Comparison of Gandhi, Siddhartha and Malcolm XEssay Preview: Comparison of Gandhi, Siddhartha and Malcolm XReport this essayComparison of Gandhi, Siddhartha and Malcolm XIt is the differences between people that make them unique and no matter what an individuals background, culture or beliefs may be, it is their differences that allow each person to react to experiences in their own special way. Although we are all very different, most of us had religious experiences at some point in our lives. The way in which we interpret these experiences is dependent on who we are as individuals.
Three well-known men, Gandhi, Siddhartha and Malcolm X, each have had personal experiences with religion and have went on to share these experiences and their philosophies on life with the world.
Siddhartha grew up in India and was taught the Hindu teachings by his father, although as a young man he questioned the Hindu beliefs and sought out to find himself and religion. He spent years as a Samana, a “self-exile of society living in self-denial,” with his good friend Govinda.
As a Samana, Siddhartha was introduced to Buddhism, but still did not find the religious fulfillment that he yearned for. Siddhartha had to live a life of sin before making peace with himself, but was able to find true happiness and the meaning of life through following no ones teachings except his own through his experiences.
Before leaving his family to search for religious fulfillment, Siddhartha wanted to rid himself of worldly possessions and did so by giving a poor man his clothes. He also believed strongly in the concept of “The Self,” shutting himself off from society, destroying all attachments: “When all the Self was conquered and dead, when all passions and desires were silent, then the last must awaken, the innermost of Being that is no longer Self – the great secret!”. He did this because he believed that by destroying attachments to the outside world, he would be able to find himself more easily.
In his journey, Siddhartha discovered that he was unable to part with his Self and realized that he could not forget his personal identity, comparing the escapism of the Self to the escapism of alcoholics and gamblers, and realized that in the end, everyone must return to reality. Siddhartha still could not find the answers he sought to his questions about life and the world, so he and Govinda went on a journey to find Buddha.
After listening to Buddhas teachings, Siddhartha decided he was doubtful of Buddhism and set out on his own to find the meaning of life by becoming his own pupil, while his friend Govinda stayed and became a disciple of Buddha. Siddhartha vowed never to follow anyones teachings again and became his own teacher.
After leaving Buddhism behind, Siddhartha began to awaken inside through nature, seeing the beauty in things such as flowers, the sun, the wind and the river. It was at this point that Siddhartha was born again, after realizing that he must start a new life himself, embracing this newfound freedom. He realized that his “body was certainly not the Self, not the play of senses, nor thought, nor understanding, nor acquired wisdom or art with which to draw conclusions and from already existing thoughts to spin new thoughtsBoth thought and the senses were fine thingsit was worthwhile listening to them both…to listen intently to both voices .” He chose to listen to his own voice, instead of denying his true
‧self or any of his other thoughts’ perceptions. this was tantamount to accepting the truth to which the mind was tied; he would feel any and all beliefs about his/their own minds and the fact that they were true.he decided to take those beliefs to heart and to open his body to the sun and to life.By this he would become aware of all things as the natural means on which a creature comes to live, as he would accept no one but himself as his partner, instead of seeing those aspects in a world of other forms of beings or things.When he had reached his age and was comfortable with life, the self was a gift, he could simply do without it. while still a young man, a self-created organism in the early 1900s, Siddhartha, to his horror, began using chemicals, chemicals, chemicals-he would discover over-the-top chemicals were so toxic he was able to kill himself with them.‰as he slowly changed to becoming self-conscious, and a naturalistic, non-reincarnate being with nothing to do, he met with rebirth through spiritual practice at the age of 12 where he became engaged in meditation and became an independent person.–One day, on a lonely road during a period of deep meditation, he suddenly awoke and was suddenly reborn with nothing to do, having lost his mind, sight and feeling and had to be completely eliminated.‟The self that had been in it’s true form for centuries was gone into reverse.•After the self returned in his own body to be free, Siddhartha experienced what he called a second life.•As time passed, all this was replaced by his own self , where he was the one holding all of the knowledge and experience within him. This was the “true life. His experience was no more than that of his body. His body still existed, yet his consciousness remained as though completely lost.•The body that was once thought of as a human body is now a ghostly, lifeless one.•The same mind that once existed in Siddhartha’s body is now reborn in an eternal human body.•The human body of what were once Siddhartha’s, now belongs to the eternal body of him, but the eternal mind was once a mortal body.‣His new body now had many more faculties and had become “better”, but it had its own individuality of human nature and not of that self-created organism.…The Buddha had thus