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.
Depression
"He [Siddhartha] saw merchants trading, princes hunting, mourners wailing for their dead, whores offering themselves, physicians trying to help the sick, priests determining the most suitable day for seeding, lovers loving, mothers nursing their children—and all of this was not worthy of one look from his eye, it all lied, it all stank, it all stank of lies, it all pretended to be meaningful and joyful and beautiful, and it all was just concealed putrefaction. The world tasted bitter. Life was torture."
Not just any depression, but it sounds like severe depression. Everything is poisoned by Siddhartha's mindset. Is this is genetics? Is there significant issues/trauma from his childhood that the books ignores?
This is from Hesse's mother, who also suffered from mental illness, about Hesse:
"The little fellow has a life in him, an unbelievable strength, a powerful will, and, for his four years of age, a truly astonishing mind. How can he express all that? It truly gnaws at my life, this internal fighting against his tyrannical temperament, his passionate turbulence [...] God must shape this proud spirit, then it will become something noble and magnificent – but I shudder to think what this young and passionate person might become should his upbringing be false or weak."Govinda Buys the Hype
"This myth, this rumour, this legend resounded, its fragrance rose up, here and there; in the towns, the Brahmans spoke of it and in the forest, the Samanas; again and again, the name of Gotama, the Buddha reached the ears of the young men, with good and with bad talk, with praise and with defamation."
Hesse's parents were missionaries in Indian. Hesse's parents generation were bringing back the myths, rumors, and legends of the Buddha (and eastern religions/philosophies) to Europe. When Hesse grew up in the late 19th century Germany, he would have been witnessing and or reading westerners' reactions to eastern ideas.
Govinda believes in the Buddha before he hears from the Buddha. He buys the secondary sources and rumors. Siddhartha doesn't. Did Hesse buy the hype? Was he somewhat annoyed, like Siddhartha about people like Govinda making assumptions prior to reading the ideas for themselves?
One of my favorite explanations of the novel Siddhartha is that the novel is Hesse's response to Buddhism. This is a slight spoiler, Hesse likes Buddhism, but he doesn't think it's correct. This novel is Hesse's answer.
Jesus
"I have no desire to walk on water."
I always love that line. It's a funny slap in the face to Jesus, whose teaching I like. Hesse and thus Siddhartha have no time or patience for performing miracles. Siddhartha/Hesse are sick, suffering depression, seeking a cure. They want to save themselves. They have little if any faith in the idea of saving others. This line is a funny throwaway line to dismiss Christianity.
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"
Good observations. Wanna hear something weird? I remember very little of this from when I read it for the first time a few years ago. So, this re-read is great.
ReplyDelete1. I find it fascinating Siddhartha's practices learned from the samanas keep leading him out of his self, but then back to his self. He wants the "I" to disappear. I feel very much that impulse sometimes! But that's just blissing out, which is what the Buddha was pushing against. Buddha pitched the Middle Way. In this conditional world, there is no way to get rid of the "I," because that's what this existence is like. You can be together with everything, but the other side of the coin that you cannot get rid of is the "I." There is no running from the "I." But Siddhartha hasn't learned that here in the beginning yet. But I sympathize deeply with the frustration with that. In other news, Siddhartha dismissively decides, well, if the samanas can't teach me anything, seeking knowledge is a waste of time. Siddhartha really comes off as a petulant, meaning-seeking, extreme teenager in these first two chapters. A really fascinating, amazing, stubborn, strong fellow ... but also not quite there yet. Which, of course, sets us up for the rest of the book!
Read "The Samanas." Will put my comments here.
ReplyDeleteHindus say you need to follow a guru. It's your own path, but following the guru, being guided, is an important way of becoming enlightened. It's you and your journey, but we all need help. Siddhartha fully rejects that and will go on his own. This will turn out good or bad for him.
Siddhartha has reached an internal step, seeing a true saint, and yet resolving strongly to seek his own way and not follow another's. For good or bad, it's how it is for him, which is kind of what Gotama says.
Siddhartha also points out the flaw in even a perfect system as Buddhism's causes and effects: Well, if everything is caused and effected, it's a perfect system, and it's done! That's the flaw, says Siddhartha, that people need to be relieved of suffering. And Gotama comes back with, "Hey, dude, you think it's better for these people to go back to their old lives?" Siddhartha's like, "No." And Gotama's like, "Hey, guy, your talking and thinking is very clever. Watch out for that." There's something powerful about a call to respect the limits of logic and reason.
Siddhartha's path is VERY reminiscent of the American Transcendentalists, who said every person is on their own journey, and you should abandon credos, religions, belief systems, heroes and villains, great works, etc., and forge your own path. But ... BUT ... that extreme take makes idols of self-knowledge and freedom ... which, we hope, Siddhartha rejects.
Sometimes following a disciplined path, as Govinda is about to do, is the right path. Sometimes it's not. Everyone needs to figure that out, but also, as Gotama implies, maybe it's not good that "going it alone" is a goal. There's nothing necessarily laudatory, perfect or virtuous about going it alone ... any more or less than sacrificing for the group or respecting and following old traditions just because.
I'm sure some theology and philosophy majors can tear this book's arguments and ideas bare to the sunlight of criticism ... but it seems a fairly wonderful myth for dissatisfaction with life and human thinking and suffering.
You got your book! I added Ch 3 and 4. I''ll try to add Ch 5 soon!
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