KinseyCSB

= 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 gave up my pillow, because I didn't think it would bother me that much.

= Getting Started = At first, not using my pillow was really easy. It didn't bother me all that much. I fell asleep using my arms as a pillow, and usually woke up on top of a stuffed animal or a blanket instead. I didn't really notice that my pillow was gone. At this point, I was asking myself the same questions Siddhartha asked Govinda: "Have we made any progress? Have we reached any goals?" (Hesse 9). I started to question my choice to give up my pillow, because it didn't bother me.

= Mid-Week = When the weekend hit, it was a different story. I went to a girl scout camp, and the entire time it was very cold. By the time I got in my sleeping bag, I decided that I would use my pillow (cold, hard ground is extremely uncomfortable). I probably shouldn't have brought a pillow so I couldn't use it! What I really wanted to do was sleep, and to "escape from the torment of being "I"" (9), so I could not be cold anymore. I did so a different way from Siddhartha, and no doubt the easier way, which was hide and sleep as opposed to endure.

= By The End = Monday night, I was extremely exhausted. I didn't use my pillow because I didn't realize it wasn't there!! Tuesday night I was sick ( I lost my voice completely), and at that point it already felt like "the world had a bitter taste" (7), so I used my pillow. That was the last day of the assignment. I realize that my choice to give up my pillow was an incorrect one. I should have chosen something that would effect me more. Sadly, I chose the easy way out.

= 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).

I put a wide "river" that was "blue", and a lot of "yellow" and "green" in my "forest" and in my hill because that is what Siddhartha sees. I put a lot of color in my trees and sky because Siddhartha says that "everything [is] puzzling and magical", and what is more puzzling and magical than fall leaves and a sunrise?
 * Analysis: **

The author chose this setting because he wanted to show how magical Siddhartha's awakening felt to him. He uses many symbolic archetypes in this passage which show that. He mentions a river because water stands for rebirth, yellow for wisdom, green for nature, blue for tranquility. He also says things along the lines of "here is blue, here is yellow" three times, maybe to hint that what is going on is holy, as # stands for the holy trinity (a different religion entirely, but still makes sense).

= Kamala = **Name:** Kamala

**Location:** Village in India

**Eyes:** Dark (pg. 28)

**Hair:** Black (pg. 28)

**About Me**: I have a "very fair, very soft, very clever face" (28). I also have "bright red lips like a newly opened fig...[and] a long, fair neck" (28).

I am a courtesan, which is shown by my actions when I first met Siddhartha. I "placed [my] left foot on his right and moved [my] body like a woman inviting a man to the style of lovemaking that the manuals call 'climbing a tree'" (28).
 * Hobbies/Profession: **

I am looking for a man with "handsome clothes, and shoes, good-looking shoes, and a lot of money in his purse, and gifts for Kamala" (30).
 * Looking For: **

= Samsara  =

My Daily Life
 = Analysis = My alarm goes off at 6:00. This however, is not when I get up. I always feel that I "had gone to bed long after midnight" (44) the previous night (although I rarely stay up past 10:30, and that I had "tried in vain to fall asleep" (44). So I usually lay in my bed until about 6:15, in an attempt to shake off my sleepiness, and then slowly get dressed while listening to the radio. I then eat breakfast, make my lunch, etc. until it is time to go to the bus stop, and 7:30. I have a very long bus ride, so I sometimes read a book or do homework, but usually, I sleep. Then I arrive at school. I take the same bus back home, and then eat dinner. I do homework for most of the evening, and then watch Youtube until I am tired. This part of my routine is the best and the worst. It is the only time I do something I want to do, but at the same time, it causes me to feel tired next morning. I should read a book before I sleep instead of staring at a screen, but I usually choose Youtube because it involves less work.

= The River = media type="custom" key="24583300" The river flows It flows to the sea Wherever that river goes That's where I want to be Flow river flow Let your waters wash down Take me from this road To some other town

All he wanted Was to be free And that's the way It turned out to be Flow river flow Let your waters wash down Take me from this road To some other town

Flow river flow Past the shaded tree Go river, go Go to the sea Flow to the sea

The river flows It flows to the sea Wherever that river goes That's where I want to be Flow river flow Let your waters wash down Take me from this road To some other town

= Quote From Text = "He looked down and discovered that he was totally imbued with the desire to let himself go and sink into that water." (47)

= Analysis = In this song, the singer wants to go where the river flows in order to escape his past in that town. He wants the river to help him forget. In this part of the story, Siddhartha, too, wants to escape his life. He wants to let the river carry him to oblivion because he is ashamed of his life for the past few years. Both men, the singer and the character, want to escape something, and they turn to the river, which is always moving towards the sea, as their means of escape. However, Siddhartha, by staring at the river, remembers who he was before, and chooses to turn to the way of the Buddha, the middle path. He realizes that the Ferryman was right, that "you can learn a lot from a river" (27).

media type="custom" key="24684856"

Heart and soul Body and mind Heart and soul Body and mind Heart and soul Body and mind Meet me on the river of time (meet me on the river of time) Meet me on the river of time

= Quote From Text = "In his heart he heard the voice speak, the newly awakened one, and it said to him: 'Love this water! Remain by it! Learn from it!'" (54)

= Analysis = In the song, the singer wants to meet his "heart and soul/body and mind" (Van Morrises) by the river. Siddhartha does the same. He looks to the river to guide him. Towards the end of the book, he listens to the river on "On his face there blossomed the serenity of knowledge that was no longer opposed by will, a knowledge that knew perfection. Both Morrises and Siddhartha seem to want to find their true selves in the river.

media type="custom" key="24685150"

Let the river

Let the river run

Let the water

Let the water fall

Flow down off the mountain

Into the sea

Let the river run, run it’s course

= Quote from Text = "He saw: this water flowed and flowed, it kept on flowing, and yet it was always there, it was always and at all times the same and yet new every moment" (55)