Dulcey's Mindfulness

Good evening friends, Thought I would discuss what I found a bit unnerving and a bit shocking as I had never even heard of this before. It's called becoming a eunuch or being castrated. I actually felt a bit sad with the reading as it seems so foreign to remove one's genitals. In the case of Zheng He, this was not by his choosing.  Born in 1371, Zheng's roots were from Central Asia. His dad and grandfather were Muslims and had also made the pilgrimage to Mecca.  His father was killed resisting forces of the Ming dynasty.  He was taken prisoner at the young age of 11. It's unbelievable to me that the Ming dynasty would castrate a young boy. I mean what horror he must have experienced. It's written there was a long history of this practice and over one million eunuchs served the Chinese emperor. Is this like castration for horses and they felt men would obey their rulers if they lost their manhood? While it seems odd, there were several men who voluntarily gave up...

I found it very interesting in the way Buddhism started in China.  I had no idea it started with the Silk Road trading network around 200 C.E. As we know Buddhism originated in India. Most Chinese were not open to the idea of Buddhism due to the conflicting teachings of Confucianism. Initially, it started with only practiced by foreign merchants and monks living in China. About 300 and 800 C.E. Buddhism started to become more popular due to the collapse of the Han dynasty. Chinese started to welcome the idea and supported the monasteries, temples and even art. As one might suspect with the Buddist culture, they provided help to those in need. The provided food, shelter, treatment if one was sick and even provided a place for children to learn. There was also great effort to translate the religion into information the Chinese could understand. One that I don't necessarily love is the translation from the Indian teaching that "husband supports wife" was translated to ...

Hello World Explorers,  This journey has been interesting. I must say the initial reading didn't leave me with the warm fuzzies. As Strayer said, monarchs continued to rule the new civilizations, women remained subordinate to men in all of them, there was a divide between the elite and everyone else and the practice of slavery was on the rise. Doesn't appear the Age of Agricultural Civilization is bringing out the best in people. By 1500 C.E the world population was nearly 500 million and there was a disappearance of equality. As the specialization of work grew, it's important to note, these specialists didn't grow their own food, they were supported by others who were highly efficient at farming.  Inequality and hierarchy became the norm and as we experience today, upper-class citizens avoided physical labor, enjoyed the finer things in life, and life at the top. Of course, with wealth come riches. Often they upper-class enjoyed the finer clothes, houses, and ...

Hello, my friends! Interesting fact, I am raising two strong, independent and happy girls. It's important to me they are raised in a world of equality and they are given the opportunities to be whomever they want to be and do whatever they want to do. The reading sparks many thoughts, what would life be like if we were growing up at different times? I often think life is moving too fast but in fact, it seems life may have always felt like this. Perhaps history is repeating itself. As Strayer said, human life changed dramatically in farming communities and not for the better. Farming involved hard work and agricultural studies show deterioration in health, more tooth decay, malnutrition, anemia and diminished life expectancy, (Strayer, 2016). Seems like the advances we make test our being. Even today, advances are made but people say life is moving too fast with technology. People are always connected but tend to want to move towards a more simple life.  I thought i...