February 13, 2013

“Then she held him to her delicate breast; her eyes enfolded him in sadness and love. ‘You are Moacir, the child born of my suffering’” (Iracema, Jose de Alencar, 101)

This part in the book is one of the most heartbreaking scenes. It completely shows how Iracema has become a dynamic character and gone from her strong self to being someone who was so weak and put herself through so much stress. Iracema and Martim’s relationship shows how one person can bring out the worst in another. As I read this, I thought of how apparent this is in real life. Each of us has our own temptations. It can be a person, activity, or substance.

But what can protect us from the downfall of our strongest temptation?

I believe it’s the source of our conviction to our standards . It is absolutely fascinating how the source of our conviction can be so different yet they can all have the same effect of making us stick to our standards. Different religions are a prime example of this. Each religion teaches something so different yet it ends up in it being the source to the standards. An example of the different teachings are comparing Mormonism to Buddhism. Mormonism often has very specific instructions for their standards. This is shown in materials like “For the Strength of Youth”.

In contrast, Buddhism doesn’t have extremely specific instructions for each standard but rather has a Noble Eightfold path to enlightenment that is meant to guide you in every aspect of life and standards. These general guidelines can help people be strong and follow their standards just like following the specific strength of the youth guidelines can.

Other peoples sources of conviction are the way their families raised them or simple a deep conviction in following their society’s norms. The most important thing is to make sure we find a source of conviction to make our standards stay strong.