No Longer Looking Backwards

1. No Longer Looking Backwards Feraco Search for Human Potential 14 October 2010

2. Evaluate Your Teachers! • What are some qualities of excellent teaching and teachers? • Pay attention • Make connections • Make content interesting • Make an effort • Compare teaching with parenting: the same qualities – both positive and negative – are present in both • Both offer guidance and experience, but neither can offer wisdom • That doesn’t make their information irrelevant • In fact, their information is necessary in order to place experiences in meaningful contexts

3. The Best of the Best • The best teachers in Siddhartha aren’t the ones who try to force others to change or follow • They’re the ones who provide Siddhartha with room to gain experience and learn from it, for better or worse • Gotama • Vasudeva • Kamala

4. Bodhisattva vs. Bodhisattva • As we mentioned earlier, Gotama and Vasudeva are bodhisattvas, but the latter has a more profoundly positive impact on Siddhartha’s life • Gotama’s natural instinct is to teach, and the people most drawn to him are the ones who crave teachers • This craving is something Siddhartha would argue will prevent them from ever achieving their goal

5. The Man by the River • Vasudeva merely provides Siddhartha with a space to explore and experience life in all its forms • As a ferryman, he gets to see people from all walks of life • Contrast that with Siddhartha’s views of the world and its people at the beginning of Chapter 2 – scornful, ignorant rejection vs. curiosity • He occasionally offers up some advice, but doesn’t mind that Siddhartha won’t follow it • He knows Siddhartha’s about to mess up badly, and he’s OK with that for two reasons

6. Don’t Deny It • Firstly, experience makes things “realer” – more meaningful to the person • Secondly, one has to have a range of experiences – good, bad, and everything in between – in order to truly live • Sheltering doesn’t work; it only serves to fight against the Universal Truths • The Brahmin tried sheltering Siddhartha, as Siddhartha did to his son • Govinda does it to himself!

7. Shells! • We use the term “shells” to refer to Siddhartha’s five phases of development throughout the book • See “snakeskin” symbol • Theoretically, if time is an illusion, Siddhartha doesn’t really move from shell to shell; it’s just how things look from the outside • We’ve already covered the first two shells in earlier PowerPoints • Shell 1: Childhood (Chapter 1) • Shell 2: Ascetic (Chapters 2-3)

8. Shell 3 • Shell 3: Individual (Chapters 4 through 7) • Mental State: Starts strong (attempts to get in touch with Self in order to understand it – Chapters 4/5), but ends up neglecting his principles and soul • He loses himself in shallow, superficial activities (maya!) – drinking, womanizing, gambling, etc. – to the point where he’s nearly driven to commit suicide

9. Shell 4 • Shell 4: Student (Chapters 8 through 11) • Mental State: Traumatized, but recovering • He finally begins to a) remember what he’s forgotten and b) make sense of what he’s experienced, as well as learn from experience without relying on doctrine • He gets caught in another “eddy” in the river (raising his son) but finds his own way out

10. Shell 5 • Shell 5: Teacher/Bodhisattva (Chapter 12) • Mental State: Understanding • Upon reaching enlightenment, Siddhartha “teaches” Govinda by serving as a lens that brings his friends’ own experiences into focus • Remember, Siddhartha’s not teaching him anything new – it’s more like the lightbulb finally comes on!

11. The Pit and the Pendulum • Each shell or phase represents a swing of the “pendulum” – if you’re ever wondering where Siddhartha lies on the “personal spectrum” at any given moment, just look at his “shell number” • The center of the pendulum represents stability, peace, enlightenment – fulfillment • Who’s pushing the pendulum away from the center each time? • Notice how the pendulum swings once Govinda leaves him for the first time

12. Cycles • Birth leads to death, love leads to loss, etc. • Samsara defines human existence (unless you’re a bodhisattva) • Siddhartha reaches enlightenment after understanding the concept of cyclical existence • He knew about samsara, in the same way that you’d know about the Pythagorean theorem if you read about it, but he didn’t understand it until he reconciled the concept with his experiences

13. Cycle Questions • Is life nothing more than a continuous downward spiral? (In which case, is the pursuit of nirvana like running up one of those slippery winding slides – going against the current?) • Does love keep you in this spiral – or allow you to transcend it?

14. Love • Is love a necessary part of existence? • Notice who lives without “love” – the embodiments of shortsighted desire (Kamaswami and the River Girl) and painful deprivation (Samanas), none of whom represent a life worth living • Love has the power to elevate our consciousness and our souls; after all, it is the source of Om, the heart of the connection between all living things • Love also has the power to destroy, as shown by Siddhartha and his son, or Siddhartha and Kamala – even Siddhartha and Govinda (who wanders for the rest of his life once Siddhartha leaves him)

15. Love Continued • How can love represent contradictory possibilities? • The components of love are desire and appreciation • Maya vs. Satyam; adoring the surface vs. adoring the source • Desire provides love with its animating energy, but it’s also blind – and it’s the reason that love must always end in pain (i.e. one partner dies before the other) • Appreciation provides love with sustainability

16. Love Concluded • Finding the proper “fusion” of desire and appreciation is tough; most end up with too much of one component and not enough of the other • Can you find nirvana without love? • Since love is critical to existence, and since the path to nirvana requires one’s existence/experience in order to place knowledge in its proper context…no!

17. Time as an Illusion • The world as it appears is illusory – merely consisting of what our five senses can interpret (Maya) • Siddhartha posits that there’s something greater behind that which we notice, something beyond ordinary human sensory perception – and that truth and understanding lie in this mysterious, greater “other” • Since we struggle to understand what lies beyond the sensory, our senses try to make sense of what they can interpret • This forms the basis of what we call “reality”

18. Overloading the Supercomputer • Similarly, reality is arranged temporally – in a logical sequence, rather than occurring all at once • Siddhartha believes that everything that will take place has already taken place • We see our lives in moments (instead of taking in everything simultaneously) because there are limits to our senses, and we parse everything into moments so we can make sense of existence • In other words, time is just a construct, an ordering system we invented because our brains can’t take on all of reality at once • Everything you’re capable of becoming is based on qualities you’ve possessed from birth – the way you learn/process information, for example • Part of enlightenment is realizing this – to see the strings behind the puppet show

19. The Enlightened Intersection • This is why Siddhartha’s moment of realization comes at the intersection of the past, present, and future – when he looks into the river as he pursues his son and sees his father’s face reflected in his own • Perhaps this is why “life flashes before your eyes”: certain moments allow you to make that realization, to see existence in its totality, and to see the “puppet strings” connecting everything – strings that connect through love • For Siddhartha, it was that glimpse into the river that functioned as a “Eureka!” moment • For Govinda, it was that expression of love – the kiss on the forehead • Who knows what it will be for each of us?

20. The Eightfold Path • Does Siddhartha walk it? • We see him stray from five separate steps – II, IV, VI, VII, and VIII – but also return to each by the end of the novel • Notice that most of the “straying” takes place during the book’s middle section – Chapters 4 through 7 – when Govinda is gone, and when Siddhartha’s focus wanders from his goal/loses himself in individualism and petty concerns (although he doesn’t really notice that he’s lost himself until the Songbird Dream)

21. The Lesson in the Path • The Path requires discipline, concentration, and compassion – none of which are truly available to Siddhartha while he’s living in the town (once he loses himself in a job he disdains and isolates himself from all others) • Once Siddhartha leaves the town, he is reminded of Om, of the unity of all things • Afterwards, he relearns to think, learn, and listen – and even to invest himself emotionally in the well-being of others • The lesson, as always: Focus on your goal, but lead a balanced life; losing yourself in anything merely guarantees that you’ll remain in the Samsara cycle

22. What’s in a Name? • Birth represents a number of things • A loss for your parents (you come out of the womb, a piece of your parent removed) and a gain (the introduction of new life into the world) • For your parents, it’s the end of one “shell” (pre-parenthood) and the emergence of another (parenthood) – a move from individual concerns to concerns involving others • Humans are born as the product of love • According to Siddhartha’s belief, this product – a human being – is equal parts body (temporary) and essence (not “self,” but whatever gets carried through samsara cycles)

23. Looking Back… • Once born, we’re given names – which may or may not help determine our futures • Let’s take a look back at Siddhartha vs. his son vs. Gotama • If “Siddhartha Gautama” – Gotama, the Buddha – represents the “finished product,” a human being who achieves nirvana – then “Siddhartha” (our titular character) is the “unfinished product” • With that lack of finish comes unspoken promise – and the idea that Siddhartha will eventually fulfill it • After all, what does “Siddhartha” mean?

24. …and Looking Forward • Similarly, if “Gotama” is fulfilled promise, and “Siddhartha” is someone who’s on the way to fulfilling his potential, the son – who’s also named “Siddhartha,” but usually isn’t given a name – is someone who shows no sign of being able to break free of Samsara • He’s aggressively ignorant, selfish, petulant, and shallow – the perfect candidate for a wasted, ugly life • But he might learn!

25. The Best of the Rest • Kamala and Kamaswami both stem from “Kama” (desire); Kamala is the embodiment of desire, whereas Kamaswami is the master/merchant of desire • One of them – Kamala – is capable of growing, and does so • Although Siddhartha claims she is incapable of love, we see that he’s mistaken, and it’s this capacity for connection that allows her to change • Kamaswami, on the other hand, doesn’t care about living things, and doesn’t care if his work harms them • He only sees the world in terms of losses and losses avoided, focusing steadfastly on the transitory, the shallow, and the unimportant • Both of them will need to repeat the Samsara cycle – but Kamaswami has a longer way to go • Finally, Govinda and Vasudeva serve similar functions (Hindu tradition) – but Govinda comes before Vasudeva, just as the incomplete “Siddhartha” comes before “Gotama”

26. The Oar • Look at the oar in the context of everything around it • The River – Representing, among other things, truth, knowledge, and unity – Siddhartha’s ultimate goals (as well as, possibly, humanity’s ultimate goals) • The Boat – The ability to engage with and travel on the river • In other words, the means of pursuing one’s goal • The Oar therefore = the ability to control one’s path across the river, to steer your own course – to shape your own outcomes through careful choices and actions • Buddhism is about that sort of control, as well as humanity’s ability to improve itself by following the right steps

27. Stealing Away • While the oar allows Siddhartha and Vasudeva to steer across the river (and, in the process, help guide others), Siddhartha’s son uses it to abandon the river • Vasudeva knows the boy’s departure is inevitable, but Siddhartha is blind to it – he has left his heart unguarded • As a result, Vasudeva knows where he has gone, why he has gone, and how he has gone • Siddhartha is surprised to discover that the boy has stolen their money (Vasudeva is unmoved, since money is a shallow concern), alarmed to discover he has gone, and startled to find the oar lying broken in the empty boat (which is what Vasudeva had predicted)

28. Breaking Bad, Building Back • Clearly, the oar the son breaks represents the guidance and control Siddhartha offers him, and the breakage represents his selfish, shortsighted, and ultimately destructive decision to reject that guidance • Shades of the intoxication metaphor from “With the Samanas!” • Vasudeva – ever the guide – builds a new oar for Siddhartha, who uses it to travel across the river from then on