When I was younger, I believed life was like a seesaw. When something bad happened, something good had to happen afterwards. Now that I’m older, I see that life is like a seesaw, but not in the good or bad occurrences sense. When a person gets on a seesaw alone, the seesaw does not stay balanced, for weight is only on one side of it. In your life, if you focus on one extreme thing, life will always be lopsided. To find true happiness you must find a balance. A balance of too much, and not enough, a balance of life.
In Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, the main character, Siddhartha, journeys to two locations, a grove and a forest: both which assist siddhartha towards his ultimate achievement of self-balance. At the beginning of his life, Siddhartha …show more content…
What he isn’t prepared for, however, Is the loneliness and disconnect that follows. “Silently Siddhartha stood in the fierce sun’s rays, filled with pain and thirst, and stood until he no longer felt pain or thirst.(11)” Waiting like this was common activity for the Samanas, and was not unexpected, but it changed him all the same. As a Samana, “He fasted fourteen days. He fasted twenty-eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks.” (10) He was undeniably unhealthy, but his body was not the only thing that was suffering. “Siddhartha’s soul slipped into it’s corpse; he became a dead jackal, lay on the shore, swelled, stank, decayed, was dismembered by hyenas...And Siddhartha’s soul returned, died, decayed, turned into dust, experienced the troubled course of the life cycle.” (12) The pain he was experiencing due to disconnect and restrain caused his soul to die, and he became lifeless, like the dead jackall. Like a seesaw, he was on one side, one of pain and suffering and restriction, and his life was unbalanced. The disconnect was grueling, but since Siddhartha had never been with a woman, he was not affected by the restrictions the Samanas had on romantic relationships, and did not have to become disconnected from another being. However, when Siddhartha travels across the river to the village of the grove, one of his first encounters …show more content…
They either embrace it, or completely restrict themselves from it. In the forest, the Samanas restrict themselves from all aspects of materialistic belongings and in the grove the citizens rejoiced in the presence of legitimate goods. Because of the ties to personal wealth the grove people have, they question the life of the Samanas. Kamaswami, Siddhartha’s appointed merchandising mentor, is so focused on his personal belongings that the notion of giving these up is unheard of to him. So, when Siddhartha reveals his past relations to the group, Kamaswami questions him: “‘How is it that you are not in need? Are you not without all possessions?’”(51) Because of Siddhartha’s time in the forest, he does not feel the need to own such things, or to even satisfy his needs. He has almost been brainwashed into believing that fasting and waiting will be life skills he will always need. These beliefs are challenged greatly upon entrance to the grove. As Siddhartha first enters the forest he “gave his clothes to a poor brahmin on the road and retained only his loincloth and earth colored non-stitch cloak” (10) to ensure he had been removed from all personal possessions that could intervene with their belief system. An even life can only be obtained through experiences, and the knowledge of having and balancing wealth, and the fact that Siddhartha was restricted from such did not give him that vital knowledge.
In Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, the main character, Siddhartha, journeys to two locations, a grove and a forest: both which assist siddhartha towards his ultimate achievement of self-balance. At the beginning of his life, Siddhartha …show more content…
What he isn’t prepared for, however, Is the loneliness and disconnect that follows. “Silently Siddhartha stood in the fierce sun’s rays, filled with pain and thirst, and stood until he no longer felt pain or thirst.(11)” Waiting like this was common activity for the Samanas, and was not unexpected, but it changed him all the same. As a Samana, “He fasted fourteen days. He fasted twenty-eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks.” (10) He was undeniably unhealthy, but his body was not the only thing that was suffering. “Siddhartha’s soul slipped into it’s corpse; he became a dead jackal, lay on the shore, swelled, stank, decayed, was dismembered by hyenas...And Siddhartha’s soul returned, died, decayed, turned into dust, experienced the troubled course of the life cycle.” (12) The pain he was experiencing due to disconnect and restrain caused his soul to die, and he became lifeless, like the dead jackall. Like a seesaw, he was on one side, one of pain and suffering and restriction, and his life was unbalanced. The disconnect was grueling, but since Siddhartha had never been with a woman, he was not affected by the restrictions the Samanas had on romantic relationships, and did not have to become disconnected from another being. However, when Siddhartha travels across the river to the village of the grove, one of his first encounters …show more content…
They either embrace it, or completely restrict themselves from it. In the forest, the Samanas restrict themselves from all aspects of materialistic belongings and in the grove the citizens rejoiced in the presence of legitimate goods. Because of the ties to personal wealth the grove people have, they question the life of the Samanas. Kamaswami, Siddhartha’s appointed merchandising mentor, is so focused on his personal belongings that the notion of giving these up is unheard of to him. So, when Siddhartha reveals his past relations to the group, Kamaswami questions him: “‘How is it that you are not in need? Are you not without all possessions?’”(51) Because of Siddhartha’s time in the forest, he does not feel the need to own such things, or to even satisfy his needs. He has almost been brainwashed into believing that fasting and waiting will be life skills he will always need. These beliefs are challenged greatly upon entrance to the grove. As Siddhartha first enters the forest he “gave his clothes to a poor brahmin on the road and retained only his loincloth and earth colored non-stitch cloak” (10) to ensure he had been removed from all personal possessions that could intervene with their belief system. An even life can only be obtained through experiences, and the knowledge of having and balancing wealth, and the fact that Siddhartha was restricted from such did not give him that vital knowledge.