Making Progress

My recommitment to the dissertation progress is going well this week. As planned I got up at 4:00 am and wrote for an hour. It really feels good starting the day having finished an hour's work on my dissertation. It's very motivating for coming back to spend an hour in the evening.

So this morning, I finished the section on Aum Shinkiyo. I've included it below for those who are interested. This evening, I began working on a definition of religious apocalypticism. I'll be sharing segments of that work as it comes together.

So, tomorrow my goal is another two hours of work, one in the morning and one in the evening. I will continue to build the definition of religious apocalypticism.

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Aum Shinkiyo and its leader, Shoko Asahara, gained the attention of the world in March 1995 when they released sarin gas into several Tokyo subway trains. According to Lifton (2003) Aum Shinrkiyo was a relatively small cultic group that acting upon its “vision of cosmic purification” (p. 57). The attack was not “apocalyptic” in its scope, killing only 12 persons. This limited loss of life occurred because Aum Shinkiyo knew Japanese authorities were closing in on the group, which caused the rushed execution of the attack. “The group’s plan had been to release enormous amounts of sarin later that year in order to create a major disaster and set in motion a series of catastrophic events and so fulfill its guru’s world-ending prophecies” (pp. 57, 58).

The cult was an eclectic mix of religious belief and practice. Its religious roots were Buddhist, but heavily influence by strains of early Tibetan Buddhism closely tied to Hinduism. In fact, Asahara, claimed Shiva, the Hindu world-destroying and restoring Hindu deity, as his personal god. Nevertheless, Asahara grounded his apocalyptic vision in the Christian concept of Armageddon. In addition, the group practiced high states of mystical experience often associated with New Age spirituality (pp 65, 66). Aum Shinkiyo’s aim was to be the sole survivors of an apocalyptic end of the world, who would “respiritualize a cleansed and vacant world” (p. 71).

Reference

Lifton, R. J. (2003). Superpower syndrome : America's apocalyptic confrontation with the world. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books.

When you can't sleep - Write!

Last night, I abruptly woke up and could not go back to sleep. So, I got up at spent two hours of quite writing time on my dissertation. This allowed me to meet my goal of 2 hours of writing time for today. Then, later this evening I did some reviewing, reading, and planning for my early morning writing tomorrow. In total, I spent 3.5 hours on my dissertation today.

For those of you interested in the content of my dissertation, here's what I wrote this morning.

Defining Apocalypticism

In constructing a definition of apocalypticism to guide this study, which embraces both the religious and secular expression apocalypticism, it is necessary to adopt a broad view of religious apocalypticism. While Christian apocalypticism is the most widely known form of apocalypticism in Western societies, apocalyptic thought both pre-dates Western civilization and extends beyond Western religious and cultural boundaries. Clifford (1998) traces the origins of apocalyptic thought to early Near Eastern cultures. The earliest extant literature is the Sumerian Lugal-e dating from the late third millennium (p. 7).

Seiwert (2000) documents the apocalyptic thought in the Chinese Daoist tradition beginning in the second century (CE). Then, an emergence of apocalyptic thought in Chinese Buddhism occurs in the fifth century. Siewert furthers our understanding of apocalypticism by underscoring its shared reference point with millenarianism, messianism, and eschatological speculation i.e. future events (p. 5). For Siewert, apocalypticism, within Chinese Buddhism, “denotes interpretations of history that predict and describe a catastrophic end of time” (p. 5).

Likewise, Peter Heine documents the messianic Islamic movement of the 18^th century in Haussaland (northern Nigeria). The leader of the movement, Sheikh Usman dan Fodio, was concerned about the corruption of Muslim religion in the area. Additionally, “there was a wide belief in the Muslim world that a Muslim world that a Mahdi would rise in the year 1200 Hidjra which corresponds to the year 1785/86 CE” (p. 70). Usman dan Fodio

Awaited the Mahdi to unravel the tangel of the times . . . He saw the world almost having run its course. Whatever reforms he might introduce . . . they were but a temporary expedient. Mankind had reached the point where it was not longer salvable by human agency . . . Hope lay only in the ultimate millennium . . . To prepare for the Mahdi was to play his appointed part in the divine order ( Hiskett cited in Heine, p. 73).

In this brief sampling of religious apocalypticism outside of the Christian tradition, we have observed its formation in the early Sumerian religious thought, its manifestation in medieval Chinese Buddhism, and it 18^th century manifestation among Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa. The point, bearing reiteration here, is that apocalypticism in its religious expression far exceeds the boundaries of its Judeo-Christian expression. Lest one think this apocalyptic religious diversity is limited to the past, the Japanese Aum Shinrkyo offers an example from the late 20^th Century.

My writing plan for tomorrow morning is to write on Aum Shinrkyo.

References

Clifford, R. J. (1998). The roots of Apocalypticism in Near Eastern myth. In J. J. Collins (Ed.), The encyclopedia of apocalypticism (Vol. 1). New York: Continuum.

Heine, P. (2000). I am not the Mahdi, But . . . In A. I. Baumgarten (Ed.), Apocalyptic time. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Seiwert, H. (2000). End of time and new time in medieval Chinese Buddhism. In A. I. Baumgarten (Ed.), Apocalyptic time. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

On Target with WR Time Tracker

I accomplished my writing goals for today. I was able to put in 5 hours of work on my dissertation. This allowed me to write about 4 pages of material, which is the most progress that I've made in several weeks.

I used WR Time Tracker, a free web-based project management application, to keep track of my progress through the day. You can have as many activities pertaining to your dissertation as you like and keep track of how much time you spend on those activities. A very nice feature is that it gives you a pie chart so you have a visual representation of how much time you spend on each activity (see screen shot to the left).

In addition, I detailed a proposed outline for finishing this section of my literature review. Here it is:

(1) Fukuyama review
(2) Define apocalypticism (2 branches)
(3) Pervasiveness of both branches
(4) Apocalyptic terror brings these branches together (first time in modern history to face this kind of threat - Kurth)
(5) Summary of sub-section
(6) Summary of section

Actually, I finished the Fukuyama review today. May goals for tomorrow are:

1) on hour of writing before work tomorrow. This means I'm up at 4:00 am.
2) in that our I will define the two branches of apocalypticism
3) tomorrow evening, I will spend on hour revising and planning my writing for the following day.

Perceptions of Apocalypticism in Contemporary Culture

This third sub-section of the first major topic in my literature review. It defines the concept of apocalypticism in contemporary culture through an exploration of the scholarly study of apocalypticism. It is this stream of scholarship that identifies (a) the historical and geo-cultural scope of apocalypticism and (b) the evidences of apocalypticism in contemporary culture. This section concludes with a discussion of the implications of apocalypticism in contemporary culture.

The following paragraph is the last paragraph I wrote in this section.

The American Interest magazine in 2006 assembled a diverse group of analysts, practitioners, policymakers and unconventional thinkers to consider why the future is so difficult to predict and how societies and governments might avoid the surprise of low probably, yet high impact events. One of the products of the conference is a collection of essays and discussions titled Blindside: How to Anticipate Forcing Events and Wild cards in Global Politics (Fukuyama, 2007).

The following comments state what I plan to work on tomorrow. I plan to spend at least 5 hrs on my dissertation tomorrow.

Here I want to talk about catastrophe and suffering and apocalypticsm found in Posner’s essay and then the possibility of moving toward uptopia in Easterbrook’s comments. This source is found in Ebrary.

I need another non-religious book here. There should be some discussion of the co-existence of the secular and religious apocalypticism. See quotes from Blumenberg in Apocalyptic Time and Peter Berger article in the online version of the American Interest. The books on political and religious terrorism also illustrate this. Then I can offer a working definition. Then proceed to a discussion of the pervasiveness of apocalypticism in contemporary culture.

Tune in tomorrow to for a report on what actually happened

Recommitting to the Process

I really do want to finish my dissertation, but I've made little progress in the past month. So, I have to change things up. Today, I signed up for The Secrets of Dissertation Success coaching site. It has valuable practical helps in various media forms and 2 email coaching sessions per month for a relatively low cost. Follow this link to find more.

Step two: I revised by time line as follows:

9-May	Graduation!!!
1-Apr	Revisions complete
15-Mar	Final Defense
1-Mar	Chapter 5 finished
1-Jan	Chapter 4 finished
1-Nov	Proposal Defended and Accepted
25-Sep	Chapter 3 finished
25-Jul	Chapter 2 finished
25-May	Recommit to process

Step 3: I have to make promises to myself that I can deliver on. I think I really need to invest 20 hours a week to meet the schedule above. So, that means 2 hours a day Monday through Friday and 10 hours over the weekend. I am going to try this, quick track of the time I am spending, and revise as necessary. I plan to write at least 1 hour before I go to work and I'll use an hour in the evening for reading and preparing my writing session for the next day.

Step 4: I'll journal my daily promises here and to monitor if I am keeping them.