In Siddhartha, Siddhartha finds that enlightenment does not come from
mastering either the material or spiritual world but from finding the common
ground between these polarities of existence. Discuss this idea.
Siddhartha left his family and old life behind to go on a lifelong journey to find who he really is as a person. Throughout the book, Siddhartha has met many different people, all influencing his life by leaving a message behind for him. He has been away on this journey for many years now, and is still looking for his next step in life. He goes to the river and asks for advice a lot. I believe the river symbolizes his higher authority, or godly figure. Siddhartha wants to live a full life, that he can look back on and be satisfied with. I predict he will soon go into enlightenment and be truly able to reflect on his life. Miranda Murphy
Siddhartha, is faced with spiritual and material conflicts all throughout his journey. The idea that enlightenment doesn't solely come from one or the other can be seen through his struggles. He struggles with himself by switching his focus to losing himself and then to finding himself. He battles back and forth a lot with his spiritual self and often questions it. Additionally, the material world withholds struggles that Siddhartha faces. He struggles between love with Kamala and his son. He often gets caught up in worldly things like gambling and the riches, in which he eventually decides to escape from. It is the combination of these struggles and triumphs that makes him find his enlightenment, whether spiritual or material. Jill Christensen
Black, white, and a whole lot of gray. Siddhartha's journey so far displays many different theological ways at obtaining enlightenment. Whether it is obtaining salvation from a life of filth such as Siddhartha's most recent transformation from his life of a rich man, or the deprivation of all things that are beneficial which is very apparent with the Semanas and also many theologies that emphasizes sin or wrong doing in what some cultures see as the ultimate pleasures, or even pure devotion and repetition shown by the Brahman or even a loose interpretation of Catholic confessions with their rosaries and hail Mary's. Now these black and white, true or false, yes or no ideologies haven't worked for him at all. They've hold nothing but failure for him, so what is Siddhartha's answer to the Ultimate question. My prediction is like that of Atman. Atman is in and IS everything and everyone from the birds in the sky to the earth below our feet, so his answer is everything. A mixture of devotion, deprivation from sin, and salvation will be the gray area that finds Siddhartha his enlightenment.
When making decisions in life there is rarely black and white answers, but a lot of gray. This is very true in Siddhartha's journey. Many times he thinks that he knows exactly what to do, but after a while he realizes that it is not for him and he moves on. I do not think that Siddhartha will ever be able to find enlightenment in the ways that others do, by following religion and the black and white ways of it. Siddhartha will have to look in the gray areas of life to find his answers. Rebecca
Although Siddhartha was looking for "one" way to enlightenment, we find out at the end that was not right. Atman is everything. Throughout Siddhartha's journey, the readers can see the many different stages of his development. Siddhartha begins as a Semana, and in a sense, ends as a Semana. Seddartha starts with nothing, and ends with nothing, yet everything. This polarity between the Brahmin ways and Semana ways is very prevalent throughout the book. The journey of Siddhartha's path to enlightenment is almost more important than his enlightenment. Through many trials, Siddhartha was eventually able to discern right from wrong for himself. This way of enlightenment is fulfilling and just. There is no correct way to enlightenment, which makes Siddhartha's journey even more important.
Throughout the entire book, Siddhartha views the world as a conflict between material and spiritual. The Brahmins utilize the material to find the spiritual, but Siddhartha thinks that no one can achieve Nirvana this way. As a Samana, he thinks that the material world impedes enlightenment. As a rich man, he nearly gives up on the spiritual world and dives into the material world, but this almost destroys his soul. What he realizes in his enlightenment is that they are not actually opposites - one can find the spiritual in everything material if you have the right perspective. He learns from the River that because time does not exist, not only is everything connected, he is everything and everything is him. A rock not only has the potential to be something great, is already has been, is, and will be. He loves the rock for this, and for the fact that it is just a rock. He doesn't need to compromise either world to fully experience both.
In Siddhartha's journey he lived in a series of extremes from extreme poverty and deprivation to extreme wealth and extreme excess, it wasn't until he became the ferry man and found the river was he able to find Nirvana. Living with just enough and living within a simple happy medium between material and spiritual needs. Once he found this medium and quit swinging back and forth like a pendulum was he able to begin to see what was really around him instead of being distracted by his own needs because excessively attending to one set of desires and needs while blatantly ignoring another set caused a constant internal struggle that distracted him from everything else but himself. Once he was meeting all his spiritual and physical needs he was able to listen to the river and see all the things that he had missed previously on his journey. He then achieved Nirvana.
Siddartha's battle between his material and spiritual self was so frustrating to watch. From the our outside perspective, we could clearly see the faults in his all- or- nothing attitude. But Siddartha was so focused and arrogant in his quest for peace through knowledge that he missed the point. He could intellectually and spiritually feed himself with observations of the world; with introspection and logic. He could stuff himself full with temporal pleasure and material things. But both ways failed, because he lost his ability to believe anything that didn't present itself as complete and fully defined to him. His blinded himself from the balance and faith that was right in front of him.
From having absolutely everything that he could possibly need to deprivation of worldy things and thoughts and then to wealth and luxuries, Siddhartha just wanted to experience Nirvana. He left his family and friends to experience what it was like to survive off of nothing and try to seek enlightenment through nature. He was looking so hard for this Om and enlightenment that he could not really see it at all. He tried so many different ways to reach Nirvana, through love, wealth, starvation, fasting, waiting, and inquiring. In modern day, people have to go through many trials and events to even experience true happiness or enlightenment. Very few people can say that they have done one thing and are truly at peace.
Siddhartha faces many polarities in his search for enlightenment such as being a Brahmin to being a Semana. He realizes that neither of these approaches are correct for him. He has to find a balance between material and spiritual. Since he only focused on one at a time her never reached Nirvana but when we was laying by the river he realized that everything is connected. That he must combine everything he learned from his life together to be truly enlightened. As Alyssa brings up, very few people can say that they have done one thing and are truly at peace", this is because humans are never happy with just one thing they always need more or just take one thing to an extreme. Humans don't need one thing they need a little bit of everything.
Siddhartha goes from one extreme to another while trying to find enlightenment. He doesn't like being a Samana and depriving himself of basic necessities but he is also miserable living "amongst the people" with Kamala and he becomes sick and restless. He is consumed with greed and selfishness and he realizes that he doesn't like living that life either. He finally finds a happy medium when he meets the ferryman. He no longer has to beg for food and he isn't consumed by material/earthly items. Having too much or too little of something doesn't always make people happy. I think everyone should have only as much as they need.
Siddhartha seems to be an extremest. Once he has made a decision to do something he goes full force to it. During his journey he tried to the extreme of having absolutely nothing to having absolutely everything. I believe by the end of the book having both of those experiences he realized that neither of them separately worked for him but he had to combined the experiences he had from both. I also agree with Rachel in the fact that we can't have one thing we need small pieces from multiple experiences to really experience. It's hard to understand what your going through unless you have experienced the opposite and know what that feels like.
Each stage Siddhartha goes through on his path of enlightenment was all extreme polarities. He went from one extreme to the next but nothing was working for Siddhartha. This could be partly because he was leaning too much on external guidance from his teachers or the material world rather than internal guidance. Ultimately, Siddhartha found enlightenment through the river. I feel this is because Nirvana is achieved from within and this method finally helped him realize that everything is equal. The river links together the polarities, and that is what is needed to achieve Nirvana.
Siddhartha spends his life on a path of enlightenment; this path took him many places. He went from a rich, Brahman's son to a poor samana. Then back to a rich merchant. He assumed the path to enlightenment would be a black and white, rich or poor type path. After his long journey, he did not reach enlightenment until he found a happy medium. He found it in the river, and not in himself.
Siddhartha left his family and old life behind to go on a lifelong journey to find who he really is as a person. Throughout the book, Siddhartha has met many different people, all influencing his life by leaving a message behind for him. He has been away on this journey for many years now, and is still looking for his next step in life. He goes to the river and asks for advice a lot. I believe the river symbolizes his higher authority, or godly figure. Siddhartha wants to live a full life, that he can look back on and be satisfied with. I predict he will soon go into enlightenment and be truly able to reflect on his life.
ReplyDeleteMiranda Murphy
Siddhartha, is faced with spiritual and material conflicts all throughout his journey. The idea that enlightenment doesn't solely come from one or the other can be seen through his struggles. He struggles with himself by switching his focus to losing himself and then to finding himself. He battles back and forth a lot with his spiritual self and often questions it. Additionally, the material world withholds struggles that Siddhartha faces. He struggles between love with Kamala and his son. He often gets caught up in worldly things like gambling and the riches, in which he eventually decides to escape from. It is the combination of these struggles and triumphs that makes him find his enlightenment, whether spiritual or material.
ReplyDeleteJill Christensen
Black, white, and a whole lot of gray. Siddhartha's journey so far displays many different theological ways at obtaining enlightenment. Whether it is obtaining salvation from a life of filth such as Siddhartha's most recent transformation from his life of a rich man, or the deprivation of all things that are beneficial which is very apparent with the Semanas and also many theologies that emphasizes sin or wrong doing in what some cultures see as the ultimate pleasures, or even pure devotion and repetition shown by the Brahman or even a loose interpretation of Catholic confessions with their rosaries and hail Mary's. Now these black and white, true or false, yes or no ideologies haven't worked for him at all. They've hold nothing but failure for him, so what is Siddhartha's answer to the Ultimate question. My prediction is like that of Atman. Atman is in and IS everything and everyone from the birds in the sky to the earth below our feet, so his answer is everything. A mixture of devotion, deprivation from sin, and salvation will be the gray area that finds Siddhartha his enlightenment.
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ReplyDeleteWhen making decisions in life there is rarely black and white answers, but a lot of gray. This is very true in Siddhartha's journey. Many times he thinks that he knows exactly what to do, but after a while he realizes that it is not for him and he moves on. I do not think that Siddhartha will ever be able to find enlightenment in the ways that others do, by following religion and the black and white ways of it. Siddhartha will have to look in the gray areas of life to find his answers.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
Although Siddhartha was looking for "one" way to enlightenment, we find out at the end that was not right. Atman is everything. Throughout Siddhartha's journey, the readers can see the many different stages of his development. Siddhartha begins as a Semana, and in a sense, ends as a Semana. Seddartha starts with nothing, and ends with nothing, yet everything. This polarity between the Brahmin ways and Semana ways is very prevalent throughout the book. The journey of Siddhartha's path to enlightenment is almost more important than his enlightenment. Through many trials, Siddhartha was eventually able to discern right from wrong for himself. This way of enlightenment is fulfilling and just. There is no correct way to enlightenment, which makes Siddhartha's journey even more important.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire book, Siddhartha views the world as a conflict between material and spiritual. The Brahmins utilize the material to find the spiritual, but Siddhartha thinks that no one can achieve Nirvana this way. As a Samana, he thinks that the material world impedes enlightenment. As a rich man, he nearly gives up on the spiritual world and dives into the material world, but this almost destroys his soul. What he realizes in his enlightenment is that they are not actually opposites - one can find the spiritual in everything material if you have the right perspective. He learns from the River that because time does not exist, not only is everything connected, he is everything and everything is him. A rock not only has the potential to be something great, is already has been, is, and will be. He loves the rock for this, and for the fact that it is just a rock. He doesn't need to compromise either world to fully experience both.
ReplyDeleteIn Siddhartha's journey he lived in a series of extremes from extreme poverty and deprivation to extreme wealth and extreme excess, it wasn't until he became the ferry man and found the river was he able to find Nirvana. Living with just enough and living within a simple happy medium between material and spiritual needs. Once he found this medium and quit swinging back and forth like a pendulum was he able to begin to see what was really around him instead of being distracted by his own needs because excessively attending to one set of desires and needs while blatantly ignoring another set caused a constant internal struggle that distracted him from everything else but himself. Once he was meeting all his spiritual and physical needs he was able to listen to the river and see all the things that he had missed previously on his journey. He then achieved Nirvana.
ReplyDeleteSiddartha's battle between his material and spiritual self was so frustrating to watch. From the our outside perspective, we could clearly see the faults in his all- or- nothing attitude. But Siddartha was so focused and arrogant in his quest for peace through knowledge that he missed the point. He could intellectually and spiritually feed himself with observations of the world; with introspection and logic. He could stuff himself full with temporal pleasure and material things. But both ways failed, because he lost his ability to believe anything that didn't present itself as complete and fully defined to him. His blinded himself from the balance and faith that was right in front of him.
ReplyDeleteFrom having absolutely everything that he could possibly need to deprivation of worldy things and thoughts and then to wealth and luxuries, Siddhartha just wanted to experience Nirvana. He left his family and friends to experience what it was like to survive off of nothing and try to seek enlightenment through nature. He was looking so hard for this Om and enlightenment that he could not really see it at all. He tried so many different ways to reach Nirvana, through love, wealth, starvation, fasting, waiting, and inquiring. In modern day, people have to go through many trials and events to even experience true happiness or enlightenment. Very few people can say that they have done one thing and are truly at peace.
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha faces many polarities in his search for enlightenment such as being a Brahmin to being a Semana. He realizes that neither of these approaches are correct for him. He has to find a balance between material and spiritual. Since he only focused on one at a time her never reached Nirvana but when we was laying by the river he realized that everything is connected. That he must combine everything he learned from his life together to be truly enlightened. As Alyssa brings up, very few people can say that they have done one thing and are truly at peace", this is because humans are never happy with just one thing they always need more or just take one thing to an extreme. Humans don't need one thing they need a little bit of everything.
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha goes from one extreme to another while trying to find enlightenment. He doesn't like being a Samana and depriving himself of basic necessities but he is also miserable living "amongst the people" with Kamala and he becomes sick and restless. He is consumed with greed and selfishness and he realizes that he doesn't like living that life either. He finally finds a happy medium when he meets the ferryman. He no longer has to beg for food and he isn't consumed by material/earthly items. Having too much or too little of something doesn't always make people happy. I think everyone should have only as much as they need.
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha seems to be an extremest. Once he has made a decision to do something he goes full force to it. During his journey he tried to the extreme of having absolutely nothing to having absolutely everything. I believe by the end of the book having both of those experiences he realized that neither of them separately worked for him but he had to combined the experiences he had from both. I also agree with Rachel in the fact that we can't have one thing we need small pieces from multiple experiences to really experience. It's hard to understand what your going through unless you have experienced the opposite and know what that feels like.
ReplyDeleteEach stage Siddhartha goes through on his path of enlightenment was all extreme polarities. He went from one extreme to the next but nothing was working for Siddhartha. This could be partly because he was leaning too much on external guidance from his teachers or the material world rather than internal guidance. Ultimately, Siddhartha found enlightenment through the river. I feel this is because Nirvana is achieved from within and this method finally helped him realize that everything is equal. The river links together the polarities, and that is what is needed to achieve Nirvana.
ReplyDeleteSiddhartha spends his life on a path of enlightenment; this path took him many places. He went from a rich, Brahman's son to a poor samana. Then back to a rich merchant. He assumed the path to enlightenment would be a black and white, rich or poor type path. After his long journey, he did not reach enlightenment until he found a happy medium. He found it in the river, and not in himself.
ReplyDelete