MattCSB

Matthew Crow'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=

[[image:Buddhaaaaaaaaaaa.jpg align="left"]]
= Assignment: = ====For one week, we had to give up something we do or use on a regular basis in order to get some sort of a feeling for how Siddartha must have been feeling during his time with the ascetics. I chose to give up soda. I chose this because I drink it too much, and as it is not good for my health, there was also a benefit of following through with the assignment.====

=The Beginning:= ====For the first few days, I had to remind myself a few times not to drink soda. It was strange for me because I usually drink soda when I feel like I want to. It was not necessarily difficult, but it was a little bit of an alteration. "He fasted twenty-eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks." This quote shows the large gap between my self "deprivation" and that of Siddartha.====

=Mid-week:= ====About midway through the week, I had gotten in the routine of not drinking soda.I did not think about it as much as I had in the first days. I found the midpoint of the week to be easy. "Siddartha sat upright and learned to save his breath..." This shows how different my process was from Siddartha's. I gave up soda, he gave up breathing.====

=The End-Times:= ====By the end of the week I forgot (twice) about the assignment. I drank soda once on Sunday, and another time on Monday. The quote "The world tasted bitter. Life was pain," shows how different my assignment was from Siddartha's choice of deprivation. If I could actually forget about my lack of using something, then it really must not have been as important as other things, such as food an water.====

=Awakening Picture:= I drew this picture to symbolize the different colors that Siddhartha was seeing in this chapter. "Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, sky and river. woods and mountains, all beautiful, all mysterious and enchanting..." This #|quote vividly describes the different colors and type of terrain which Siddhartha was witnessing. I used blue in the river because he saw blue, yellow in the sky because he saw yellow, green in the mountains because he saw green, and so on. I drew the picture this way to show how #|open Siddhartha was at this specific time, so I showed that by drawing the river and mountains very openly.



Name: Kamala
=Location: The Pleasure Grove= =Eyes: Deep brown (in contradticition to this picture)= = = =About Me: I have brown eyes. My hair is black. I have a "bright red mouth like a freshly cut fig." I am thin and guys think I'm sexy for whatever reason.= = = =Hobbies/Profession: I'm a prostitute. Therefore, my hobbies are sex and getting money. I enoy poet. I enjoy fashion, so "he must have clothes, fine clothes, and shoes, fine shoes."= = = =Looking For: I am looking for a man with wealth, fine appearances, and expensive clothes. I'm looking for someone who I find to be good enough to be good enough "He must have ... and plenty of wealth in his purse."=

=My Daily Life: 1.) Wake up= 2.) Shower and get all pretty and smelling nice 3.) Get dressed 4.) Go to #|school 5.) Go to #|school and learn valuable things that will most certainly affect my life for the better 6.) Eat lunch 7.) Learn more stuff 8.) Go to my place of residence 9.) Do homework 10.) Eat more 11.) #|Watch Netflix or read 12.) Eat More 13.) Go to bed 14.) Actually sleep after about seven hours of staring at my wall

My life is very, very routine. I wake up at 6:45 every morning and take a shower. I go to [[#|[[#|[[#|[[#|[[#|[[#|school]]]]]]]]]]]]]] and learn things. After learning things, I come home and do my homework (yay, homework). After this, I typically #|watch TV or read (because Harry Potter is #|fantastic). I generally go #|back to #|bed at about 11:00 - 11:30 each night. I sometimes feel like Siddhartha because "for a long time Siddhartha had lived the life of the world without belonging to it." I feel like this due to the fact that sometimes I am very withdrawn and barely participating in my life, so far as school goes, that is. I feel like I'm only here in body, sometimes, while my mind is far away.

media type="custom" key="24570074"In the #|song "Down by the Water" by the Decemberists, Colin Meloy sings "See this ancient riverbed, see where all my follies lead." This is almost eerily similar to the book because Siddhartha was "full of ennui, full of misery, full of death..." (87). This quote shows how someone was sick of his or her life of mistakes and wrong-doings, so he or she dec ided the change that life for a better. The song also shows a river as a place for sudden realization or awakening.

media type="custom" key="24520272" align="right" In #|the song "Going to California" by Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant sings "The sea was red and the sky was grey, wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today." This is similar to the book because Siddhartha "wished passionately for oblivion, to be at rest, to be dead." (87) This shows how someone's darkened outlook on life may be suddenly changed by the appearance of water. In the song, the sea represents hope because the subject of the #|music is going to California to get away from an ex-lover who smoked all of his marijuana and drank all of his wine. In the book, Siddhartha is leaving the life of sinful indulgences behind and starting anew by visiting the water.

media type="custom" key="24570052" In the song "Take it Easy (Love Nothing)" by Bright Eyes (the best group ever), Conor Oberst sings "Now they're spreading out the blankets on the beach, and that weatherman's a liar, he said it would be raining, but it's clear and blue as far as I can see," This quote is similar to Hesse's //Siddhartha,// in that "he loved everything, he was full of joyous love towards everything that he saw." (94) This symbolizes how the water (whether it be a river or a beach) can bring about joy, love, and new life. In the Bright Eyes song, the joy and love is brought about by not having to endure (metaphorical) rain, while in the book, the joy is ushered in by the realization that his past mistakes do not "weigh him down" any longer.