Terry Parker High School - Chieftain Yearbook (Jacksonville, FL)

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I See . . . Black, cold room something moving quickly through but it's not distinct. Safe except for a trace of fright. All of a sudden 1 was alone, lonely, thinking of the past. Dark but light, soft breeze blowing. I remembered something important, at least I thought it was. It's gone. I was running slowly at first then fast, as if running from something. It's over.-Suc Shaffer. ... a spring meadow still wet from the dew. The sun was just rising and the beams of morning sunlight reached through the trees to touch a single person standing alone in the meadow. The air was cool and freshsmelling and the dull morning gloom was broken by the sunlight.—David Holzapfcl. ... the same thing in all four songs. I saw a small mountain stream slowly descending and building up force, faster, faster, then the climax, the small mountain stream has grown into a raging river. Now I sec it plunging over the waterfall. ... a small boy maturing into a man. ... a surfer end his day by taking the perfect wave and coming out on top.-Mark Morrison. ... a person all slone. wrapped in dark clothing. It's windy, a dark winter night. He's very sad and cold and the world all around him is blurred. Me feels frightened. Even with people passing he is still very much alone and this has made him bitter. Me just keeps standing in one spot looking for something, but what?—Anonymous. . • - many opposite things. 1 saw birth, death, people running away from things. . . . life, it was Pink Floyd. 1 could just see people moving all over. really getting into the music and I was in the middle of it. it was all around me. I just felt like jumping up and down. I wish I could have . . . ... a man running and running ... I don't know from what, but to me it was funny. He just looked so scared. I wish I could have seen or known what he was running from.—Anonymous. ... a battlefield right after the battle, soldiers lying in blood but the life was still there. A flashback to the life of a graceful swan in a pond.—Anonymous. ... a sign of death . . . walking in a morgue, alone ... a guy about to shoot himself . . . the gun went off. it was really weird. . . . cold winter. Every picture seemed to be black and white, and death seemed to just loom in my mind.. I See. —Anonymous. Student Artist: Lena Snell. Medium: (Jhalk. Potpourri. 295

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Student Artist: Chuck Venable. Medium: Charcoal. I am young like hot fudge melted over ice cream. 1 am young like a newspaper printed and ready to go. I am young like grey putty pushed and pounded. I am young like orange fire taking a long time to die. I am young like whipped cream soft, white, and delicious. I am young like candy apples coated with sticky red. I am young, alive, yellow and cveryihing 1 want hut growing. 294 Student Poet: Jody Kuss.

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The Affinity of the Procedures to Achieve Unity in Siddharta and Demian. The processes to cffccl an inner peace in Ihe main charaters of Siddharta and Demian arc directly parallel. The attainment of Siddharta's mundane nirvana is analogous to Sinclair's discernment of his inner knowledge. Considering some of their stages in achieving their goals. Sinclair and Siddharta arc facsimiles, differing only in their temporal settings. Demion, in this aspect, merely accentuates Siddharta. Siddharta's goal was to find Atman-inner peace. Correspondingly, Sinclair's main aim was to reach an inner knowledge or understanding of himself. Both wanted to conquer the illusion of time and space (moyaj: both strove for reconcilement of two extremes: Siddharta's sensual and spiritual worlds. and Sinclair's light and dark worlds. They desired unity. Siddharta experienced variant modes of life before he appeased his quest for nirvana. Born a Brahmin, he was instructed by his father by means of the ancient Bhagavad-Gita and Vedas. But he forsnked the traditional methods of Brahmin instruction because they had already passed on to him all of their wisdom: But still his intellect was not satisfied. his soul was not at peace ... So he joined the Samanas to quench his thirst for peace. But the ascetics also were stagnant since neither the eldest Student Author Shyam Parynani. Samana nor any of the others had achieved nirvana. '1110 Samanas completely ignored the sensual life: therefore. Siddharta encountered the physical or sensual form of life in the town. Under the mango tree he realized that he had become materialistic and content with small pleasures yet never really satisfied. immediately, he renounced the town, wandered into the forest, reached the river, and stopped there only because of fatigue and hunger. In this river, he unexpectedly perceived the harmony and symmetry of the two worlds-both perpetual, consummate, all-embracing, intrcgal. and indiscerptible. Thus he conquered mayo and empirically awakened to the philosophy that the elements of the extremes were ... the stream of events, the music of life. Congruenlly. Sinclair peered into the worlds of good and evil. As Siddharta left his home, so Sinclair abdicated the entity of his parents who slighted the dark world. Therefore, he entered the evil world by drinking and reveling at the boarding house: but this sensual existence accompanied by continual loneliness was also inconclusive. Corresponding to Siddharta's revelation, Sinclair accidentally found totality in his picture of the hawk ... clambering out of the terrestial shell. Demian. who had instnicted Sinclair by means of unorthodox parables, advised him about Abraxas. Then Sinclair realized through the picture and Demian that he must acknowledge Abraxas, which was the deification of the union of good and evil. In each book the symbols of one who understood the unison and amalgam of nature are analogous. In Siddharta the indicators of nirvana are the bcautific smile and ra- diance. Vasudeva's smile was radiant . . . and now the same smile appeared on Siddharta's face ... his Self had merged into unity.” Buddha also possessed the secret smile . . . reflecting a continous quiet, and unfading light, and invulnerable peace.” Similarity, in Demian the sign of Cain represented the process of becoming aware and . . . striving . . . toward achieving a more complete state of awareness. Demian. Frau Eva. and Sinclair bore this mark of Cain with the brightness which illuminated their foreheads. Comparatively, the two signs with their' radiance revealed the characters who strove for an understanding of their inner selves. Thus Siddharta and Sinclair attained their goal of self-knowledge and pacification. They had to live and endure the so-called distinct extremes of good and evil or spiritual and sensual entities. They discovered that there could be no distinction between the two worlds: man-made differentiation was but an illusion to conquer. The affirmed, the inseperability and perpetuity of life: they both became one who has found salvatU who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of life . . . belonging to the unity of all things. They exhibited their awakenings through a special sign. There was no single, universal sign which signified nirvana, but no unique sign could be an indicator of unity since nirvana cannot be reached through a traditionally taught set-pattern. Each one must seek his own destiny through his own exclusive, atypical manner.