1. Siddhartha began to speak and said: " What now, oh Govinda, might we be on the right path? Might we get closer to enlightenment? Might we get closer to salvation? Or do we perhaps live in a circle- we, who have thought we were escaping the cycle?"
Quoth Govinda: " We have learned a lot, Siddhartha, there is still much to learn. We are not going around in circles, we are moving up, the circle is a spiral, we have already ascended many level."
Siddhartha answered: "How old, would you think, is our oldest Samana, our venerable teacher?"
Quoth Govinda: "Our oldest one might be about sixty years of age."
And Siddhartha: "He has lived for sixty years and has not reached the nirvana. He'll turn seventy and eighty, and you and me, we will grow just as old and will do our exercises, and will fast, and will meditate. But we will not reach the nirvana, he won't and we won't. Oh Govinda, I believe out of all the Samana out there, perhaps not a single one, not a single one, will reach the nirvana. we find comfort, we find numbness, we learn feats, to deceive others. But most important thing, the path of paths, we will not find."
2. The way I interpret this passage is that once one reaches a certain level of personal or spiritual fulfillment what is the next step? why do we keep being part of the cycle that does not allow one to move forward and allow it to drain one ideas, hopes and possibilities life may offer. Siddhartha felt he already surpassed all the levels a Samana had to endured in order to reach a spiritual level and realized that it was time to move on. As time went by he started to analyze and questioned what was going on, how much longer to reach nirvana? He concluded that one may never reach nirvana, the level of holiness, and that no one probably never will and it was time to move forward and venture out to other venues.
3. I personally chose this passage because I too feel the same way about certain aspects of my life. after one reaches a certain level of knowledge and personal goals, one quickly start venturing out and question: what else life has to offer? and begin searching for new challenges leading to a new beginning and journey.
I am glad that someone agrees with me. i thought i was the only one like that; who had doubts about the religion and beliefs that i was born into. but i guess that one cannot deny the religion they were born into because i guess it just seems to that person that it is that one true religion that would always sound right to them or just makes sense to them even thoguh they have doubts.
ReplyDeletewe do not have control over what is instill on us as children, the only thing we can do is to modify our beliefs and follow our hearts.
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