Dialectical Journal Siddhartha

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse discusses the many paths of teaching that relate to Hinduism that Siddhartha followed on his journey through life and how each path helped him realize what he wanted with his life. Siddhartha follows many teachings or paths in which to reach his spiritual destination, which at the beginning was to reach Nirvana.

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

In order to find an answer he would look elsewhere. This is what led him to discover the samanas a group he felt he needed to follow. When denied by his father Siddhartha for the first time defied him and stood with his arms crossed in a battle of wills. Siddhartha joined the samanas with his demands met by his father but his journey proved fruitless “But though the paths led away from the ego, in the end they always led back to the ego. (Hesse 15).” Siddhartha wanted the knowledge of the samanas so he could find his own peace. This proved to be inadvertently ironic as the acquirement of knowledge through the samana teachings led to the flourishing of his ego which he was trying to rid himself of. This perpetuation was not helped by the vastness of knowledge he had as a Brahmin. This circular path led him nowhere and Siddhartha soon left the samanas to see a Buddha. The leader of the samanas did not want him to leave for he did not believe the rumors of the wise Buddha. Then “The old man went mute, his eyes glazed over, his will was paralyzed , his arms dangled: he was helpless, overpowered by Siddhartha’s enchantment (Hesse 22)”. The samanas wish to lose the self (ego) but their leader was selfish. Ironically he did not live up to his own doctrine of life. The leader's behavior reveals that Siddhartha would of never have found peace through them if the leader couldn’t. Siddhartha did not learn nirvana from

Siddhartha, written by Herman Heese, is a book about a man’s journey to find his inner self beginning when he is young and ending when he is of old age. Siddhartha, while on this quest, searched for different mentors to teach him what they know, hoping to find truth and balance in and of the universe. At the end of the novel, Siddhartha reaches the enlightenment through many teachings.

Siddhartha comes to realize that he has discovered who he really is, he is Siddhartha. He knows himself more than any other teaching or religion. As he comes to self-realization, he comprehends he has been letting himself slip away, he has been running away from himself.

Siddhartha begins out as a Brahmin in the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. He is the son of a Brahmin and he is expected to become a very successful Brahmin as he grows older. However, Siddhartha is not completely happy with his life. The other Brahmins have not receive enlightenment yet when he is a child and he wonders that if he stays where his home is he never will reach enlightenment. He begins his journey through life by leaving home. Siddhartha has a major theme of self throughout. Self can be referred to as your inner self or who you truly are inside. Siddhartha through his journey realizes self plays a role in life and he believes that you should release your being of self. I disagree with many ideas of self that is portrayed throughout this book. I believe that self is important in life and how you get along in life.

3: "All of it was new to him. After a life of sameness and predictibility, he was awed by the surprises that lay beyond each curve of the road." pg.171

Siddhartha felt as if he can’t learn by just hearing the Buddha’s experiences. He believes he needs to experience these things himself to truly reach his own self. As Siddhartha leaves the Buddha, he realizes something different inside of him. He no longer needs a teacher. From his teachers, he was able to discover the Self. Siddhartha says “Truly, nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self … that I am Siddhartha" (38) However, he only succeeded in fleeing from it. He was consumed in finding the self, that he lost sight of it. Instead, he realizes that "I [Siddhartha] will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha" (39).

Before the “Awakened One” or Buddha became known by this name he was known as Siddhartha Gautama. This was the name his parents bestowed upon him, his first name meant “he who achieves his goals” while his last name meant “descendants of gotoma”. Siddhartha was born in Lumbini, todays Nepal. His father was the king of the country and leader of the prominent clan called the Shakyas. His father married Mahamaya who gave birth to the future Buddha. His birth was noted as near painless and it was said that he was fully awake when he was born. Siddhartha’s father, King Shuddodana sought to seek his son’s future by a man who could foresee just that, the future. The man, Asita, prescribed two destinies for Siddhartha, the life of a great king or the life of an insightful, savior of mankind. His father in response to Asitas words made it his ultimate duty to shelter the boy from any sights that may be outside any one of their 3 palaces, especially the sick, the elderly, and death as well as any religious activities. This was to prevent Siddhartha from seeking

In the beginning, Siddhartha went into meditation and pondered about the evil in the world. He thought if only people could see the consequences of their selfishness and wrong behaviors they would run from them. People put themselves through hell. The world is full of lust and pleasures which only ends in misery. Siddhartha began to understand the Dharma, Buddhism’s sacred law, and became enlightened.

In week three readings, stated that Siddhartha, the wish fulfiller lived in luxury. Siddhartha had everything at his feet. The Gods wanted Siddhartha to have four sight so they arrange for it. The four sight included a sick man, a bent old man, a dead person, and a monk seeking eternal pleasure. By Siddhartha having the four sight he felt that by this happening to him it was a wake up call and because of him questioning his existence and wealth of luxury while eithers or suffering. Siddhartha was hurt when his father Buddha had to leave him and his mother behind to go search for knowledge. In the reading one will find that there are many cultures that man have to leave their wife and children behind as they search

Siddhartha can be viewed as an individual of agency. In the narrative it states “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it”. When Siddhartha emphasized that “Wisdom cannot be imparted” he was departing the Buddha to go and find a better solution to his problem. Executing this decision was right and helped Siddhartha move on the next experience to reach enlightenment. In addition, Siddhartha didn't have to sacrifice another 3 years of nothing to reach enlightenment. Each step Siddhartha took to reach his goal helped him. He was able to narrow down the spectrum of solutions to one. He tried to accomplish nirvana by experiencing many methods, and even though the ways of the samanas, Buddha, and Kamala didn't directly

In the search for enlightenment, both in Siddhartha and Notes from The Underground, the main characters fight inner conflict to find happiness. In the journey to find true happiness at the end of both books is arguably not full contentment after all, in fact both characters go through self-denial to achieve their idea of enlightenment. The underground man deals with a hyperconsciousness while on the other hand Siddhartha pushes himself to be detached. Both characters compete with their own minds to condemn themselves for their actions. The ongoing fear of death in most people is not portrayed in these books due to the promise of reincarnation allowing for multiple chances in separate lives.

This feeling that the author has of being unable to be his true self is again recognized by the time that has passed. “I have seen the moment of my

In this book one of the very first chapters siddhartha does not get the feeling of enlightment and wisdom he want to have. He wants independance to help find those things, but his pride gets in his way. Thinking he know everything. He find the sharamas and he decides to practice with them in hope to find enlightment but it only opens his eyes to see to see that he has flaws and he learns to accept it. (pg.12 with the sharames) ''..one goal is to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, joy. To die away from himselfno longer to be I...to open with