SIDDHARTHA BY HERMANN HESSEPowerpoint 3

Gotama

Gotama or Guatama

Siddhartha and Govinda arrive in the town of Savathi. They spend the night nearby in the Jetavana grove, where the Buddha lives.

He looks like the hundreds of other monks, but Siddhartha recognizes him by the complete peacefulness of his demeanor.

In the evening, Siddhartha and Govinda listen to the Buddha preach about the way to gain release from suffering. Govinda is convinced by what he hears and joins the Buddha's community. Siddhartha gives him his blessing, but he has no intention of pursuing the same path.

In the morning Siddhartha speaks to the Buddha in person. Siddhartha acknowledges the wisdom and clarity of the Buddha's explanation of the chain of cause and effect in life, but he thinks he has found a flaw in the teaching. If it is possible to rise above the world and gain salvation, as the Buddha says, this means that the law of cause and effect has broken down.

It is not a complete explanation of life.

The Buddha replies that his goal is not to explain the world but to give salvation from suffering.

Siddhartha then comments that in none of the Buddha's teachings does he explain the secret of what he experienced in his moment of enlightenment. Siddhartha says that he plans to leave all doctrines and teachers behind and reach his goal alone.

The Buddha acknowledges that Siddhartha is clever, but warns him not to be too clever.

Awakening

Govinda becomes a disciple of the Buddha

Sidd begins relying on himself Questions continue to plague Siddhartha

as he walks, but he begins to reason and supply his own answers rather than hearing them from someone else.

He had foolishly thought that if he could destroy his Self and his individual identity as Siddhartha, erasing all memories of his own life, then Atman would be left and he could recognize it. But it is not that easy to do. Siddhartha gains confidence and decides to embrace his identity, not to deny it. This is his awakening, for Govinda is no longer at his side; he is truly left to his own thoughts, free of all influences. When he was a Samana he was exiled from society together with others; now he is in exile from everyone.

His eyes begin to open to the outside world as he begins to awaken inside. He sees colors around him in nature, in the flowers and the river, not as illusions, but instead as things of utmost beauty. The key to finding unity in everything is to embrace it all at once instead of denying it.

Begins calling the world of appearances an illusion

His destination is uncertain, yet it only lies in front of him, since he has rejected all he has learned in his past. Siddhartha becomes a newborn child, ready to re-experience the world for what it is.

Siddhartha as an Allegory

Siddhartha is often interpreted as an allegory, a story in which the character and setting symbolically represent abstract moral and spiritual meaning. On each step of his spiritual journey, Siddhartha encounters moral and spiritual challenges, and in each chapter, Siddhartha undergoes some degree of spiritual awakening. Siddhartha can be read allegorically in many different ways. To offer just one example, Siddhartha’s spiritual journey could be said to reflect a greater struggle to resolve his natural inclination to asceticism and intellectualism with his need to learn experientially and through feeling.

Tone

Deliberate, formal By writing in a more abstract, distant

form, Hesse gives his story a certain amount of gravitas. This makes sense – talking about enlightenment in casual terms does a real disservice to the subject.

What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha?

Later, consider- What about self-indulgence?

Complication Govinda joins followers of Gotama Buddha;

Siddhartha joins with Kamala and his Samana training begins to fade.

While Siddhartha recognizes the holiness of Gotama Buddha, he believes he has to carve out his own path to enlightenment. The next step on this path is extreme self-indulgence. Siddhartha becomes a wealthy merchant and skilled lover, but soon he becomes greedy, unhappy, and troubled.

A bit about Kamala

The relationship with Siddhartha is that of teacher and student- Kamala is the teacher

Kamala represents Siddhartha’s foray into the world of lust and greed.

Siddhartha willingly accepts Kamala as a teacher (remember, he usually doesn’t like teachers), and dives into the project of educating himself about sex with the vigor characteristic of his spiritual endeavors.

Biography of the current Dalai Lama Remember, the Dalai Lama is only the

leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=dalai%20lama%20biography&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#