something that would be entirely readable at a high school level.
As a junior in high school, I wrote a 20-page paper about Siddhartha (junior honors English paper). I think I still have it, actually.
In terms of content, it was okay. Most of the book talks about the protagonist’s various failed attempts to find enlightenment: first from teachers, then from asceticism, then from hedonism and materialism. That didn’t have a whole lot of value to me. Like, most of us don’t need to know what doesn’t work; we want to know what does! In the end, Siddhartha finds his own path to wisdom, and it resonates somewhat with what I feel.
This paragraph is so ironic to me. Would the nugget at the end of the book (which I believe is mostly the point of the book) mean the same if you'd found it on its own? If you just read the last chapter or few chapters, would you come to realize that yes, wisdom cannot be taught.
In the Never-Ending Story, where Sebastian has to read about Atrayu going through all the trials and tribulations, and at the end he asks why they didn't just ask him for a new name for the Princess, it could have saved so much grief, and the point was he had to read the book, and be there, to understand that it was real.
The point can be made today -- you can tell plenty of people that they cannot learn wisdom, yet they'll seek it from gurus (as you did). What you seek from other people is their own story, and you take the points you will from it. You might get inspired by someone else, but you don't actually gain wisdom. You gain insight, perhaps another side to a story, which might be directly applied to your life, so it might appear that you gained wisdom....
So yeah, you have to go through Siddhartha's journeys, to realize that yes, he learned information but not wisdom from teachers and society and the like. Otherwise the book would be the length of this post. :)
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Date: 2007-03-07 03:22 pm (UTC)As a junior in high school, I wrote a 20-page paper about Siddhartha (junior honors English paper). I think I still have it, actually.
In terms of content, it was okay. Most of the book talks about the protagonist’s various failed attempts to find enlightenment: first from teachers, then from asceticism, then from hedonism and materialism. That didn’t have a whole lot of value to me. Like, most of us don’t need to know what doesn’t work; we want to know what does! In the end, Siddhartha finds his own path to wisdom, and it resonates somewhat with what I feel.
This paragraph is so ironic to me. Would the nugget at the end of the book (which I believe is mostly the point of the book) mean the same if you'd found it on its own? If you just read the last chapter or few chapters, would you come to realize that yes, wisdom cannot be taught.
In the Never-Ending Story, where Sebastian has to read about Atrayu going through all the trials and tribulations, and at the end he asks why they didn't just ask him for a new name for the Princess, it could have saved so much grief, and the point was he had to read the book, and be there, to understand that it was real.
The point can be made today -- you can tell plenty of people that they cannot learn wisdom, yet they'll seek it from gurus (as you did). What you seek from other people is their own story, and you take the points you will from it. You might get inspired by someone else, but you don't actually gain wisdom. You gain insight, perhaps another side to a story, which might be directly applied to your life, so it might appear that you gained wisdom....
So yeah, you have to go through Siddhartha's journeys, to realize that yes, he learned information but not wisdom from teachers and society and the like. Otherwise the book would be the length of this post. :)