Siddhartha

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: This was an interesting book. Although a good read, it was a bit too spiritual for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about spiritual buddhist topics.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: This book demonstrates the conflicts and questions a young prince has early in life. Seemingly to have everything from inception there is a longing for his soul to be quenched with something else, something more. Many can relate to looking for the answers before finally finding them within. A great inpiration and a wonderfully written novel.

Rating:
Summary: A very spiritual read
Review: This was a beautiful moving tale of one mans' journey to enlightenment. He reaches perfection by shedding and attaining several different identities; first, he is a Brahmnin's son; second, he is an aesthete and shramana; third, he is a hedonist and wealthy gambler; then, finally, he is a ferryman and lover of a river. Finally he reaches perfection.
Ideas mean little to him in the end, and unity is everything.

Rating:
Summary: spirit animating modern being
Review: Hesse was not very comfortable with the existence he found. His early books show unhappy and disillusioned youth struggle and find nothing that satisfies. It is no surprise that the youth of our counry in the sixties latched on to Hesse as an avatar that told its story before they lived it. His books struggle with issues you will find familiar regardless of your heritage or the time you were born to. It is the spiritual quest, and the quest for knowledge and all people are seekers. Some give up at some point and resign themselves to what is at hand but Hesse does not. So he can be either disturbing or inspirational depending on where you are in life. His books no doubt appeal more to youth but I think its a mistake to count him out. This book is not religious really, it is philosophical, and Hesse's imagined east is very appealing: In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda. The sun browned his slender shoulders on the river bank, while bathing at the holy ablutions, at the holy sacrifices.(pg.1)
Yes, I have thoughts and knowledge here and there. Sometimes, for an hour or for a day, I have become aware of knowledge, just as one feels life in one's heart. ...but this one thought has impressed me, Govinda. Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.(pg.115)
But Hesse does communicate a wisdom in this book. And the final pages of this book communicate it in a very poetic way that will remain with you.

Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE
Review: This book is amazing. This was a choice I had for summer reading and I was reluctant to read it thinking, "it's just a dumb new age book." I was very pleasantly surprised. It's and incredible read. It's quick but after I read it, I had a new outlook on life. Anyway, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A quick but poignant read
Review: This voyage through the life of Siddartha is a fascinating and complex work. Hesse takes the reader through the choices that comprise the life of Siddartha, a young Indian man seeking peace. Siddartha will only make choices that are is own. As quoted in the book, 'Wisdom is not communicable.' Even if his father or Gotama the Buddha has previously learned the lessons he is seeking to know they cannot simply communicate that wisdom to him, he must carve his own path.

First Siddartha leaves his father to live an ascetic life, later he looks to hear the wisdom of Gotama who has achieved Nirvana or in other words found peace and truth. He spends time learning about the life of physical lusts. He finds Kamala to teach him about love and begins to eat fine food and wear expensive apparel. This cannot satisfy him and he leaves this life to help a old man Vasudeva ferry travelers across a river.

Eventually he finds that he has a son with Kamala and this son follows in his footsteps by leaving on his own path. His son cannot handle the simple life of Siddartha and returns to the life he knew with his mother Kamala. Through all of these experiences, I believe that Siddartha learned the greatest lesson of life and achieved what he was searching for. It is unfortunate I cannot understand completely what he is trying to communicate to me, because it is wisdom. However I was moved by what he had to say and I believe you will be affected profoundly as well. So read the book, it is a 3 hour read and a very pleasant one at that.

Rating:
Summary: short but enlightening
Review: I've read this book in the course of one week, and I really enjoyed it, every page, every message, every experience carrying a profound message .... it's easy to see some similarities with our own life, places change, faces change, bodies change, but existence it's all the same. I would also recommend these titles:

1)"Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda"

2)"Wisdom for the new Millenium by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar"

3)"Communion with god by Neale Donald Walsch".

Rating:
Summary: SHORT BUT FULL OF ELEMENTARY TRUTHS
Review: As a follower of Buddhist Philosophies for many years, the correlation between Buddha and Siddartha is easily seen through this book. The message contained among the pages causes the reader to examine one's own life and seek the answers to truth, purpose and enlightenment. The book encourages each of us to be highly individualistic in our search for enlightenment. Each of us must gain insight and knowledge, not from following the paths of others who have gone before us, but from our own unique perspectives, our own personal experiences in life's journey.

With all the book's fine qualities and the importance of the message it contains, "Siddartha" is very short, almost too short. Considering the book has such a valuable message to depart, the reader feels somewhat cheated when the lessons to be learned are skimmed over so lightly and in such great haste. For those wanting to further explore enlightment, I highly recommend, "Awakening the Buddha Within" (mention is made of Siddartha in this book, as well) and "Awakening the Buddhist Heart" both by Lama Surya Das. These are excellent books based on Buddhist Philosophies adapted for the Western World and are very easily understood, even for a novice venturing into unknown territory.

Rating:
Summary: Simple and yet moving at the same time.
Review: I had to read this book in 10th grade English, and needless to say required reading is usually not the best. When I first started out I didn't understand it at all.

Why is he entering the soul of a rabbit, why isn't he eating? This is dumb.

But I couldn't have been more wrong. The story is simple I'll give you that, but it's the simplicity that gives the story beauty. It is a touch of enlightenment.

I could really relate to Siddhartha, and his journey that mirrored the life of Buddha. I don't know much about eastern philosophy, but this book got me interested.

Its ideas have helped very much. By the end of the story the rest of my class was left saying "huh?" whilst I was going "Ahh!". Give it a chance, and you may like what you find.

Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is a must for anyone curious about Buddhist thought. The story of Siddhartha's spiritual journey from Brahmin to Samana to businessman to himself is so profound that it feels strange for me to recall the times before I'd read it. Once you've been exposed to this beautiful spiritual fable that questions everything from the self to ascetiscm to enlightenment itself, you can't forget it.