Siddartha Reading Blog 4

I really felt a relief when Siddhartha ended because at the end of the book he finally found  enlightenment and, was  reunited with Govinda which was what I most wanted! Siddartha finally found enlightenment with the help of the ferryman who insisted he couldn't teach  Siddhartha but he could show him things about the river. The ferryman also believed in one of Siddhartha's motto's that things can't be taught but must be experienced.We can see  this in the book very often. For example Govinda was always waiting for people like the Buddha and the Samana's and even Sidartha to teach him things! While Siddhartha always went on his own exploring and experiencing richness, poorness, starvation, love etc. and we see that in the end it wasn't Govinda who found enlightenment but Siddhartha.

This really makes me wonder what's the "Life lesson" that this book gives us? Is it that things can't be taught but instead must be experiences? Or is it that in life you will go through good times (when he had everything given to him) and bad times (when he was poor and starving) but that in the end everything will turn out just fine (when he finally found enlightenment)? Their are so many possible lessons that this book could have taught us that I think that it doesn't have one specific lesson I think it had many little different lesson that all had to do with the same thing which is finding what you most want which in Siddhartha's case was enlightenment. Thats what I thinks the lesson/lessons of this book were , but who knows maybe I'm wrong!

Sidartha Reading Blog 3

Section three in this book is sort of a turning point , Sidartha becomes someone he never imagined to be and makes decisions he never imagined would take. In these chapters Sidartha meets Kamala and ends up liking her a lot. Here started changing from one extreme to another.After learning a lot from the Samanas and the Buddha's when he met Kamala he lost all of these things.At the beggining of the book we saw how Sidartha who had been raised surrounded by rich with people who always have him what he needed realized, that that isn't the real world.Then when he met Kamala Sidartha began to be more materialistic and hearing less the inner voice. When he realizes everything thats happening Sidartha leaves Kamala.After leaving Kamala Sidartha still isn't happy and is about to commit suicide by drowning in a river.Just when he is about to do this the river talks to him and this really reconnects him to all of his prevouis beliefs and kind of straightens him up. Many of the things that have happened in Sidartha make us realize and doubt if Sidartha can actually go on in his path without loosing control without having Govinda beside him.An example of this is when we see that Sidartha has kind of lose it and has even been about to commit suicide but when he is reunited with Govinda he is back to being happy and ok.

Section 3 makes me wonder many things like:
Will Sidartha , Govinda and Kamala at one poinbt all be together at the same time? If so how will each one react to one another?
Now that Govinda is back how will Sidartha change? Will he be back on his path again?
What does yellow mean or represent in this book?In Buddhism?
How long has it been since Sidartha left home?
What exactly does the river symbolize?


Section three was kind of the climax of this story , just as Sidartha is about to give up and commit suicide Govida apears and puts him back on track!Im really excited to see what happens from here on and how Govinda's return will change things.

Sidartha Section 2 Visual Vocabulary

Words I thought were important in the text:

Deeply:

adverb

1.

well within or beneath a surface.

2.

to a thorough extent or profound degree:

Myself:

pronoun 

used as an intensive of me or I. 

Alone:

adjective; the exclusion of all others or all else.

Thought:

Noun;the product of mental activity.

   

   

 Reality:

Noun; the state or quality of being real.

Desire:

verb to wish or long for; crave; want.

       Sacrifice:

Verb ; To give something up for the sake of something better. 

Wisdom:

Noun; the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true.

Dream:

Verb; images, thoughts, or emotions that pass through the mind.

Words I Didn't Know:

Ostracized: Verb; to exclude.

Subservient: Adjective; acting in a subordinate capacity.

Ascetic: Noun; a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative

 ideals and practices extreme self-denial.

Grove: Noun; a small wood or forested area.

Stammered: Verb; to speak with involuntary breaks.

Repulsed: Verb; to drive back with denial.

Beggar: Noun; a person who lives by begging.

Reading Blog Sidartha 1

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A Teenager's Life

Section 1

In this section, which comprises Chapters 1-4, the book I of Siddhartha shares the experience of teenagers going to college. At the beginning of the book Siddhartha decides he wants to become a Samana, so he meditates over it and finally talks to her father about his decision. When his father hears his decision, he isn't very excited about as he disagrees with it. I connected the reaction of  Siddhartha’s father with the reaction of many teenager’s parents when they tell them they want to study something different from what their parents had in mind. The teenager's parents don't agree with that decision and don't support it and when the teenager really shows them that that’s what they want to do, the parents come around and finally say yes. This is what happens in this story since at the beginning, Siddhartha’s father was in complete disagreement but when Siddhartha stood still for a whole night, his father saw how committed he was to his decision and finally gave him permission to go.

In chapter 2 of the first section Siddhartha and his friend Govinda join a group of Samanas. As soon as they join this group they start participating in some self-tortures that were part of the traditions that the groups practiced. For example, not eating for as long as you can, or standing still in the burning sun. These actions also reminded me of the time when a teenager is going to college and wants to make part of a fraternity like KAPPA. When a teenager wants to join a fraternity, he or she has to make weird challenges like eating a live goldfish or cleaning the boys bathroom and similar challenges like that to make part of the group. I really connected with Siddhartha’s painful practices in the Samanas group with the challenges a teenager has to make to get in to his/her dream fraternity house.

The last aspect of section 1 with which I connected in relation to the experience of a teenager growing up, was in chapter 3 when Siddhartha and Govinda decide to leave the Samanas group and try to experience the Buddha life .At the end of chapter 2 Siddhartha  starts realizing that the practices of the Samanas are not really enough nor what he is really looking for, so he and his friend Govinda decide to leave the Samana group. Then they decide to learn some things from the Buddha and start hearing some of the lessons he gave including the well-known  Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold path. I related very much to this part of the section and with the part of a teenager's life when they apply to a college and get in and soon realize it is not really what they were hoping for and drop out and decide to apply to another college. I thought these two things really had a similar connection and in general Section 1 of the book was really similar and had many things in common to the life of a teenager when leaving home of to college.