AGENDA
Warm-up
Reading Check Quiz
Review “Amongst the People”
Review “Samsara”
Reading Groups with Guided Reading: “By the River”
Review “By the River”
HW: Quiz tomorrow (Amongst the People, Samsara, By
the River)
Bring IR book tomorrow
November 12th, 2014
My Personal Philosophy
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Take a look at the 20 different elements of life
highlighted in What Color is Your Parachute?
Choose 7 elements that guide your life the most.
Write personal belief statements about each of
those 7 elements.
Share with at least one person near you.
Keep this in a very, very, very safe place.
Reading Check Quiz
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6 points
Amongst the People: Essentials Qs
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Why can’t Siddhartha and Kamala love?
Why does Hesse refer to Siddhartha’s activities as
“play” and “game”?
What is the heart of a Samana?
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What makes Siddhartha so good at business?
Why does Hesse continually refer to Siddhartha’s
activities in chapter 6 as “play” and “game”?
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From the start Siddhartha says, “I am not in need.”
Kamaswami is fully invested and Siddhartha is fully
detached, never fearing failure.
Kamaswami has many troubles, but Siddhartha is
separated from them because he was a Samana.
He sees others lament, but he laughs.
His inner voice complains because he feels more like a
player in a game, observing from elsewhere.
Can you explain?
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Explain this quote: “Perhaps people like us cannot love.
Ordinary people can –it is their secret” (73). Secret to
what?
 Open up your books and your minds
“Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people
can –it is their secret” (73).
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Kamala cannot/should not love because she is a
courtesan. It is a skill/art.
Siddhartha, the Samana, has the ability to separate
himself from pain and pleasure.
They both have a “stillness and sanctuary to which
[they] can retreat at anytime” (71).
Most people find sanctuary in the outside (things, other
people, experiences, etc.)
For ordinary people, the secret to their fulfillment IS
love. Siddhartha is not ordinary.
Samsara Essential Questions
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Why does Siddhartha gamble so passionately?
Why is the chapter called “Samsara”?
What makes Siddhartha understand that passion
and death are closely related?
Samsara
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“Like one who has eaten and drunk too much and
vomits painfully and then feels better, so did the
restless man wish he could rid himself with one
terrific heave of these pleasures, of these habits of
this entirely selfless life” (82).
Samsara
Why did Siddhartha gamble so passionately?
“In no other way could he show more clearly and
mockingly his contempt for riches, the false deity of
businessmen”
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Turn to page 81. What makes Siddhartha understand
that passion and death are closely related? What
does this mean?
Samsara
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What does Siddhartha dream about the songbird?
What might the songbird represent?
Samsara
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“Then Siddhartha knew that the game was finished,
that he could play it no longer. A shudder passed
through his body; he felt as if something had died”
(84)
Why is this chapter entitled “Samsara”?
Reading in Groups
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Pick one to three other people to read with.
Read “By the River” out loud and work on the
guided reading.
If you are behind in your reading, I will give you an
alternative guided reading. Maybe I can even form
a different group?
By the River
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Have you noticed that this river keeps coming up?
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Why does Siddhartha want to kill himself? Page 88
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Why does he not kill himself? Page 89
By the River
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“Om,” he pronounced inwardly, and he was
conscious of Brahman, of the indestructibleness of
life; he had remembered all that he had forgotten,
all that was divine.
Even after all this, there is still divinity.
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Then what does he do?
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By the River
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He sleeps a restorative sleep and awakens to
Govinda!
Siddhartha lectures Govinda saying, “The wheel of
appearances revolves quickly, Govinda. Where is
Siddhartha the Brahmin, where is Siddhartha the
Samana, where is Siddhartha the rich man? The
transitory soon changes, Govinda. You know that”
(94).
By the River
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As Govinda walks away, Siddhartha realizes that
he is suddenly able to _______. He thought he was
incapable of it!
He realized also that he has exchanged his original
possessions of power and strength (___, _____, and
_____) for riches and pleasures, wretched transitory
things.
He became an ________ person.
By the River
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He says to himself, “Things are going backwards
with you, he said to himself and laughed, and as he
said it, his glance lighted on the river, and he saw
the river also flowing continuously backwards,
singing merrily. That pleased him immensely; he
smiled cheerfully at the river. Was this not the river
in which he once wished to drown himself –hundreds
of years ago- or had he dreamt it?” (96).
By the River
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Turn to page 99. What has died in Siddhartha?
By the River Essential Questions
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Why does Siddhartha want to kill himself? Why
does he change his mind?
What understanding does he reach at the end of
the chapter?
Is life linear?
Is time a real thing? Does it help us or hurt us?