#pre class response

Response:

This quote from Ibn Battuta is very interesting as he had made it a point to talk about their banana, coconut and betel trees in Dhofar, as most people would not take much notice of such things during their travels, less to mention them on their travel journals. It is quite interesting to understand why he wanted to talk about these trees and even described a lot about these trees. 

Response:

Worldly possessions are often talked about as something that should not be so sought after in most religions due to desires. But in this text, they brought this rejection of possessions to an extreme level where Francis is one who 'tramples' on and sees wordly possessions as something so negative that it is not only not to be sought after, but it is to fully deplete yourself of all worldly possessions then are you doing good in life. Possessions are seen to be a 'disease' here, where people should never attempt to hold possessions with them.

Response:

This quote is interesting as this quote has included women, which is something that is a little rare, as this was a period where women were not given much respect and place in the society. But in this quote, it has mentioned that people should be modest towards women, this is a way of showing respect towards women in that period.

Response:

This is a very interesting quote as it shows Laozi's ideals to be very different from the other ancient ideals that we have learnt thus far or even when compared to Confucianism.

This quote shows how Laozi thinks that the world is formed by nature, and only nature can gradually make changes in this world, but not by any men themselves, unlike what the leaders or ideals of other civilizations think. This is because they are more towards this idea that their kings or leaders or even their deities are what that shaped the world to be what it was that time, and they are the ones who has the rights and power to shape or change the world. 

“But the terror consists in our notion of death that it is terrible. When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles.”

LETTER TO MENOECEUS (EPICURUS)

“The correct understanding that death is no concern of ours allows us to take pleasure in our mortal lives, not because it adds to life an infinite span of time, but because it relieves us of the longing for immortality as a refuge from the fear of death.”

Epictetus talks about how men are always disturbed by the idea of death as they are afraid and people may tend to place the blame onto others instead of themselves. This is interesting as we are supposed to reflect upon ourselves should we die (especially from diseases or accidents) and this is something that is not seen prominently in today's society as many people tend to put the blame on almost every factors that causes death but not ourselves and our own decisions, for example, if we die from car accidents, many people tend to place the blame on the driver that knocked the victim down but seldom on how the victim may have attempted to cross the road dangerously without regards of the traffic.

On the other hand, Epicurus' idea on how we should think about how death is not something that actually concerns us at the present, so fear is very unnecessary and only causes undue distress. This is a very interesting idea as it makes a lot of sense to think about how death does actually not concern us at the present and as Epicurus mentioned, "so long as we exist death is not present with us, and when death comes, then we no longer exist", so most people's fear of death is actually very unnecessary!

Response: