Siddhartha Response Paper by Yukiko Nagata

Yukiko Nagata Ms. Snyder
Siddhartha Response Paper 1/18/2008

Prompt #2

In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, one of Siddhartha’s views that does not change is his conviction that he must find a path to enlightenment by himself instead of following someone else’s method. Indeed, Siddhartha takes an unconventional approach to achieving enlightenment by experiencing many different lifestyles.
The classic teachings of Buddha include the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path which seeks to rid humans of desire and overcome pain. Siddhartha becomes a shramana, but this does not help him overcome his ego, his pride and identity. He struggles against ego and wishes to, “No longer be ‘I’, and find the peace of an empty heart.” (15) However, attempting to overcome his ego is very challenging for him. He departs from this path when he meets Gotama, the Exalted One, Gotama speaks about how he achieved enlightenment. Although Siddhartha respects his achievement, he knows he must go on his own journey, just as Gotama did.
As the story continues, Siddhartha begins a life in the material world; although at first, he thought that he was better than people surrounding him, after many years, he becomes corrupted due to excessive drinking, gambling and greed. One day, Siddhartha gets so fed up with this material world that he runs away. When he is so disgusted with himself that he even considers committing suicide, he hears the ‘om’. After succumbing to the corrupted material world, he no longer sees himself above others, and from this bad experiences, his ego has been destroyed successfully. This is an essential step for his ultimate enlightenment.
In the final step of his journey, Siddhartha lives with Vasudeva at the river as a ferry man. Vasudeva is almost like Siddhartha’s mentor and suggests that he listens to the river for advice. Siddhartha learns from listening to the river, the unity of all life and the concept of life without time from listening to the river.
His final obstacle is to love. When Siddhartha meets his son who soon runs away from him, he feels for the first time, the pain of love. When he is finally able to accept this pain and the son’s departure as part of a natural cycle, Siddhartha ultimately achieves his enlightenment.
In conclusion, Siddhartha advocates that the path to enlightenment is different for each person, but that wisdom cannot be accurately expressed in words, and for that reason, Siddhartha must find enlightenment on his own; he goes through many different stages in his journey and learns a little bit from each, before he can ultimately attain his enlightenment.