Siddhartha 3

As I’ve said before and in class, I’m not sure that Siddhartha did enough. Sure, I think he got himself figured out and achieved a state any of us would—and probably do—envy. But did he go far enough? Wouldn’t the “ultimate end” (as we said at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party this past Saturday) have been to transform not only his life but “lives for the benefit of society” as we are urged to do? Following the understanding he gained at the river, he treated everyone with kindness, he moved people—not only across the river but in ways which left them with a greater understanding like his. He had become, in a small and ironic way, a teacher, showing by positive example one beautiful way to live. But the bottom line for me is that he should have left the river at some point and entered the “real world” he left behind once again. Not as a motivational speaker by any means, or even as a prophet, but as someone who could make a meaningful and positive difference in people’s lives, simply by living the life he has found for himself. He could have brought the lesson of the not-so-failed business venture to other business men, taught the people what it truly means to love by retelling the story of his son. After all, if he is unable to “distinguish the individual voices in the multitude [of the river,” because “all the voices belonged together,” “all was one, and everything was intertwined and connected, entangled together a thousand times over,” (Hesse 127) why was he distinctly separated from the rest of the masses? Why is Vasudeva’s final journey into the forest, where he is leaving all of humanity behind, a triumphant example of “entering the unity”? If the rest of humanity is so misguided that the ultimate path is to leave them completely behind, then why isn’t someone going to these people and trying to show them a better way?

It's kind of funny, but I've never been a big fan of hermits. I always wanted to say, "Get out there and do something please!" It's probably just a difference in opinions, but I felt that about Siddhartha somewhat.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/Antonius2009/hermit.jpg

Had Siddhartha been in our class, if he were sitting in his dorm room right now reading through the P4 instructions and trying to come up with something to say or do, I think he would have looked up from the instructions feeling completely ready to make a difference, realizing how qualified he is to lead others. We are told to “accept ambiguity and multiplicity at first,” (P4 instructions) something which Siddhartha did in an unconventional way. At the beginning of his journey, he really only saw one appropriate and complete way of life and became a samsara. Gradually, however, he realized that he wanted to enter the real world and opened his eyes to a different way of life. Only after he experienced such a radical spectrum of experiences and found Vasudeva at the river, did he come to feel completely enlightened. He understood that a multiplicity of experiences exists in the world, and we must attempt to either experience or at least acknowledge as many different ways of life as possible. In this way, Siddhartha had composed himself, as we are being asked to do. Following the Oxford English dictionary definition of “compose,” he had put together (parts or elements)” of himself and of his life’s experiences “so as to make up a whole.” (P4 instructions) Siddhartha felt whole, but I think he should have realized a certain emptiness by not being connected to others apart from his mystical understanding of unity.
Siddhartha would certainly be a great Plan II student as well. He would love experiential learning as he practices it himself to a staggering degree: he starves himself to attempt to escape the limitations of physical needs, experiences the world of the “child-like people” very completely, and lives a simple life as a ferryman. His story, like the experiences of so many college students, is of an attempt to find himself. While Siddhartha wasn’t enrolled in Enlightenment University, his ultimate outcome is very similar to achieving the goals of the university and of our class. While I wasn’t sure of Siddhartha’s outright leadership skills, he exhibits the other “six traditional core values of U.T.”: “individual opportunity; discovery; learning; freedom; responsibility.” (Course goals) I don’t think I need to go into these traits as they are exhibited by Siddhartha in very much detail, but if you think about each of these traits individually, Siddhartha really has focused on achieving many of these characteristics. We are also urged “to know that which is greater than the ego.” (Course goals) One of the goals of the samanas was to release themselves from the self and go outside of it.

We should be encouraged to understand that what we learn outside of our college textbooks during our time here is probably much more important.

http://collegecandy.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/college-student.jpg?w=529&h=316

One of the notes I made in my book as I was reading was in regards to Siddhartha’s age. I found it interesting at first that Siddhartha was growing old throughout his journey and wrote, “Is this still a coming of age story?” I think that it is even more important that Siddhartha’s journey, as much as it resembles our college quests, is about someone who realizes so much at an older age. While we are attempting to understand ourselves at relatively young ages, we should understand that enlightenment can happen at any time.