Gene
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
I read Siddhartha the first time when I was 21 years old. That was 37 years ago. I reread the book at least once a year to calibrate my growth along the Path. I have walked the path of the aesthetic, been a man of business, known the emptiness of passion, and have met the rejection by my own son of my values (unlike Siddhartha I was able to reinstate our relationship, but then I was always there with him through his formative years). I am living in a rural area far from the city. In the quiet of my pasture I find the river. I am long way from enlightenment, but I am on the Path. <br>I became aware of Hesse's magnum opus at the same time that I found St Exupery's The Little Prince, and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. These three books have been my guides through an "examined life." They have not always kept me on The Path, but when I have strayed which was often they brought me back with gentleness and understanding and forgiveness.