StephanieLSB

Stephanie's Scrapbook ===This is the place where I will write about the journey I follow to self-realization. My goal is to gain wisdom and takes steps towards enlightening myself. I will be following the journey of Siddhartha, the title character of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, as a model for my own journey. The steps I have taken follow. ===

=With The Samanas = ====

The Assignment
===In order to try and reach enlightenment, the Samanas, or the Indian ascetics would give up all desires or wants. For this assignment, in order to understand the Samanas, we gave up something we do often or our desires to do something we like, for one week. I gave up Grey's Anatomy, my favorite television show, that I watch on Netflix. I love that show, even if I don't "need" it, every episode leaves you hanging off your seat wanting more, so imagine how it was waiting a week without knowing what happens next.===

Getting Started
=== Starting off the week after watching a very suspenseful episode of Grey's Anatomy episode the day before my giving up period was very hard. I was so curious to what happened next on the show, and honestly, I almost gave in to that curiosity. I felt, "filled with pain and thirst," (Hesse 14). Then, I remind myself of the will power of the Samanas, and if they could give up shelter, food, and basically their lives for years, I was pretty sure I could hold this absence of a television show for a week. ===

Mid-Week
=== I wouldn't think about the show as often as I would in the beginning of the week. I focused on more important things, like homework and being productive. I think it was almost like the three day hump which a smoker needs to get over in order to quit smoking. It was like an addiction I needed time away from to realize more important things in my life. My goal was still to get through the week without the show, and similar to Siddhartha's goal in, "to experience pure thought - that was his goal. When all the Self was conquered and dead, when all passions and desires were silent," (Hesse 14). I wanted to not have to think of the show so often, I wanted to have pure thought like Siddhartha; also not have the desire to watch the show, I wanted to be free from it's addicting effect. ===

By The End
=== I had done it; I had gone a whole week without one peek at my Netflix to watch my beloved show of Grey's Anatomy. Honestly, I felt pretty accomplished, considering the fact that before this week I would watch about two or three hours of Grey's Anatomy per day. This is where Siddhartha and I differed, he felt as he had not gained more knowledge on his journey, "He has not grown wiser, he has not gained knowledge, he has not climbed any higher" (Hesse 17). I felt as I had, I felt like I knew what I could do without the show, without having to watch the show and desire it, I saw opportunities arise like studying more and actually getting homework done on time; and I really felted accomplished throughout the week, unlike Siddhartha's feelings toward his journey with the Samanas. I feel like I would be able to do this again in the long term, or at least shorter my amount of time per day watching Grey's, I want to also, I felt very productive during the week I deprived myself from the show, and I wouldn't mind getting used to that "productive" feeling. ===

=The Awakening =

The Quote
===What does Siddhartha's "Awakening" look like? Is this the same thing as reaching Enlightenment? In the text, Siddhartha becomes awakened to the world around him after leaving the Samanas and Gotama (the Buddha). He sees "the world for the first time. The world was beautiful strange and mysterious. Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, sky and river, woods and mountains, all beautiful, all mysterious and enchanting, and in the midst of it, he, Siddhartha, the awakened one, on the way to himself. All this, all this yellow and blue, river and wood, passed for the first time across Siddhartha's eyes. It was no longer the magic of Mara, it was no more the veil of Maya, it was no longer meaningless and the chance diversities of the appearances of the world, despised by deep-thinking Brahmins, who scorned diversity, who sought unity. River was river, and if the One and Divine in Siddhartha secretly lived in blue and river, it was just the divine art and intention that there should be yellow and blue, there sky and wood -- and here Siddhartha. Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (39).===

The Image Analysis
===I drew this picture because in the quote it is saying that Siddhartha finds himself, and is awakened through nature. Siddhartha finds that, "Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (39)." So I drew the nature inside of a person to represent that nature, along with meaning and reality, were inside of a person, not behind them or just the setting. I drew woods, mountains, fields, and a river with all of the colors the quote describes as green, yellow, and blue. I drew all of these things into a person because nature is within us, and we are in nature.=== = Kamala =

__Hair:__ I have heaped up, black hair (pg.51).
===__About Me (looks)__: I am very beautiful, my facial features like my, "heaped-up black hair he saw a bright, very sweet, very clever face, a bright red mouth like a freshly cut fig, artful eyebrows painted in a high arch, dark eyes, clever and observant, and a clear slender neck above her green and gold gown," (Hesse 51), really attract Siddhartha to me. Also, my hands, "were firm and smooth, long and slender, with broad gold bangles on her wrists" (Hesse 51), attracted him to me as well.===

===__Hobbies/Profession (a____ctions):__ I have a lot of visitors, usually men that keep me busy with presents and riches. I like to hear poetry, "poetry is very good" (Hesse 57). Also, I like to hear other literature and stories of the great Gotama, and of others from far away.===

===__Looking For (effects on others, speech):__ I want a man with, "in fine clothes, and in fine shoes; there is a scent in thier hair and money in their purses" (Hesse 54). I like a poetic man and a man who can offer me presents and riches. You must look extremely presentable and have expense things, and also have plenty of money to buy me objects of my affection, if not; you won't get very far with me, so I would suggest you inherit a lot of money before even trying to visit me.===

=Samsara = = =

The Comic!
==

Analysis
===I'd like to say my life is pretty routine but it has a lot of new things happening in it all the time. The routine part is during the week I wake up around 7:30 to get ready for school. Then, I usually mosey up to the top of my driveway to catch the bus to school. After school gets out and I get home, I either have volleyball practice, relax, shower, do homework, or eat. Or a combination of the things. So it's pretty routine, but I feel like the routines make life go by with a sense of, "the sense of importance with which they lived their lives," (Hesse 77.) Also, a sense of organization, helps me feel productive. Routines are a good thing in my life but definitely having new and exciting thing happen outside of routines help spice life up a lot! I think we need routine, but we must balance out routine with new, or we might just go crazy within a too boring of a routine.===

= The River =

__Quote from Text:__ "The years passed by - Siddhartha hardly noticed their passing" (Hesse 75).
===__Analysis:__ Life goes by so fast, and basically in this song, she sings about how life goes on with the pace of the river, and you can't stop it, you just go with the flow of the river, which really is symbolic towards life. Like in Siddhartha's life, he goes on many different adventures through his life, and while time passes, he doesn't seem to even notice because the time is going so fast, he is caught up in the steady, never stopping, flow of the river.===

__Quote from Text:__ "The new Siddhartha felt a deep love for this flowing water and decided that he would not leave it again so quickly" (Hesse 100).
===__Analysis:__ In this song Billy Joel is singing about trying to cross this river, in order to find something that he feels he had lost. Siddhartha goes to the river and almost kills himself, because he feels lost. He feels like he has lost his path, he feels nauseated by his own despair and a complete hopelessness, "this moment of complete hopelessness and despair and the tense moment when he had bent over the flowing water, ready to commit suicide" (Hesse 98). Then, he falls into a deep sleep and wakes up feeling awakened, like a new man. The river he almost once killed himself in he now looked at with a deep love, a love he did not want to leave. Through this river, Siddhartha was awakened, and found truth within the river's deep waters. The river symbolizes life itself, and as the song says, we all start in the streams and are carried along, and this symbolizes Siddhartha's journey. Siddhartha is carried through life on many different paths, like a stream, or river, and he gets through the toughest bends and waves to enter the desert of truth within the river, he just needed to be carried along it to be awakened.===

media type="custom" key="24520184"

__Quote from Text:__ "I will remain by this river - Love this river, stay by it, learn from it" (Hesse 101.)
===__Analysis:__ The river has always been there for Siddhartha, even if he hasn't been right next to it throughout all of his travels, it has been next to him, it has been in him. Throughout all of the bad and good, the river has continued to flow within him. The river continues to flow on, and it stops for no one. As with Siddhartha, his life keeps on with the pace of the river, it goes by fast, and he learns much through it, but like the river, he keeps on flowing through different paths, and different bends, he keeps on flowing.===

= Om =

= Work Cited =