What does the river teach Siddhartha?

Adeeb

One of the things the river taught Siddhartha is that time doesn’t exist. The river, Siddharthas final teacher, was at one place at all times constantly flowing signifying that everything we live with is unified and that only the present is what is important. Everything in the river including the voices, goals, sufferings and more come together until they could not be told apart. The voices together created a single word, Om. He learnt how to truly listen without thinking about anything else without having judgment only an empty mind waiting to be filled with what is being said like how Vasudeva would do.. The river also taught that he too would have to repeat what happened to his father and suffer for his son.

Siddhartha 12. Who are the child people

The child people are the normal people, the people that are only interested in material possessions and the objects of the physical life. They live in an animal like fashion where they worry about money, petty pleasures and petty honors, these things are also what they value in life. This style is the complete opposite from the samanas who lead a life looking for more gains in the spiritual aspect. The child people were complaining over hardships that the samanas simply smiled at. The secret is that they can love, they can love the money they have or the people they are with. A weakness they have is that they can not truly know their inner self, never will they be able to perceive what’s on the inside.

Golden age of Greek Civ

Adeeb Noorani         

Comp Civ

Oct. 29

The Greeks lived in what we depict the “Golden Age” of civilization with their many contributions and discoveries to society. There are certain main factors as to why they were believed to have made such a great impact, they raised the bar in many fields and achieved such high level achievements. Theses forces were so big that they were enough to make people think that at that time it was when society was at its ideal stage.

The first picture is of a body of armor that a soldier would wear out to battle. This is a key representation of Greece, an example is Sparta, a city that demonstrated great military power. Not only did Greece have mighty armies but they developed certain strategies and equipments to be better than the rest. The Greek hoplites were foot soldiers, the military format they made was the phalanx formation, which is a group of soldiers grouped together to make an impenetrable brick. The production of bronze weapons and armor with their intense military training gave them a cunning edge over their enemies which in turn let them protect themselves like they did with the Persian and were given the chance to advance in different fields.

The second picture is that of an “Olympics” vase, the first Olympic game in 776 B.C. was in honour of the god Zeus. These events were one of the developments that marked the ending of the dark ages of Greece, a period that was much different than the accomplished time of the golden age. With its help Greece was able to declare a sacred truce between the disunited city-states forming an authentic community which was never really there before. The sense of rivalry and competitiveness with these games actually brought people closer establishing a greater relationship between the once fragmented city-states.

The third is a statue of Polyclitus, an ancient Greek sculptor. The realness in which he is portrayed, with such lifelike characteristics is what stood out from the Kouros style of the Archaic period. Greek art is mainly five forms architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery and jewelry making. Modern art today has been affected by Greek art such as influencing our representation of the human figure with their male figures. Greek theatre in Athens grew rapidly after Xerxes led the Persians to invade Athens and succeeded in burning it down. After that the town was rebuilt and theatre became an even bigger part of their culture, this is known as the golden age of Greek drama. The prosperity arts brought is not just material but intellectual also, they practiced these in the purest forms and many wish they could go back and hone their skills as the Greeks did.

All of these contributions along with many more illustrate the endeavor the Greeks put in to create what is now known as the “Golden Age” of civilization. In society today, many of the aspects have been built off of what they did, so many believe that back then, at the beginning of these great discovery’s was when a pure community was taking place.

Describe the lifestyle and outlook of Siddhartha as a Samana

When Siddhartha became a Samana he quickly adopted their lifestyle and gave away his robe to the poor and ate only once a day. He saw the way people conducted themselves and slowly everything became unworthy to him, life was bitter. His single goal was to become empty of desires, dreams, joy and sorrow. If he was able to be freed from all these things he believed he would be able to achieve enlightenment. The teachings he learned from the elders helped him to stray from the path of ego, and to be able to meditate to the point where you can enter any form of life. But the paths they taught him ultimately led him back to where he started it was one big cycle. Siddhartha tells Govinda that the eldest Samana has not reached nirvana, and he believes that non of them will be ale to with the way things are now. All the meditation and abandonment of the body is just a brief answer and way out but always ends back up where you began, a brief numbing, Siddhartha says the Samanas are the same a drunk. Since the time spent with the Samanas could not satisfy his thirst for answers so he decided to go and see what the Buddha had to offer

Rome

Adeeb Noorani

Comp. Civ.

Nov. 27                                                   

The death of Julius Caesar done by the Senate was a precaution they had to make. Caesar was getting too powerful and the well being of the Republic was at stake so like with a mother with her child the Senate decided to eliminate the threat. His death and the way it happened surely wasn’t the most moral way it could have been done but it was something they had to do.

Gaius Julius Caesar was a very good military strategist and tactician but the qualities he had such as his arrogance and thirst for power were too overwhelming.

In 60 B.C. when he joined the First Triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey he gained control of Cisalpine Gaul and southern Gaul. This was when the Senate started to feel worried about the power he possessed. In 53 B.C. Crassus was killed so this left just Pompey and Caesar as the two rulers of Rome, of course they each wanted it for themselves. The Senate wanted Caesar to return to Rome as a private citizen but with his fear of losing power he would not, he then did what was illegal, that is crossing the Rubicon. Caesar started a civil war, he fought and defeated Pompey, and this aggressive act he did is what gave the Senate even more reason to collude a plan together. By him taking Rome by force he destroyed the system in which he wanted to flourish in.

In 46 B.C. Caesar appointed himself dictator for life, this was unheard of he was slowly gaining more and more power. And later on he became Pontifex Maximus, resulting in him essentially being in charge of all the decision making, at this point it was thought that he was more of a king than conservator of the republic and Rome still held hatred for its old kings. Not only was he gaining control in the government but with the people as well. Caesar was wining control of the entire Rome world and didn’t seem to be stopping his expansion of power, this gave panic to the Senate as they thought he would come for their power next.

The Senate was beginning think that the power would get to his head and he would soon forget about Rome. Even thought he was a great leader he was becoming too powerful, almost god-like. So by then conspiring together and killing him they utterly saved Rome while there was time left. If they had just sat back and watched him grow it would be the same as if they destroyed Rome itself and they could not live with that.

Caesar was a great and powerful leader and even though he was killed it does not mean that he didn’t do good things for the empire. He led Rome to become a very powerful city, but his obsession with his own importance is what led him to his death. The conspirators including Brutus did an honorable thing, they sacrificed a great leader for the sake of the Roman empire.