History Of Taoism Essays - Taoism, Philosophy, Chinese Culture

History Of Taoism The History of Taoism There is a dispute on the origins of Taoism. One theory is the earliest known Taoist text may be the work of a minister of the ruler of the Shang-Yin dynasty in the eighteenth century B.C. The other theory is that it was began by the mentor of the father of the Chou dynasty in the twelfth century. What is known is that, Li Erh (6th century BCE) who is better known as Lao Tzu (the Old Master), was the author of one of the most influential texts of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu, a contemporary of Confucius, was the keeper of the imperial library, but in his old age he disappeared to the west, leaving behind him the Tao Te Ching (Book of Tao and Virtue). From this book, which is only about five-thousand words in length, Taoism gained it's name. Taoism believes Tao, or the way, to be the mystical, mysterious, and ultimate principle underlying form, substance, being, and change. Tao encompasses everything. It can be used to understand the human body, the universe and nature. The logic of Taoism encompasses the Yin and Yang forces, which represent all opposites. These two forces are complementary elements of all systems that thrive in an interdependent network and result in the harmony or balance of the system. The natural order of the tension between Yin and Yang forces in all systems results in a neverending process of change (production and reproduction and the transformation of energy). Taoism is based on the experience of this universal way (Cleary p3). The goal of Taoism is to perfect the mastery of human nature and life in three areas. They are well-being, social harmony and accelerated evolution of consciousness Taoism puts a great deal of value on human life. Taoists do not focus on the afterlife, but rather emphasize efficient methods of elevating health to obtain longevity. Taoists firmly believe that human lives are in our control. Therefore, Taoism teaches people to enhance their health and longevity by minimizing their desires and centering themselves on stillness. The most famous advocate of Taoism, Lao Tzu, felt Taoism promotes nonaggressive, peaceful coexistence of factions. He described the ideal state as one that is fully loved by it's people. One in which people love their country and lifestyle so much that even though the next country is so close that the citizens can hear its roosters crowing and dogs barking they are content to die of old age without ever having gone to see it. He felt weapons were tools of destruction and any decent person would loathe them. He also felt that there should not be any celebrating after a war, only grieving. The two main classics of Taoism are the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-Tzu. The Toa Te Ching was the philosophy of choice of legalist, strategist and statesmen of all types. It is an anthology of ancient sayings, poetry and philosophies. It's author is Lao-Tzu or Old Master who is renown as one of the most famous of Taoist intellectuals. It is believed to have been written around 500 B.C. towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period when order in China was disintegrating. During the second century B.C. the Tao Te Ching was established as the sourcebook of practical wisdom in the imperial court. The Chuang Tzu was preferred by more mystical Taoist. It was said to have been written by Chuang Chou, who is the earliest known teacher of the writings of Lao-Tzu. The bulk of the text consists of fables and monologues illustrating the teachings of the Tao Te Ching. Although it was known for it's mysticism, it was a well regarded text because of it's literary excellence. After the fall of the Han dynasty the Chuang Tzu emerged to become one of the most regarded books by intellectuals, poets and artists replacing the Confucianism of the Han dynasty. Both books have not only been implemented deep into Chinese philosophy, but they have also been translated into many languages and have become a part of World philosophy. The Taoist canon can be traced back to the first comprehensive Taoist texts called the San-tung Ching-shu mu-lu prepared

The Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation Essay Example

The Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation Essay Example The Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation Essay The Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation Essay Management is one of the primary functions of administrative sections especially that of the business organizations. Why is this so? Primarily because of the fact that the major function of this particular sector in business establishment is to manage the way by which the business enterprise deal with the employees which it gets its company strength from. Being able to make amends with the way the management deals with the organization’s workforce is one way by which the business entity is ensured with the success that it aims to achieve in the future. (Greenwood, 2005, 12) This is the primary reason why management could not passively deal with the issues that concern the employees especially when dealing with the retail practices of business (Leat, 2001, 21). In this paper, the concepts and principles of management and its capability to handle the challenge of motivating people shall be introduced, thus discussed, through the statements that relate management with ht personal and organizational development of the employees within the company. The Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation There are different elements that particularly lead people to performing well in job. Whatever those elements are, they all support the ways by which employees become better acquainted with their goals of gaining several achievements, ample power or authority over others and their need of being affiliated with the organization as it is. The said factors shall be discussed as follows: (A) The factor of fear Fear, especially at the workplace could give both positive and negative results to the employees. In a positive way, it could be used as a wake up call to the less-motivated ones to improve their performance in completing their own tasks. Fear in many ways could be used to remind the employees of their responsibilities towards their companies which may have been lost because of long time routinary work. In some ways, fear could also be utilized as a motivating factor for employees to acknowledge the authority of other employees in the company whereas they are further encouraged to do their best to find favor in the eyes of their employers and senior co-workers. On the other hand, fear, if not utilized well, may case an employee to loose his enthusiasm towards the job. As for example, if an employee is advised to improve his performance by an employer with an angry voice, the real idea behind the advice of helping the employee gain progress for himself may be set aside and fear may cause the employee to loose interest and worse, he could even decide to quit his job. (B) The Factor of Learning Learning spurs up further individual improvement. When a person s bale to learn something new from his job, he is further inspired to work better to learn even more. This is the reason why many business consultants advice that one key to employee-management relationship success is the capability of the management to provide shifting responsibilities to the employees whereas they are able to learn new things every now and then and thus gain a certain level of self-satisfaction. In this regard, there are four main ways by which learning contributes to an employee’s working performance. The said ways are s follows: Learning as a way of human motivation: As earlier pointed out, learning is a tool which helps motivate a person’s eagerness to continue performing well at his given tasks especially when he is able to gain added knowledge or skill from what he does. In other words, the tasks he performs are then used to become links to his self-improvement as an individual and as an employee as well. Learning as a way to reduce stress: When a person learns from his job, he is able to focus more on the benefits that he is able to gain from performing well in his duties than he is able to focus on the stress that his job brings him. Thus, through this, his focus on making a good impression to his employers through the outcome of his job is well enhanced and is not dimmed by self-pity and stress.

Motivation and Performance in Washburn Guitars Case Study

Motivation and Performance in Washburn Guitars - Case Study Example The employees at Washburn guitars feel motivated because of their love for the music and the care they have when making the musical instruments. Their unending love for the music inspires these workers and makes them possess a sense of belonging to their needs. These employees have an internal motivation and out of love for the music and art, they feel as if they possess an intrinsic reward, which makes them make a complete set of a guitar. According to Moran (2013), their great passion for their music and art-related jobs make them feel to have achieved their objectives in life and hence they make the finest quality guitars that search best prices in the market. The love and connection for their labor they had with every instrument make them take production to the highest possible level. Most people have greatly credited the production manager at Washburn guitars for the motivational cultures that he established in this firm. The employees at Washburn for a long time have preferred to make d10s guitars, which have been the top-selling musical instrument in the history of this firm. Many music artists term the guitar as durable and have the highest quality and it is very affordable such that even the upcoming artists are able to acquire it. Most clients of the instrument have claimed that the guitar produces the highest quality sound and has the most admired aesthetic features in comparison with the guitars from other firms. The top musicians in the world have preferred to use this guitar from Washburn due to its consistency and this has created an extrinsic motivation for the workers at the firm (Moran, 2013).

Antibiotic Resistance in Anaerobic Bacteria Essay - 1

Antibiotic Resistance in Anaerobic Bacteria - Essay Example Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non†lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant. Here is a hypothetical illustration. Mr. X. has a sore throat. He buys some penicillin and gives himself, not enough to kill the streptococci but enough to educate them to resist penicillin. He then infects his wife. Mrs. X gets pneumonia and is treated with penicillin. As the streptococci are now resistant to penicillin the treatment fails. Mrs. X dies. Who is primarily responsible for Mrs. X’s death?† (Fleming, p88). It is not only the irrational use of the drugs that cause antibiotic resistance but there are reports of the naturally occurring resistance. According to an experiment conducted by Joshua and Esther Lederberg in 1952, penicillin-resistant strains of bacteria developed much more before the start of penicillin in medicinal practices. Joshua Lederberg and his student Zinder also demonstrated t he pre-existence of Streptomycin resistance strains (Nelson, p 294). The major antibiotic-resistant pathogen associated with nosocomial infection is Staphylococcus aureus. It was one of the earlier organisms to develop penicillin resistance. Methicilin was then used against the resistant strains but in the year 1961MRSA (Methycillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was detected in Britain. It was reported that there was an increase in the number of fatal cases of sepsis from 4% in 1991 to 37% in 1999 in the UK due to MRSA. By the 1980s MRSA had spread and become quite common in US hospitals and along with resistance to Methicillin. There was a steady increase in oxacillin (Methycillin) resistant S. aureus in U.S. hospitals in the year 1997 which increased to 26.2%. ( Pfaller et al,p1886). Most of these Staphylococcus aureus also showed resistance to tetracycline and erythromycin.

Analysis of the UK Anti-Money Laundering legislation in the light of Coursework

Analysis of the UK Anti-Money Laundering legislation in the light of implementation of the EU Directives - Coursework Example The UK, being home to the global financial hub of London, has necessarily had to enact a number of measures traceable to the 1993 Money Laundering Regulations. The paper is an analysis of the UK Anti-Money Laundering legislation in the light of implementation of the EU Directives Money laundering is a criminal process of accruing supposedly legitimate assets or moneys, through diverse means and procedures, which are able to ‘clean’ illegal criminal proceeds. Fundamentally, due to its diverse impacts upon the economy, it has been vital for not only localized and regional attention but also global implementation of watchdog policy initiatives. The dynamic nature of criminal enterprise, has necessarily dictated the need for constant updating of prevailing legislation in line with the new methods, processes and avenues of laundering ‘dirty’ money. As a result, the term ‘Money laundering’, has come to be categorized and connected to other diverse forms of financial crime in relation to the general misuse of existing financial systems. Accordingly, under this categorization, diverse forms of financial system misuse i.e. of traditional and digital currencies, credit cards and securities amongst others, have been interlinked to the criminal act1. Furthermore, this has led to the association of terrorism funding, as well as diverse evasion measures of international sanctions with the criminal act of money laundering. Initially, pertinent legislation dealing with this form of criminal activity was mainly focused on local and regional settings, as various nations experienced the positive impacts of industrial growth. Accordingly, the diverse legislations enacted were principled along these contexts, mainly dealing on a local and national scale. However, due to the influence of gradual globalization process, there was need for a re-think of the prevailing preventative measures. Of fundamental importance, because of the link

Living A Guilt Free Life Philosophy Essay

Living A Guilt Free Life Philosophy Essay There are millions of people who are constantly living with feelings of guilt. Some feel guilty if they eat a rich dessert. Some feel guilty whenever something goes wrong, thinking they should have tried to prevent it. Some feel guilty because they recovered from some accident while others did not. Some feel guilty about their past behavior. Some just feel guilty about anything and everything. It is crucial that you dig deep inside you and find out what it is that you truly feel. You need to realize that abusers will abuse no matter what you say or do and that you are not responsible for their behavior. Do not let your guilt mislead you into believing that it is you who did something wrong. You need to accept that you are the one being wronged and you need to speak out or seek help. Survivors Guilt is best described as a mental condition. It occurs when someone believes that he or she must have done wrong by being a survivor or a tragic or traumatic event. You may feel guilty that you survived a car accident that killed a family member. You may thing that you did not deserve to live through a war. You probably feel that you should have died instead of your mother. Survivors guilt can be very destructive. It can lead you to condemn or punish yourself for being alive. You can become debilitated by depression. The best way to deal with survivors guilt is to talk about what happened. It will help you accept the fact that there are others who feel such feelings and that you are not alone. You need to let grief take it full course. Allow yourself to grieve. Try to find a support group or network. Seek help from professional counselors. They can guide you through the recovery process. Break The Guilt Cycle Guilt often turns into a cycle that is self-perpetuating. What happens is you do something, you feel guilty, you condemn or punish yourself, and you repeat the behavior whenever the opportunity presents itself. The cycle keeps repeating itself because you are unable to take responsibility of what you do or for changing yourself. How do you begin to take responsibility? You must try to be honest. You need to honestly consider what part you play in the situation and accept it. If you are in an abusive relationship, you need to honestly look deep inside and accept that you did not do anything wrong. how to let go of guilt If you are feeling guilty for having done something wrong (healthy guilt), you need to take action to fix the situation. There are so many people who are just mega-gluttons for self-punishment; guilt is like a huge anchor weighing us down. It is easy to say Im sorry-it wont kill you. If you have offended someone by saying something offensive, apologize. You may find that it is not only more challenging to recognize that your busy work schedule is putting your marriage at risk, but also to actually make changes in your schedule. Healthy guilt keeps us in line. It tells us that we need to do something different from what we are currently doing so that we can fix relationships that are valuable to us. The sooner we make amends for what we have done wrong, the sooner the guilt will leave us alone. Accept that you did something wrong, make amends and move on. Learn from your behavior The purpose of guilt is not to make us miserable. Guilt is trying to tell us that there is something we can learn from what has happened. If we learn, it will be less likely that we will make the very same mistake again. Let us say that you have made a hurtful comment to someone, your guilt is telling you that (a) you should apologize and (b) take time to think about what you are going to say before you say it. If the guilt that you are feeling is not trying to correct an actual wrong behavior (unhealthy guilt), then there is not much for you to learn. So instead of wracking your brains on how to change the behavior, you need to understand why such a behavior is making you feel so guilty. Let us say that you feel guilty about not being a good mother because you are not with your kids 247. Since you are a single parent, you need to work so you can provide a good future for your kids. There is no need for you to feel guilty. You are working for your kids sake. Being their shadow and staying glued to them 247 wont put food on the table for them to eat. No human being anywhere on this earth, or elsewhere, is perfect. Even the person you look up to as a hero has some flaws. Striving to be 100% in control all the time and making sure every tiny thing is perfect is a recipe for disaster. All of us make mistakes and there are so many of us who take a path that can make us feel so guilty later in our lives. All we need to do is realize that we made a mistake and accept that we are not perfect. Spending every waking moment regretting something is not going to change anything. All it will do is disable you from moving on in your life. You are not perfect, neither is the rest of humanity.

The Mathematical Aspects of Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland Essay

The Mathematical Aspects of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland The story Alice in Wonderland was written about a little girl named Alice who was a child of the dean of the Church of Christ. Alice Liddell was the one who convinced Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to write down the verbal story originally known as "Alice's Adventure Underground".Actually, the book is known by several different names, Alice's Hours in Elfand,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Alice in Wonderland.I found it interesting that the Mid-Continent Public Library once listed the book under Lewis Carroll and has recently changed it to Charles L. Dodgson. If one looks on the side of the book, Carroll was actually crossed off and Dodgson written over(Lewis Carroll Biography, The Victorian Web). As I began reading the book Alice in Wonderland, it was very obvious that Lewis Carroll was a logical mathematician.The contemporary math class that I am currently taking has opened a new level of understanding for myself; if I had read the book anytime prior it would have read simply as an unusual child's fairytale.I find it interesting that the book Alice in Wonderland follows the first couple sections of our contemporary math book.I actually see the mathematics behind the story.I never knew that math could be turned into a fairytale(Johnson/Mowry 46-47). The book begins with Alice and her sister sitting by the bank as Alice grows tired.Alice believes she sees a white rabbit running by and decides to run after it.The rabbit jumps into a hole and Alice follows.I believe Lewis Carroll was a very intelligent man and like to state his complex ideas through the use of Alice: "for you see Alice had learned several things of this sort in her lessons in the sch... ...ting effect(Weber,Food ,Drink,and Public Health in the Alice Books). Works Cited Carroll,L.(1952). Alice in Wonderland.Philadelphia Toronto:The John C. Winston Company. Johnson,D.,& Mowry,T.(1988).Mathematics,A Practical Odyssey (3rd ed.). California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Connell, Kate. Opium as a Possible Influence upon the Alice Books: December 1993. Brown University/Victorian Web. July 17,2000 <http://landow.stg.brown.ed/victorian/carroll/aiw14.html. Lewis Carroll: Biography: December 1992. Brown University/Victorian Web. July 17,2000<http//llandow.stg.brown.ed/victorian/carroll/dreamchild/creamchild2.html.> Weber,Anya.Food,Drink,andPublic Health in the Alice Books: December 1995. Brown University/Victorian Web.July18,2000 <http://landow.stg.brown.ed/Victorian/Carroll/weber.html.> Reflection - Alice in Wonderland