Young Siddhartha yearns to understand ultimate reality. An Indian Brahmin, he leaves that path to explore others. After years as an ascetic, he encounters the Buddha, but soon spurns all teachers to pursue indulgence and pleasure. Still dissatisfied, he turns to the simple life of a ferryman and learns from the river.* In his waning years, he concludes that "wisdom cannot be communicated," it must be experienced. And regarding the world, he feels "the world is perfect at every moment, all sin already contains grace, all youngsters already contain oldsters, all babies contain death . . . everything is good, everything perfect, everything is Brahma." He argues "that I greatly needed sin, I needed lust, vanity, the striving for goods, and I needed the most shameful despair to learn how to give up resistance, to learn how to love the world, to stop comparing the world with any world that I wish for, that I imagine, with any perfection that I think up; I learned how to let the world be as it is, and to love it and to belong to it gladly."
What? Oi. I applaud Hesse for exploring our ultimate meaning, I understand how Siddhartha would try different paths (like Solomon in Ecclesiastes), and it was good to see the character fail and fail again. But he draws a markedly incorrect conclusion- rather than face the evil in the world, he calls it all good and 'rolls with it.' And throughout the book is this undercurrent of self- that we can't be taught by others, but it's all about finding the way ourselves (which is an aspect of Buddhism). Unwise. Incorrect conclusions aside, this quick read does make one think, so look through it and chew on the concepts discussed. What gives life meaning?
Rating: C+
*Yes, you read that right. I don't get it either.
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