Choosing My Life Philosophy and Comparing It to the Philosophy of Siddartha

Our philosophy towards life makes us the individual we want to be. An individual follows a philosophy of life, which is guided through their Guru, role models or parents which they further like to expand on to and live their life according to that For my life, I chose few philosophies which I like to abide by and believe it helps me live my life in certain way. One of my philosophies is to lead a respectable, honest life without being self centered, however if another person takes advantage of it then one should not keep quiet, instead we should stand for ourselves. This reflection paper illustrates the beginning of Siddhartha, a Buddhist philosopher, monk, Samsara and a ,, It further focuses on the philosophies of my life; how I feel life should be lead with an individuals will by obtaining knowledge from others.

A human being experiences both good and bad in life, which directs us to endless learning process, In addition, if we do wrong to others it comes back but if we do good, we get it back as a good karma Siddhartha, the Brahmin’s son disregarded the offerings of his family, the lavishing life he spent during his childhood and wanted to find a solution in order to be relieved through suffering which he felt was an ordinary man’s life. Siddhartha was a seeker, he wanted to set aside normal human beings life and live in the forest to find the perfect, eternal attainment to God. Siddhartha went into forest for couple of years to seek the reality; He spent few years with his good friend, Govinda who wanted to follow Siddhartha and considered him as a dear friend Both of them walked every day, begged for food.

Siddhartha had learned something meaningful during his journey on which his life relied on; thinking, waiting and fasting He believed he could find a way to gain reality of life through thinking (Meditation), he had patience by spending some of his years in the forest seeking the truth as well as fasting, which he believed came out of his habit of staying in hunger for days until he found food. In addition, Siddhartha discounts the teachings of the old Samaras’, he takes it into account however does not spend rest of his life based on their principals As he met Gotma, the Illustrious. One, another philosopher of Buddhism, he expands onto their teachings; principals however opposes to spend rest of his life with them He believed, ethics, morals are an important part of an individual’s life; it‘s something one needs to develop themselves unless they want to live as a monk. While, Govinda felt his seeking had come to an end when he decided to stay at Gotma’s hermitage.

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He further learned his teachings and enhanced them whereas, Siddhartha, had bid farewell to Govinda and both patted their ways As he led his life, he met Kamala, a courtesan who was a beautiful, arrogant lady, one who could only value money, lavishing life and good clothing of men. Siddhartha felt the need to learn the love of art from her. Since it was Siddhartha’s intention to learn about love, he fell for her beauty and did everything he could have to become her pupili She taught him how to love, kiss and unknowingly started loving Siddhartha After living a life of a rich man, which he essentially had received since he was born, he started to feel good for nothing. After few years, Siddhartha decided to leave such abundant, reckless life and went back into foresti. This is where he met Govinda, his good old friend once again after so many years and exchanged details of their past life events. Further on, Siddhartha went near the river again where he met the ferryman, Vasudeva, once again and started living with him.

He felt the need to once again do something which would take him out of the ordinary man’s life. As time went by, Siddhartha started feeling better, he learned something new every day from Vasudevai As time went by, there were news about Gotma who was about to die. Kamala, on the other hand, wanted to go see him along with her and Siddhartha’s son, As she went near the river, she got bitten by a snake and fell ilL Coincidently she met Siddhartha there after so many years along with their son and died after sometime. This is the time period when Siddhartha realized his mistakes he made a long time ago; he left his family in order to find the truth of life. His parents yearned and suffered because of him Whereas now, when his son was left with him, he made Siddhartha’s life miserable and disrespected him and wanted to go back to the city. After months, Siddhartha’s son eloped and never came back.

This is when he realized of is mistakes after looking into the river which reflected upon his past life. As time went by, Vasudeva started to get older and fell sick. He could no further do daily chores therefore, diedr Siddhartha, was left alone and met Govinda once again, where they shared their ideas of how their life has been so far. Govinda saw how Siddhartha’s life evolved over time; saw different forms of life This is when he found out that Siddhartha, his friend, was himself the Perfect Onei He found pleasure in his face; tears rolled on his cheeks and bowed to him. This reminded him of the things he valued in life, and devotion and attainment, Firstly, Siddhartha, the Brahmin’s son, who was “intelligent and thirsty for knowledge” grew in a loving and caring environment. As he grew, he often questioned himself, how could one attain Atman, which is the intrinsic nature; eternal from all the things that bind us. After seeing the suffering of human life Siddhartha asked himself “Was Atman not within him?

Was not then the source within his own heart? One must find the source within one’s own self, one must possess it." The phrase taken from the book Siddhartha makes me wonder how some people tend to live their lives in an illusion of seeking knowledge elsewhere by depending on the essence of other human beings. They tend to gain their teaching from philosophers, parents, role models and use it as principles of their life and to lead it in a certain way which would reflect on the previous knowledge they received rather than putting efforts to use this teaching and further build upon it. To illustrate this better, Mahatma Gandhi, is a role model for a lot of population around the world, many people have learned from him and further lead their lives by following his teachings. One of his teachings was to lead a non-violent life which was adopted by many people back then In my View, the knowledge taken from an experienced person and the knowledge received from education is how a life should be lead by.

As Siddhartha questioned himself whether Atman was not within him? It is certainly within yourself, a person can conquer it if they know the correct way, Furthermore, when we contradict something we question ourselves whether we agree or disagree with it; we ask ourselves and come to a conclusion by looking at our past experiences of life which further gives us an idea of how we should deal with a situation Secondly, as Govinda stated in the novel, “we have learned and we are still learning’i This relates back to Siddhartha and Govinda’s conversation when they question themselves whether they have gained any knowledge through the old Samanas or not This quote takes me back to my prior education experience at the university. Back then I felt that it’s great to be a university graduate; I never considered its drawbacks such as, course load. As I look back I realize that I just focused on the fame aspects.

On the other hand, as Siddhartha questioned Govinda, whether they have gained knowledge from the Samaras or not, made me wonder of my decision of transferring to a college As I transferred to College I got into a diploma program and started doing good which boosted my confidence level and I further came to realize that even back In University I was learning It’s the failure that I wanted to turn into success and which I did after graduating from my previous diploma program, I believe, we always learn in life, as a child to an adolescent to an older person until we die. This is the process of the life circle; learning is never an ending process. Thirdly, the law of karma is based on the idea of action and deed. As Siddhartha proceeds towards the jungle, he experiences an unpleasant sensation when he crosses the river, he tells the ferryman, Vasudeva that he has nothing to offer back to him. Vasudeva replies by saying “you will give it to me some other time.

This can be rationalized as a positive Karma for Siddhartha; he was honest about his condition where he’s not able to pay back. This karma brings him back to the same situation after 20 years, when Kamala, a courtesan leaves behind their son after her death. This could be classified as a negative. Siddhartha and Kamala’s son does not wish to live with him, he feels his father is too wise and polite and does not harm him in any way. At the end, he runs away, this situation remind Siddhartha of the conversation he had with his own father, Brahman, when he wanted to leave home and a good life to attain Atman. In addition, life circle of karma has influenced me every now and then, either by doing good or bad to me. A negative example can be illustrated with a personal experience of an 8 year old friendship I always stood up for my friend, but never received the same amount of respect from her. I felt that she had taken a lot of disadvantage of my na'ive nature.

I realized this after couple of years but when I did I backed off and made her realize of her mistakes, which further led her to deprive from a good friend, This is when I felt that karma got back to her. Another reflection which has influenced the outlook on my life is the continuous learning we have throughout our lives from one another. I have learned a lot from the teachers, friends, family which is considered universal learning I believe that one of the honest, bitter and never ending learning we receive is through ourselves, In other words, we’re the only ones who can recognize our own mistakes from time to time; we tend to underestimate ourselves when we end up doing something wrong. As a human being, we have the ability to learn from ourselves just because some people cannot take criticism from others, however acknowledging our own mistakes helps us grow better and boost our confidence.

This is something I have learned in my life so fart Referring back to the novel, Siddhartha concludes on to his life teaching and learning’s, people he learned from such as, courtesan, old Samaras, Gotma, but the most he has earned from are the river and predecessorr In other words, most of his life experience came through the river which reflected on who he was, who he wanted to become and what he expected out of life. Moreover, the water reflection showed him his reality and his inner soler Next theme I discovered is that every day is a new beginning, we can use our mistakes from past to turn it into a success in future, A quote taken from the book “Now it’s over, I have awakened I have indeed awakened and have been born today’i. This reminds me of the time when I transferred to College from University and had become determined that I wouldn’t let my past effect me in any way. I felt that it‘s a new beginning and I shouldn‘t let go of this chance.

It was hard couple of times when I received a lower grad, I felt I was too harsh on myself sometimes but I reminded myself again and again everyday that I won’t let it happen again, it‘s a new beginning by coming to College and I should focus on making my present better, Such dilemma may involve choosing between two “rights” or self-determination and professional obligation”. Theorists recommend few steps in order to get through a dilemma which I believe is similar to what Siddhartha did, while he went through a hardship of dealing with his own son after Kamala had passed away. Vasudeva had recognized the problem but kept quiet for some time and spoke regarding this issue after few months Siddhartha understood his son‘s problem, the reason behind his disruptive behaviorr His son had never lived in a small village; he had only experienced a life of a city with luxuries.

Furthermore, Vasudeva helped Siddhartha come up with a solution of sending his son back to his home where he could be well taken care of but Siddhartha denied opting for this resolution because he fell for the greed of his son. He couldn‘t resist the fact that his son would leave him therefore, he went through his son‘s ill mannered behavior. He let him disrespect him and lived in a illusion that his son would start loving him back. Towards the end when things went out of control, his son ran away. Next congruent idea Can be defined in terms of symbolic power outlined in the textbook. Which is based on the power, expertise, influence attributed by clients This can be well defined through Siddhartha and Govinda’s relationship. Govinda adored his dear friend; he followed him in hope to gain knowledge. They both stayed together until Govinda met Gotma, the Illustrious One. Govinda feels the positive energy at the spiritual hermitage and decides to become a monk there.

He realizes his symbolic power at this point of time where he decides to follow Gotma, he gain his skills and gets influenced under the spiritual aspect. On the other hand, Siddhartha yet feels this is not his destination, he did not leave home in order to become a monk or to lead a life at one place, He had thought of something else and something completely different but he respected Gotma’s morals and identify. DOVETAIL (connecting together) One must find source within oneself. Taking knowledge from Gotrna is what Siddhartha thought to be right. Even though, he adopted his principles, morals and further used his own knowledge to lead his life. Whereas, in the textbook, Empowerment Perspective emphasizes on the individual determination.

Clients should straightforwardly indulge in the self-reflection which they believe would help them grow out of their concerns. As the textbook describes the clients experience as “Professionals recite what is not working but forget to value what has worked”.  In my opinion, Siddhartha made the right choice by considering Gotma’s knowledge and comparing it to his life theories. In other words, he believed one must gain knowledge from philosophers, teachers but shouldn’t necessarily lead life along with that, There was an incident when Govinda thought he found the perfect place to spend rest of his life. He felt Gotma’s spiritual hermitage is the right place for him and therefore decided to stay there, Siddhartha said nothing but accepted Govinda’s decision since it was his own decision. This incident reminded me of the contradictions between the text and novel philosophies. While comparing the textbook source, clients are left to find self reflection and work through their self determination which I oppose because when the clients seek out help from clinicians they should be able to feel secure while they are in the process of changing themselves.

Secondly, another challenging situation [wouldn‘t really like to contradict but something I observed is the continuous learning. The textbook refers to the clinician‘s prohibition on sexual or romantic relationships. The clinicians are restricted to exploit their needs for love or any sort of personal affection with their clients. This would further cause manipulation and can be identified as unethical, I agree with this ethical code since it focuses on the root of the problem and the clinician further has the ability to help and asses their clients without any attachments or guilt. 0n the other hand, Siddhartha gets involved in a sexual relation with Kamala, the courtesan. He finds her attractive and hopes to learn the art of love from her however forgets his goals which cause him to loath his own life after few years, which he identifies it as a wreck less life.

I agree with the ethical codes concept from the textbook but contradict with what Siddhartha did in the hope of learning love He was a conversant saint who craved for knowledgeable but love destroyed him at one point which he regrets towards the end. Last but not the least, if I was a clinician interviewer I would address such issues in an innovative approach by keeping my morals and ethics in mind If I was put into a situation where I had to decide between my views or follow another person‘s ideas, I would respect their ideas by acknowledging them, considering them and keeping them in mind.

Since, advice is always a helpful tool especially when it’s taken from an experienced, expert individual, However I would still use my intelligence and apply my theories on the situation similar to how Siddhartha applied them throughout his life, In addition, when it comes to continuous learning, I would describe myself as an individual who has experienced a lot in terms of continuous education I have had a hard time deciding for secondary education and have made wrong decisions before but when I realized how‘s it affecting me I ended up making the right decision at the end by going to College.

Furthermore, if I was put in a situation where I had to choose between knowledge of a saint, a dear friend or a follower, I would have chosen the spiritual hermitage similar to what Govinda did He chose the right path which he thought would be right for him, where as the path chosen by Siddhartha brought him to more suffer and pain at one point, which he did not want to experience Next, a contradiction that came across while I read the book and novel was the relationship between clinicians and their client, Siddhartha and Kamala. Siddhartha felt the need of love when he wanted to learn the art of love. If I were in such situation I would have probably been in a similar situation only if the relation was based on feelings and true love. I wouldn’t have gone ahead if I only had the desire to love since it would have left me with more regrets at the end just like. Siddhartha felt, when he felt he had lived a wreck less life so fart.

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