This year I'm reading the Dover Thrift Editions translated by Stanley Appelbaum, but most of my quotes are copied and pasted from the Standard Ebook, click here to read it free online.
Chapter Names
Six of the twelve chapters are named after characters in the story, but for some reason, only three of those chapters are named after the character. Gotama, Kamala, and Govinda all have their names in their chapters. Vasudeva doesn't! The two Siddhartha's don't either.
Why isn't the chapter named "Vasudeva?"
Listening is Being
Just be, or being in general, is the worst self help advice. But Vasudeva shows the readers that listening is being. He can sit and be. He doesn't have to interrupt, ask questions, or talk. He can be and listen, and this is medicine to a speaker. To someone like Siddhartha.
I don't know if it had to do with my age or the novel's proximity to Siddhartha, but it took me a long time to realize how much more awesome Vasudeva is than Siddhartha. I'm sure Vasudeva wasn't always this way. We meet him in his enlightened state as an old peaceful man. And still he shines brighter than Gotama.
Will the Real Buddha Please Listen Up
The narrator and Siddhartha praise Gotama constantly. Gotama is varying forms of perfect. Perfect look, perfect walk, perfect this and that. And yet, I don't believe he is the perfect one. Vasudeva is!
Vasudeva doesn't need others to praise him. He is. He smiles, nods, and listens.
Ain't No Help for the Seeker
"No, there was no teaching a truly searching person, someone who truly wanted to find, could accept. But he who had found, he could approve of any teachings, every path, every goal, there was nothing standing between him and all the other thousand any more who lived in that what is eternal, who breathed what is divine."
Part I
Day 1, 20 Dec- Chapter 1: "The Son of the Brahmin"
Day 2, 21 Dec- Chapter 2: "With the Samanas"
Day 3, 22 Dec- Chapter 3: "Gotama"
Day 4, 23 Dec- Chapter 4: "Awakening"
Part II
Day 5, 24 Dec- Chapter 5: "Kamala"
Day 6, 25 Dec- Chapter 6: "With the Childlike People"
Day 7, 26 Dec- Chapter 7: "Sansara"
Day 8, 27 Dec- Chapter 8: "By the River"
Day 9, 28 Dec- Chapter 9: "The Ferryman"
Day 10, 29 Dec- Chapter 10: "The Son"
Day 11, 30 Dec- Chapter 11: "Om"
Day 12, 31 Dec- Chapter 12: "Govinda"
Siddhartha finally learns, not through meditation or ascetic silence, to stop talking so much and listen. And he says he's abandoned teachers, and I think he means abandoned teachers, but not learning from teaching, because he's learning from the river. It was a stage where he needed to learn himself, for many years, without having a teacher offer wisdom. He found his own wisdom, through addictions and pain and luxury and dissatisfaction and sorrow and lots of judgment of those around him, the worldlings, and wondering how he compares.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting when we were first introduced to the ferryman chapters ago, he appears, suddenly. Siddhartha is just in his boat. BAM. And here, we meet the Ferryman for the first time ... before he was just a passing, small character.
I wish I knew what the world was trying to teach me! I wish I knew what the river was trying to teach me. Maybe I should find the river and listen!
Keep reading!
DeleteI'm not sure the river is or is trying to teach anything in this story. The river knows. The characters learn from it, but I'm not sure that is teaching. What do you think? Am I being too literal or pushing my assumptions?
"[Siddhartha] he was taught by the river." I was rereading looking for something else and here it is. In the passive voice, but still, the river taught!
DeleteI just added my reflection to the post.
DeleteThe abandoning teachers is like your phrase about the moon and the finger. Siddhartha never quits having teachers. Kamala, Kamaswani, Vasudeva, and the river are his teachers. He keeps learning. But he's abandoned all fingers!
This seems right to me too. By following a teacher, there is a disconnect or "small gap" between what the teacher knows and says. I can't say in all cases, but learning from a teacher and following a self directed path seems a lot more appropriate.
What do others think?
"No, there was no teaching a truly searching person, someone who truly wanted to find, could accept. But he who had found, he could approve of any teachings, every path, every goal, there was nothing standing between him and all the other thousand any more who lived in that what is eternal, who breathed what is divine."
ReplyDeleteSo ... I'm not sure because Gotama is followed by many students, and Vasudeva by nearly no one, that that makes Vasudeva's teaching better. Gotama is for all ... in fact, he challenged Siddhartha with a question, to paraphrase: "I see what you're saying, clever boy, about the imperfection of all this crowding and teaching, but would you rather these regular folks went back to being blind and selfish and meaner?" And Siddhartha says, perish the thought.
ReplyDeleteIn one respect, there's a way they say you can transcend, or accept, all the good and evil and judgmentalism ... but there's another way in which you need the rules and the wisdom and the community.
I'm reading about monastics right now, and community is essential: work for hours, pray for hours, read for hours. Two of those can be individual in some religions, but working for hours is almost always a communal activity. And the two other parts of the Benedictine Rule? Hospitality to guests ... and providing help to to others when they need it.
We think we are alone, but we are not ... but the standard, "Go serve others!" as a panacea for all problems when one is seeking for meaning in the world is also thin and cliche.
There is a huge selection bias. Ideologies, religions, science, etc. are go through their own natural selection, like Richard Dawkins' ideas about mems. The Vasudeva's can't have followers; they don't teach, preach, or write anything. When Siddhartha goes to learn, Vasudeva sends him to the river.
ReplyDeleteDo you read Gotama as more enlightened/righteous (whatever value you prefer!) than Vasudeva?