A Book Review
“Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
On Becoming the Buddha — Lessons on Life
There is a certain serenity that comes with reading a book by the sea. Is it the water glistening in the sun or the pages of a story long past that keeps you riveted and left wanting? Is it the light breeze gently playing on your sunburned face or the joy of another chapter? Well, whatever it may be, I chanced upon just that with Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (translated by Sherab Chdzin Kohn).
Siddhartha is not the conventional story of the Buddha that we all know and adore. It’s not a story about the Buddha at all. The book chronicles the spiritual evolution of a man living in India at the same time as the Buddha. It’s an interesting take on an age-old tale, and we are invited along quite an extraordinary journey, experiencing Siddhartha’s highs, lows, loves, and disappointments along the way. Drawing parallels with Buddha, Hesse shows us the life of a privileged Brahmin’s son who grows increasingly dissatisfied with the life expected of him. As with the Buddha, Siddhartha too sets out on a journey that takes him finally to the path of enlightenment, and along the way we get to see the beauty and intricacies of the mind, nature, and experiences. The book does show, in astonishing detail, the inner struggles that all of us can relate to, the suffering we all share, and the fleeting strands of joy and happiness for which we all strive.
The book even got me revisiting a favorite podcast of mine, “Philosophize This” by Stephen West, and his episode on the “Buddha”.
Gautama Buddha, for me, is and always will be an enigma. Imagine for a moment, the courage and resolve one must muster to walk away from a life of luxury and comfort to live the life of an ascetic. Gautama had everything. He had a beautiful family, he was to be crowned king someday, he was rich beyond his wildest dreams. Too good to be true, right? How and why did he walk away from all of this? A puzzling question. And the book does do justice in trying to answer the very same. The book gives a realistic and not altogether unbelievable version of the facts and happenings in the head of Siddhartha. And the most profound of these were the four noble truths propagated in the book and the podcast.
The first noble truth tries to address the nature of suffering — According to Buddhism and the Buddha, suffering is universal. No matter what we do, we cannot escape suffering. Buddha believed that the default state of the human mind was not happiness at all. It was dissatisfaction. This is hard to swallow, isn’t it? But picture this — You bought a new car and for a minuscule duration of time, you’re the happiest you’ve ever been. It gives you this hit of euphoria that can only be described as happiness. But after a while, the euphoria wears off and you start realizing that no matter how happy you were the day you bought it, the fact of the matter is, it is just another car and then you’re off chasing the next hit of pleasure you can find. Where did all of that first-day happiness disappear off to? Buddha believed as much as Mark Manson did, that happiness is overrated. And chasing happiness all of the time and not paying attention to the other spectrum of human emotions is detrimental in its way. And the first noble truth tries to teach us the very same. Suffering cannot be eliminated and trying to do so is not only wasting our time and energy, but it is also robbing us of the very things that can give us long-lasting happiness. Happiness comes from solving problems and overcoming adversity.
The second noble truth tries to address the cause of suffering — The book, podcast, and Buddhism itself teach that suffering is caused due to one of these three things: attachment, expectations, and ignorance. Attachment to things, expectations from situations and people out of our control, and ignorance of the self.
“‘When someone seeks,’ said Siddhartha, ‘then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.’” — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Human beings are a funny species. We assign value to things and naively assume once we accomplish or get these things, we can be happy. We have all fallen prey to this. How many times have we told ourselves we’ll be happy if we get a teensy bit more money? If we get a few extra points on our exams? If we finally get that girlfriend we’ve been looking for all our lives? If we shed a few more pounds at the gym? But if that’s all it was to be happy, we should’ve been there already, right? The truth is, maybe if we stop looking at the results and fall in love with the process, we’ll be better off. I am not saying that making money or having a girlfriend will not give happiness. It will. But that happiness will never be long-lasting and chasing these things will only end in us causing ourselves more suffering. It is an endless vicious cycle.
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.” — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Ah, expectations! It’s hard to go through life without having expectations. We need to care about something, right? It’s just that we care too much about things that are out of our control. And we let these things control how we feel. We feel too little about things that matter and too much about things that don’t. But we can never control how a situation turns out. We can always control how we react to it, though, and I guess that’s the lesson the book and the podcast were trying to teach. In other words, stop crying about spilled milk and do something about it.
“I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.” — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Mental health problems are on an ascent and people these days are less in touch with their emotions and feelings than they’ve ever been in all of human history. We purge and repress our emotions for a variety of social, political, or cultural reasons. By doing so, we ignore the very feedback mechanisms in place that can help solve our problems. If we ever want a more enriching life, and I know most of us do, we need to embrace that life is going to be filled with suffering — and maybe that’s the point.
The third noble truth says suffering can be eliminated by removing or overcoming desire — I will let this comic strip I found on quora do the talking (An answer I recommend reading):
The fourth noble truth tries to address the tools needed to live a more meaningful life — This one is a self-help book on its own and something that can’t be distilled down into straightforward steps in one single article. But, quintessentially, this noble truth teaches the eight-fold path that one can follow to lead a more enriching, meaningful and well-rounded life. The eight-fold path is divided into three areas of interest: morality, meditation, and wisdom. Morality focuses on the right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Meditation focus on effort, mindfulness, and concentration. And wisdom has understanding and resolve under its belt. As I said, the eight-fold path can be a mouthful. But it does provide some respite knowing Buddha achieved his enlightenment following this, and maybe that’s the best we have going for us (For more information, see references).
A great book is one that makes you think about its story and magic long after you have read its final pages. And there isn’t a better book around which serves this very purpose. A book very close to my heart and hopefully, it can be the same for you.
References:
- Information on the eight-fold path- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
2. The quora answer (An answer I suggest perusing) — https://qr.ae/TSLrhY
3. The podcast series can be found at — http://philosophizethis.org/
To purchase this book, click here.
Check out this other review by Vivek Vellore:
