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I have just finished reading Siddhartha for the second time (the first was in high school), and I wept the entire last chapter because it was so beautiful. These days, the word beautiful is extremely overused, but this work truly is beautiful. The writing is so simple and yet so profound. Reading Siddhartha is like meditating; I sat in one spot for hours, completely oblivious to the world, and read it from start to finish. It seemed as if it whispered secrets to my soul.
I agree that it was a wonderful book, the one thing I didn't like so much was how the Native Americans place so much emphasis on things they cannot explain. I realize that is just ignorance on my part but isn't it hard to grasp some of the concepts because they aren't tangible?
Ahhhhhh.. Siddhartha. That book had a major impact on me. The first time I read it I was about 17 and searching for some answers. I had this friend, an older friend that I looked up to quite a lot, who fielded some of my questions at the time. Questions that often get ignored, sadly; such as: 'Who am I? What is this all about, anyway? What am I doing here?' Well my friend reccomended Siddhartha. It opened my eyes to a whole new perspective and confirmed some suspicions I had, i.e. that people are suffering partly due to attatchment to the passing names and forms of this world.
Anyway I have moved away since then from the principal message taught in that book. It will always signify a new beginning for me though.
Well... no native americans in Siddhartha, but I feel like intangible things are perhaps the only thing worth talking about. A world with just the tangibles seems empty. The intangible is what inspires people to write. Love, hate jelousy, faith, anger...all these things are intangible too.
Kadamba, I was 17 and looking for answers too when I read Siddhartha for the first time. It was the first time I ever encountered someone else thinking the same way I do about certain things. For instance, I've always had truble with a definate system of right and wrong. It has always seemed to me that everything is "right". Or maybe more so that right and wrong don't exist at all. I've just never been able to separate the baby, from the murder, from the feeble old man.
Other things though, I don't agrree with. For instance, I don't think that detatchment from "this world" can bring peace. I think it needs to come more through an active agreement with the world.
Regardless of agreeing or disagreeing with the themes of the book, it is beautifully written. To quote someone who I don't remember, Siddhartha is a "still point in a turning world." During the time I read it, it truly transported me out of this hapless world of action into the world of thought.
Right and wrong. When we talk about a person in a baby body or an old man body, there is no concious decision involved. However, when a person decides to act in a particular way then automitically that action is subject to judgment. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not putting myself in the position of judge, I've just heard on good authority what some examples of right and wrong are. For example, it's wrong to r*pe (cybersitter, sorry) somebody. You have to be pretty hard hearted to refute that. There is a whole nonsense movement these days which basically states that a person can do whatever they want, based on their desires, because that's 'who they are'. Sorry, but that's based in ignorance. We could discuss that further but I'm not sure how much of a philosphical discussion we're looking for here.
'I don't think that detatchment from "this world" can bring peace. I think it needs to come more through an active agreement with the world. '
We agree here. Perhaps I should have placed emphasis on the word 'partly' in my previous post. What I mean to say is that one part of the problem is attatchment to the detremental aspects of the material world. But detatchment as a principle means for resolution or peace or whatever you would like to call it.. is inadequate. It is compared to taking a nail out of your foot. Great, I got the nail out, now what? The living being has an inherent tendency to love and be loved. If we attempt to abandon everything altogether, we will fail due to our need for a loving relationship. This brings up another problem, in that we attempt to satisfy this need for a loving relationship by placing our love on someone who is imperfect like ourselves. But that's a whole other subject...
A few apologies here, Piquant, and whoever else may be reading. I tend to write with a negative undertone and I'm sorry. Also this is a literature forum and I have gone off track, perhaps.
Thank you for sharing and please forgive me if I have been rude in my approach.
Siddhartha is beautifully written, as you said. I'm out of breath :p
i was 16 the first time i read it and 18 the second time i did, for school purposes. Both time i hated it. All that find yourself stuff...bleah...moreover in an indian 'new-age;)' environment...oh dear that kind of thing irritates me!
Just my very own humble opinion anyway...(and sorry about how terrible the langauge is in this post of mind, my brain is numb today so i express myself in this poor way).
Kadamba,
Sorry I disapeared from this discussion for so long; I just moved and didn't have internet access.
I believe in a superficial need for right and wrong. It is wrong to rape someone, it is wrong to murder someone, etc. For the purposes of keeping an organized society and for keeping any amount of sanity when making life decisions, we need right and wrong. Without it everthing would fall apart. You state correctly that people would act based on their desires.
However, underneath this concept of right and wrong I believe lies the fact that everything simply
is, that evil can lead to good, and good can lead to evil, and that it is absolutely impossible to separate the two. I think that the concept of good and evil was given to us as a much needed guideline about how to live our lives. A person cannot be evil. An act in a particular moment of time cannot be evil. All is leading to something else, a larger picture.
Perhaps the best way I can explain what I mean is this... In music, there are certain chords that go together, certain keys, etc. These all have a certain set of rules that they follow to create music that is pleasing to the human ear. However, at certain times these rules are broken to form dissonance. Alone, these combinations are repulsive and make you cringe. But the hand of a talented musicion can incorperate disonance into their piece to make it all the more beautiful.
I'm sorry I'm so confusing and longwinded in what I'm trying to say. Sometimes I even lose myself. Well, I hope what I was saying is somewhat intelligble. ;)
Lone crane makes its way
over charcoal autumn skies.
Twilight--still homeward.
It was a beautiful novel concerned with eternal happiness.
It was utter tripe.
I wonder that why you did not like such a beautiful novel.Quote:
Originally Posted by EAP
Heh, I got it for Xmas and read it a week ago. Quite good, no revelation or anything though. Just comforts me in my idea that you need to be yourself.
I've read Siddhartha and it's a great work. Anyone would like to discuss the philosophies that involved in it? I think it contains a lot of Fr. Norris Clarke's philosophy. What do you think? Let me know
Siddhartha is like Hesse's counter manouver, usually the christian ideas were attempting to be transformed into something understandable for the east, this book tries to make the east relatable to the west.
It is one of my favorite books of all time.
Although required for my English class, I have enjoyed the novel so far. It is a beautifully executed work with far reaching ideas that transend the physical being of a piece of processed wood.
My two cents.
freaky I wonder if this is the universe telling me to read this?!http://www.smilies.smileyville.net/smilies/323.pnghttp://www.smilies.smileyville.net/smilies/550.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by piquant
I share your opinion. When I read Siddhartha, I personally felt this attachment to the character and his life journey. From this book, I then learned a little about the concept of OM in Hinduism, which represents the significance of God, Creation, and the One-ness of all creations. If you like Siddhartha, you might also want to check out The Journey to The East. It's not as good as Siddhartha (IMHO), but the story probably will also nail you to your chair :nod:
I enjoyed reading "Siddhartha" a lot, but I like other Hesse's books much more- "Steppenwolf", for example. I still haven't finished "Glass bead game", but I intend to as soon as I have some free time.
Boris, you might also want to check out Beneath The Wheel , which is Hesse's first novel. It is the story of how people's selfish expectations and ambitions ruined someone's life, which ended up with a tragic death.
Oh my god! What a masterpiece it is! Not only in its simplicity in telling the story of a man seeking truth and finding it in the simplest way. But the more complex story of Siddhartha (being the historical Buddha's birthname) visiting the Buddha himself, and turning away from him realizing that the truth is something that can only be found walking your own path, not following in another's footsteps. What a profound statement this is. Imagine how much religious conflict could be calmed if people stopped following in the footsteps of idols, and instead viewed them as milestones on the journey. Which is to say: if people could learn to see religious psymbols (such as saviour figures) as metaphors for what is inside all of us... Then we could see that there really is only one spiritual message that is spoken in numerous religious languages.
There is much to be said in favor of what you have said about "walking your own path", the other side of which maybe about being witout a leader, or a guide.
However, it may be perilous.
I read something in Shakespeare recently where a character says to another,
"In following you, I follow myself".
Seemed to me to be the answer of the problems of leading and following.
I am inclined to believe that what Sidharta came to know he learnt and that he was taught by one higher than him, with whom he may have merged at some stage.
The mythology is not clear about this.
Oh indeed! Along the Hero's Journey there are guides, there must be. No one really goes it alone if they know how to trust in the guides that the spirit sends. Buddha's first thought after achieving enlightenment was: This cannot be taught. But then he reasoned: What I teach isn't Buddhism, but the way to Buddhism. In Siddhartha, his greatest teacher was the ferryboat man.Quote:
Originally Posted by A MM
Hello SB
I have not read Siddharta yet. However, I am somewhat familar with the Buddhism story.
After I have finished reading Hesse's Steppenwolf, which I have just begun reading, I hope I will be able to get into the Siddharta book.
Nice to meet you here.
Thank You! There is also a movie. It was made in India.Quote:
Originally Posted by A MM
Much Metta to you my friend.
Hmmmmm....."How did I hate this world of the rich, of those who revel in fine food, of the gamblers! {is this a question? Who knows?} How did I hate myself, have deprived, poisoned, tortured myself, have made myself old and evil" :bawling:Quote:
Originally Posted by Pensive
I chopped the tedious prattle at this point. Any considerate author is keen where one sentence ends, and another begins. Tripe interests a select few and fails to adhere the art of persuasion. The uneccessary exclamation points, incohent neverending sentences, and the writer hiding behind questions to avoid honest rhetoric. Bleck! :sick:
Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is beautiful, Hess' "Siddhartha" is a grammatic slaughterhouse. "Tripe" is a generous description.
If you already read "Sidharta" you probably know what Siddharta is looking for, and this is Enlightenment. He is looking for Atman inside himself.(Atman is God). In the beginning he joins the ascetics and he tries to hide himself from the world and imerge in the world of the samanas, a world that is absolutely parallel with the world we are living in. But, at some point he realizes that hiding from the world and specially from the worldly pleasures won't lead him to Enlightenment and he decides to leave the samanas and go and experience samsara , which basically represents the world we are living in and of course this will be the longer period for him and this alludes to our own lifes in samsara. Finally, as he founds Enlightenment , he discovers compassion and human love and the most important thing,the middleway between the pleasures of the world and the ascetics's life. In the end we realize that no matter how much life splits from its source , everything seems to gravitate back towards it.
Beautiful novel!