Peter's Myth Blog

In the ancient India, there was a prince named Siddhartha who was born into wealth, power, and privileges. Siddhartha was an unusual and precocious kid. He could stand by himself when he turned two months old, walked when he was eight months old, and spoke when he was barely eleven months old. His parents were totally taken by awe and surprise when Siddhartha held a pencil and started writing at 2 years and 3 months old!  Siddhartha's parents, who were the king and queen of the city state of Kapila in the Indian subcontinent, thought it was gods' benevolent will that they sent this highly intelligent, gifted, and precocious son into the world. The king of Kapila, who was Siddhartha's father, appointed Prince Siddhartha as his successor when he was merely 4 years old. His older siblings were outraged. Siddhartha had two older brothers who were 21 years old and 17 years old. The jealous and malicious brothers decided to do something evil. They decided to poison Siddh

I liked Buddha's reflective and meditative nature: "I would be off to find eternal beatitude. The deep joy I feel, the indomitable strength that now sustains my will, the assurance that I have a protector even though I am alone, all these things tell me that I am about to attain my goal. The hour has come; I am on the road to deliverance." He decided to abandon his life's pleasures to become a deeper spiritual being. For someone born with wealth and privileges, I thought it was a very difficult decision to do. It was also very interesting how Siddhartha was talking to a horse with so much genuine emotion: "Companions in arms or in pleasure are not hard to find, and we never want for friends when we set out to acquire wealth, but companions and friends desert us when it is the path of holiness we would take. Know then, O Kanthaka, that it is a virtuous impulse that moves me. Lend me your strength and your speed; the world's salvation and your own is at

I really liked the interesting 'genesis' story of Buddha. Buddha was actually a prince! It was a very surprising discovery for me that Buddha was born as a royal prince of a kingdom. The birth dream story of Buddha was also fascinating. I found a common theme of Buddhism and Hinduism from Queen Maya's dream: Elephants are considered sacred and mythical animal. Queen Maya saw six tusks in the elephant, which resembles that of typical Hindu elephant paintings. Both religions originated in the subcontinent of India, so the similarities remain. I really liked this vivid description of the king's (Buddha's father) nervous expectation of his new born son: "His limbs faltered, his hands trembled and tears welled from his eyes. And he thought: "Never, not even in the heat of battle when fighting my bravest enemies, have I felt as profoundly disturbed as at this moment. Why is it I can not enter the wood where the queen awaits me? Can anyone explain my agitation

Note: This story was added to my  Portfolio . Sindbad was an immature, greedy, and selfish kid. His parents, who made massive fortunes by trading with other countries, loved Sindbad no matter how unruly and immature he was. Sindbad grew up without having been disciplined once by his parents. In fact, school teachers hated Sindbad and his parents even more because Sindbad always behaved unruly, bragged his family wealth, and hit other pupils to show his wealth and dominance. Sindbad was an ugly, spoiled kid. In an unfortunate and tearful accident, Sindbad's parents, while on the way to China for their biggest trade deal ever, were swept away by massive sea currents. Their huge cargo ship, carrying all of their wealth including gold, diamonds, slaves, and wealth-claim documents (real estate and stock receipts), was flipped upside down, drowning fast due to Sindbad's parents' ginormous wealth. Heartbroken and sorrowful, Sindbad was left alone. He couldn't even hold

I really liked the unique first person narrative format of the story. I was easy to read and honestly draw my full attention while reading. Other stories that I have read before were written in Old English and old languages, so it was difficult to read and took a lot of time to find definition of the words. Sindbad was a greedy person. Although he inherited a considerable fortune from his rich parents, he spent them carelessly and recklessly, and he had to find out a way to regain his wealth. That's how his voyage journey began. I thought it was silly that he couldn't even manage inherited wealth from his parents. Not a lot of people inherit a lot of fortune from their parents, and if the wealth is managed well, he or she could live off of that inheritance for the rest of their life. If I were Sindbad, I would have managed it better and did a lot of savings, so I wouldn't have to work for the rest of my life. I would have just played golf and enjoyed my life. It was in

Link to My Portfolio                                               Skyline of Seoul. Source:  Seoul Skyline

I really liked the story of the Holy Book. I once again praised Noah's diligence and thirst for knowledge and wisdom: he read the necessary 'wisdom' book given to Adam by angel Raziel to survive. I also found the birth of a child story between Samuel and Eve fascinating. In a sense, Adam was immature "kidult" (kid+adult) who wasn't prepared to become a parent. Emotional control was non-existent in his impulsive and aggressive action: When Adam came back from a walk in Paradise, he found a howling, screaming child with Eve, who, in reply to his question, told him it was Samael's. Adam was annoyed, and his annoyance grew as the boy cried and screamed more and more violently. In his vexation he dealt the little one a blow that killed him. But the corpse did not cease to wail and weep, nor did it cease when Adam cut it up into bits. It honestly made me feel uncomfortable and I almost threw up because it was a vivid, graphic description of Adam's h

I liked the story of Noah's ark. Lord (God) was angry at his people and decided to punish them. One very interesting traits of Noah that I found really fascinating is Noah's age. Noah lived 500 years! People say that it's a true blessing when someone makes himself or herself to 100 years old, but Noah and Lamech lived over 500 years, which I found absolutely astonishing. Then God's punishment began. He limited the age of his fellow creatures to 120 years because He disliked the sins and corrupt nature of humans. He saw men becoming mischievous and seducing multiple women, which was against his will. Although God decided to destroy and punish countless sinful beings and creatures,  He decided to save Noah from his wrath. He told Noah with very detailed instruction as to how Noah could survive His wrath: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt m

Note: This story was added to my Story Portfolio Since the beginning of time, there was one and only God. God, whose name was also known as Yahweh, one day decided to create creatures that resemble the image of Him. For God was so passionate and dedicated to do the best He can, He was determined to create something that He will be proud of in the future. So, God did. He carefully engineered every part of the creature, so it looked just like Him. He was even careful about naming the creature. He named the creature Adam because it was the kind of name He had always had in mind for a son, and He also thought it was cute to call a boy Adam. For God loved Adam so much that He decided to bestow every honey, milk, and privilege that He could think of: He gave Adam fresh-scented herb seeds, all kinds and sorts of beautiful trees and fruits for food. He meant the fruit to be a food source like pieces of meat. God also thought Adam should be able to breathe freely, so He gave fresh

I like the interesting creation story of Adam and Eve. It starts with God declaring that He is going to make a human that resembles the image of Him. God had good intentions for creating his creature: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." In addition, God bestowed the creature with food and privileges: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat," One interesting thing in the plot was that God decided to rest on the Seventh day. He had been working hard for the previous 6 days, and sanct

  Unmannerly Tiger Although there are literally thousands upon thousands of possible interesting topics for my topic brainstorming, the very first topic that came in my mind was Korean folk tales. Indeed, I'm native Korean myself who was born, raised, and grown up in Seoul, South Korea. So one story that really caught my attention was this story of Unmannerly Tiger . This story tells well about the significance of the animal tiger plays in traditional Korean folk tales and legends. Sometimes the animal plays a good role, and sometimes it plays a bad role. Regardless, Korean people regard tiger as a national animal that represents brave and fearless spirit of the people. I can think of interesting stories being made out of this folk tale.  Life of Buddha: Siddhartha Leaves I have always found the life story of Buddha very fascinating. His life story is all about thinking, meditation, and self-reflection, which are the kinds of activities that I like to do as well. After hav