Siddhartha ~ Hermann Hesse

These are my (Doug's) notes and comments on the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

If you have not read it, I would recommend it.

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Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse, which deals with the spiritual journey of a boy known as Siddhartha from the Indian Subcontinent during the time of the Buddha. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s.

The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean “he who has found meaning (of existence)” or “he who has attained his goals.” The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as “Gotama.”

• The Art of Contemplation and Meditation - OM – breathing (mantra).

• Atman – Within the depth of his being, indestructible, at one with the universe.

• Goal: To become a God (?).

DCP: We are not God, and cannot be Gods, although we can and do have God’s spirit within us.

• Siddhartha (main character in the story) was not happy, no joy. (Siddhartha was born a Brahmin – an aristocrat.)

• Dreams and restless thoughts… seeds of discontent that the love from his parents and friends would not make him happy.

• Water, Siddhartha found, did not wash the sins away.

DCP: Baptism for Christians is symbolic of the washing away of sins.

• Where is our inmost self, the eternal, it is NOT thought or consciousness.

• Nobody showed the way, nobody knew it!

DCP: No guide. Christians have Jesus.

• Upanishads of Sama-Veda “Your soul is the whole universe.”

• We attain Atman when we sleep but cannot retain it in consciousness.

• It is “the source” within our own heart?

• Samanas – wandering ascetics.

• Siddhartha was going his own way; his destiny was beginning to unfold itself.

• “I will die.” Siddhartha chose death over not following his own destiny.

• Siddhartha’s father said: “If you find bliss, come back and teach it to me.”

• Siddhartha gave away his fine clothes (status).

• He fasted 14 days, then 28 days.

• Life for the Samanas just seemed to be illusions of sense, happiness, and beauty.

• The Samana goal is to let the self die.

• The peace of an empty heart, to experience pure thought that was his goal.

• Methods: Self-denial & meditation, pain, experiencing voluntary suffering, insensibility toward, hunger and pain.

• Lose self, live in non-being.

DCP:  Flight or escape from self is only temporary! Just like drug use!

• Are we on the right path? (Nirvana) To gain knowledge, wisdom, salvation.

• Not a circle, but a spiral.

DCP: The enemy of your spiritual core (Atman) is knowledge (learning) as it takes you away from “being” (essence of everything).

• Upanishads: “He whose reflective pure spirit sinks into Atman knows bliss inexpressible through words.”

• Goal is Nirvana (not reincarnation).

• Responded to anger through quiet resolution.

• Buddha – lost in thought, smiling gently inwardly, full of peace, free from suffering, the way to release from suffering, but the path to the release from suffering had been found.

• Buddha – “Join us then and walk in bliss, put an end to suffering.”

• “You have chosen your path.”

DCP: May you travel your own path, and find what you are looking for. May you find what you need, although you do not know what you are looking for.

• Renounce your own will…

• Buddha “As you wish.”

• “The unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying…”

• Giving over the will = Salvation from suffering.

• Buddha – self attained wisdom.

• Siddhartha – seek out enlightenment for himself (not following anyone else).

• Buddha – be on your guard against too much cleverness.

DCP: Thinking about feelings, creates knowledge.

• Siddhartha – left his former life behind.

DCP: Awareness of feelings leads to knowledge.

DCP: “You cannot be taught by another about yourself.”

DCP: “We cannot learn about what we are afraid of, so love yourself to learn about yourself.”

• Our purpose is to “know yourself.”  Aristotle “Know thyself.”

• The answer is not found in trying to escape your reality, but from living it fully.

• Meaning and reality is in everything.

• Awareness of our separateness. To be fully aware of ourselves, is to be fully aware of our separateness and individuality (aloneness).

• To be aware that we exist as humans in relation to others and God is to be aware of our great connectedness!

• Siddhartha – reality lay on the other side of the visible.

DCP: From my father talking about me in my 20s – “You are so heavenly bound, you are no earthly good.”

DCP: Miss the obvious, because we are not fully present in the moment and to each other.

DCP: To be aware of the moment is to belong to it. We cannot own the moment, but it can own us by capturing our entire focus (lost in the moment).

• Siddhartha: His self was Atman of the same eternal nature as Brahmin, but he had never really found his self, because he wanted to trap it into the net of thoughts.

DCP: Body is not self, sense is not self, thought can lead to understanding of self, but is not self.

• Zen: “Just as the finger that points to the moon, is not the moon.”

• Self is the voice in our heart.

• Ferry Man: (Secondary character in the story – a teacher – whom Siddhartha meets on his journey and again meets on his way back.) It is a beautiful river. I love it above everything. One can learn much from a river. (What is the river symbolic of in the story?)

DCP: To love God first…

• Ferry Man: I did not expect any payment or gift from you. You will give it to me some other time (karma).

• River Wisdom: Everything comes back to you. All are grateful, although they themselves deserve thanks.

• Why should I not attain, what I decided to undertake yesterday?

• Kamala: (Love interest in Siddhartha’s life.) “Has a Samana or Brahmin ever feared that someone could come and strike him and rob him of his knowledge, of his piety, of his power for depth of thought?” No, because they belong to him, and he can only give of them, what he wishes, and if he wishes. Love can never be stolen.

• Kamala: (In following through with your destiny.) You must do what you have learned.

• Siddhartha: I can think, I can wait, and I can fast. (This is what he learned from being a Samana.)

DCP: What can we do? (What is it that you are good at?)

• Genuine Pride: (Siddhartha saw himself differently.) He was suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of pride. He was a Samana no longer; it was no longer fitting that he should beg. He gave the rice cake to a dog and remained without food.

• Kamala: Do not be too modest. I do not want you to be his servant, but his equal; otherwise I shall not be pleased with you.

DCP: When we are in-tune with the universe, things happen for our good and for the good of those around us.

• Kamala to Siddhartha: “You have been lucky, one door after the other is being opened to you. How does that come about?”

DCP: The Law of Attraction… Being in the flow, being true to your destiny, being true to your core spirit.

• Power of Intention: “I made the first step. I made the resolution. I also knew I would execute it.”

• “When you throw a stone in the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom.”

DCP: Do not allow anything to interfere with your goal.

• Siddhartha: Everyone can reach their goal if they can think, wait, and fast.

• Siddhartha: “I am not in need and I have never been in need. I am without possessions, but of my own free-will, so I am not in need.”

DCP: The ability to choose is our greatest possession.

• Kamaswami: (Businessman whom Siddhartha worked for.) Conducted his business with care and passion.

• Siddhartha: Treated business as a game.

• Kamala: One cannot have pleasure without giving it. Every part of the body can give pleasure to one who can understand. Lovers should never separate after making love without admiring each other, without being both conquered and conquering. Neither feeling like you have used another or been used.

• He has the secret of those people to whom success comes by itself… he never fears failure; he is never worried about a loss.

DCP: What are we afraid to lose?

DCP: Rock Bottom: When we feel like we have lost everything. Help while the person still has something left to lose.

DCP: Why NOT change? What is keeping you where you are?

• Siddhartha: Enjoy each situation. “I learned much, had much pleasure, and did not hurt either myself or others, through annoyance or hastiness.”

• He found it easy to speak to everyone, live with everyone, learn from everyone. Siddhartha treated all people equally.

DCP: Be open to every opportunity, to learn from everyone. Show kindness when it is in your power to act.

• Real life was flowing past him, and did not touch him. His real self wondered on and on invisibly and had nothing to do with his life.

DCP: Be yourself – know inner peace. Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself, just as I can. Few people have that capacity and yet everyone could have it.

DCP: Be ok with yourself, and find inner peace.

• A few others are like stars, which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them; they have within themselves their guide and path.

DCP: Sex without love is real, but only for the moment. Sex with love is commitment—it is the promise of the eternal.

• Siddhartha: Lived a moderate life, took pleasure in thinking, in hours of meditation, secret knowledge of the self, of the eternal self, that was neither body nor consciousness.

• Siddhartha: Envied the people and the sense of importance with which they lived their normal lives, the depth of their pleasures and sorrows, and their continual power to love.

• Siddhartha began to suffer from the soul sickness of the rich, the expressions of discontent, of displeasure, of idleness, of lovelessness. Property, possessions and riches had finally trapped him.

• Siddhartha, who was only in his forties, had noticed gray hairs here and there in his black hair. Weariness was written on Kamala’s beautiful face, weariness from a continuing along a long path, which had no joyous goal, weariness and incipient old age…

• Siddhartha had a dream. Kamala had kept a small rare songbird in a golden cage. In the dream, the little bird was dead, and Siddhartha threw it away. As he was throwing it away, he felt like he had thrown away all that was good and of value inside of him.

• One of the holy verses said: “A path lies before you, which you are called to follow.”

DCP: What kind of a path have you walked? Straight and true, winding, doubling back, all up hill, or down, dark, or foggy?

• The day Siddhartha left all that he had, Kamala took her rare songbird, went to the window, and let it go. After a time, she found out that she was with a child as a result of her last time with Siddhartha.

• The songbird that Siddhartha had dreamt about was the bird in his own heart.

• Siddhartha reached the long river in the wood. Why should he go any further, where, and for what purpose?

• He looked down into the river, and bent with closed eyes towards death. Just then from a remote part of his soul, he heard a sound – OM. He awakened and realized the folly of his actions. He was horrified that he had considered, as his only way to find peace, was to destroy his body.

• Siddhartha fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, and when he awoke he looked at the world like a new man.

• When Siddhartha awoke he saw his friend Govinda, who had watched over him, but had not recognized him.

• I am not going anywhere; I am only on the way.

DCP: “The journey is the destination.”

• Remember the world of appearances is transitory.

• Siddhartha was aware of the Om in him and loved everything, he was full of joyous love towards everything that he saw, and it seemed to him that was just why he was previously so ill, because he could love nothing and nobody.

• Now he thought that all these transitory things had passed away from him. Nothing is mine, I know nothing, I possess nothing, and I have learned nothing.

• This path has been good, and the bird in my breast has not died. But what a path it has been! Just in order to become a child and begin again.

• I have now put an end to that self-detestation, to that foolish empty life.

• It is a good thing to experience everything oneself, he thought.

DCP: Body, fear, pride = Self.

• No teacher (no other person) can bring salvation (can give or bring to us what we need to obtain on our own).

• The new Siddhartha felt a deep love for the flowing water.

• Water Wisdom: He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment it was new. Who could understand this?

DCP: The water is like love; it is always there, always in abundance, and always new.

• Siddhartha: I have already been judged once today for my clothes… I should prefer to remain here as your apprentice…

• The ferryman is Vasudeva. It was one of the ferryman’s greatest virtues, like few people he had learned to listen. He did not await anything with impatience and gave neither praise nor blame—he only listened.

• Vasudeva – “It is as I thought, the river has spoken to you.”

• Siddhartha – Thank you for listening well, there are few people who know how to listen, and I have not met any who can do so like you.

• River Wisdom: You will learn, but not from me, from the river. You have already learned that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths.

• Out of the thousands of people I have taken across, to only a few has the river not been an obstacle. They heard its voice, and listened to it.

DCP: What is the river in your life? Is it an obstacle or an opportunity?

• Above all, Siddhartha learned how to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinions.

• Have you also learned that secret from the river that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at it’s source, at it’s mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry.

• It is everywhere, and that only the present exists for it, not the shadow of the past, or the sound of the future.

• They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of being, of perpetual becoming.

• A true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something.

DCP: Truth is relative. Truth has to be found from within.

• Siddhartha saw his own son. Kamala asked him: Have you found it? Have you found peace? Yes, I see it. I also will find peace.

• You have found it. Whispered Siddhartha.

DCP: Is it peace that we are looking for?

• After Kamala dies in his arms, Siddhartha was overwhelmed with a feeling of the present and contemporary existence. In this hour he felt more acutely the indestructibleness of every life, the eternity of every moment.

• I sat here and listened to the river. It has told me a great deal; it has filled me with many great thoughts, with thoughts of unity.

• Vasudeva: Your son will not be happy in this place.

• Siddhartha: How can I part from him?

• Vasudeva: But do you and I know to what path he is called? To what deeds? To what sorrows? His sorrows will not be slight. His heart is proud and hard. He will probably suffer much, make many mistakes, do much injustice and commit many sins.

• Vasudeva: You know that gentleness is stronger than severity, that water is stronger than a rock, that love is stronger than force.

• Vasudeva: Do you then really think that you have committed your follies in order to spare your son them? Which father, which teacher, could prevent him from living his own life, from following his own path? Even if you were to die ten times over for him, you would not alter his destiny in the slightest.

• Siddhartha: Was aware of the consciousness of all life. Yet, many times Siddhartha even doubted if this knowledge, this thought was of such great value?

DCP: What value is there in understanding anything? Even animals demonstrate tenacious undeviating actions – like the salmon spawning.

• WISDOM: Within Siddhartha there slowly grew and ripened the knowledge of what wisdom really was and the goal of his long seeking. It was nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling, and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment in life.

• Shared pain is a joy: As he went on speaking, and became aware of his listeners attentiveness. He felt his troubles, his anxieties, and his secret hopes flow across to his listener and then return to himself again. Disclosing his wound to this listener was the same as bathing it in the river, until it became cool and one with the river.

• All the voices in the river were interwoven and interlocked, entwined in a thousand ways.

• From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. There shone in his face the serenity of knowledge, of one who is no longer confronted with conflicts of desires, who has found salvation, who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of life, full of sympathy and compassion, surrendering himself to the stream, belonging to the unity of all things.

• Govinda: Are you a seeker of the right path? I have never ceased seeking. I will never cease seeking. That seems to be my destiny.

• Siddhartha: Perhaps you seek too much. It happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal.

• Seeking means to have a goal, but finding means to be free, to be receptive to have no goal.

DCP: Open yourself to a life amazing…

• Siddhartha: Yes, I have become a ferryman. Many people have to change a great deal and wear all sorts of clothes.

• Govinda: Have you a doctrine, belief or knowledge which you uphold which helps you to live and do right?

• Siddhartha: I came to distrust doctrines and teachers and to turn my back on them, yet I have had many teachers, including this river. Wisdom is not communicable.

DCP: You cannot tell another what they have to discover by themselves.

• What cannot be taught, but can be discovered? Wisdom.

• What cannot be bought yet everyone must have? Love.

• Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. In every truth, the opposite is equally true. Just as the Buddha divides the world into Samsara (illusion) and Nirvana (truth), into suffering and salvation.

• The potential Buddha already exists in the sinner, his future is already there. The potential Buddha must be recognized in him, in you, in everyone.

DCP: Reaching your destination is knowing that you have already arrived. Hope is for those who do not have an understanding of grace. Quantum Physics – it exists as a particle when we observe it to be there, otherwise it exists as a wave.

• During deep meditation it is possible to dispel time, to see simultaneously all the past, the present and the future, and then everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman (God).

• Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me.

DCP: When I am in the flow (centered in God’s will – in grace) – all is as it should be.

• I do not respect and love (this stone) because it was one thing and will become something else, but because it has already long been everything and always is everything.

DCP: The key to not being depressed is to see value and meaning in everything. We need to accept things as they are, not as we want them to be.

• Govinda: Nirvana is not only a word, my friend it is a thought.

DCP: Is there value in faith alone? Even blind faith?

• Siddhartha: It seems to me Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. But I think it is important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world, us and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.

• Govinda: The illustrious one (Buddha)  - preached benevolence, forbearance, sympathy, and patience—but not love. He forbade us to bind ourselves to earthly love.

• Govinda: I can see my dear friend that you have found peace. Give me something to help me on my way for my path is often hard and dark.

• Siddhartha: Bend near to me Govinda, kiss me on the forehead.

• And as Govinda bent down to kiss Siddhartha he saw the look of a thousand happy, peaceful, and unified faces. He saw the Siddhartha’s mask-like smile, was the smile of unity over the flowing forms, this smile of simultaneousness over the thousand births and deaths was the smile of calm, gracious wisdom.

• Govinda bowed low, and was overwhelmed by a feeling of great love, of the most humble veneration.