Words of wisdom like siddhartha

[rin]

If any of you have seen the forbidden kingdom you might remember this little speech.

Kung Fu...
Hard work over time to accomplish skill.
A painter can have kung fu.
Or the butcher, who cuts meat everyday with such a skill that his knife never touches the board.

Learn the form, seek the formless.
Hear the soundless.
Learn it all, and forget it all.
Learn the way, and then find your own way.
The musician can have kung fu, or the poet, who paints pictures with words and makes emperors weep. This too is kung fu.
But do not name it, my friend. For it is like water.
Nothing is softer than water, yet it can overcome rock.
It does not fight, it flows along the opponent.
Formless, nameless. A true master dwells within.
Only you can free him.

Little duo-monologue from Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The kung fu stuff doesn't really fit but I thought the whole "Learn the way, and then find your own way." part was basically siddhartha.

anyways awesome read, liked it, maybe ill go read some more hesse. shame i'll prolly never get to visit india :(

[Silas Thorne]

This was ripped off from Zhuangzi, Laozi, Bruce Lee's understanding of some of this philosophy, and the Chinese idea of gong fu, which conveys the idea of hard work over a long time to develop a skill. 'Learn the way then find your own way' is common to a lot of martial arts , but this may have also been from Bruce Lee's ideas.

Siddhartha was seeking enlightenment though.

It is perfectly possible to be a highly trained psychopath who has gongfu, although such a person will not have wude, which means 'martial virtue'.

I love the book Siddhartha though. :) It' so pictorial. I can read it and then replay all of the images in it through my head like a dream.