Good job of reading last night.
1. Now that you've read of Siddhartha's time with the Samanas, can you summarize what the Samanas are trying to do?
2. Can you put into your own words what Siddhartha was after in going to be with the Samanas? (This question pertains to the first chapter more than to the second chapter.)
3. Can you put into words why Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana?
4. What evidence is there that Siddhartha is good at being a Samana, just as in the first chapter he was good at being the son of a Brahmin (that is, a man of a high class, priestly, devout, and often economically well-off)?
5. When Siddhartha says "I am starting to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the wish to know, than learning" (18), what might he mean?
6. Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
1. Now that you've read of Siddhartha's time with the Samanas, can you summarize what the Samanas are trying to do?
2. Can you put into your own words what Siddhartha was after in going to be with the Samanas? (This question pertains to the first chapter more than to the second chapter.)
3. Can you put into words why Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana?
4. What evidence is there that Siddhartha is good at being a Samana, just as in the first chapter he was good at being the son of a Brahmin (that is, a man of a high class, priestly, devout, and often economically well-off)?
5. When Siddhartha says "I am starting to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the wish to know, than learning" (18), what might he mean?
6. Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
13 comments:
Sang Eun
4. What evidence is there that Siddhartha is good at being a Samana, just as in the first chapter he was good at being the son of a Brahmin (that is, a man of a high class, priestly, devout, and often economically well-off)?
Govinda replied: "We have learned, and we are learning more. You will become a great samana, Siddhartha. You have learned every exercise quickly, the old samanas often admire you. Someday you will become a saint, O Siddhartha."
Like from the passage, Siddhartha is even being admired by the old samanas. He is quick in learning things to become a great samana. Siddhartha is very humble that he doesn't try to feel satisfied with himself in learning. He keep tries to learn more things and also tries to know about becoming Nirvana. He doesn't want to do some tricks such as walking on the water like other old samanas do, but he truly wants to seek the true learning. He has the best attitude to become a samana.
2. Can you put into your own words what Siddhartha was after in going to be with the Samanas? (This question pertains to the first chapter more than to the second chapter.)
Siddhartha was trying to become someone with no desire, no dreams, and not feel the feelings such as joy and sorrow. He was trying to become empty and become peaceful. To become like a Samanas he stood without moving, without eating, and breathing just a little. Then he practiced meditating and unselfish. After the book described his change as "he killed his senses, his memory, and he was wood, was rock, was water, was carcass. He learned to overcome the hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue.
Heather Rhee
Q2
A
After Siddhartha had joined the samana group, he started to train himself. He didn't wore a lot of cloth and he didn't ate food. He stood silent and followed the samana rules. When he watched people, he thought everything were so unworthy.
His goal was to empty himself. He tried to avoid pleasures and he even limited the normal actions he can do such as breathing. His another goal was to teach himself to have peace in his mind. He believed that the old samanas were doing some tricks such as walking on the water to pretend like they had learned something and got a deity-like power. Instead of showing-off, his main goal was to quietly train himself.
1. Now that you've read of Siddhartha's time with the Samanas, can you summarize what the Samanas are trying to do?
I think that the Samanas are trying to feel the pain of living on only what they absolutely need and off of what generous people will give them in the quest of finding truth and the ultimate, Atman. This is well-stated on pages 13-14, where it says, "When the entire self was transcended and extinct, when every drive and every mania in the heart had fallen silent, then the ultimate was bound to awaken, the innermost essence, which is no longer ego, the great secret."
Basically, if the soul watches and feels the body waste away in meditation, in the study of leaving the self, that when the body is finally spent, the soul will become its own being and will separate from the body to be with the ultimate power, Atman.
6. Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
I think training to be an artist is just like training to be a samana. The reason why is that both of them, there's always something to reach for. Nobody can be perfect at what they are doing. There's always something new to try and something that everybody needs to work on. Also you never feel perfect with what you do. You always something missing and something can improve more and more!!
#1
Now that you've read of Siddhartha's time with the Samanas, can you summarize what the Samanas are trying to do?
I agree with Laura but I also think the samanas are trying to do something selfless they are doing something selfish. I feal as if one of the things about being a samana is being better then others, knowing more then others and striving perfection the other lesser people don't have the piety to achieve.
In the book it describes Sadartha walking through the streets sneering at the people, scorning them for there happiness and sneering at them for there ignorance. I think Sadartha is full of selfishness, not nesasarily bad selfishness but selfishness non the less. He makes his father miserable by leaving and scorning the family by becoming a saman. He drags his ever faithful and awe filled friend and admirer around and hardly talks to him. All for his own benifit of knowledge.
6. . Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
I think training to be a samana is a lot like training to be an artist. Training to be an artist takes up your whole life and it is all that you think about all day everyday. And that is exactly what training to be a samana is like. It takes time and energy to learn a art and so does being a samana. Being a samana takes up your life. It literally is your life and it is all you have, and that is like training to be an artist. Training for an art takes a long time, maybe even your whole life to try and reach a goal. Training to be a samana is your whole life, and I feel that is a harder goal to meet, but people still strive for it anyway.
3. Can you put into words why Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana?
Siddhartha is a man who has a goal that he wants to reach, which was to become empty. Empty of his thrist, desire, dreams, joy sorrow, and open to miracles without thinking. Being a Samana he learned all of this, killing his senses,his memory. He learned to loose his thirst but then he would come back to the state of being thirsty. He then came unsatisfied with the samanas. Believing he was not making progress, not reaching his goals. Siddhartha seems to me like and over achiever and a pestamistic type of person. He believes he could have learned more quickly and so on. He always questions things, as to what they really are. As he does first with the Amata and meditation and fasting and so on. He also believes that since the eldest samana is 60 years of age, and has not reached the Ninvana that neither will he, nor any other samana for that matter. Finally, he does not believe in such a thing called learning and is so hungry from thirst that he believes he does not belong or long to be a samana.
Yeena Sung
6. Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
Agreeing to all the people who answered to the question, I believe that training to be an artist is somewhat like training to be a samana. I believe that it is close because of the process of becoming a samana or an artist. They both have to be patient and have to find emotion by being natural not being exaggerated. However, I think it is quite different because to be a samana, you need to empty yourself, but acting is about accumulating, and finding yourself that is not revealed on the outside.
Ka Yeon Nam
Question 3
Can you put into words why Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana?
When Siddhartha decides to live a life of a Samana, his goal was to be empty.
"Siddhartha had a goal, a single: to become empty- empty of thrist, empty of desire, empty of dreams, empty of joy and sorrow."
To become Samana, Siddhartha fasts, and meditates until he does not feel his own body. However, after a while, he realizes that meditating and all the things that he was doing was not helping him to reach his goal. He realizes that he is not improving eventhough many people believe that Siddhartha is a great learner. Because he is not reaching his goal from being in a life of a Samana, he is not content with that life.
Sung Kun Kim
3. Can you put into words why Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana?
- After Siddhartha became a samana, he fasted, ate once a day, learned meditaiton and did all the things that other samanas did. But Siddhartha was never fulfilled with these things. Since as a young man, Siddhartha had a thirst for knowledge. The things he did as a Samana, he thought, was things that anyone such as, cow drivers and drunkards can do. He truly wanted know the truth of the world. He wanted to overcome all the despair and torture in the world. Fastings and meditations couldn't satisfy him from his thirst of knowledge. This is why that Siddhartha is not content with the life of a Samana.
Answer to #5:
"Siddhartha learned much among the samanas, he learned to follow paths away from his ego... in shade or in rain, and again was ego and Siddhartha, and again felt the torment of the onerous cycle."
Although Siddhartha is learning much from the samanas, he is not content. Although he can find ways to detach himself from his ego, he always finds that it comes back, haunting him like some apparition. The more he learns, the more he realizes that his goal may be, in fact, impossible.
This is why he believes that learning is the greatest enemy of knowledge. As your learn more, you see how in between the lines, there is clashing information and falsities. Throughout his time with the samanas, Siddhartha has only managed to achieve a sort of substitute for his goal, a pacifier for the incapable or a gem for the non-diligent. Siddhartha realizes that through learning this, he has made a decision to gain nothing, but only to slake his thirst with water. He now sees that, and realizes that the greatest enemy of knowledge is learning.
6. Is training to be an artist somewhat like training to be a samana?
I would say yes and no.
The conditions of being a samana are extreme and pressuring, training to be an artist is somewhat like the conditions only less extreme but probably just as pressuring.
Post a Comment