Siddhartha

Rating:
Summary: Soul searching
Review: This was the first book I had read by Herman Hesse, and I thought it was wonderful. I myself am not budhist, and I don't think you have to be to appreciate the message.
This book is about one mans journey through life, his trials and tribulations while in search of the ultimate spiritual enlightenment. I also do not think that you have to be spiritual person to read and appreciate this book either. We all spend our lives "in search of" something, it guides our every move. I would recommend this book to anyone who questions the meaning of life, their purpose in this world, or has spent their life "in search of" something. While it does not answer all of lifes greatest questions, it really forces you to do some introspection! Enjoy!

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Summary: A life lesson in beauty
Review: This has been called Hesse's greatest novel and it is easy to see why it has that reputation. Siddhartha is simply a masterpiece. It is the story of Siddhartha's lifelong journey towards enlightenment.

Part of the beauty of this book is in its ornate simplicity - if you can have such a thing. The story is easy to access and the images Hesse uses are colorful and crisp. What is startling about this book is how much detail is given through so few words. Yet you are able to see the characters, smell the fragrances, and feel the emotions of the characters in the book. The insights and Hesse's voice are certainly there, but they are like the flowing commentary of the river in Siddhartha - fleeting, gentle, understated, and wise.

Hesse decides to tell of an enlightenment journey through the use of a novel format. This is not some religious text, this is not some philosophical text. This is a story. A remarkably beautiful, precise story that is easy to access by almost any reader. Granted, eastern religious thought tends to be either villified by the West as a sort of pantheistic outmoded religion; or it tends to be overly mystical and hard to access through translation. However, Siddhartha manages to bring the true messages of wisdom and enlightenment and put them in an easily readable format.

This work does double-duty. Not only is it a wonderful spiritual story, but it is also an amazingly well-crafted piece of literature.

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Summary: Om
Review: This is one of those books that leaves you asking more questions than it answers. What are we to make of Siddhartha? Has he found truth and wisdom? Was his journey meaningful, or was it a waste of time? There are probably as many answers to these questions as there are readers of this book. And I think that's the point.

Hesse even teases us at the end, when in their climactic final encounter Govinda asks his lifelong friend Siddhartha to share his discoveries and insights into the meaning of life. Siddhartha's answer is profound yet vague, insightful yet circular in logic. He answers his friend's question, and yet in a way he doesn't. In a sense he leaves his friend, and by extension the reader, to find his own answers.

Whether or not this book hands you on a silver platter the answers to life's burning questions, I think most readers will find it inspiring. Its central message is that the search for wisdom is not about arriving at the end, but rather about the journey itself. Also, that meaning comes from within, and each person must define meaning in his own way.

So what are we supposed to make of a man who abandons his home as a young man, journeys through the wilderness living a life of asceticism, shacks up with a prostitute and assumes a lavish, decadent existence, then dumps her to go finish his days as a humble ferryman, where he listens to a river that teaches him the meaning of life? I honestly don't know, and if I did, I'm sure my answer would be different from yours. And we'd both be right.

Rating:
Summary: The Buddha is not the Buddha
Review: Siddhartha is nothing less than a seminal piece of classical literature. Hesse's succint and subtle prose delivers the goods in the Dostoyevskian manner: a polyphonous style of presentation where characters are self-conscious mouthpieces of ideas that exist within and for others. The main character undergoes several adventures on his journey of self-discovery: which is basically that knowledge may be exchanged, but true wisdom cannot.
++++++++SPOILER+++++++++++
In the final chapter, Govinda the sidekick confronts the protagonist and asks for his supposed wisdom. Siddhartha makes several Nietzschean points: the denial that wisdom can ever be taught, that any assertion of truth excludes what is false, but the world isn't as one-sided, that since time is an illusion the world is not progressing to a better, more perfect state of being. It is already perfect. (The Heraclitus/Nietzsche promotion of the eternal changing flux, the Becoming over static Being is all too obvious here) The dual nature of existence - sin and divinity, pleasure and pain, love and hate, life and death - is necessary. This echoes Nietzsche's Amor Fati. In order to renounce worldly goods, Siddhartha had to experience their bewitching allure first hand. Siddhartha claims that transcendence - the comparison of the world to some imagined perfection - inhibits the ability to love the world. Even the refusal to differentiate between words and thought is Nietzschean, more precisely, Wittgenstienan. Even though his thoughts do not cohere with the teaching of the Buddha, Siddhartha blames the distinction on mere words, and in the end the only thing matters is that he agrees with what the teacher did, not what he said.

Govinda, upon hearing him out, also notes that, despite the apparent distinction from the tenets of Buddhism, Siddhartha also has attained what the Gotama did: "... out of his gaze and his hands, his skin and his hair, out of every part of him shines a purity, shines a calmness, shines a cheerfulness and mildness and holiness, which I have seen in no other person since the final death of our exalted teacher." Siddhartha's journey is codified by Andre Gide's maxim: "Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it."

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Summary: Universal story of the search for self
Review: Hesse uses an Eastern setting and choses characters whom he has molded with the help of Eastern philosopies and religions. In Siddartha, Hesse explores human psychology and the path that each human must take on his own to find place in the world -- to find peace, tranquility, nirvana in Siddartha's case. Siddartha is an excellent example of Hesse's work which deals with the search for self and answers to life's mysteries.

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Summary: siddhartha
Review: I am in the minority compared to the other reviews but I wanted to give a teenager's perspective of this book. I'm 15 and maybe when I'm 30 I'll like the book but I had to read it for an english class in 10th grade and it was awful reading. to anyone who has a choice to read this book or anything else, pick the latter- it drones on and on about siddhartha finding inner peace, exploring different ways of life, and "discovering himself". it sends an awful message to kids as he contemplates suicide not once but twice because he is merely unhappy with himself at that moment. there are pages upon pages which are entirely composed of siddhartha talking to himself, then contradicting himself, and so on. in all, the "action" in this book could be summed up in about 2 pages and I had trouble staying awake through even the first chapter. if you have to read this, heres a tip: get sparknotes.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional fable
Review: Siddhartha is a young Indian man who goes in search of life's answers, and finds them, but not in the form he anticipated. He encounters the Buddha, but is not content with the role of disciple, and so continues on his journey. He learns from everything and everyone: a beautiful courtesan, a merchant, a ferryman, the river. At last, toward the end of his life, he finds the peace for which he'd been searching. Blending Eastern and Western philosophy and spirituality, "Siddhartha" is a deceptively simple fable with a deafening resonance about spiritual exploration. This is a book to savor, to take one's time reading, to enjoy each nuance of phrase.

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Summary: Like a falling leaf or a star?
Review: A sad story .. so cold .. what a hard life! I am not interested in Buddhism but I like Hesse! He is so sensitive and realistic ..just like a painter taking his time to finish his portrait after studying every stroke and every color..

Despite all the hardships that Siddhartha go through, you always feel at ease, relaxed .. totally enjoying the story.. It is full of wisdom .. extreme measures .. but as Siddhartha said no one can feed you his/her experience you have to try and learn .. you can choose to be a falling leaf or a star?! searching and looking for answers .. we can make our own future .. depending on which path we choose .. but fate and luck are part of this future ..and Love conquers all!

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Summary: It will change the way you think.
Review: This is one of my favorite reads. It is a simply perplexing tale of a boy turned man physically and spiritually. As a reference point from a Roman Catholic it serves as an incredibly educational and engaging book. Because I am not a dogmatically practicing Catholic I am intrigued by different beliefs and try to integrate them with my own. With my limited knowledge of Buddhism I know that Theravada Buddhists do not think of the "Buddha" as a god, but its major counterpart Mahayana (excluding the minor sect Zen Buddhist teachings of harmony) do warship the Buddha as a god. For me the most valuable of the two would be the former, because it does not conflict with the beliefs I am comfortable with while showing me a vastly different view of life. I believe that Siddhartha is from the perspective of a Theravada Buddhist-or at least that's what I believe when I am reading the book-and exhibits an aura of a different way of thinking. It is definitely worth the money and the time. This book is a good start for continued research into different religions, but it doesn't offer a full view of Buddhism. If, by reading Siddhartha, one feels his journey into the depths of Buddhism is sufficient the reader is wrong.

PS In order to get five stars from me the book would have to be a little more comprehensive.

Rating:
Summary: A Rich Novel
Review: German writer, Herman Hesse, composes a rich novel about a man's spiritual quest for enlightenment. The main character in the novel is Siddhartha. His journey is a representation of the theme of circularity - where one cycle ends and another cycle begins. As an eager young man with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Siddhartha progresses and undergoes truly profound transformations.

After reading a few pages of the book, I was immediately hook. Hesse wrote with such simplicity and grace. The pages seemed to flow right through my hands; I couldn't put the book down. Even though Hesse was German, he was very knowledgeable about eastern religions. This was evident throughout the entire novel, but it was especially clear in the Samsara chapter. According to Huston Smith, author of The World's Religion: Our Great Wisdom Tradition, Samsara is the "world that signifies endless passage through cycles of life, death, and rebirth." In the Samsara chapter, Hesse vividly described the Hindu cycle of death and rebirth through Siddhartha. These cycles are seen throughout the novel again and again.

For school purposes, I know that some people may not read the book and see the movie instead. Yet by doing so, you simply miss out on some real good writing. The book is very fascinating. One can learn so much from it.