AnnaLSB

__Anna Lobianco'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__ =  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.

=//Day 1 & 2//=

media type="custom" key="24281602" width="35" height="35"For this project, I decided to give up my favourite genre of music; hardcore. I wouldn't listen to any music from that category for six days, which I knew would be hard considering I listen to it almost all day, everyday. The first day I attempted, it proved to be too hard for me, and I broke half way through that day. Before I did, however, my friend showed me another genre I don't usually listen to... The songs were violent and disturbing, so much so that I felt the need to clean my find with my regular music. So I did... Just as "the paths took him away from Self, in the end they always led back to it." (Hesse 14), so did my paths and attempts to step away from my desires eventually led me back to what I craved.

=//Day 3 & 4//=

The days after I gave up on my search for 'enlightenment' proved to be more enjoyable than the previous ones. I love that kind of music, and that's why I chose to listen to it. What enlightenment can be found from depriving yourself from the things you love? That's why we were given senses: to experience the world and everything it has to offer. I think what I found in this project was exactly that: make the most of what you are given. Don't throw it away and let it go to waste... That benefits no one. Instead, "let us enjoy this fruit and await further ones" (23). A piece of fruit that is not used eventually becomes rotten and useless. Why did the tree produce it but for it to be used? Likewise, why did the band create those songs but for them to be enjoyed and listened to?

=//Day 5 & 6//=

As I approached the end of my journey, I found that I never really regretted giving up on my challenge. I had deeply enjoyed the days I would have given up my music but instead listened to it. I listen to it because I love it, and it doesn't do me any good to stay away from something I love. I think I could understand self-deprivation better if I gave up something I needed, not wanted. As much as my music feels like a need sometimes, I know it's not. So if I gave up, say, heat for a week, I think I could understand this all a lot more. I might even be able to answer the question, "What is abandonment of the body?" (17) but with this assignment, which I didn't take all that seriously, I couldn't even begin to comprehend it truly.

=__ Awakening __=

I pictured his Awakening not as him closing his eyes and opening them suddenly to a whole different world, but as a process of him looking out into the world and his enlightenment slowly washing over his vision. That's why I drew the water dripping down, covering over the stale brown background... That was the world in comparison to what he was then seeing; brown and stale. As he looked at the world through new eyes, he saw that "River was river, and if the One and Divine in Siddhartha secretly lived in the blue and river, it was just the divine art and intention that there should be yellow and blue..."(39-40). So I drew the water before him, and the yellow of the sun shining clearly beyond it. Everything before his awakening was mixed and muddled, but after he saw everything clearly.

=__ Kamala __= Name: Kamala

Location:

Eyes: Dark chocolate

Hair: Raven black

About Me: I have been told by many men that I am very beautiful. I am very young and lively and love to love others.

Hobbies/ Profession: Entertains young men

Looking for: I am looking for someone who has a good deal of "fine clothes, fine shoes, and money" (54) and it does not hurt if you "know how to read and write" (58)

=__ Comic __= ==

1.) Wake up 2.) Have breakfast 3.) Ride the bus to school 4.) Learn stuff at school 5.) Get home to walk the dog 6.) Go to bed

=__Analysis__=

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//Fortune never favoured me// //And the oceans were never big enough// // To hold all of our iniquities // //And secrets in its clear, blue embrace// // I will ascend from the bottom // //To be born again// When Siddhartha comes by the river, he is full of self hatred and misery and wishes that the, " fishes devour him, this dog of a Siddhartha, this madman, this corrupted and rotting body, this sluggish and misguided soul!" (87) But when he spends time by it and the river talks to him, he is given a new out look on life. His views, you could say, have been "born again" and he understands much more. media type="custom" key="24520316" align="center"

//This world it needs a cleansing, removing all its filth.// //Wearing your masks of envy but I see you still.// // Hoping hoping hoping, to drown the world. // // And now we drown the world. // //You're drowning in the flood.// media type="custom" key="24729900" //We watch the waters rise,// //and let the tides come up to our neck.// //With pride taking on the ways// //screaming over and over again,// //"I never lie, I swear I can swim"// //"I never lie" but there I go again.//