KyleighScrapbook2

=Kyleigh's Scrapbook= =With the Samanas=

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 coffee__, because it's technically not something I ** need **. Technically.

Beginning of the Week
The first couple of days of giving up meat were rather easy. I used to be a vegetarian so it was almost like sliding back into an old habit. There weren't many challenges other than having to come up with a new menu. I found it challenging to come up with protein alternatives however, mostly turning to eggs, which I dislike with a passion. Also having to come up with alternatives to meat for iron and other vitamins and minerals. "The world had a better taste. Life was torment." I like how this connects to the challenge of giving something up but how it could still have a positive effect.

Middle of the Week
With the middle of the week came the relief of a __#|cleansing diet__ of fruits and vegetables... with the side effects of immense junk food cravings. It became challenging to fight off my body's needs for the fat that comes with meat, but after a couple days I realized that I wasn't doing myself much good by substituting meat for ice cream and potato chips. So I guess you could say that I gave up both meat and junk food, sticking to a strict menu of fruits, veggies, and salads. With the occasional pasta dish for dinner.

=
"Siddhartha sat up straight and learned to conserve his breath, learned how to make do with just a little breath, learned how to cut off his breath." I like how this conveys the sense of adaptation that I underwent, learning to make do with better alternatives.=====

End of the Week
By the end of the week I had noticed several changes in my health, such as easier breathing and less stress. I also had more energy, I was sleeping easier, and an all around change in my attitude. This was a rather healthy experience that would be amazing to keep up, if not for my cheeseburger cravings. "Just as when the plague reins in a land and the news arises that, in this place or that, there is a man, a sage, a knowledgeable one who's mere words or insulation are able to cure every victim of the epidemic;" I like how this gives off how this week was cleansing for me, bringing my health to a better place.

=Awakening.=

I drew my picture the way I did because I wanted to convey the central idea of a vision in a more visual way. I wanted it to be clear how unusual it's beauty actually was. I used the technique for the sky that I used (flowing lines to show movement and a certain softness) because Siddhartha viewed the sky as flowing, "Here as blue, here was yellow, here was green; sky flowed, and river; forest jutted upward, and mountains; everything beautiful, everything puzzling an magical; and, in the mist of it all, he, Siddhartha, awakening, on the path to himself." The colour scheme is used to accent the main colours that were described such as orange, yellow, blue, and green."Blue is blue river was river; and if the one, the divine principle, lay concealed even in the blueness and river within Siddhartha, it as precisely the nature and meaning of that divine principle to be here yellow, here blue, there sky there forest, and here Siddhartha." I created a stippling effect to accent the idea of a vision, or of awakening, "From that moment, in which the world melted away from him all around, i which he stood alone like a star in the sky- from that moment of chill and despondency- Siddhartha emerged, more himself than before, his powers more firmly compacted."

=Kamala.=

Appearance: Dark hair with the eyes to match, a mocha complexion and a wonderful collection of Sari's that accent her love of color and beauty. About her: Kamala has a passion for the richer things in life, old, clothing, an the finest of jewels. She is very strong willed and will do whatever it takes to obtain these things. Some have been quoted referring to her as "a love teacher," or in the case of a loving admirer, " he saw beneath high-piled black hair a very fair, very soft, very clever face, bright-red lips like a newly-opened fig, eyebrows well tended and painted in the form of high arches, dark eyes clever and alert..." Her day to day life:"...and he learned that it was the grove of Kamala, the renowned courtesan, and that, in addition to the grove, she owned a house in town." Looking for: As aforementioned Kamala has a desire for the finer things in life, so a wealthy man who can give her all of the things she so desires. "'No, my good man, he still does not satisfy me! He must have clothes, handsome clothes, and shoes, good looking shoes, and a lot of money in his purse, and a lot of gifts for Kamala.'"

= Samsara. =

My routine, never really changes. I wake up and try to look half decent for school, which is difficult considering that my brain doesn't function before noon. After school, I go home to hide in the Sanctum of Solitude that is my room and avoid my piss-head of a brother. A routine is necessary in everybody's life. The need for some form of concentrated order is apparent in every situation. If there weren't, total chaos would take over an the world would taken over by the anarchists. "...A moderate way of life, pleasure and thinking, hours of concentration, secret knowledge of the south,

=The River.=

[|Video #1: Moon River by Frank Sinatra]

"Moon river wider than a mile I'm crossing you in style someday You dream maker, you heart-breaker Wherever you're going I'm going your way

Two drifters off to see the world There's such a lot of world to see We're after the same rainbow's end Waiting 'round the bend My huckleberry friend, moon river and me..."

__Quote:__ "Just then, from remote regions of his soul, from past periods of his tired life, a sound ran through his mind like a flash."

__Analysis:__ This is a song that has been played often throughout my childhood but after reading I realized how there were connections to Siddhartha and his journey. The song is all about searching for something, specifically love, but love could be used as a symbol, representing all that is good in life, all that Siddhartha was searching for, and even more specifically what he found, Om.

[|Video #2: Across the River by Bruce Springsteen]

"I come from down in the valley where mister when you're young They bring you up to do like your daddy done  Me and mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen  Wed ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

Wed go down to the river And into the river wed dive Oh down to the river wed ride"

__Quote:__ "Just then, from remote regions of his soul, from past periods of his tired life, a sound ran through his mind like a flash."

__Analysis:__ I feel as though this song outlines the joys and the celebrations life has to offer and it relates to Siddhartha in a way that he was't taking the traditional road to just happiness but to enlightenment and with that a joy that is definitely, for that time, unconventional, and he discovered the things that he feels are important to him and life itself.

[|Video #3: River Euphrates by Pixies]

"Ride, ride, ride, ... Stuck here out of gas

Out here on the Gaza Strip

From driving in too fast Let's ride the Tiger down river Euphrates Ride, ride, ride, ... Dead sea make it float

One sip from the salty wine

Dead sea make you choke Let's ride the Tiger down river Euphrates"

__Quote:__ "He was full of distaste, full of misery, full of death; there was nothing more in the world that could entice him, gladden him, console him."

__Analysis:__ I think the song conveys Siddhartha's feelings towards the river as a transition. The river transitioned him from his old life of ignorance and material wealth to knowledge and peace, and ultimately to Enlightenment.

=Om.= Once upon a time in 2005 when all of these weird things were happening there was a City Councilman's son, Shane, who was very well liked and popular. When Shane was very little he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to life than what he was experiencing One day he saw a homeless man and realized that there was more to life than money and wealth, seeing as the homeless man was very happy. He left home to live with these homeless people in the woods, the homeless people turned out to be runaway monks, who were eager to teach. He learned about depriving yourself and "become empty" that less is more and about the elimination of desire. One day Shane heard of a faraway monk who learned to earn peace within. Then, after many years, he decided to break away from the monks direct teachings and go his own way, just like the Fleetwood Mac song. Shane now travels to Chicago to live like a regular person once again, he gets a job as a grocery store bagger, he rents an apartment, and takes out a loan for a crappy car, you know, the works. One day as he was bagging groceries this amazing woman walks into the store and she was beautiful. Her name was Kamala and she began to come in every day, a desire growing between them. She wanted to teach him the ways of love, but for a price, money and gifts... she tended to only fall for rich men. Then one day Shane just woke up and decided that this wasn't teaching him anything, that this didn't make him happy. So he decided to leave Chicago and he wandered in the outskirts of town and then he ran across a drainage ditch. Looking down, he discovered the sound of the creation of the universe, om, in which he felt happiness. Then a ditch digger walked up to him and gave him rubber boots to make his trek across the drainage ditch. His name was Vance and he told Shane of his experience as they cleaned the ditch while making their way across. Vance was glad that he liked the ditch as much as he did. Then they moved in together. He learned peace from cleaning the ditch. One day Shane helped a woman and a boy across the ditch, as Vance had done with him, and he realized that he recognized the woman, it was Kamala! The beautiful Love teacher from Chicago! Then after Kamala got to his house a snake bit her, it was sad. She died. Then he took care of Kamala's boy child, who was also his. Shane and the boy didn't get along so well and one day he got so angry that he left and when he listened to the filthy ditch once more, he felt true peace and finally, Shane had found nirvana.