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Essay On Deprivation In Siddhartha

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I lived in the Middle East during the last two years; one of the Islamic traditions I learned there was fasting. I wandered the feeling and reason for suffering a whole month. My friend told me that understanding only comes from personal experience. Seeking for the answer to my question, I chose to fast in the Muslim tradition for the Siddhartha project, a one-week opportunity to undergo deprivation. I supposed the experience would be full of physical pain; however, I learned much more than simply dealing with hunger. Through fasting, I was able to understand others in a better way, and therefore empathize them. I felt and learned the power of empathy. Meditation led me to empathize with others by reflecting on my personal experience. During …show more content…

While I was doing research for fasting rules, I noticed one of them was to not complain. I wondered the significance of stop people from complaining. To answer my question, I memorized the rule and carefully tried to practice it. Though I noticed that I broke the rule several times, I was content with my attempt. Once during dinner time, I heard other students complain about their sufferings. Sitting by them, I tried to stop myself from entering the conversation. I noticed that the dinner table was filled with negative emotions. I felt depressed after hearing all the grumbles. Finally, on Friday, the last day of deprivation week, I shared my concerns with my roommate. However, she criticized for my grumbling. I was shocked with full of regrets and guilty that I ignored my roommate’s feeling when I selfishly inject my personal negative thoughts to her. At the same time, as both a complainer and a person who was complained to, I totally understood her feelings. When others complained, I felt like they were copying their hardships and paste these hardships on mine. I found myself similar to them that I never considered other’s difficulties before groaning about mine. Reflecting on myself, I found that it is the selfishness and a lack of empathy that caused me to complain. Learning from the experience, I discovered the importance of …show more content…

Although I had sufficient meals in morning and evening, I was still hunger during day time. I played tennis on Wednesday. While running on the court, I felt extremely dehydrated and starving. When I hit the ball, I suddenly felt that I was going to fall down because I was shaky and exhausted. I ran to the bathroom and squatted down. I was overwhelmed by my weakness that a sense of insecurity surrounded me. “I am weak”, I told myself, “I can not do this”. I suddenly reflected on my experience in Yemen. I was sitting in the car while I witnessed refugee children knocking on my window and tirelessly begging for food. In their eyes, I saw no anger but fear. All they worried about were the basic need of living: food. Many people, nowadays, fast to lose weight. For them, fasting shows their courage and persistence. They lose the sympathy to the poor who starve to death. However, many poor people, including labors and refugees, have to do heavy manual work for livings. In addition to physical pain, the poor also suffer mentally. For instance, the refugee children are always worrying about their next meals with no sense of secure. They have no hope to their futures. With the experience of working in hunger, I am able to relate my feelings to poor people’s feelings and show empathy toward them. Empathy, by definition, refers to one’s understanding

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