KatieScrabook7

=**Katie Pajewski's Self-Realizing Scrapbook**=

=**With the Samanas**=

[[image:http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtgQm8D2qC5cfg2HMzY6AgoEp5O648BKtlW4gapKKjrz3l0T5pqg width="304" height="266" align="left"]] The Assignment
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 all jewellery, because it's technically a luxury.

Getting Started[[image:http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=I.4806876609578023&pid=1.7&w=131&h=152&c=7&rs=1 width="218" height="205" align="right"]]
It is always part of my routine to pick up the rings I want to wear in the morning, which are sitting on my bedside table so I do not forget them, and run over to my jewellery box (which is really a fishing hook organizer) and pick out a pair of earrings and sometimes a necklace to match my outfit. Even before the first day ended, I noticed subtle changes in my behavior-- moving around more, bouncing my feet and tapping my fingers against any surface I could reach--just because I was not wearing jewlery that I would normally fiddle with. I resorted to other bad (and more annoying to others) habits like how Siddhartha, "learned a great deal from the Samans; he learned many ways of losing the Self"(15 Herman Hesse)



Mid-Week
By mid-week, I could tell people were really starting to get annoyed with my tapping and fidgeting. I could not help myself. I was so used to sliding and spinning my rings on my fingers and twiddling with my earrings that without them I needing something else to do with my hands. I thought "all were doomed to decay" (14), and others were going to kill me too. My hands felt naked without my stack rings that i usually wear everyday.

By the End
By the fifth day, I realized that I still had the pile of jewelry on my bedside table taunting me whenever I go into my room. Earrings, necklaces, rings all sitting their reminding me that I cannot break my Self- deprivation assignment.Though on Monday morning, when I can back from my 5 am swim practice, it was class color day and i forgot about my Self-deprivation assignment and got all dressed up for the spirit day. It wasn't until half way through the day when one of my friends commented on one of my rings that I remembered about the Self- deprivation assignment. I think, though I failed at the assignment, I thought that I personally did pretty well and, like Siddartha, I thought that humans "are not going in circle,we have already climbed many steps"(18) and we will continue climbing more as long as we go through the suffering.

Awakening
Siddartha reached awakening after leaving the grove. To him, awakening made the world look, " beautiful and colorful; the world was strange and mysterious"(37 Hesse). I chose to draw a stream because Siddartha saw "blue"(39) and "deep water"(37) once he stepped out of the colorless grove. Siddartha realized, "the purpose and the essential properties were not somewhere behind the things; they were in them, in everything"(40).

Kamala

 * Name ** :"the beutiful" (52 Hesse) Kamala


 * Location ** : The Pleasure Grove (52)


 * Eyes ** : Dark Brown


 * Hair ** : Milk Chocolate Brown with dashes of Carmel

I am clever and expect the best. I am young, beautiful and I remind some of the woman in their dreams. I am the first woman Siddartha sees but I do not run away when Siddartha approached me; I kindly greet him and invites him to what "the holy books call 'ascending the tree'" (50).
 * About Me **

I own a house in the town beside the grove and I am a "well-known courtesan" (52). I enjoys the "pleasures of love" (55) and lavishing myself with my wealth.
 * Hobbies / Profession**

**Looking For**
The man I am looking for must have "fine clothes" (54) and "fine shoes" (54) and "plenty of money" (54) to be accepted by me. The man must also be "friendly" (59), but also "not...too modest" (59); He must be an equal of the riches merchant in the town and have a way with words.

= Samsara =

My Daily Life

 * 1) wake up at 5 am
 * 2) make my cereal
 * 3) go to swimming
 * 4) run back home
 * 5) shower in five minutes, get change, leave to go to school
 * 6) school
 * 7) come home with my brother
 * 8) do homework
 * 9) eat/make dinner
 * 10) go to bed at 8 o'clock

Quote from Siddartha
"His life was always directed by the art of thinking, waiting fasting. The people of the world, the ordinary people, were still alien to him, just as he was apart from them" (75).

Analysis
I wake up at 5 am every day to go to swimming. I head downstairs and make myself a cup of cereal and go to swimming. I f eel like Siddhartha at times because the two hours "[pass] by... [and I] hardly [notice] their passing" (75 Hesse). Swimming ends and i go home to shower, change and get ready in 20 minutes everyday. I go to school and my brother drives me home. I usually eat dinner right after I get home but I make it for me and my siblings. The rest of the evening i do my homework and go to bed at 8 o'clock.

The River
media type="youtube" key="DksSPZTZES0" height="315" width="560" Lyrics: You were my sun You were my earth But you didn't know all the ways I loved you, no So you took a chance And made other plans But I bet you didn't think that they would come crashing down, no
 * Song: "Cry me a River" by Justin Timberlake**

"In the same hour of the night, Siddhartha left his garden, left the city, and never came back...When she (Kamala) received the first news of  Siddhartha's disappearance...she received no more visitors and kept her house locked"
 * Quote from the Text: **

Siddartha left Kamala without any warning or goodbye; he just left her. Kamala lived in isolation from everyone because she missed Siddartha but she knew that he might not ever come back to her, even for his child. In "Cry me a River" the woman in the song left justin like how Siddartha left Kamala and Siddartha didn't know about his unborn child or the way Kamala loved him.
 * Analysis:**

media type="youtube" key="pDjQRgoOcpk?list=PLAAC05D7C64C61568" height="315" width="560"
 * Song: "The River" by Bruce Springsteen & Sting **

Wed ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green Then I got mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote And for my nineteen birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle No flowers no wedding dress
 * Lyrics: **

"But after some time, she became aware that she was pregnant from the last time she was together with Siddhartha." (85)
 * Quote from the Text: **

Though Siddartha did not know Kamala for very long, Kamala got pregnant by accident by Siddartha though they were not married or even offically living together. When Kamala heard the news that Siddartha dissapeared, she " received no more visitors and kept her house locked " (85). It wasn't even until much later that Kamala realized that she was pregnant with Siddartha's child. In the song, the two people were very good friends but never planned for the girl to get pregnant. There we
 * Analysis: **

media type="youtube" key="1zZxXiA4geY" height="315" width="560"

When you feel ashamed go to the river When you’re feeling sad go to the river When you’re feeling blue inside, immersed and tied When you’re feeling stuck in pain, forever
 * Song: "Go to the River" by Yeal Naim **

Go go go go – go tonight, you Sigh and sigh inside you long for More, more of the life you had be Fore fore fore, let the seasons Arrive and dive let the winter snow and Glow glow when the wind will blow just Flow flow, eventually you will know

"'Yes,' said the ferryman, 'It is a very beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have always learned something from it. One can learn much from a river'" (49).
 * Quote from the Text: **

Siddartha ended up going back to this same river multiple times throughout his journeys. It is this river that gives him the answers after searching though the woods without him even knowing it. Like the Buddha, he finds that the middle path (paralleled by the river) is the way to enlightenment and freedom from the toil of Samsara. At this turning point, the ferryman gives Siddartha some advise that"one can learn much from a river" (Hesse 49).
 * Analysis: **

Om
Govinda- the friend-, Gotama- the Buddha-, Vasudeva- the ferryman-, and Siddartha- the one who is never content- all reach enlightenment by the end of the story but each travel a different path and reach different types of enlightenment.

Govinda is Siddhartha’s childhood friend who, when they go and visit the Buddha, is content with the long path to enlightenment and the ways of Buddhism. He does not question teachings the way Siddartha does. Govinda is excited at the chance to follow the Buddha and Siddartha goes along but soon loses interest and says he has lost his faith in teachers. When Siddhartha decides to leave Gotama’s side, Govinda instead remains committed to Buddhism. Govinda does not try to search for his own trail to enlightenment but instead follows others on a path already made. It takes years for Govinda to reach enlightenment but doesn't reach it through Buddhism; he reaches it through the wordless teachings and kiss from Siddartha.

Gotama is the Buddha and has attained many followers because it was said that he had achieved Nirvana. He teaches the Eightfold Path to his followers as the way to achieve true enlightenment. Siddhartha and Govinda seek him out, and Govinda becomes a follower while Siddhartha rejects him and concludes that each person must find their own path to enlightenment. Gotama believes that Buddhism and the eightfold path is the path religiously better and is the fastest way to enlightenment.

Vasudeva is the enlightened ferryman who guides Siddhartha to his own path of enlightenment. Vasudeva ferries true seekers of wisdom to enlightenment and helps Siddhartha learn how to listen to the river’s secrets. Siddhartha achieves enlightenment only because Vasudeva shows him exactly what enlightenment is through the river and shows him how to open his eyes to Nirvana. Vasudeva is spiritually perfect and did not need anyone to teach or show him the path to enlightenment; it just came to him with the years he spend living and listening to the river.

Siddhartha sets out on a quest for enlightenment but always is not happy with the traditional ways of reaching enlightenment and must find his own path. Siddhartha’s most defining characteristic is his desire for spiritual understanding of himself and the world. He devotes himself to the pursuit of this understanding and works for years to reach his goal by following his heart. Siddartha is dedicated to his quest for knowledge but abandons his course several times in search for the correct one if he becomes unhappy with it. He learns the path to enlightenment from Vasudeva when he leaves Kamala because he is unhappy with his life in the "real world". Vasudeva teaches him the ways and secrets of the river and how to let go of ones self.

All four of these men each reached different types of enlightenment, each on there own level. They all took different paths but all reached Nirvana by the end of the tale. This shows that anyone from a prince to a old ferryman who eats only bananas and rice can both reach enlightenment.