, stresses is the importance of nature, and action through “non-action”. The Tao or “The Way” is nameless, and is a concept that is unable to be explained in words. The central dogma of Daoism, Wu-Wei, stresses the need to let events take its original course and to act without action. Following this principle, the natural Taoist reaction to an event is to simply let it happen. In the Tao-Te-Ching, it is written that, “When nothing is done, nothing is left undone”. This can be interpreted to mean that, for nature to take its course, action by means of non-action is the only thing necessary. Those practicing Daoism are encouraged to refrain from extravagance, and to maintain simplicity in their lives. This is in accordance to Wu-Wei, as we can see that over-consumption is a variation of an action in the place of non-action. Just as nature is simple, in order for one to achieve naturalness, they must keep their lives simple. According to Daoism, humans are just a mere fragment of the cosmos, therefore; our actions should be in agreement with the natural course of the Universe. In order for this to occur, one must free his mind of wants and desires in order to make the appropriate decisions in life. One’s life is just a posed to the flowing of a river in the Daoist perspective. One can find their way through life in the same manner as a river finding its way to the ocean. In perhaps the most famous of Zhuangzhou’s tales, Zhuangzhou dreams that he is a butterfly, joyous about the simplicity of life. He then wakes up from his dream, unable to distinguish reality from his dream, as he stares at his sleeping body. Was he a butterfly dreaming of becoming a human, or a human dreaming of becoming a butterfly? This story reflects the simplicity that one should live by and stresses the importance of nature within Daoism. He realizes what it truly means to be happy in the form of a butterfly, even to the point of doubting the existence of his true human form.

C2) The Life of Confucius

Confucius was a Chinese teacher and sage. He created the religion that became the basis of governance, culture and politics of the huge country. However, Confucius almost never said about God, about faith, about what we have come to associate with the word “religion”. It is the religion that means relationship with God, with heaven, with others, and with us. Confucius spoke about humanity and moral duty, about the knowledge and love; about what it means to be a noble man who lives high thoughts in his soul, and is committed to the common good. And what it means to be a “small” man who seeks only to his own benefit and comfort.
Confucius was born in 551 BC in the kingdom of Lu. Father Confucius Shuliang He was a brave officer. When Confucius was 3 years old, her father died and Confucius’s mother devoted her whole life raising boys. Confucius was born with never-ending interest to learning. His mind forcing him to read and, most importantly, to adopt all the knowledge that was contained in the classic books of that era. Therefore, later people spoke about him that he did not have a teacher, but only students. He had different king of skills as he knew how to perform rituals, listening to music, the skill to archery and drive a chariot, writing skills, accounting. When he was about thirty years, Confucius has become one of the most educated men of his time. However, he didn’t take any important position in the public service. Although he was quiet, his actions and words were too honest to get a responsible position in society where prosper adulation and dishonesty.
Confucius opened a school, which over time become a model for the Chinese education. The main focus of the school becomes ethics. The program had six traditional subjects: history, poetry, politics, etiquette, music, and thinking about the future. He believed that education plays an important role in the creation of a civilized and harmonious society. His pathway from school to the free following of desires of the heart and follow the rules of conduct become a moral ideal whole culture of China. Not long before his death he said about himself: “At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obedient; at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the norm.”

D1) The Origins of Shinto

“The concept of nature and reverence for ancestors is basic.”
Stuart Picken Essentials of Shinto

Shintoism is national religion of Japan and it means “the way of the gods”. It is based on the worship of many gods that called kami like a divine ancestors of the Japanese people, the spirits of the mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, fire, wind, the patron deity of individual localities and crafts; gods that represent the human virtues and spirits of the dead. Therefore, the basis of this religion is the cult of the ancestors and worships the power of nature. In this regard, Shinto looks like paganism. Shinto is the national religion, which is not addressed to all human, but only to the Japanese. Unlike many other religions, Shinto cannot be called the founder of a specific person or god. According to the Shinto people came from kami and live with them in the same world and can move into the category of kami after death. Therefore, there are no promises of salvation in some other world, but the ideal of a harmonious life of person is life with the outside world, in the spiritual unity. Another feature of Shinto is the set rituals that have survived almost without changes for centuries. Also, unlike other religions Shinto hasn’t moral attitudes. Instead of notions of good and evil there are occupied by the concept of clean and unclean.
At the heart of every belief are myths and above all it is creation myths. In the beginning the world stayed in condition of chaos, and was mixed and unformed. At some moment in the primeval chaos split and formed the High Plains Sky Islands and the Dragonflies Islands. Then there were first gods, and late they began to appear divine couple. In each couple were a man and a woman, a brother and sister, who personify different natural phenomena. The last divine couple was Izanagi and Izanami, which were married and becoming husband and wife. From this marriage came the Japanese islands and many kami have occupied this land. The first kids that were birth they cast them out. Then Izanami gave birth to eight islands of Japan. After that, the goddess started to give birth of different gods. But when she gave birth to the god of fire, she was died. Idzanaki angry with the god of fire and cut it into three pieces, and went to the underworld to search his wife. But he couldn’t bring back his beloved. Since then, the land of the dead was ruled by Izanami, and land of lives by Idzanaki. This is very shortly explanation Shinto creation myths.

D) Art in Daoism and Confucianism

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
Confucius

The art in Daoism and Confucianism religions developed step by step. Firstly, under the influence of the Confucius teachings emperors of the Han Dynasty created a very complex state bureaucracy. There were taken officials by state exams. Education has become an important part of Chinese culture. After the fall of the Han dynasty, popularity of Daoism teachings has increased. Daoism joined the moral code of Confucianism with the ethical central of the art, and the necessity for a person to express them. At the time of Daoism was spread landscape painting, poetry and calligraphy. Earlier, calligraphy previously used only imperial administration scribes, but later calligraphy was much more than just the written words. Often the goal in art was not self-expression, but the search for truth. Artists had all three art forms like a calligraphy, poetry and painting, so their work was difficult to classify. The painting was not only with the verses, but also with calligraphic inscriptions in a suitable style. Also, painters and calligraphers used ink for their work. They were preparing it like rubbing slightly moistened mascara stick or a plate to the viscosity at a special ink tone. In the Sung era China has made a colored ink adding a touch of crushed pearls, jasper and milled camphor. Later artists began to use other colors: indigo, lead, vermilion and malachite.

F) Research Project – Sacred Places and Spaces Aspects

When Christianity came in the first century, it was time of the Roman Empire. The pagan Rome had many cults that included the cult of gods of Rome and necessarily considered a cult of deified emperors. In additional, in private life Roman people could worship gods by their chosen. Christians reject worship pagan gods and the cult of the emperor. At the heart of new religion lay not worship a mythical character, but a real historical figure. Christianity denied all other religions, rejected their rituals. Also, a new doctrine discarded not only social barriers, but also national barriers between people. “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, neither slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all, ” – Colossians 3:11 said (Bible). The first monuments of Christian art date back to II-III centuries that Christianity was a persecuted religion, and the most characteristic monuments are its catacombs. On the catacomb walls preserved paintings that the main theme was belief in the resurrection and salvation of dead.
Because Christian divine service in contrast to pagan rituals was going on inside temples, there had to be a building that would be received and held a lot of people. Therefore, the greatest example of such church is Old Saint Peter’s church raised by Constantine. The typical design of the Roman basilica served as a model for the Christian church to next periods. As service was held in the church, the decorations inside church contrast with the simplicity of the look outside that made different from pagan temples. In Christian churches were no any statues because it was associated as idolatry. Also, Christian art, especially painting and mosaic, was manifested in the two-dimensional image opposite ancient art that humanized gods, illustrating them with realistic reliability. Moreover, wall mosaic was one of the new areas of Christian art. Romans used mosaic for decorative floors and to decorate the walls they preferred painting.

Sources:
BBC, Religions: Taoism, http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/taoism/
Teaching Comparative Religion Through Art and Architecture, http://orias.berkeley.edu/workshop_visuals.html
The Sewanee Review, Shintoism and the Japanese Nation, Shinjiro Kitasawa, Page 480 of 479-483, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27532848
Confucius, Jonathan D. Spence, The Wilson Quarterly (1976-),Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 30-38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40258766
Confucianism – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/
Daoism (Taoism) – The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/daoism/
The Desire to Acquire:
Or, Why Shopping Malls are Sites of Religious Violence, Jon Pahl, http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/052007
http://www.saintnicholascathedral.org/photos_CathedralToday.html
Onassis Cultural Center , http://www.onassisusa.org/exhibition_transitions.php