Siddhartha Says

I backtracked a little bit to be able to write this entry, back to the beginning of the chapter "By the River".
Currently in Siddhartha, our main character has just fled his town without a word, and is now standing by a river which he had crossed when he was a young man. Except this time, he is completely unhappy with himself, and his spirit has long been in a deep slumber. As he stands by the river, he contemplates and almost attempts suicide, as he feels like the cycle of life has come to an end, and that there was no point in repeating anything over again as nothing made him content (page 71). In response to that, I feel sympathetic with him, because suicide is a serious thing and anybody who is suicidal needs some genuine help to save them. I can see where his sadness is coming from, because what we've read about Siddharthas life is pretty dreary and repetetive, and he never seemed happy with himself or anything around him. All in all his life has seemed to take a turn from one kind of monotony to a worse kind of monotony.
He claims, "Might the demons tear him to little pieces!" (page 71). In my opinion, this is a little bit overexaggerated, but suicidal people can do brash, melodramatic things. It's almost as if it's a cry for help, from what I've learned about depression and suicide. This also goes to show that anybody, regardless of background, can develop severe depression and suicidal tendencies,because, as we see here, Siddhartha had every material thing a man could want. You'd think he should be more content with his life, and his money among other things, but depression is a severe mental illness that shouldn't be ignored or put to the side as Siddhartha did.
It was different for Siddhartha though. He wasn't saved by a person or even a material object. He was saved by Om, which means "Perfection". He had heard it echoing in the river, and actually, it had terrified him (page 72). Perhaps he was now terrified because he hadn't heard Om in many years, as his spirit had been at slumber for a long while (page 71).
All in all, I'm very glad and relieved to see that Siddhartha was able to make it through his depression and emptiness, and I hope this book continues to take a turn for the better.

Iron Siddhartha

Iron Siddhartha Siddhartha is a lot like Iron Man, in certain ways. First of all, in the end, both mean good and don't want to harm themselves or other people, they just want to help them. Ironman saves a ton of people from terrorists and aliens, and Siddhartha tries to protect Kamala when she's bitten. Although some sacrifices were made, both were trying to do good deeds and help another person/people out. Another way they're similar, is that they both were normal people with a little bit of luck who became extremely rich. Tony Stark was wealthy from the beginning, but his and his fathers inventions made him rich and basically oblivious to other things. The same happens to Siddhartha, except his talent was reading and business. Both of these people became more ignorant and stubborn when they acquired their wealth. They both lose their morals, and start losing control of their lives somewhat ( Siddhartha gambles his life away and Stark parties his life away.) One way that they're different, though, is that Stark is much more visibly egotistic than Siddhartha is. Siddhartha may or may not be as egotistic as Tony, but he doesn't make it as apparent than him, but in my opinion, the simple reason is that just his ego isn't as large. A reason they're different, though, is that Stark has found the love of his life and he hasn't left her, while Siddhartha, who found a lover, abandoned her and seemed to only use her and like her for her physical features. While Tony Stark seems to do that as well, there's some underlying factors of why hes with her as well, such as she assists him in his work, and they seem to actually like each other and not worry each other like Siddhartha does to Kamala (page 65). To sum it up, Siddhartha and Iron man have very few things in common but very few things notably different as well.

What Would You Sacrifice?

What Would You Sacrifice? Siddhartha would sacrifice a lot, it seems, and for the wrong cause. He gave up all of those years or tryinng to conquer the self for a woman. She doesn't even seem to really like him, because she couldn't even accept him as a lover when he wasn't rich. "first you need to attain clothes and money", she said. She really only seems to love his wealth and body, and they seem to not actually like each other but instead depend on each others wealth and riches. Siddhartha used to be a very spiritual being, but because of Kamala, has headed in the completely opposite direction, gambling for a living and distracting himself with the material world. At least he acknowledges hes straying away from his ideals, and not seeing the true spiritual side of life, but he thinks it's fine wat the time, because he says that the senses offer joy in life as well. Personally, I don't like Siddhartha as a person at all still, because he used to be stubborn and mock others and have some sort of superiority complex, and now he is all of that plus materialistic, ignorant, and money-crazed. He focuses and stresses on the smallest aspects of life, qualities he used to ridicule. I predict that he is going to want to start another life, return to his old (and less annoying) ways, give up his money, and leave the town. I hope this happens, because this part of the book is incredibly repetetive and monotonous.

Follower or Not?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q3TF2jfoEu0

You Are Not Your"self"

So far in Siddhartha, Siddhartha and Govinda have joined the Samanas, and are disconnecting themselves from the "self" by ignoring and purposefully depleting themselves of food and things necessary to life. Yeah okay. I don't really understand this at all. I don't get the difference between self and "self", and why you have to isolate yourself and eat as little as possible and avoid everything to be past the "self". however I can connect it to the ideas of Heidegger, who separated ever aspect of the human being frlmthe actual "being" itself, and that there are higher forms of being. And like Heidegger, you have to isolate yourself to achieve true being, or Nirvana. Does Siddhartha isolate himself in the same heideggerian way? It's not really clear, but I honestly dont think so, since siddhartha clearly appreciates people a lot more than heiddegger does.

Spiritual Dump

From what I've read of Siddhartha, it's about a young boy who wants to find out the true meaning of the Atman. His father is a knowledgeable philosopher, called a Brahmin it seems, and he is becoming one as well. Well then, my first pang of doubt and uninterest is the fact that Siddhartha is only a really young boy, he couldn't be this mature and wise. He doesn't seem to have any fun ever, and he's sucked up in finding out his spirituality. All in all, so far he's one of the blandest characters I've ever read about. Second, he seems to dismiss anyone else's opinion because he's the wisest one apparently. When he decided to go with the Samanas, he didn't even ask for his friends' opinions, and he expects his friend to follow him around like a sheep. they don't describe Govinda at all and hes also extremely bland, as he has no personality, background or history at all. He just seems like Siddharthas sock puppet or something. When his father almost declined his decision to leave, he acted like a stubborn brat and waited there until he approved because of his worry and stress. He seems like he doesn't care abot his father at all, making him stay up all night just to let him leave. I don't see any personality in Siddhartha at all, except for the negative quirks he has like his stubbornness. I haven't gotten very far into the book, but from what I've read, he isn't a very likeable character so far, and this book is just like any other "learn about your spiritual self" books