Of all the required reading books in 7th grade, the one that had the greatest impact on me was Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. The interesting thing is that I got it assigned at a Catholic school. It blended Indian asceticism with Buddhist thought and philosophy. It changed the way I saw the world, making me want to examine my own mind and life more closely rather than just regurgitate dogma. Buddhism stayed with me, and later in life, I became a Buddhist. I am still searching for and working toward my final enlightenment, the realization of emptiness.
Songs that had an impact on my life were Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence and Bridge over Troubled Water.
A movie that made me think a lot was What Dreams May Come, a 1998 American surrealistic fantasy drama film directed by Vincent Ward and starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr.
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