Chapter 7
1. Why did S envy the childlike people?
2. What is the nature of S’s “inward voice”? Is his inward voice the same thing as his conscience? Explain the similarity and difference between the two faculties.
3. Why is S’s wealth seen as a burden? Isn’t wealth and prestige what most persons seek? Aren’t these the things that make a person happy?
4. Explain the main points of S’s method of self-analysis.
5. In what ways is S’s life more wretched than the childlike people?
6. Why did Kamala expect S to leave without explanation and farewells? Why does Kamala free the golden song-bird?
7. Complete and explain the analogy between the potter’s wheel and samsara. What is samsara?
8. Explain why despair might be seen as an inherently “game-playing” attitude towards life. Why isn’t the game of Samsara worth playing?
Chapter 8
1. S had apparently concluded that the game of samsara is a game not worth losing his life over, and so he left the life of sensation. Why, then, does he fall even deeper in despair as he assertively abandons the ways of his old life?
2. S replies to Govinda’s inquiries, “I am on a pilgrimage.” What is S’s pilgrimage? What does it mean?
3. S claims that this meeting with Govinda taught him something significant. What is it that S learns?
4. Is S experiencing a mid-life crisis? Consider the following from psychologist Gail Sheehy: “The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires the letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably sense of familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.
5. What do you suppose is the “wheel of physical manifestation’? Would it be related to samsara? Speculate on possible connections. Buddha explains the wheel of existence: “There are ten ‘fetters’ by which beings are bound to the wheel of existence: self-illusion, skepticism, attachment to mere rule and ritual, sensual lust, ill will, craving for the world of pure form, craving for the formless world, conceit, restlessness, ignorance…An arhat, or holy person, is freed from all fetters.
6. What factors enabled S to recover from his despair? At the beginning of the chapter, he wished to learn no more about himself, yet at the end of the chapter, he begins his pilgrimage anew. How did this transformation occur?
Chapter 9
1. S somewhat awkwardly offers the reason “I must learn to handle the boat” as a motive for being Vasudeva’s assistant. This doesn’t seem to be S’s real intention. What does S genuinely seek?
2. Vasudeva implies that he is holy. Interpret Vasudeva’s metaphor of the river with respect to holiness. When does a life become sacred?
3. Why does V accept S as his assistant?
4. In what manner would the river not be an obstacle for travelers?
5. Explain the idea that there is no suffering without time. Can you interpret the metaphor of the river with respect to the aphorism, “The more things change, the more things stay the same”?
6. Hesse emphasizes in this chapter that V learned to listen to the river. Compare Hesse’s description of this process with that of Zen Buddhist teacher, Shunryu Suzuki: “When you listen to someone, you should give up all preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions: you should just llisten to him, just observe the way he or she is. We put very little emphasis on wrong and wrong, good or bad. We just see things the way things are with him, and accept them…Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Chapter six
Chapter 6
1. What does S mean when he states, ‘I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”? Explain the consequential abilities entailed in each assertion.
2. What is one factor that separates S from the “childlike people”?
3. What is the nature of the inner sanctuary that S and Kamala possess, and the childlike people do not possess? Is this the reason that S and Kamala cannot love—whereas the childlike people can? Is this inner sanctuary a kind of authentic self that the childlike people, in their superficiality, lack?
4. S adopted a game-playing attitude without passion toward business, and passionate attitude without game-playing toward Kamala. Does one attitude exclude the other? Clarify the similarities and difference between the two approaches to life.
5. Evaluate the statement, ‘Everyone takes, everyone gives.” Suppose a child you do not know offers you a flower. Who is taking and who is giving? Explain.
6. How is it that neither S nor Kamala can love—even though their relationship is the whole sum, substance, and meaning to their life at this point in their life’s path?
1. What does S mean when he states, ‘I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”? Explain the consequential abilities entailed in each assertion.
2. What is one factor that separates S from the “childlike people”?
3. What is the nature of the inner sanctuary that S and Kamala possess, and the childlike people do not possess? Is this the reason that S and Kamala cannot love—whereas the childlike people can? Is this inner sanctuary a kind of authentic self that the childlike people, in their superficiality, lack?
4. S adopted a game-playing attitude without passion toward business, and passionate attitude without game-playing toward Kamala. Does one attitude exclude the other? Clarify the similarities and difference between the two approaches to life.
5. Evaluate the statement, ‘Everyone takes, everyone gives.” Suppose a child you do not know offers you a flower. Who is taking and who is giving? Explain.
6. How is it that neither S nor Kamala can love—even though their relationship is the whole sum, substance, and meaning to their life at this point in their life’s path?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Other chapters
I've had some requests to post questions on later chapters. So here are a few:
Chapter 11: OM
1. What was the one thing that S, the thinker, had, that childlike people lacked? Characterize in some detail what this realization is.
2. In what way are childlike people superior to S? Does this difference make a difference on the path to enlightenment?
3. According to S’s realization, what is the nature of wisdom?
4. How does S’s listening to the river and his seeing of the river an object outside of time (i.e., the cycle of the river), yield enlightenment?
5. Discuss whether when S hears the many voices of the river as Om, he is affirming the philosopher, Schopenhauer’s, recognition that “All the cruelty and torment of which the world is so full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will-to-live is objectified?
Chapter 12: Govinda
1. Explain S’s observation that when seeking becomes the goal in-itself for Govinda, enlightenment is not possible. Is it that Govinda is not separate from hhis goal or is it that Govinda should not have a goal?
2. What does S mean when he says that wisdom cannot be communicated?
3. Evaluate S’s claim that ‘The opposite of every truth is just as true!”
4. What are some of the insights S has learned throughout is life?
5. What are some of the implications to the claim that time is not real?
6. How does Govinda know that S has reached enlightenment?
Chapter 11: OM
1. What was the one thing that S, the thinker, had, that childlike people lacked? Characterize in some detail what this realization is.
2. In what way are childlike people superior to S? Does this difference make a difference on the path to enlightenment?
3. According to S’s realization, what is the nature of wisdom?
4. How does S’s listening to the river and his seeing of the river an object outside of time (i.e., the cycle of the river), yield enlightenment?
5. Discuss whether when S hears the many voices of the river as Om, he is affirming the philosopher, Schopenhauer’s, recognition that “All the cruelty and torment of which the world is so full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will-to-live is objectified?
Chapter 12: Govinda
1. Explain S’s observation that when seeking becomes the goal in-itself for Govinda, enlightenment is not possible. Is it that Govinda is not separate from hhis goal or is it that Govinda should not have a goal?
2. What does S mean when he says that wisdom cannot be communicated?
3. Evaluate S’s claim that ‘The opposite of every truth is just as true!”
4. What are some of the insights S has learned throughout is life?
5. What are some of the implications to the claim that time is not real?
6. How does Govinda know that S has reached enlightenment?
Monday, April 14, 2008
Chapter 5: Questions
Siddhartha: Chapter 5
1. What do you think S. means by the phrase, “the random self of the senses”?
2. What is the significance and what is your interpretation of S’s dream?
3. Siddhartha seems to think that the ferryman is one of the childlike people. Even so, can you find any evidence that the ferryman possesses mystical powers?
4. Explain the significance of the keys to S’s abilities and success in terms of his stated litany, “I can think, I can wait, I can fast”.
5. What could be meant by “killing the random self of the senses”? If there is no self, would there be any sense of personal identity? Why?
6. Why is it easy for S. to obtain clothes and money? How is it that he acts “without traces” with respect to these things?
1. What do you think S. means by the phrase, “the random self of the senses”?
2. What is the significance and what is your interpretation of S’s dream?
3. Siddhartha seems to think that the ferryman is one of the childlike people. Even so, can you find any evidence that the ferryman possesses mystical powers?
4. Explain the significance of the keys to S’s abilities and success in terms of his stated litany, “I can think, I can wait, I can fast”.
5. What could be meant by “killing the random self of the senses”? If there is no self, would there be any sense of personal identity? Why?
6. Why is it easy for S. to obtain clothes and money? How is it that he acts “without traces” with respect to these things?
Chapter 4 Questions
Siddhartha Chapter 4
1. In the context of this chapter, what is the difference between my self and myself? Does Siddhartha make sense when he says he tried to free “my self from myself”?
2. As a Samana, Siddhartha says that as he sought Atman in meditation, he lost his self. Is this different from conquering his self? Is it different from freeing his self?
3. Siddhartha promised his father that he would return home/ Why did he decide not to return?
4. Why do you think the metaphor of the snake is used so often in this chapter? Do you think this is being used as a symbol? If so, what is the symbol for? What is it supposed to mean?
5. Why does Siddhartha give up the attempt to conquer self and, instead, seek to return to the world of causes? Could it be that he realizes that knowledge of himself can only be discovered in an social environment? That the individual cannot achieve self-knowledge apart from his or her life as a member of society?
6. Siddhartha believes that he discovered that the world is not Maya. Discuss whether or not his awakening was an illusion.
1. In the context of this chapter, what is the difference between my self and myself? Does Siddhartha make sense when he says he tried to free “my self from myself”?
2. As a Samana, Siddhartha says that as he sought Atman in meditation, he lost his self. Is this different from conquering his self? Is it different from freeing his self?
3. Siddhartha promised his father that he would return home/ Why did he decide not to return?
4. Why do you think the metaphor of the snake is used so often in this chapter? Do you think this is being used as a symbol? If so, what is the symbol for? What is it supposed to mean?
5. Why does Siddhartha give up the attempt to conquer self and, instead, seek to return to the world of causes? Could it be that he realizes that knowledge of himself can only be discovered in an social environment? That the individual cannot achieve self-knowledge apart from his or her life as a member of society?
6. Siddhartha believes that he discovered that the world is not Maya. Discuss whether or not his awakening was an illusion.
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