AlexandraScrapbook2

= Alexandra Funke's Scapbook = = =

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

Beginning of the Week
In the first two days of the week, I realized that knowing you are not allowed to have something- in my case soda- makes that thing more desirable. There is something about soda in particular that made it extremely difficult to give up. The bubbly liquid tingles as it goes done your throat, quenching a thirst that cannot be quenched by water alone. I desperately wanted to drink ssome soda water, but i knew that would be cheating. In Siddartha, the narrorator suggests that Siddartha was "Burning with thirst" (Hesse 8) which is exactly howI felt, even though I was thirsty for soda and he was just thirsty period. Nothing compares to soda as far as beverages go, but I managed to stick with water, milk, and juice for the week.



Middle of the Week
On the third day of the week, I didn't care even the slightest bit that i could not have soda, but sure enough, on the fourth day, I almost broke my no soda rule. There was a thirst so bad within me, I couln't see any point in the activity. However I still trudged on Understaning completely the speaker saying that "He felt thirst, overcame thirst, felt fresh thirst" (8). This quote seems to fit perfectly into how I felt during the middle of the week.

End of the Week
By the end of the week I came to the realization that, though I had intense desire for a sweet, bubbly beverage, I had no necessity to drink soda. On the last day of the week, all I could think of was the fact that the next day, I would once again be permitted to have a deliciously thirst-quenching soda. However the next day I didnt give in to the temptation. And it was the first day of freedom that I thought about the reasoning for this, and found that it was because I found that drinking a soda is unnecessary, but so is abstaining from drinking soda. In Siddhartha's words "I do not desire to walk on water" (14) which I interpret as him saying that though on this path an impossible feat could be achieved, it is unecessary to do so.

Reflection
From this assignment I learned about restraint, and also how a set path isn't always best for every person. In order for a person to be happy and achieve greatness, they have to follow their heart and head, not solid guidelines. I have gained appreciation for those with extreme restraint, and admiration for those how go off and even against the beaten track.

[[image:Alexandra Picture.jpg align="left"]] Awakening
Siddhartha reached awakening after he left the Buddha (Gotama) and Govinda, his dear friend, behind in the grove. To him, awakening looked like "Blue was blue, river was river" (22), and "Sky flowed, and river; forest jutted upward, and mountains" (22) also, "Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green" (22). to Siddhartha awakening was seeing the beuaty of the world, and realizing your own beliefs and oppinions.I chose to draw a river and a mountain and trees because in the book Siddartha speaks of all of these things being there, with all of the colors I chose.

Name: Kamala Location: The Pleasure Grove, and a house in town Eyes: "dark eyes clever and alert" (28) Hair: "High-piled black hair" (28) About Me: I am a very beautiful woman. I am also rather clever, and a renowned courtesan. I have a house in town, I am also a rather coy woman, which can be a usefull trait in my business. Profession: I am a teacher of men. My subject? The ways-and rules- of love. I like to spend time in the pleasure grove, or my house in town. Looking For: I am looking for a rich man with good looks and is well dressed. "He must have clothes, handsome clothes, and shoes, good-looking shoes, and a lot of money in his purse, and gifts for Kamala" (30).

media type="custom" key="21310980" align="left" Samsara
My routine is simple, mostly due to my head injury. I wake up around 7:00 (or in actuality, I hit snooze until 7:20), wash my face, take a shower, and get dressed. Next I usually make breakfast, but I don't always have time (due to pressing snooze so many times). I then ride to school with my brother, who only just got his license. I go to my classes, talk to my teachers and go home. I then have free time to relax with a book, on the couch, or just take a nap. This time is spent mostly procrastinating and battling with myself over when to do my homework. I think that my routine is very different to that of Siddartha, but at the same time very similar in the sense that he had something he enjoyed and looked forward to daily-seeing Kamala- and I have something to look forward to daily- relaxing. Though he did very different things- like going to work and not school- there is still something that must be done for a longer period of time, something that isn't enjoyable, that we go to routinely. We both seem to let life go on while we just sit back and watch realizing the constant patterns, in fact "although he might be serene and might sometimes feel joy, true life was nevertheless passing him by without touching him." (39), supporting my theory.

Song Lyricsmedia type="youtube" key="yVm8PjWCvLg" height="123" width="168" align="right"
The River (by Good Charlotte)-" Like the prodigal son, I was out on my own, Now I'm trying to find my way back home, Baptized in the riverI'm delivered, I'm delivered" "Was it not his self, his petty, timid, proud self, with which he had battled with for so many years......... Was it not this that had finally met its death that day, there in the forest beside that lovely river?" Both speakers seem to find a purity which comes from the river, one that reverses the sin of their pasts.

Just Around The Riverbend (pocahontas)- Disney "What I love most about rivers is,You can't step in the same river twice.The waters always changing, always flowing"

media type="youtube" key="oRliKvrs2jA" height="123" width="168" align="left"

Down to the River to Pray- Aison Krauss " As I went down in the river to pray, Studying about that good old way, And who shall wear the starry crown, Good Lord show me the way" "It knows everything, the river, a person can learn anything from it." (56) In the song and in the book, the river is a place and a thing to learn from, that teaches its ways.

media type="youtube" key="DbgfQ48hWuY" height="153" width="210" align="right"