" Besides the Brahmans, Siddhartha joins with the ascetic Semanas who he joins with at first after leaving his father. After learning techniques of meditation, fasting, and other acts of self deciliter, Siddhartha begins to grow tired with the lifestyle as he begins to suspect that all this self control is unnecessary and ultimately fails to do what it is supposed to -- lead to salvation:"
"What is meditation? What is leaving one's body? What is fasting? What is holding one
breath? It is fleeing from self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a
short numbing of the senses against the pain and pointlessness of life. The same escape
The same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a
few bowls of rice wine or fermented coconut milk. Then he won't feel this self any
more, then he won't feel the pains of life any more, then he finds a short numbing of the
of the senses. When he falls asleep over his bowl of rice wine, he'll find the same what
Siddhartha and Govinda find when they escape their bodies through long exercise,
staying in the non self. This is how it is, oh Govinda. "
Herman Hesse is expressing here that Siddhartha after leaving his dad not only bonds with the entire world but the religious brotherhoods that practice abstinence from appeasement or fulfillment through things or actions considered sinful or go against a religious or moral principle. Some time later Siddhartha becomes worn out by the discipline techniques as he draws upon the idea that maybe self discipline is worthless and may never direct one's soul to the everlasting safe place from harm or danger:
Siddhartha questions hisself, what is meditation, leaving one's body, fasting, holding one's
breath. He answers, it is running from who you are, being you, fighting against one's desires, it
is a get away from any form of suffering of being you, it is a self controlled inability of seeing,
hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling to resist the hurt and uselessness of life. This get away for
a ascetic Semana is the same get away for a man without any religious practice or brotherhood,
It is the same get away for the sinner in a hotel indulging in alcoholic beverages. The man
that indulges in alcohol just like the man who meditates will not be who he was before his
drink, he too will be numb to the suffering of life, and the five senses. He too feels what
Siddhartha and his friend Govinda feels when they have outer body experiences through
extensive self discipline practices. He now feels like if at th end of th day being religious or not
bares the same result, then what is all the self discipline techniques for. He now sees it as a
waste.
This passage is important to me because it allows me to see how one thinks about or views something like life based on the experiences of the environment they live in, the people they are influenced by, the life they live according to environment and culture, their own perceptions of the world and the practices of the world around them, and finally how or why their choices for their life are what they are. This allows me to respect the differences in individuals, while recognizing there is still a sameness or oneness to some degree in us all.
Expressionism: Edvard Munch The Scream - 1893
In this painting I see colors that are both bright and a little dark. The way the cars are so bright and mixed in the back appears to be confusing and illustrates to me a sunset glowing over the water. I see movement of the water and in the water from two boats. The person in the front appears to be either shocked by something or scared of something. I don't see any actions in the painting that depict either of the two. Based on the tittle, I lean more toward the scared side. I concluded that the act of holding the ears and screaming implied the person was screaming from some form of stress, losing control to the point of the inability to calm down. I see to figures of people in the distance and they appear to be very calm which lead me to believe that the screaming person might just be having some sort of break down. This relates to nihilism to me in a sense that it paints the picture of destruction, self destruction in this case from the inability to be th internal battle.
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