Death Of The Ego

Siddhartha's goal in life was to achieve enlightenment, and he could not do that as long as he had his ego. While he was a Shramana he realized that his ego was a problem and looked for ways to rid himself of it. Siddhartha thought to much about ridding himself of his ego at first, which didn't actually get rid of his ego. He had to much knowledge to get rid of his ego, there were too many rituals and too many sacred verses in his life. He then realized he had to get rid of the Shramana inside of him. The death of his ego is represented by the death of the song bird in the book. I think this is important because it shows us that we can't be to smart or we'll considered a know it all and that sometimes going through bad things is the only way to truly understand what life is.

Death of the Ego

Siddharta's main goal in life was to reach enlightenment. But there was one thing in the way, his ego. Ever since he became a Shramana his ego became a big problem and he kept on trying to figure out ways to destroy it. Siddharta thought that giving up all his desires would rid him from his ego. Siddharta thought too hard and focused too much about making ego go away, but nothing happened. Then he tried giving in to all his desires. By giving in to his desires, it only strengthened his ego. Now he has completely given up and was about to commit suicide. But at that moment he realizes that by letting go and not trying without so much effort to extinguish ego, he could follow a more path to actually get rid of his ego and that it would just come.

The Voices Of The River

There are thousands of voices in the river that speech to them. They don’t say anything other then the sacred words of OM. They are in peace with them selves and the earth. Every kind of living thing that you can think of lives in the river, there is a mother giving birth and a warrior and a king. Siddartha had stared to hear the voices speaking and asked Vasudeva if he to hears the voices. Vasudeav said yes and told him about the voices. This is important because it is talking about the voices that he hears and how their souls live on and will never end. I think this is a very good section in the book because it is saying how one will never truly leave, that they will always be there and you will always be there too.

Siddhartha's view on his life
Siddhartha talks about how he had been through many phases in his beliefs. When he was a boy he was into sacrifices and gods. Later on he was an ascetic and learned to fast and deal with the weather. After his brush with the shramanas he goes and learns from the great Buddha Gotama. With Kamala he learned about the joy of love and with Kamaswami he learned the ways of business. He thought he was stooping to a new level of ill minded thought when he wanted to go suicide in the river. When he heard the word om he felt like he has slept properly and awoken properly for the first time in one hundred years. But he also feels like he has come all this way only to become a child again. He feels like he has become a fool in thinking suicide is the way to enlightenment. I think he is trying to say that this is kind of like his second awakening and he feels reborn again.

Avery Valerio

Time and Voices According to the River

Time and Voices according to the river is when he is explaining how the ferryman is explaining what the river does and how the river acts. When he explains the river, the ferryman says the river is everywhere at once and that the river is the present and that there is no future. The ferryman also says the river has many voices such as the voices of a king, a warrior and a bull. I think that the time and voices according to the river is how the river acts and what the river brings through everyday. Such as logs and other items that can come through the river. I also think that it means what sounds the river make such as the flowing rapids and the pouring waterfalls. Also means that everything is separated by shadows.

The Ferryman's Virtue by Fletcher Reich

The ferryman’s virtue is listening. I think that he chose to only listen because you can learn much more from listening than you can when you are talking. It says he knows how to listen, he misses nothing and Siddhartha believes that happiness can come from opening oneself to such a man. The river spoke to Siddhartha just like it spoke to the ferryman. The ferryman tells Siddhartha that he cannot teach only listen, this might give the hint of him being awakened. When Siddhartha tells the ferryman he wants to learn from him, “You will learn that,” said Vasudeva, “but not from me. The river taught me how to listen; you will learn from the river too. The river knows everything; everything can be learned from it…You will learn the other thing from it to.”pg 82. I think that this quote means that Siddhartha will learn more from the river than he has from all his teachers. This is a big part of the book because Siddhartha is learning that listening is a big part in enlightened people. I think listening will help him reach enlightenment from this man because he will only need to say what is necessary.

Life Recap

Throughout this section Siddhartha recaps his life. He talks about his childhood till now. Siddhartha knows that his life was filled with twists and turns. He grew up involved with gods and sacrifices. As a youth he was busy meditating and thinking. As he got older he was involved with the ascetics. While going through this experience with the ascetics he suffered heat and frost, learned to go hungry and many other things. He grew in great amount but was still not satisfied with himself. He decided to learn more about the Buddha, but soon had to leave all this behind. Throughout all this he met Kamala. Kamala taught Siddhartha the pleasures of love. He learned many other things and soon lost his connection with his mind and the ability to think I think this is significant because he had to go through many things just to meet his goal, to be enlightened. I think this is important because it teaches you if you want to accomplish a goal you have to go through ups and downs and at the end you’ve reached your goal.

Voices of the River

Siddhartha was taught that by listening to the river with a still heart, an expectant and open soul, he could learn more from it than anything else in the world. “'This is probably what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once—at its source, at its mouth, by the waterfall, by the ferry crossing, in the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains—everywhere at the same time. And that for it there is only the present, not the shadow called the future.” (Hesse 112). It is understood that the river is everywhere throughout the world at once and yet its still not considered in the future. Siddhartha decides that his life is just like the river, for his childhood and his aging self is merely only separated by shadows, not anything real. It was realized that not only are desires a cause of suffering, but so was the concept of time. By becoming aware that the concept of time does not exist and all things around Siddhartha have changed and always will be changing, he can accept that its simply the way life works.
Personally, I never would have thought of the river that way. It was creative and interesting to read about how you can interpret a river and your surroundings. My grandpa has told me before that by learning from your surroundings you can achieve anything. I never really thought of it much until I read this book and its now that I finally realize how right he truly was. If everyone simply payed attention to their surroundings, everything would be much better understood. Living in a world of material, its often forgotten what we can learn from nature and the world.

Death to the Ego

Siddhartha had too much knowledge to get rid of his ego. He fight to get rid of it was futile at first. He thought he was getting old and would die, but then he thinks of himself as young and like a child. Siddhartha died and a new Siddhartha was born. He tried to get rid of it by fasting and austerities. He joined a world of pleasures. The shramana and priest within him died off. He went through these years of despair because he lost his inner self. This means that Siddhartha has gotten back in touch with himself and is leaving the life of desires and pleasures that he lost himself in. The path to enlightenment does not include pleasures but it has peace and getting in touch with their inner self. They have to go through this stuff to get in touch with their inner self to see what matters most.

The Ferryman

“You will learn that,” said Vasudeva, “but not from me. The river taught me how to listen; you will learn that from the river too. The river knows everything; everything can be learned from it. Look, you have already learned that it is good to aim low, to sink, to seek the bottom. The rich and prominent Siddhartha has become an oarsman’s helper; this, too, was the advice of the river. You will learn the other thing from it too.” pg. 82
When the ferryman told Siddhartha this he was saying that you can learn many things from the river such as listening. Because the river is always clean and cycles around at all times, Vasudeva has learned that most good things will come back to him. The river taught him to become a good listener by listening to Vasudeva when he was still learning to listen. The river is an object that cannot talk but can listen. Also Vasudeva might have learned from his reflection.

Time and Voice of the River

In The Ferryman, Siddhartha learns many new things but not from a person, but from a river, a river that teaches. Siddhartha’s dead inner voice is now practically the river, because the river has a voice. “He learned how to listen, he learned how to listen with a still heart, with an expectant, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinion.” This means that he is willing to learn and listen to what the river has to teach him. The significance of this is that now Siddhartha is willing to learn like at the beginning of the book when he had a “thirst for knowledge” now the river is teaching him everything that he wants to learn. I think what he is doing, learning from the river is best decision he has made in a long time.

The Virtue of Listening

“Of the ferryman virtues, this one was his greatest: he knew how to listen like few people do.”(pg. 82) He can listen, and when he does, he speaks not a word. The ferryman can make the speaker feel their words absorbing into him. He did not judge, nor did he skip information. He simply sat, and allowed Siddhartha’s words flow through him. This made Siddhartha realize the joy, and happiness that comes from opening up to such a listener. “Having ones own life-ones seeking, one’s suffering-either this others heart.”(pg. 82) If you can find someone who can listen, you can find answers in yourself by re examining information. It feels good to be heard. In the end, this is one step closer to enlightenment. It means Siddhartha can now listen. He can now make others feel like the ferryman the ferryman listened to him.

Siddhartha's Ego

With one single Om from a river, Siddhartha finally gets rid of his inner ego. Siddhartha knows his inner voice was right, that he didn’t need a teacher to save him; he needed to be everything a man could be. “No teacher could ever have saved him. That is why he had had to..abandon himself to pleasure and power, women and money, why he had had to be a merchant, a dice player, a drinker, and a man consumed with greed.” He needed to experience being everything until his inner shaman and priest were gone. Until all of Siddhartha had died, then he would wake up as a young, new Siddhartha. The way to get rid of an ego is to completely rid yourself of everything. Until Siddhartha’s ego was completely gone and he didn’t know who he was anymore, then the ego could completely disappeared. With the ego destroyed Siddhartha is now closer to becoming enlightened. This realization that he was on the right path and that he had gotten rid of his ego is significant because without this realization that his ego was gone he would never be able to move forward. Without getting rid of your ego you can never become enlightened. Siddhartha had wanted to get rid of his ego from the beginning of his leaving. After all of what he went through, with greed, power, poor, and starving he finally got rid of his ego. This is significant because that was the goal all along, and he finally achieved it. I think this is a really important part of Siddhartha’s life because this point in time is when Siddhartha finally knows who he is without an ego; he knows he is on the right path.

Ferryman's virtue

Emma Gerona
The Ferryman’s Virtue

The Ferryman is a wise man. Upon being asked to teach all his knowledge to Siddhartha he says, you will not learn from me, I have nothing to teach you, I learned all by listening to the river and you will learn this way too. Siddhartha sees knowledge in this man’s eyes and actions. And despite his previous thoughts of not wanting a teacher he aspires to re-learn to listen like the ferryman. When Vasudeva tells Siddhartha he won’t tech him Siddhartha is disappointed but interested in why he made the refusal. This exert shows that Siddhartha has found the right path towards nirvana and has begun the long journey of listening. Over time Siddhartha listens to the river and hears it out. He quickly is becoming happy and is showing the first signs of enlightenment. The ferryman’s virtue is listening, by living with the river he has been taught to listen and not speak. He has learned a very wise skill that most would just pass by. Vasudeva knows right speech, right speech; to speak only when necessary and not say anything that may harm another, to listen “Vasudeva spoke not a word himself, the speaker felt him receiving his words into himself… just listening…” pg110. Siddhartha sees that through listening the ferryman has reached perfection, he has let the suffering of Siddhartha enter his hart and embraced it knowingly. This is significant because Siddhartha needs to learn not to be taught, he needs to learn to listen and wait; and now he has done this.

Time and Voices According to the River

The river has a voice Siddhartha and Vesudeva listen to and learn from. Siddhartha asked Vesudeva “have you also learned from the river the secret that there is no time?” He said “ Yes, Siddhartha, this is probably what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once.” He also said “and that for it there is only the present, not the shadow called the future.” Then a light bulb turned on and Siddhartha understood that when he looked at his life he realized that is was like a river, because it was always flowing, changing and never ending. And when the river spoke to him, he didn’t just hear one voice he heard many. There is great importance to what this section means. It is that Siddhartha realizes that the river has a great important voice, which he can learn from. The present time is significant; just focusing on it is what he needs to be paying attention to. Everything is now, neither the past nor the future, just keeping your mind on time being now. Not worrying about the future he can set his mind on the essential things and to consider the present-day. In my opinion I believe that it is vital to just focus on what is happening now because the future or the past shouldn’t be a concern until the day comes.

The Ferryman-Time and Voices according to the River

Siddhartha asks Vasudeva if the river taught him there was no time. Vasudeva smiled and said the river is everywhere at once, so there is only the present, not the future. Siddhartha then asks the ferryman if the river has many voices, and the ferryman says all voices are in its voice. Vasudeva also says OM is the word the river speaks when you hear all of the river’s voices at once. This is an important time when Siddhartha learns secrets from the river and talks to Vasudeva about them. The river is always everywhere, and the past and future don’t exist, only the present. Also, when listening closely, you can hear the river’s voice, and through it, every voice. I think the river conveys a sense of timelessness and is a wise teacher for Siddhartha to learn from.

Ferryman's Virtue Smoles

In the beginning the selection describes how Siddhartha enters the ferryman’s hut and accepts his gift of food. While they eat Siddhartha tells him of his journeys. The tale continues on late into the night and Vasudeva listens very intently. When Siddhartha is finished Vasudeva says that he thought correctly: the river had spoken to Siddhartha. He invites Siddhartha to stay with him, eat his food and sleep in his room. Siddhartha accepts gracefully. Siddhartha is surprised that Vasudeva was such an amazing listener and he explains that he learned this from the river. Siddhartha decides to stay and learn from the river because it has many voices and when you hear all of them together the word OM reveals itself. The reason this selection has significance is because the ferryman is just as important of a teacher as Kamala, Kamaswami, and Gotama were. All these people have helped Siddhartha on his path to enlightenment. What the selection is revealing to us is that through the river Siddhartha can finally reach nirvana. Everything in his life has led him to this point where he will learn from the ferryman and the river and he will finally reach enlightenment. In my opinion I care about the ferryman. I think he is a good man; an undiscovered hero in a sense. As he says he has taken many people across the river and to many it was nothing but an obstacle but to the ones where it became something more than that, he was willing to teach. He seems very kind and as though he will help Siddhartha immensely. I like this chapter because I can relate to this man. I wish I was able to listen as well as him and only speak when necessary. He’s only there to help.

Ferryman's Virtue

Ferryman’s virtue (82-83)

This chapter is a pivotal point in the book; it is kind of a reawakening for Siddhartha Gotama. The old Siddhartha returns to the ferryman, to where his journey to the child people started. He lives and learns by the river along with Vasudeva who teaches him one of the greatest virtues; to listen. At first Siddhartha is astonished with this skill that Vasudeva has mastered. “Look, you have already learned from the riveer that is good to aim low, to sink, to seek the bottom” Then he himself finds this talent along with the realization that there is no time. As the ferryman put it “…the river is everywhere at once-at its source, at its mouth…everywhere at the same time…there is only the present, and not the shadow we called the future.” Siddhartha is learning about listening from his newest teacher the river. It’s important because this is his reawakening. He learns from Vasudeva as well as the river, in the small amount of time he was with Vasudeva he learned some deep things. Siddhartha learns that he has reached enlightenment and side by side with the happy Vasudeva. The ferryman’s virtue is one of the most important thing that Siddhartha will learn in his life. It’s an important for him to learn this because some people just talk and talk with no meaning, but the Ferryman can listen, his special important virtue.

Tristan River voice

“This is probably what you mean: that river is everywhere at once-at its source, at its mouth , by the waterfall, by the ferry crossing, in the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains-everywhere at the same time. And that for it there is only the present, not the shadow called the future.”

“Is it not true, friend, that the river has many voices, very many voices? Does it not have the voice of a king, of a warrior, of a bull, of a night bird, of a woman about to give birth, of a man sighing, and a thousand other voices too?”



“All creatures’ voices are in its voice.” Vasudeva

All these quotes have been chosen by my very good eye. The points of these three quotes are to talk about the time and the voice of the river. In the second quote it talks about the rivers many voices. The river says every thing and with all these voices it comes together and to Siddhartha it makes Om. The last time I was at a river it did not make and om sound. The book then relates the river to time. They do this because you really can’t stop time. The river also resembles that because it is always going. It is also in continuous cycle. Time does not actually exist and it is always moving around the river is also spread everywhere. There is no such thing as the future or past just now. Like time the river is only in one place the river bed the past (in the ocean) and the future (clouds) really aren’t real

Sidd's Recap

When Siddhartha looks back on his life, he realizes what a tangled mess it has been and laughs at himself for it. As a boy he was involved in gods and sacrifices. As a youth, he was into thinking, meditating, and looking for Brahman. When Siddhartha was a young man he turned a completely different direction when he joined the ascetics and suffered in order to dispose of his ego. He and Govinda heard the call of Gotama. After listening to Gotama, Siddhartha realizes that the unity he is looking for is within himself. After that, he went to the city to learn love from Kamala, business from Kamaswami, and indulge himself. Through his obsessive gambling and life of the child people, Siddhartha lost himself. Becoming exhausted and sick of the city life, he leaves and even considers suicide before hearing OM again. The passage ends with Siddhartha deciding to follow his inner voice from now on.

Death of the Ego.

“Now Siddhartha also knew why his fight against this ego had been futile. Too much knowledge had held him back… Into this priesthood, into this high-mindedness, into this spirituality, his ego had crept… That is why he had to… be a merchant, a dice player, a drinker, and a man consumed with greed- until the priest and shramana within him were dead.”
Siddhartha is saying that what he had been trying to fight, his ego, had been absorbed by everything that made him who he was. Siddhartha used to be the priest in training or the ambitious shramana determined to rid himself of his ego, but in doing so he was just intergrading it further. When he became controlled by wealth and greed, he stopped meditating and distanced himself from everything he once was. When he let go of his knowledge, his ego left as well. I loved how the only was to really save himself was to destroy himself. "Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer." –T.D.

Time and Voices According to the River

“Have you also learned from the river the secret that there is no time?”. Vesudeva then replied, "Yes Siddhartha, this is probably what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once." This is one of the most important lessons the river teaches Siddhartha. Time doesn’t exist, everything is separated by shadows and that the present is all that matters.Siddhartha realizes that his life has been compared to the river. When he sees his reflection in the river, he is looking at his past of a shramana, a wealthy man, and a Brahmin. When the river spoke to him, he heard multiple voices instead of one. He heard the sound of "Om". The river has a powerful voice that he can learn from. It's significant because the sound the river makes is like his inner voice that's giving him advice.

Siddhartha recaps his life-pg 75

Pg 75. Siddhartha’s life recap.
Summary
Siddhartha tells how when he was a young boy he was completely involved with gods and sacrifices. When he was a youth it was all about meditation, asceticism and thinking. He suffered as an ascetic then learned from the great Buddha Gotama. Then he learned about the child people and love and money by living in Samsara. He changed from a man to a child. He lost his ability to think. He had to become a fool to see atman in himself again.
Interpret
This is a very pivotal point in this chapter. As Siddhartha looks back on his life and sees how it was all building up to the point he’s at now. He seems to be very grateful for all the events in his life.
Significance
This is very important part in the book because Siddhartha realizes how all his suffering and indulgence in Samsara was exactly what he needed to lose his ego and find atman in him again in order to continue his journey. He is now prepared to continue upon his quest to enlightenment.
Response
This part of the chapter made me think to myself that maybe he was finally drawing very near to enlightenment and that in the next few chapters he may reach nirvana.

Siddhartha went through many changes to become who he is now. As a young boy he was totally involved with god and sacrifices. As a young man he followed the ascetics, lived in the forest, suffered heat and frost, learned to go hungry,& taught his body how to wither. As a youth he was occupied with ascetism, thinking, and meditating. He learned from kamala the pleasures of love, learned buisness from kamaswami, accumulated money, frittered money away, learned to love his stomach,and indulged in senses. He passed thru so much ignorance, vice, great misunderstanding, revulsion and dissapointment and misery. He expirienced despair, had stupid thoughts of suicide to be able to expirience grace, to be awaken properly. Siddhartha says he will never go back, he will now follow the path of enlightenment. This is all important to me because it makes me realize that we all have to go through many things in our life, even bad things, to become mature and the person we want to be.

Nico-river

“This is probably what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once—at its source, at its mouth, by the waterfall, by the ferry crossing, in the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains—everywhere at the same time. And that for it there is only the present, not the shadow called the future.”
“Is it not true, friend, that the river has many voices, very many voices? Does it not have the voice of a king, of a warrior, of a bull, of a night bird, of a women giving birth, of a man sighing, and a thousand other voices too?”
“That is true,” nodded Vasudeva, “all creatures’ voices are in its voice.”
These three quotes on page 84 really describe the time and voice of the river. The first quote on this page has one major meaning: That time does not exist and the river demonstrates this by being in multiple places at one time. The river is in all these places at once and this is the same thing with time, time is in many places at once and is still one thing. There is no such thing as the past, present or future it is all one. This is a lesson that the river teaches Siddhartha, that he can relate his life to. The second and third quote meanings are the river can teach many things in many different ways. It may show you anger with its roar, or it could show you what peacefulness is with its silence. When all these voices come together the sound they make is “Om” and this is the sound of the universe. I think some of this is true I believe in the fact that time does not exist and they river demonstrates this. But I do not believe in the idea that the river makes the word “Om”. I don’t believe this because I don’t hear the word “Om” from a river.

The Ferryman's Virtue

"Though Vasudeva spoke not a word himself, the speaker felt him receiving his words into himself, quietly, openly, unhurriedly, missing nothing, not jumping ahead through impatience, attributing neither praise nor blame-just listening."
Vasudeva has reached enlightenment, but he doesn't express it through words, but actions. The key action is listening. Siddhartha tells Vasudeva of his journey and how he got there. Even though Vasudeva does not say a word during Siddhartha's story, Siddhartha knows he listened to every word. Siddhartha admires this virtue because he knows that few people know how to listen. At the end of Siddhartha’s story, Vasudeva says "The river spoke to you." and offers Siddhartha a place to stay with him. He thanks Vasudeva and accepts his offer. He also thanks him for listening so well to his story, and hopes to learn from him how to listen so well. Vasudeva replies "You will learn that, but not from me. The river taught me how to listen; you will learn that from the river too."

-Connor Courter

Siddhartha's Recap

Siddhartha looks back on his life. How he began as a child, worshiping the gods. As a young man he became a shramana and learned how to think wait and fast. Later he leaves with the wisdom of Gotama the Buddha and indulges in pleasuring himself. He feels as if he had gone from child, to man, and back to child again. Feeling the lowest of all lows he tries to kill himself by drowning himself in the river. As he is sinking into the bottom of the rushing river he hears OM, which snaps him out of his depressed state and he finds that his songbird is not dead. This signifies that Siddhartha is ready to start a new life again because he can still hear his inner voice and OM. Siddhartha recaps his previous lives. How he acted during them, who he met and what he did. He reflected the things that he learned. Siddhartha realizes that he had to become a child again, to restart, in order to reach the goal that has been the drive behind all of his actions.

The Ferryman’s Virtue
The ferryman’s greatest virtue is listening. When the two men were sitting on a tree trunk late in the night Siddhartha told him his story. Vasudeva listened with great attention and took everything in. Siddhartha could feel him receiving his words into himself."the speaker felt him receiving his words into him self, quietly, openly, unhurriedly, missing nothing, not jumping ahead through impatience, attributing neither praise nor blame-just listening." Siddhartha felt happiness speaking to such a listener. Vasudeva asks Siddhartha when he is done with his story if he will live with him. Siddhartha accepts and tells the man that he will learn from him, this is when Siddhartha asks Vasudeva if he will be his teacher. Vesudeva replies “The river taught me how to listen; you will learn from that river too. The river knows everything; everything can be learned from it...” This is how the ferryman is teaching Siddhartha and he will learn much from the river.
The ferryman’s virtue is important because when you listen you learn more than when you just talk and ask questions. Siddhartha will learn a lot from the river and this is how he will start to become enlightened. He will also become enlightened from watching and listening to Vasudeva.
I feel that listening is not something the people are good at today. For example many celebrities don't listen and they just talk and talk. If people began to listen maybe they would make better choices. I also think that listening is a very big part of enlightenment because if you just talked and told people what to do you would have a big ego; and you can’t become enlightened with a big ego.

Death of the Ego

Death of the Ego

This “Death of the Ego” was when the song bird inside of him had died, really his inner voice. Without it now he is "like a child, so full of confidence, so fearless, so full of joy." Though he thought before when he was told he was wiser than others and amazing for such a young soul he was finding a path to enlightenment, when really he was making his ego bigger. He now realizes that his ego was a problem he was having to being able to find enlightenment. The quote I chose is “That is why he had to continue to endure these ugly years, to endure the revulsion, the emptiness, the meaninglessness of a lost and desolate life until the end, to the point of bitter despair, until Siddhartha the hedonist, Siddhartha the greedy, could die.” This quote is saying that in order to find happiness, you must feel the pain in life and suffering, experience all that life has to offer. This way you know how good life is when the pain and suffering has ended. Also I thought that getting rid of his ego was important because it’s him letting go of what was growing more inside him. It was making him unhappy; this is what was stopping him from reaching happiness and enlightenment. Loosing it is what will help him reach what he is seeking.

Death of the Ego (page 77-78) by Nick N.

Death of the Ego
Page 77-78

Siddhartha has been fighting his ego since he decided to be an ascetic and lately, it has taken over him. As he is sitting near the river in the forest he starts to reflect. Why hasn’t his ego left him yet? Thinking back, he has always been, well, better than the rest of them, and from there his ego took over him. No matter what he did to destroy his ego by fasting and austerities, it always came back. It came back stronger, to the point where his mind was corrupt with power, pleasure and greed, to the point where the shramana within him died. He looked deep within the river, beyond the flowing water; it was telling him something that he just didn’t know yet.

Time and Voices According to the River

In this chapter, the river that Siddhartha decides to stay at plays a big part. The river tells him so many things. So, Siddhartha goes to the Ferryman and asks if the river has ever told him that there is no such thing as time. Siddhartha finds this concept very interesting. He goes back to the river every day-and not just because he has to-and listens to the river tell him things. He soon realizes that the river not only has one voice but many. It has thousands. The river also has the power to say the sound of the universe, OM. This OM is able to stop Siddhartha from committing suicide. This river is very powerful and will probably come up again in future chapters.

Ferryman`s Virtue

Summary of the ferrymans virtue.





“It is as I thought. The river spoke to you. It is your friend too; it spoke to you too.” Vasudeva the ferryman has reached enlightenment and his main virtue is listening. He is peaceful because he knows how to listen to everyone and so he learns many things. Vasudeva is a ferryman and is always on the river, he does not see it as an obstacle as all the others do, its sacred to him the river is his teacher the one who taught him to listen. He does not talk about himself he listens to what others have to say and heres their story so he knows what theyve gone through and so he can help. Vasudeva has been alone for a long time just him and the river, he is not discouraged or lonely he is at peace and he hangs out with the river. He is not a teacher or a wise man nor is he a buddha, he is just a simple person who has learned an important skill.

Time And Voice According To The River

Siddhartha reflects on his life, and realizes it is a cycle from child to man to child again. As boy Siddhartha was obsessed with gods and sacrifices as a Brahmins son. Then as a youth he wanted to be an ascetic, to think and meditate, he was trying to find the atman in himself. As a young man, he became an ascetic and tought his body how to survive the cold, the heat and hunger. Then he found the Buddha and he learned from him but he still left the Buddha and his teachings. Siddhartha then met Kamala and learned the pleasures of love. He learned business from Kamaswami, and made money and learned to indulge in his senses. This is significant because as he thinks about his life he begins to realize that he changed from a thinker to one of the child people. He passed through so much ignorance, revulsion, disappointment, and misery just to transform from a man back to a child again. He understands that he had to experience despair and become suicidal, to truly understand grace and the meaning of the OM. He decides, “I had to become a fool to find atman in myself.”

The Ferryman's Virtue
The Ferryman’s virtue is to listen to the river and learn from it. He sais that he can’t teach Siddhartha but the river can. The river taught Vasudeva how to listen and he thinks it can teach Siddhartha to. The river knows everything and you can learn from it. The river is a tool that’s available for you to use. “Look you have already learned from the river that it is good to aim low, to sink, to seek the bottom.” This is what Siddhartha should do to fallow his goal. Its like a rock going straight into the water.

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"Time and the Voices According to the River" E.M.

In this quote, in the chapter ‘The Ferryman’, Siddhartha learns from the river. The river tells him that there is no time, and everything is separated by only shadows and nothing real. The river only knows the present. Saddhartha also notices that the river has the voices of every creature in it, and Vasudeva the ferryman tells him that the voice in the river is Om. This is significant because the river is like Siddhartha’s inner voice that tells him what to do, like his conscience, and gives him advice. Siddhartha also learns that the river can teach everything if he listens to it. Also, Siddhartha’s life mirrors the river in that his past selves such as the Brahmin, the shramana, and the rich man are not completely separate, but separated only by shadows and nothing really substantial. I think that the river is right; that there really is no past or future, because all of these supposedly different points in time are actually the present. What we think is the future right now will become the present eventually, and what is perceived as the past was once the present; therefore everything is the present and there is no time, like the river says.


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Death of Ego R.K.

It is the point where Siddhartha realizes that he does not need to try to rid his ego, and this is the first time he has actually experienced that pleasures and wealth are not valued things. Something within Siddhartha has dies, and it was something that was longing to die for a long time. He is now like a child, so full of joy, confidence and he is fearless. The old Siddhartha has dies and he has been reborn into a new person, a new Siddhartha. He realizes that the fight against his ego has become futile. He had been putting in too much effort, too much striving and too much knowledge. He realizes that his ego had only grown when he was trying to eliminate it. Siddhartha thinks that he has been being too arrogant, and his conscious had been right the entire time. He is just now starting to listen to it. No teacher could ever save Siddhartha. He had to go into the world and abandon himself until the shramana and ascetic within him were gone. The river had told him something, and he still feels as if the river has to tell him something. I think that this is the first step of enlightenment in the book for Siddhartha. He is just now experiencing the real world. I feel like he had been very stereotypical before, this meaning that he had been following the rules of the shramanas and ascetics, trying too hard to be enlightened. Now, he knows how to rid his ego, and the first step in becoming enlightened.

Death of the Ego JR

In this quote Siddhartha’s ego dies. He thinks it finally died because when he was an ascetic, and a Brahmin, he had too much knowledge which held him back. He was arrogant; he was always the best and had always been a step ahead of the others. The quote I chose would best represent this was “That he had felt that despair, that profoundest revulsion, and had not been broken by it, that the bird, that wellspring, that happy voice, was still alive in him-that is where his joy came from.” Right before this he was going to commit suicide because he thought his inner voice had died; now he realizes that he just had to go through the despair to get to be happy. He now knows that his inner voice is not dead. I think this is a universal think in life, that you have to understand what pain is so you can know how it good it feels when there is no more pain. The fact that’s something that people still sort of say today makes it easier, at least for me, to understand what he was talking about.

Siddhartha's Life

Siddhartha reflects on his life, and realizes it is a cycle from child to man to child again. As boy Siddhartha was obsessed with gods and sacrifices as a Brahmins son. Then as a youth he wanted to be an ascetic, to think and meditate, he was trying to find the atman in himself. As a young man, he became an ascetic and tought his body how to survive the cold, the heat and hunger. Then he found the Buddha and he learned from him but he still left the Buddha and his teachings. Siddhartha then met Kamala and learned the pleasures of love. He learned business from Kamaswami, and made money and learned to indulge in his senses. This is significant because as he thinks about his life he begins to realize that he changed from a thinker to one of the child people. He passed through so much ignorance, revulsion, disappointment, and misery just to transform from a man back to a child again. He understands that he had to experience despair and become suicidal, to truly understand grace and the meaning of the OM. He decides, “I had to become a fool to find atman in myself.”

Siddhartha's recap of his life

Siddhartha’s recap of his life

In the chapter, By the River, Siddhartha has a sudden awakening and thinks back on his life. Siddhartha thinks about how as a child and man, he had been so dedicated to his meditating, and attaining the life of an ascetic. He had once gained the wisdom of the great Buddha and learned about the unity that the whole world has. From Kamala and Kamaswami he learned the pleasures of love and learned how to be a businessman. He had now become one of the child people. He had lost all of his knowledge and inner thoughts. After losing all of these things, he realized he has to experience all of these things, in order to re-awaken, and hear om again. He thinks that the path he is following may just be a circle, but he is going to follow the path anyways. This is important because it is the first time he sees his mistakes, and knows he has to do something about it. Siddhartha sees that maybe all of the things he has done in the past are not mistakes. They were just things that he had to experience himself in order to see that he needed all of those things to help him become a child again, and re-learn what he has already been taught. My opinion on this is that Siddhartha’s recap is correct because I think you have to learn things by experience. Without learning from your mistakes, you cannot really see what is wrong and right. Becoming a child again would probably be the best thing for him so he can have a fresh start, and do the right things this time.

The Ferryman's Virtue

Siddhartha and Vasudeva, the ferryman, come to the topic of the ferryman’s greatest virtue when, Siddhartha and Vasudeva are sitting by the river. Siddhartha begins to tell Vasudeva the story of his life. Siddhartha talks for awhile and as he talks he notices how well Vasudeva can listen. This is the virtue that Siddhartha thinks is so important. Vasudeva listens without judging, openly, unhurriedly, missing nothing, and never interrupting. After Siddhartha is done telling him his life story, he asks how the ferryman learned to listen so well. He says he learned how to from the river. This is important because listening is something that is hard to do and it’s something that can be learned from the river. Also, it is another thing that the river can teach, besides OM. Having the ability to do this could be a trait that someone enlightened posses. It is an important thing for someone enlightened to posses because it allows them to be kind, and thoughtful in there actions of listening. I think that this is a virtue that is very important in life, but is something that few people can do. Few people can do this because, they don’t take time to learn and listen. Also, they have stopped caring about other peoples problems because they are so rapped up in their own. If Siddhartha can do this he can be one step closer to enlightenment.

Ferryman Virtue-Sarah Barr

Ferryman Virtue
The ferryman’s virtue is to listen. The ferryman says that he has learned to listen from the river and so will Siddhartha. That is the only thing that he can do really well, he is not good at talking or teaching. Siddhartha is impressed about how well he can listen and he wants to learn. The ferryman says that he can not teach him how he must learn it from the river. This is important because this is not the only thing he can learn from the river he can learn other things too. Listening is just one thing that the river will teach him. I think this is important because listening is something that is not easy to do and Siddhartha is impressed on how well he can. The ferryman can also listen to the river which is something that very few people can do. Since the ferryman can do this he tells Siddhartha that he can listen to the river too and that will help him become a better listener.

The Death of Ego

This is when Siddhartha is realizing that he has lost his ego, his inner self. This was represented by the death of the song bird. Siddhartha then realizes why he had lost his ego. He had been fighting against his ego as an ascetic, and having too much knowledge had held him back. Also too many sacred verses, rituals rules, denial, and too much doing and striving were all ridding him of his ego. Siddhartha was always the smartest and most industrious and was always a step above everyone. Siddhartha discovers that no teacher could ever have saved his ego and that if he wanted to keep it he would have to go out into the world and leave himself. He would have to get rid of the priest and sharmana inside of him. This is very significant because Siddhartha is trying to reach enlightenment and his ego is in the way, and by doing all of these things he is driving himself farther and farther away from losing his ego. His ego always comes back, which is really making the process of enlightenment hard. Personally, this makes me feel a little bad because having everything I want and desires that are unnecessary. This is one of the exact things that makes it hard for Siddhartha to rid himself of his ego. Now, Siddhartha’s ego is gone. Having to much knowledge can affect anyone, it makes you sound stuck up and like a “know it all.” It would be really hard to rid myself of ego.

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