Feraco
SFHP – Period
17 October 2008
Giant Review: Combined Notes from Second, Third, and Sixth
Periods
I.
Evaluate Your Teachers
a. Marks of effectiveness
i. Pay attention, make connections, make content
interesting, make an effort
b. Teaching as parenting
i. The same qualities – both positive and negative – are
present in both
ii. Both offer guidance and experience, but neither can
offer wisdom
iii. That doesn’t make their information irrelevant; in
fact, their information is necessary in order to place
experiences in meaningful contexts
c. The best teachers in Siddhartha aren’t the ones who try to
force others to change or follow
i. They’re the ones who provide Siddhartha with room to
gain experience and learn from it, for better or worse
– Kamala, Vasudeva, and Gotama
d. Gotama and Vasudeva are bodhisattvas, but the latter has a
more profoundly positive impact on Siddhartha’s life
i. Gotama’s natural instinct is to teach, and the people
most drawn to him are the ones who crave teachers
(something Siddhartha would argue will prevent them
from ever achieving their goal)
ii. Vasudeva merely provides Siddhartha with a space to
explore and experience life in all its forms
1. As a ferryman, he gets to see people from all
walks of life
a. Contrast that with Siddhartha’s views of the
world and its people at the beginning of
Chapter 2 – scornful, ignorant rejection vs.
curiosity
2. He occasionally offers up some advice, but doesn’t
mind that Siddhartha won’t follow it
a. he knows Siddhartha’s about to mess up badly,
and he’s OK with that for two reasons
i. Firstly, experience makes things
“realer” – more meaningful to the person
1. “Stapler” example
ii. Secondly, one has to have a range of
experiences – good, bad, and everything
in between – in order to truly live
1. Sheltering doesn’t work; it only
serves to fight against the
Universal Truths
a. The Brahmin tried sheltering
Siddhartha, as Siddhartha did
to his son
b. Govinda does it to himself
II.
“Shells” – Siddhartha’s Phases
a. See “snakeskin” symbol
b. Theoretically, if time is an illusion, Siddhartha doesn’t
really move from shell to shell; it’s just how things look
from the outside
i. Shell 1: Childhood (Chapter 1)
1. Characters: Govinda and the Brahmin
2. Mental State: Lacks awareness and perspective;
curious
ii. Shell 2: Samana/Asceticism (Chapters 2 and 3)
1. Characters: Gotama, Govinda, and the Old Samana
2. Mental State: Confusion and wandering; reaffirms
resistance to doctrine
iii. Shell 3: Individual (Chapters 4 through 7)
1. Characters: River Girl, Ferryman (Vasudeva),
Kamala, and Kamaswami
2. Mental State: Starts strong (attempts to get in
touch with Self in order to understand it –
Chapters 4/5), but ends up neglecting his
principles and soul; loses himself in shallow,
superficial activities (maya!) – drinking,
womanizing, gambling, etc. – to the point where
he’s nearly driven to commit suicide
iv. Shell 4: Learner (Chapters 8 through 11)
1. Characters: Vasudeva, Govinda, Kamala, and the Son
2. Mental State: Traumatized, but recovering; finally
begins to a) remember what he’s forgotten and b)
make sense of what he’s experienced, as well as
learn from experience without relying on doctrine;
gets caught in another eddy (raising his son) but
finds his own way out
v. Shell 5: Teacher/Bodhisattva (Chapter 12)
1. Character: Govinda
2. Mental State: Understanding; reaches
enlightenment, “teaches” Govinda by serving as a
lens that brings his friends’ own experiences into
focus
c. Each shell or phase represents a swing of the “pendulum” –
if you’re ever wondering where Siddhartha lies on the
“personal spectrum” at any given moment, just look at his
“shell number”
d. The center of the pendulum represents stability, peace,
enlightenment – fulfillment
e. Who’s pushing the pendulum away from the center each time?
f. How does the pendulum swing once Govinda’s gone?
III. Cycles
a. Birth leads to death, love leads to loss, etc.
b. Samsara defines human existence (unless you’re a
bodhisattva)
c. Siddhartha reaches enlightenment after understanding the
concept of cyclical existence; he knew about samsara, in the
same way that you’d know about the Pythagorean theorem if
you read about it, but he didn’t understand it until he
reconciled the concept with his experiences
d. Is life nothing more than a continuous downward spiral? (In
which case, is the pursuit of nirvana like running up one of
those slippery winding slides – going against the current?)
e. Does love keep you in this spiral – or allow you to
transcend it?
IV.
Love
a. Is love a necessary part of existence?
b. Notice who lives without “love” – the embodiments of
shortsighted desire (Kamaswami and the River Girl) and
painful deprivation (Samanas), none of whom represent a life
worth living
c. Love has the power to elevate our consciousness and our
souls; after all, it is the source of Om, the heart of the
connection between all living things
d. Love also has the power to destroy – see Siddhartha and his
son, or Siddhartha and Kamala – even Siddhartha and Govinda
(who wanders for the rest of his life once Siddhartha leaves
him)
e. How can love represent contradictory possibilities?
f. The components of love are desire and appreciation
i. Maya vs. Satyam; adoring the surface vs. adoring the
source
ii. Desire provides love with its animating energy, but
it’s also blind – and it’s the reason that love must
always end in pain (i.e. one partner dies before the
other)
iii. Appreciation provides love with sustainability
iv. Finding the proper “fusion” is tough; most end up with
too much of one component and not enough of the other
g. Can you find nirvana without love?
i. Since love is critical to existence, and since the path
to nirvana requires one’s existence/experience in order
to place knowledge in its proper context…no!
V.
Time as an Illusion
a. The world as it appears is illusory – merely consisting of
what our five senses can interpret (Maya)
b. Siddhartha posits that there’s something greater behind that
which we notice, something beyond ordinary human sensory
perception – and that truth and understanding lie in this
mysterious, greater “other”
c. Since we struggle to understand what lies beyond the
sensory, our senses try to make sense of what they can
interpret
i. This forms the basis of what we call “reality”
d. Similarly, reality is arranged temporally – in a logical
sequence, rather than occurring all at once
i. Siddhartha believes that everything that will take
place has already taken place
ii. We see our lives in moments (instead of taking in
everything simultaneously) because there are limits to
our senses, and we parse everything into moments so we
can make sense of existence
iii. In other words, time is just a construct, an ordering
system we invented because our brains can’t take on all
of reality at once
iv. Everything you’re capable of becoming is based on
qualities you’ve possessed from birth – the way you
learn/process information, for example
e. Part of enlightenment is realizing this – to see the strings
behind the puppet show
f. This is why Siddhartha’s moment of realization comes at the
intersection of the past, present, and future – when he
looks into the river as he pursues his son and sees his
father’s face reflected in his own
i. Perhaps this is why “life flashes before your eyes” –
Tammy’s experience when her car spun
ii. Certain moments allow you to make that realization, to
see existence in its totality, and to see the “puppet
strings” connecting everything – strings that connect
through love
1. For Siddhartha, it was that glimpse into the river
that functioned as a “Eureka!” moment
2. For Tammy, it was spinning in the car
3. For Govinda, it was that expression of love – the
kiss on the forehead
VI.
The Eightfold Path
a. Does Siddhartha walk it?
b. We see him stray from five separate steps – II, IV, VI, VII,
and VIII – but also return to each by the end of the novel
c. Notice that most of the “straying” takes place during the
book’s middle section – Chapters 4 through 7 – when Govinda
is gone, and when Siddhartha’s focus wanders from his
goal/loses himself in individualism and petty concerns
(although he doesn’t really notice that he’s lost himself
until the Songbird Dream)
d. The Path requires discipline, concentration, and compassion
– none of which are truly available to Siddhartha in town
(once he loses himself in a job he disdains and isolates
himself from all others)
e. Once Siddhartha leaves town, he is reminded of Om, of the
unity of all things
f. Afterwards, he relearns to think, learn, and listen – and
even to invest himself emotionally in the well-being of
others
g. The lesson, as always: Focus on your goal, but lead a
balanced life; losing yourself in anything merely guarantees
that you’ll remain in the Samsara cycle
VII. What’s in a Name?
a. Birth represents a number of things
i. A loss for your parents (you come out of the womb, a
piece of your parent removed) and a gain (the
introduction of new life into the world)
ii. For your parents, it’s the end of one “shell” (preparenthood) and the emergence of another (parenthood) –
a move from individual concerns to concerns involving
others
b. Humans are born as the product of love
c. According to Siddhartha’s belief, this product – a human
being – is equal parts body (temporary) and essence (not
“self,” but whatever gets carried through samsara cycles)
d. We’re given names – which may or may not help determine our
futures
e. Let’s take a look at Siddhartha vs. his son vs. Gotama
i. If “Siddhartha Gautama” – Gotama, the Buddha –
represents the “finished product,” a human being who
achieves nirvana – then “Siddhartha” (our titular
character) is the “unfinished product”
1. With that lack of finish comes unspoken promise –
and the idea that Siddhartha will eventually
fulfill it
a. After all, what does “Siddhartha” mean?
ii. Similarly, if “Gotama” is fulfilled promise, and
“Siddhartha” is someone who’s on the way to fulfilling
his potential, the son – who’s also named “Siddhartha,”
but usually isn’t given a name – is someone who shows
no sign of being able to break free of Samsara
1. He’s aggressively ignorant, selfish, petulant, and
shallow – the perfect candidate for a wasted, ugly
life
f. Let’s take a look at Kamala and Kamaswami
i. Both of them stem from “Kama” – desire
ii. Kamala is the embodiment of desire; Kamaswami is the
merchant of desire
iii. One of them – Kamala – is capable of growing, and does
so; although Siddhartha claims she is incapable of
love, we see that he’s mistaken, and it’s this capacity
for connection that allows her to change
iv. Kamaswami, on the other hand, doesn’t care about living
things, and doesn’t care if his work harms them – he
only sees the world in terms of losses and losses
avoided, focusing steadfastly on the transitory, the
shallow, and the unimportant
v. Both of them will need to repeat the Samsara cycle –
but Kamaswami has a longer way to go
g. Finally, Govinda and Vasudeva serve similar functions (Hindu
tradition) – but Govinda comes before Vasudeva, just as the
incomplete “Siddhartha” comes before “Gotama”
VIII. The Oar
a. Look at the oar in the context of everything around it
i. The River – Representing, among other things, truth,
knowledge, and unity – Siddhartha’s ultimate goals (as
well as, possibly, humanity’s ultimate goals)
ii. The Boat – The ability to engage with and travel on the
river
1. In other words, the means of pursuing one’s goal
iii. The Oar – The ability to control one’s path across the
river, to steer your own course – to shape your own
outcomes through careful choices and actions
iv. Buddhism is about that sort of control, as well as
humanity’s ability to improve itself by following the
right steps
b. While the oar allows Siddhartha and Vasudeva to steer across
the river (and, in the process, help guide others),
Siddhartha’s son uses it to abandon the river
i. Vasudeva knows the boy’s departure is inevitable, but
Siddhartha is blind to it – he has left his heart
unguarded
ii. As a result, Vasudeva knows where he has gone, why he
has gone, and how he has gone
1. Siddhartha is surprised to discover that the boy
has stolen their money (Vasudeva is unmoved, since
money is a shallow concern), alarmed to discover
he has gone, and startled to find the oar lying
broken in the empty boat (which is what Vasudeva
had predicted)
c. Clearly, the oar the son breaks represents the guidance and
control Siddhartha offers him – and the breakage represents
his selfish, shortsighted, and ultimately destructive
decision to reject that guidance
i. Vasudeva – ever the guide – builds a new oar for
Siddhartha – and the younger man uses the oar to travel
across the river from then on