Siddhartha

Siddhartha is a novel about a man’s search for spiritual enlightenment. Siddhartha goes suffering, rejection, peace, and wisdom. He becomes a Samana and along the way encounters lust and greed. On one of his journeys, a river stops him and it spoke to him. The speaking of the river forced Siddhartha to find wisdom within himself.
Siddhartha is the most captivating novel I have ever read. Every aspect to this novel is fascinating. The novel ends with, “No longer knowing whether time existed, whether this display had lasted a second or a hundred years, whether there was a Siddhartha, or a Gotama, a Self and others, wounded deeply by a divine arrow which gave him pleasure, deeply enchanted and exalted, Govinda stood yet a while bending over Siddhartha's peaceful face which he had just kissed, which had just been the stage of all present and future forms. His countenance was unchanged after the mirror of the thousand-fold forms had disappeared from the surface. He smiled peacefully and gently, perhaps very graciously, perhaps very mockingly, exactly as the Illustrious One had smiled.” This quote was a very good way to end the book.
This novel is very similar to one of the interpretive question readings we did called, On Studying by Ortega y Gasset. Ortega y Gasset says that the only way to obtain knowledge is to have a desire to search for it. Siddhartha is very similar. It talks about the “want” of knowledge to become wise and to love instead of the “need” to have wisdom and to love.
If you are into the idea of finding yourself through spiritual conquests, Siddhartha would be the novel to read. I love this book because it is very easy to read and also a fast read. Even though it is an easy and fast read, it gets a strong point across. The point that this novel makes is that having everything you want in life will not make you happy. You will only find happiness when you find love. When you find love, you have learned to be, “impartial to all, free from excessive attachment or false hope and expectation; accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. “ (Buddha)
To sum this whole novel up, Siddhartha is about, "We practice meditation in order to see ourselves as we truly are and life as it truly is. When we are suffering, we can look inside to find the cause - always some form of clinging. By noticing how quickly we attach to new ideas and perspectives, we can begin to unlearn the habit. One trick is to watch for moments when we feel the need to defend ourselves or our point of view. Defensiveness is always a red flag; it shows that we have once again become stuck in a point of view. We are pretending to be solid, and we want everyone else to go along with it. With a little honesty and effort, we can determine where we are stuck and then choose to let go. Gradually we become more flexible, finding it easier to let go of our perspectives. We take this 'me' less seriously, appreciating instead our dynamic and unfixed true nature.
With practice, we begin to see the world from the perspective of BIG MIND, which can see all perspectives but clings to none. We learn that it is possible to return to the view of BIG MIND whenever we've become stuck. It's easiest to assume that we're stuck somewhere; we only have to figure out where and then let go. Liberation from the self is living each day without a place to stand or ideas about who we are. That's when we can dance with life." (Genpo Roshi, The Path of the Human Being)

STUDYING

1. What are some ways schools encourage or discourage a person's desire to learn? What makes some objects in school exciting and stimulating and others boring.

I’m not going to lie, there are many other activities I would rather be doing than going to school five days a week. I could be playing volleyball, traveling the world, spending time with my family, hanging out with my friends, and doing many other fun things besides going to school, but this defeats the purpose of the question. What are some ways schools encourage or discourage a person’s desire to learn?
In my opinion children and teens think school is boring because it is school. There is nothing more to it, kids tend to be antsy and always want to be doing other things besides school. The way I look at schools encouraging or discouraging a person’s desire to learn is the little phrase, “yin and yang”; along with the good comes the bad.
Schools try to give children the option of what classes they want to take. These classes are called electives. The teachers want the kids to be excited about coming to school and they figure by giving kids the freedom and letting them chose what classes they want to take, it would hopefully make learning more fun and enjoyable for both the student and the teacher. This is the “yin” part to this question.
To the children the “required classes and the “yang.” I attend University High School and I am a sophomore. The classes that are required for all sophomores at UHS to take are math, a world language, chemistry, Ancient Greece, and great books. With these classes, teachers are not trying to make their students the world’s smartest person; they are trying to expose the students to real life. As society changes, so will some of the classes. These classes are not about fun; they are classes that teach you what you need to know for later on in life. After all, who knows, you might not like chemistry now, but mid-way through the semester, you might want to be a chemist and become the next Niels Bohr.
The next question is what makes some objects in school exciting and stimulating and others boring? There are many different ways to look at this question. Every child has different way of learning. When a child is taught in the way something makes sense to them, learning is fun. It is not fun because they were told it was, it is fun because it everything makes sense. Another way to look at this is why do students have fun when they are learning? When I have fun while learning it is because of the teacher. This means that they don’t sit in front of the class lecturing you in a monotone voice, they are outgoing, vivacious, and fun.
Going to school and studying for classes is not the most fun thing to do, but when you have the right teacher, things seem to fall into place.