Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

WARNING: THIS IS NOT OUR GENRE

I got motivated to read a book that I last read about 40 years ago, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, and it was a joy to have done so, like going back to listen to a wise old friend. this was originally published in Germany in 1922, a few years after Hesse spent some time in India. Siddhartha is a man who is a seeker of truth, and the book takes him through his spiritual journey -- his various efforts to achieve inner peace. Hesse famously uses the analogy of a river for life, that the river is constantly changing, never stays the same, and all parts are always connected, life to death. And, Hesse uses a form of “What goes around comes around.” Siddhartha found that living with his family, especially his father, left him unsatisfied and unhappy. So, he left home to begin his lifelong journey, never to return home again. Then, as an old man, he learns that he has fathered a son who he encounters when the boy’s mother dies, so Siddhartha suddenly has to care for this boy who wants no more of him that Siddhartha did of his own father. He comes to understand the pain that he must have caused his father. Some quotes: “Knowledge has no worser enemy than the desire to know it, than learning.” “Be aware of too much wisdom.” “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.” “The river is everywhere at once, at the source, at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future.” “But I’m only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect.” Okay, that’s enough – time to get back to an action/mystery novel.

West Coast Don