- Siddhartha (Deluxe Hardbound Edition)

Incredible book about our spiritual journeys and how faith evolves over time. Beautiful cover on this edition!

My name is Firecat Hat. As a writer, I love to read great writer’s works. And this book is definitely one I enjoyed. ‘Siddhartha’ is a deeply eastern philosophical story written by a westerner with a keen perception, and almost uncanny awareness, of not only eastern thinking, but depth of life itself. Sometimes the insights he has really impress me. He is aware of abstract concepts of life that few people in our modern world ever talk about. ‘Siddhartha’ is a remarkably insightful book by a remarkably insightful writer. The lessons about life that this book has to offer are deep – lessons one would be very lucky to hear from some aged and helpful older person, good enough to share with us. The man is a guru. The tragedy of the story, I believe, centers around Govinda, around that character’s separation from Siddhartha. Whether the separation from him is actually necessary for the two of them to advance on their roads through life is, I think, a subject for interesting debate. But Hesse shows that they separate, and indeed that it is necessary for the blossoming of their characters. One can’t help but feel sorry for Govinda. And I noticed something in this book worth remarking. While Hesse is brilliant philosophically, he does not bleed the emotional parts of the story to their maximum effect. That is, he never gets the reader to ‘feel’ the story on an emotional level. (He never made me cry). But, I must say that this also makes us feel the story’s emotion even better. Sometimes by not emphasizing the emotional tones, the reader is made to feel them – underlying as they are – even stronger. Overall, this is a philosophy book almost unparalleled as such in the novel world. It shows us the journey of life, with masterful language that is very reader-friendly, cover to cover. It has the potential to be, in fact, life changing. And it stands with the classics, tall and deep. It stands like the Sequoia trees: tall for all to see, living on and on – timeless. And one last point worth remarking. The book’s main point is something profound, and that I agree with. Happiness can not be pointed out precisely to one by anyone else. ‘Each entered the forest adventurous at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest, and there was no way or path.’ F I R E C A T H A T May 18, 2011

The book is amazing, but the Kindle version is meh. There are typos and page numbers are useless. THe story itself is great though!

Yes, the Kindle edition has some typos and translation issues, but these are the sorts of issues that are par for the course reading translated texts, you can certainly get the overall gist of the story. It's an acceptable edition. Siddhartha is beautifully written, and worth reading. It's essentially a collection of essays, each trying to explain and illustrate concepts of Buddhist thought. The first story stands alone, and is as close to perfectas literature gets. The short version of the story is that a young boy named Siddhartha is trying to learn to lead a more perfect life, and after many trials and tribulations he comes to meet a mystic by the name of Gautama. For anyone who doesn't know, Siddhartha Gautama is the full name of the Buddha. This story serves as a biography for how the young Siddhartha came to be the Buddha, while at the same time serving as a metaphor for how people of the time- or indeed you as the reader- can come to understand the Buddha and his teachings. From that description alone you should be able to see all the layers in this book, it's wonderful. The book does everything right. It's a good story on its own, but it's also written in the style of Buddhist literature. There is a lot of repetition, as were present in the Buddha's own words, without getting annoying. There is adventure, metaphor, allusion, and biography. It's food for thought. Anyone worried about this sounding overly religious or hokey need not worry- the stories here are just as powerful if you read them in a perfectly secular way where the Buddha was just a wise man and not any kind of deity. As someone who's advanced in Buddhist/Zen thought myself, the message of the opening chapter is absolutely perfect. This continues through the book. If you want a play-by-play for exactly what "Englightenment" is supposed to be, how to attain it and how to live with it, the first story is one of the best examples I've ever read. I'd almost go so far as to say that you can't read the first chapter without "getting it"- it's just too perfect of a description of what Enlightenment is- but human beings have an amazing ability to miss the point. So this book is great prose in and of itself, read as pure fiction it's lovely. As a biography of the Buddha and his travels, it's light on detail but rich in imagery. As a how-to manual for meditation and better living, it's similarly amazing. An all-around class act, I wish this text- in a better translation- would be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to consider themselves "learn-ed".

I’m reading this at a point in time in my life where I want to change myself while also seeking to learn more on what I already know and what I didn’t know. This was my first time reading this book, and throughout, I can admit it changed a bit of the way I was previously thinking. I am only in my early 20s now, and I had been reminded by this book that I have much still to learn in life. The only thing I seem from other reviews prior to reading was that what is written tends to often get repeated over. This I can somewhat agree as it’s doubled down and reiterated at times. I think in defense of this, I can say some of the passages written the first confused me, having me to reread it, but the second sentence would reiterate and slightly expand more on the first sentence making it more fulfilling. In the end, I loved how the characters all have something to give, something worth taking from, and something worth discovering when looking inward and outward.

As the river, the book will remain the same. We will change. And that will create a new experience and more depth every time. Can’t wait to re-read it in some years.

"Siddhartha" means "one who achieved his goals" or "every wish has been satisfied". The name of Buddha, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later after attaining enlightenment he came to be called as Gautama Buddha. The literal meaning of Buddha is one who has attained Bodhi; and bodhi is meant wisdom, so Buddha means “the enlighten one”— the knower. I had wanted to read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse for a long time. I am not very fond of spiritual literature, and even shun it many times, but still something in this book caught my attention. I had heard enough good things about this author to understand that giving Siddhartha a chance was worth it. So I started it, driven more by impulse than by something painstakingly deliberate and planned. So I bought this book in around 2018 and read the first two chapters in two weeks. This may not speak highly of the literary or spiritual content of Siddhartha, but I actually feel that I failed to advance at an adequate speed because at that time I had not "opened up" to what Hesse could tell me. However, in 2020 during the lockdown, I gave him a chance again and tried to embark on reading in a different way, perhaps more private or personal; and, as you will see, I have already finished it. And I must accept that it was an extraordinary journey, through which I traveled with the Sramana Siddhartha in his search for supreme wisdom and peace of the soul in a voyeuristic but no less authentic way. When it comes to Hesse, there is no need to talk about how well written his novel is, about the perfect approach he makes to nature, about the poetry that jumps off the pages when he talks about man and his tribulations. When it comes to Hesse all this is inherent, it is preferable, I think now, to speak of sensations. Siddhartha, speaks to us about many things, is very spiritual and deep in the sense of self, being and soul. It is a book that can be read quickly, in two days if you have time, but I think you have to take it gently, in order to understand it, at least try to understand it and I think that I had to read it often, to be able to give it meaning of words, although some are clearer than water. The many teachings that the book has is a mystery, because there are several, the philosophical sense, the venerable, cultured interior answer, depth of knowledge and knowledge. The plot is narrated from the perspective of Siddhartha, son of Brahmans (priestly caste of India), who cannot find through regulated religiosity a way to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, his desire to find the first cause of things. Therefore, he decides to leave and go his own way in search of the ultimate truth of life. In my view it is precisely the words of Hesse that make this novel such a delicacy. Its symbolism, its universality and the delicate simplicity when expressing Siddhartha's reflections, his fears and concerns, the questions inherent to the human condition. Making an interpretation of the work from its universal philosophical intentionality, I praise the quality of Hesse and I prefer what, for me, is the main message of the work; each one must trace his own path, we must be our own guide. In Siddhartha's words: “I will no longer allow Siddhartha to escape me! I will no longer occupy my thoughts and my life in the search for the Atman or with inquiries about the suffering of the world. I am not going to kill myself again and fragment myself to search for a mystery behind the ruins. I will no longer be instructed by the "Yoga-Veda", the "Atharva-Veda", the ascetics or any other doctrine. I want to learn about myself, be my own disciple, know myself and penetrate this enigma called Siddhartha " Words of Wisdom “Once you hear this phrase: you are wise when it is useless. He believed that only time and perseverance teach us.” “Premature knowledge is just a mere illusion of true knowledge that only arises in the middle of the years and the different experiences of life.” “I have needed time to learn, and I still have not managed to understand that nothing can be learned! How true!” “Words are harmful to the secret meaning of things; everything changes slightly when we express it, it seems a bit distorted, a bit silly ... " “The human does not know how to live and does not know what he lives for, he has erroneous dreams and vain goals, we despise what we should love and we love what we should hate. Little by little we move away from our humanity and meaning, but we do not get to see the ambiguous paths that we choose, we do not see the paths that society itself has implanted for us to follow.” Concluding thoughts As this story tells us, wisdom cannot be taught. Decomposing information into language may become feasible, but it is not so with experience. Wisdom is achieved through the inner being, from the outside to the inside, and it is highly personal. Similarly, Siddhartha, somewhat contradictorily, can make many ideas clear, some somewhat controversial and others revealing. It is a reading that I highly recommend, as long as it is read with an open mind. I cannot say more since this path must be traveled by oneself and discovered in private. So here you go, go ahead and let yourself go.

After reading a few pages, you will get used to the style of the author. It seemed to me that his words contain a structure a language that is very pleasant to read. It is as if I am watching a river flowing in front of me. With recurrence, with hierarchical patterns, the patterns emerge and dissolve in the never-ending flow. You will experience a good feeling after every time you finish reading a page, there will be so much peace in your heart. There will be no rushing to finish it, no expectations, and no big twists in the story. But you will just listen to the story, like a child listening to a bedtime story. Good luck!

The book is perfect for people interested in philosophy. Also anyone on a road of self-discovery and looking of answers to the questions of life and love and inner peace should read. The narrative is slowly paced and very colorful.

I read this book and saw the movie many years ago as a teenager. It had a profound impact on me then. Now, as I enter my golden years, I picked it up again to see whether it had the same pull as before. The pull was greater this time. Hesse, perhaps out of respect, and wanting to create fictional protagonists out of religious leaders, creates the fictional character of Siddhartha, one who has the same name as the Buddha. He lives during the time of the Buddha. Siddhartha’s life follows a similar path of the Buddha: born into privilege, rejecting comfort and taking up the ascetic life at a young age, discovering its limitations and taking the middle path to enlightenment, and ending his days as a great teacher and spiritual leader. In fact, the fictional Siddhartha meets the older Buddha and tells him that living by others’ teachings, something he had done as a Brahman and later as a Samana, is insubstantial; Siddhartha wants to experience enlightenment, just as the Buddha has done. The Buddha smiles, as if to say, “The road ahead is long and tortuous.” Siddhartha, therefore, leaves the life of an ascetic Samana where his only skills are of waiting, fasting and thinking, to lead the sensual life. He takes up with the courtesan Kamala, becomes a successful businessman, and accumulates wealth. He gives into lust, and gambling, but finds both to be masks that hide his continued dissatisfaction. “I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself! I searched Atman (soul), I searched Brahman, I was willing to dissect my self and peel off all its layers, to find the core of all peels in its unknown interior, the Atman, life, the divine part, the ultimate part. But I have lost myself in the process.” He finally leaves the worldly life too, heading for the river, a place where enlightenment will finally come, but only after learning the pain of love. The river is a metaphor for the circular nature of life and the confluence of all desires and sufferings: flowing, evaporating, condensing and flowing once more. Everything and everyone that goes upstream, finally returns downstream, and the water flows everywhere simultaneously, making the past and the future irrelevant, making only the present matter. There are some beautiful words of wisdom in this book, although Siddhartha claims that wisdom is intrinsic to the individual and cannot be transferred, as he had once complained to the Buddha. 1) Everyone can perform magic; everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, to wait, and to fast. 2) Writing is good, thinking is better. Intelligence is good, but patience is better. 3) “There was nothing that the wise one or thinker possessed that put him above the rest of them except for one single, small, tiny thing: the awareness and conscious thought of the unity of all life.” 4) “I therefore see whatever exists as good. Death is like life to me, sin is like holiness, wisdom is like foolishness; everything has to be just as it is, and everything requires only my consent, willingness, and loving agreement to become good to me and work for my benefit, unable to ever harm me.” 5) “When someone is searching, then it can easily happen that the only thing his eyes see is that for which he is searching. He is then unable to find anything or let any thought enter his mind because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search. He is obsessed by a goal; searching means having a goal. But finding means: being free, open, and having no goal.” The story is told in the form of a parable, full of wisdom and philosophy, low on the other elements of novelistic importance. Hesse was supposed to have had a less than fulfilling visit to India before he wrote this novel. But I suppose the insights in this book did not only come from that visit but from a continuous preoccupation on the purpose of life and the search for meaning. I highly recommend this read.