Great Work, what are the philosophies?

[vanityofvanity]

Hello scholars,

I just finished reading Siddhartha and found out that it's a marvelous work. But I'm more interested in the philosophy of it. What are the philosophies that involved in the work, do you know? I'm eager to hear from you all.

[LittleVoodoo]

I studied Philosophy and one of my professors was kind enough to let me explore both Siddartha and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintence as I was interested in Eastern Philosophy. He thought these two books were great intros to Eastern Philsophy from a Western point of view, but he said that Western and European Philososphers didn't really consider traditional Eastern thought Philosophy, it is too close to religion. Not only do we seperate the church and state, we tend to seperate the spirit and the mind.

[Turk]

Buddhism. Siddhartha is almost a biography of Buddha Gautama.

[fiorella]

For me, Hinduism is the religion that is most seen throughout the novel. The novel is about Siddhartha, trying to find a path to happiness and salvation and wisdom. Hinduism is about a search or quest for the truth. The quest is what is important and the things you encounter and learn on your own (because knowledge can be taught but wisdom can not). The Bhagava-Gita explains that a person must follow an arduous path because there must be action in order to attain wisdom. The final stage in the path is absolute wisdom which is what Siddhartha is looking for all along. The novel is the story of his “path”. Buddhism is also frequently seen throughout the novel. I believe it’s the only religion truly named in the novel. Govinda finds peace with the Buddhists and decides to stay with them while Siddhartha finds a flaw and essentially rejects them and continues on his path. I beg to differ, this is not by any form a biography of Buddha. It’s actually ironic that the character’s name is Siddhartha since he leaves them. Another religion that could be traced in this book is Taoism. The teachings of Taoism emphasizes various themes such as detachment, naturalness, receptiveness and the three basic teachings are compassion/kindness, moderation/simplicity and humility/modesty which are all seen, especially when Siddhartha spent time with the Samanas.