Eastern Spirituality
What is the essence of the Eastern Spirituality Narrative?
As last semester was coming to a halt, I found myself briefly studying Eastern Spirituality in my philosophy class. Actually I read a truly magnificent novel, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Though we only examined the text for a couple weeks, I did somewhat find myself intrigued by the Eastern Religions. Christmas came, spring semester started up and now as the end of this semester draws near, I find myself, again reviewing these Eastern Religions, Eastern Spirituality. The more I dig into the particular texts, the more I become more fascinated. Finding out who I truly am, who is Brian Michael DiPisa? In my philosophy class we quickly touched on this. Now I am seeing it all over again in two new books. Pema Chodron’s The Wisdom Of No Escape, Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness, accompanied by Siddhartha, which I read last semester, all have a driving central theme: Finding union with God, becoming one with yourself and God, ultimately to find out who you really are. So many of us tend to go through life not paying attention to our surroundings. Eastern Spirituality asks that we become more mindful and cognizant of the world around us. We, as Americans, tend to stick to a regular daily routine that sometimes entails performing tasks we absolutely despise. A lot of these terrible tasks are usually done by just going through the motions, not exerting passion or a care in the world about what is being done at hand. Eastern Spirituality simply wants us to embrace these types of tasks, step out of our comfort zone, and find self-satisfaction and awareness in what we do and who we are.
In Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, Hesse tells the story of a young Brahmin’s quest for ultimate reality and nirvana. Siddhartha encounters numerous events on his long journey that play into him finding out, who he really is. Meditation, and fasting were two of the many rituals Siddhartha would...