LauraHScrapbook4

= Laura Hunt's Scrapbook =

To get a feeling for how the Samanas, Indian ascetics that are found in the novel Siddhartha, try to reach enlightenment, we gave up something we enjoy for a week. I chose to give up texting, because it's technically not something I need. Technically.

__ BEGINNING OF THE WEEK __ :

Giving up texting.. for me... is hard. i've done it before. and believe me, it takes major willpower. Because in order to understand, you must know that i ALWAYS have my phone. whether its in my backpack side pocket, easily accessible, or in my pocket, or in my boot... etc. its there. i can reach for it in awkward moments and send a text to the first contact i see to meet me in the breezeway. its an impulse reaction when i leave a classroom or walk down a hall without a pre-planned target. The last time i had to give up my phone for a week was over the summer. i went on a mission trip to Queens, New York with my church Youth Group, and my youth leader made us leave our phones at home. With this previous experience, i was pretty sure i could survive this week. The difference, i found out, was that not actually having my phone with me to be able to check my messages made it a lot easier to resist since i physically could not use it. This week, since i DID have my phone there, tempting me, it was much harder. i had to hide it under a pillow once or twice. i ended up leaving it on the charger all day after school and going straight to do homework in another room so i'd be distracted. The first day (Sunday) it was actually extremely easy to not text because my boyfriend, Sam was over at my house all day and we were working with my dad to clean out the Garage. i wouldnt have had time to text anyway, not like i was going to with my boyfriend there, i never text when he's around, i'd rather spend time with him since i only get to see him on the weekends (he lives an hour away). Monday was still pretty easy because he was still at my house. He didnt have school so he slept at a friend's and i spent the day with him after school. I didnt even have my phone with me at all. First two days = ACCOMPLISHED.

Quote from Siddhartha: "You will go to the forest and be a samana. If you find salvation in the forest, come and teach me salvation." (7) - Siddhartha's Father __MIDDLE OF THE WEEK:__

Tuesday really wasnt that bad either. i had a monster AP history outline due the next day, and AP history outlines take hours. so i was pretty distracted. i didnt think much about texting. That took all day, and then i ended up going to bed at around 9:30. i know its early, but i get up at 6 o clock every morning, unless i have homework, then i get up at like 5:30. so im usually super tired by 9 or 10. which is nice cause then i get an okay amount of sleep. Wednesday... thats when it got difficult. no texting.. no homework.. no friends around.. what the heck was i supposed to do? i finished my homework, i cleaned my room, i made some soup, and i turned on the TV. it was boring! i checked my phone once to see if i had any texts but i didnt respond. Lakshmi kept texting me about random things and freaking out that i wasnt responding. it was kinda funny. i had a few from Grace too but i just waited to talk to her at school. It wasnt TOO bad, but it definitely wasnt fun. it was boring and i had absolutely nothing to do because of it.

Quote from Siddhartha: "We have learned and we are continuing to learn" (9) - Govinda __ END OF THE WEEK __ :

Okay, so by Thursday, i definitely wasnt able to keep going. i texted Sam. He doesnt get much time to text because of his job, he's very busy so i respond to his texts when i get one. i ignored everyone elses texts though. so i hadnt COMPLETELY failed. just kinda. Friday, i kept texting sam, and i got a lot of annoyed texts from other people, but i knew the weeks was almost over so it was easier knowing i could respond the next day. it was also hard though since i was so close and had to still wait. so it was weird. BUT I MADE IT THROUGH with only partial failure. im proud. and i proved to Michael Chisholm who thinks that all i do with my life is text that i am somewhat capable of giving it up. so HA Michael.

Quote from Siddhartha: "Now i am going to show the old man that i have learned something from him." - Siddhartha

Sidhartha reached awakening after meeting the Buddha. To him, awakening looked like "The world was Beautiful and colorful. Here was blue, here was yellow, here was Green."(22) "All was beautiful!"(22) I chose to draw this Tree because it represents the tree that the Buddha reached enlightenment under, and the sensations of enlightenment "turn into realizations and are not lost, but become entities and start to emit like rays of light what is inside them"(22). I put in a sun that gives off rays of light and life and warmth to the world. Little blue flowers grow on the ground, and colorful leaves fall from a red and orange tree as Fall begins and the trees start to lose their leaves for winter. I pictured a redish tree because it described the scene as beautiful and colorful leaves are much prettier than plain green leaves.

__KAMALA:__ name: Kamala location: The Grove appearence: dark brown hair, brown eyes about me: I am a very rich, very beautiful woman. I love men and i like to please. I have perfect juicy red lips, and those who know me can describe me only as sexy. I prefer the rich and handsome to the poor and desperate. I am confident in who i am and i know that people cannot resist me. The moment you meet me you will be in awe and not want to leave, and if i genuinely like you, maybe you can stay.

job: i am a love teacher. if i approve of you i will show you how to love a women, and give you lots of knowlege. you will feel fullfilled. You can trust in my teachings and know that i am a professional, and very good at my job. If you come to me, come alone, for i do not teach more than one at a time.

what i look for: i look for a man with money. he must be well dressed, and smart. he must be confident and cool, and very good looking. if you are a prince, or of royal descent, i may make an exception, but you still need to have the basics. if you are not wearing clothes i will not accept you.



This comic reflects my day. I do not like my days. i wake up early, i do my homework, so the day is already off to a bad start. i go to school, wasting 8 hours of my day, almost every day, sitting in a desk doing brain excersizes that are so boring i have to try not to fall asleep. the only good part of school is friends. then i go home and im alone for a while while my dad works. i go for a walk sometimes, and go on the computer or watch tv. then i eat dinner and go back to bed. i dont like my days. i think life would be much better spent exploring the world, and seeing everything instead of the inside of a classroom every single day.

media type="youtube" key="NPQVrjnC1jo" height="315" width="560" UNDER THE SEA - THE LITTLE MERMAID "Everything's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me"

this compares to the book because Siddhartha always ends up at the river before he starts on a new journey. "Siddhartha reached the wide river in the forest, the same river over which a ferryman had once taken him when he was still a young man coming from Gotama's town.....and then what reason had he to continue on, and where to, toward the goal?"

media type="youtube" key="nk45tYqsIwU" height="315" width="420" JUST AROUND THE RIVERBEND - POCAHONTAS "Why do all my dreams extend, just around the river bend"

while at the river, Siddhartha is upset, but then hears the word "om" and he was awakened. "Just then, from the remote regions of his soul, from past periods of his tired life, a sound ran through his mind like a flash. it was a word, a syllable, that he spoke to himself involuntarily in a slurred voice, that old word which begins and ends every Brahmanists prayer, the sacred //om,// which is equivelent in meaning to "perfection" or "the absolute"

media type="youtube" key="ZiLOVazwnWM" height="315" width="420" REFLECTION - MULAN "Who is that girl i see, staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone i dont know?" "When will my reflection show, who i am inside?"

When Siddartha goes to the river, he looks into the water and spits at his reflection because he is unhappy with his life. "His features distorted, he stared into the water; seeing the reflection of his face, he spat at it. In profound weariness he detached his arm from the tree trunk and turned his body slightly so that he would fall vertically, and finally perish. His eyes closed, he was dropping to his death."

__OM:__