Commentary on Siddhartha Essay

Siddharthas path took many twists and turns throughout his journey. It wasnt a straight shot to his goal, although no ones ever is. I feel like while no one will have the same journey as another, parts of his journey will mirror parts of others journey. Everyone has had their accomplishments and achieved some of their goals and everyone has also had their setbacks and broken dreams. Overall, I think that everyone just wants to find happiness, in whatever form they think it exists whether inside themselves or from external things.

My own path has also had its own twists and obstacles. I feel that while there are some similarities, I have a very different path then Siddharthas. One of the big similarities is how he changes his lifestyle over and over, going from Brahmin to Samana to merchant to ferryman. I have also changed a lot throughout my life. When I was younger, I was really school oriented. I didnt have many friends then, so school was my main focus. Then around 5th grade I started being more into sports, starting to play baseball and football and making quite a few friends in the process. Starting freshman year, I went back to focusing on school, although with more balance. We both were looking for happiness, him shooting for spiritual enlightenment, and myself just looking for a sense of self and accomplishment. He rejects teachers, preferring to find his own way, as he believes that he cannot get to his goal on the coat tail of others. I also have rejected teachers, more through my own headstrongness than for any higher reason. I also feel like I have to find my own way, though its more a matter of personal pride than anything else for me.

I dont feel like I have a real read on my path in life. I dont think you can define it. To me it is an ever changing idea. Everything I do, say, think alters it in someway either towards my goal or away from it. I feel like Ive been off my path at times, though not always in a negative way. I may not have always been headed directly towards my goal, but I feel like everything I've done has enriched my life in someway, even if its just by giving me the experience to never do that thing again. Various things have distracted me from my goals at times. I often slack when it comes to school preferring to have fun over further striving towards my goal of college and later a degree. Sometimes I think I chase pleasure instead of keeping my eyes on the long lasting happiness that is my goal. I feel like your background affects your path in life a great deal. I know that in my life, my parents have been a huge influence on me. I feel like Siddhartha had that same influence from his father. My parents have always encouraged me to do what I want to do, and havent held me back from much of anything, though reluctant to let me do some things. Siddharthas father was the same way but he knew that he had to let his son do his own thing and my parents let me do the same. Throughout my path I have varied from following and doing my own thing. I would say the person who I have followed in my life who has made the biggest impact would be my cousin. He is only a few years older than me, so I've followed in his footsteps a lot. I have learned a lot from him, and his example has kept me from making some mistakes along my way. Most of the people in my life have influenced me in some way, but I wouldnt say I followed then necessarily. I tend to think for myself a lot. I dont really go with crowd on much. I have beliefs that arent really that mainstream. I think the biggest example of this would be the fact that I dont hold any religious beliefs. A lot of my family is religious but I never really latched on to it, I just didnt understand how only one out of the hundreds could be right. I felt like that since I had doubts it would be better just to not have any set religious beliefs until I could find one I agreed wholly with.