The last few decades have brought significant technological advances to human society. While development and inventions are aimed at simplifying our lives – and how convenient things have become! – our minds have grown increasingly complex. Just try to sit quietly for a few minutes and you will see how your mind instantly fills with…
Remembering the deceased has been at the core of many human rituals and celebrations. This especially rings true in Mexico, where family and friends gather once a year to pray and tell anecdotes about the departed, build altars to encourage their souls to visit the human realm, and even dress up as the dead to…
The sound of bagpipes, the synchrony of Irish step-dancers, the poise of men in kilts parading the streets, and a sea of green mark the date – March 17 – that commemorates the death of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s most popular patron saint. You don’t need to be Irish (Saint Patrick wasn’t) to appreciate the rich…
Indigenous peoples have inhabited Earth for millennia. Being descendants of the first occupants of a given region, each native population has its own way of life and worldviews that are passed down through countless generations in the form of culture and traditions. Although each aboriginal group is extremely unique, cultural studies have found that they…
During our time on Earth, we humans have stimulated growth and industry through various world-changing inventions. Characterized by our curiosity and desire to understand our surroundings, we have discovered resources and developed ways to use them to our benefit. Our inventive mentality has allowed us to thrive like no other species. America’s relatively-recent history has…
The arts play a significant role in shaping human culture. As explored in part I of this series, the visual arts have the power to convey clear messages to the viewer and to influence our state of mind and, hence, our moral behavior. This is why Classical art’s main role, since ancient times, was to…
Imagine you wake up to the sound of the morning radio, playing the news station your mother listens to faithfully every morning, with colorful music marking the high point of each hour. You get out of bed, and just as you reach the stairs, you hear your grandmother’s radio, where a soothing voice leads the…
In our daily hustle and bustle of striving to get things done, our neurons seem to be firing non-stop. With thousands of thoughts being processed each day, it seems nearly impossible to quiet the mind, especially when our body is at rest. To counteract the stress of a hectic day, many people have turned to…
Derived from the Latin adjective classicus, the term “Classical” refers to that which belongs to a category “of the highest order.” When applied to art, classicism places emphasis on proportion, simplicity, restrained emotion, clarity of structure and the pursuit of perfection. But the rigorous demands of such a high form of expression involves more than…
It is said that during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279), in the twelfth century, a man called Zhang Sanfeng (張三豐) walked the earth. Adept in Shaolin kung fu and incomparably skilled in other styles of martial arts, Zhang had the heart for self-cultivation and had his sights set on the pursuit of the Dao, or…
