NickHSB

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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=

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

Getting Started
I started on a day after school and it wasn't so bad because I had no desire for what I was giving up. The next day was when it was challenging though. I wanted to have tamales with my family but I couldn't. Cheese is the one thing that I could have no matter what I was feeling like having to eat because it is pretty much in everything that I like to make. For Siddhartha it seemed worse based on his deprivation, "I will stand and wait."(6)

Mid-Week
After a few days without cheese I kind of forgot about it until there was a meal with cheese in it. Even then, I didn't have the desire to have cheese that much. It got easier until the end of the week. Siddhartha did the same thing throughout the time of his deprivation. "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."(8)

By The End
After a week without cheese I really missed it. I decided that I couldn't last more than a week without cheese. I felt that Siddhartha is ridiculous for depriving himself of food and water and everything else that he did. He "stood beneath the fierce vertical rays of the sun, burning with pain, burning with thirst, and he stood there until he no longer felt either pain or thirst."(8) I didn't feel that it was important to me to do that.

=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).

The Image
An image I drew depicting the scenery in the book.

Analysis
I drew this image depicting "Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, sky and river, woods and mountains, all beautiful,". I also tried to make it realistic looking; how it would be in India. ==

=Kamala=

**Name**: Kamala


 * Location**: The Pleasure Grove
 * Eyes**: Dark Brown
 * Hair**: Chocolate Brown with Caramel Streaks

**About Me**
What is Kamala like? What makes her so appealing to Siddhartha?

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I know all about love and caring. I believe that everyone has a purpose in life and I respect the things that people do. However I think that only a few are not like normal people and have more knowledge.=====

**Hobbies / Profession:**
What does Kamala do for a living? How does she like to spend her time?

**Looking For:**
What does Kamala want in a man? Look at her requirements for Siddhartha - what does she tell him he needs? (Remember to use a quote for "About Me," "Hobbies/Profession," and "Looking For" - this dating profile should be from Kamala's point of view and explain to a man like Siddhartha who Kamala is and what she expects from a man.) I want a man who is wealthy, can support me, is knowledgeable, and understanding. She tells him that he must find a job and life in the city first.

=Samsara=

My Daily Life
1. Wake up. 2. Eat breakfast 3. Wait for the bus 4. Take the bus to school 5. Attend classes 6. Eat whatever I packed to eat 7. Attend more classes 8. Take bus home 9. Do homework 10. Eat and go to bed

Quote from Siddhartha````````````````````````````````````````````````
"The years passed by. Enveloped by comfortable circumstances, Siddhartha hardly noticed their passing. He had become rich. He had long possessed a house of his own and his own servants, and a garden at the outskirts of town, by the river. People liked him; they came to him if they wanted money or advice" (75).

Analysis
This is a funny way to put my activities I do everyday. I sleep, get up, have breakfast, go to school, go home, sleep again, and then I dream.

=The River=

[]

**Song:** "The River" by Atmosphere

 * Lyrics:** "If I could run through the woods and speed like the light I'd find the answers to why and be back by tonight" **Quote from the text:** "'Yes,' said the ferryman, 'It is a very beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have always learned something from it. One can learn much from a river'" (49). **Analysis:** When Wikipedia suggested that this song was inspired by //Siddhartha//, I had to find it. Atmosphere is a favorite artist of mine and I hadn't heard this song before. In the song, the narrator is searching for "the answers to why" (Atmosphere). This is the same for Siddhartha; at one point he travels through the woods looking for the same answers. When he comes to the river for the first time and meets the ferryman, he (without realizing it) sees the river where he will find all of his answers. Like the Buddha, he finds that the middle path - embodied by the river - is the way to enlightenment and freedom from the drudgery of Samsara. The ferryman speaks a deep truth at this point, that "one can learn much from a river" (Hesse 49).

**Song:** "Aqueous Transmission" by Incubus

 * Lyrics:** "Further down the river Two weeks without my lover I'm in this boat alone Floating down a river named emotion Will I make it back to shore Or drift into the unknown" **Quote from the text:** "Siddhartha reached the long river in the wood, the same river across which a ferryman had once taken him when he was still a young man and had come from Gotama's town. He stopped on this river and stood hesitatingly on the bank... Why should he go any further, where, and for what purpose?" **Analysis:** I have always loved this song, both because it is musically soothing and creative, and because the lyrics speak to me. The idea that a "river named emotion" is the path we flow down, and that this river often takes us "into the unknown" (Incubus) is an appealing thought. I am not scared of the unknown, I relish it. Siddhartha seems to both embrace and fear the unknown. He always wishes to have a purpose and meaning - reaching enlightenment - but at one point he questions himself, asking "why should he go any further, where, and for what purpose?" (Hesse 88). Embarking on the journey to enlightenment alone was necessary for Siddhartha, as well; it seems that the path down the figurative river of knowledge and emotion is a solo journey.

**Song:** "Green River" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
I can hear the bull frog callin' me. Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree. Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water, shoe fly, dragon fly, get back t your mother. Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River. Up at Cody's camp I spent my days, oh, with flat car riders and cross-tie walkers. Old Cody, Junior took me over, said, you're gonna find the world is smolderin' an' if you get lost come on home to Green River." **"Quote from the text:** "In his heart he heard the newly awakened voice speak, and it said to him: "Love this river, stay by it, learn from it." Yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. It seemed to him that whoever understood this river and its secrets, would understand much more, many secrets, all secrets" (101). **Analysis:** Siddhartha makes the river his home. He decides to "stay by it" (Hesse 101) and learn its secrets. Much like the lyrics of the song, it seems like any time Siddhartha "get[s] lost [he] come[s] on home to [the] River" (CCR). The idea of a river being a place of homecoming, spirituality, and growth seems to be a common theme throughout literature and music alike. Perhaps this is because is so fluid - literally and figuratively. It is always in a state of movement, change, and growth. This is especially true for a river, which can even carve stone with its rushing path. Like the river, Siddhartha pushes along to carve his own way to enlightenment.
 * Lyrics:** "Well, take me back down where cool water flow, yeh. Let me remember things I love. Stoppin' at the log where catfish bite, walkin' along the river road at night, barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight.

=Om=

The Big Ideas / Literary Analysis
Topics to be announced.

=Works Cited= Hesse, Herman. //Siddhartha//. New York: Bantam, 1971.