Siddhartha

Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse, is a story about the spiritual journey of a man in India who abandons a life of privilege to seek inner enlightenment. Siddhartha was first published in 1922 after Hesse spent time in India studying Eastern religions. Originally written in German, the novel was published in America in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s.

Frankly, we’re still scratching our heads. The million dollar question is how enlightenment relates to knowledge. Siddhartha rejects teacher after teacher, saying that they can’t teach him anything about enlightenment. In Chapter Three, he says to the Buddha:

"You have found salvation from death. It has come to you in the course of your own search, on your own path, through thoughts, through meditation, through realizations, through enlightenment. It has not come to you by means of teachings! And – thus is my thought, oh exalted one, – nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! You will not be able to convey and say to anybody, oh venerable one, in words and through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment!"

So that’s cool. Siddhartha knows that essential truths cannot be taught; they must be learned through life experience. We empathize. You can sit in lecture hall all you want and study your calculus, philosophy, psychology, etc., but halfway into your third leg cramp, you’ll likely come to the conclusion that all this knowledge is useless without wisdom.

So there – studying and learning is useless.

Argh! Wait – that’s not where we were going with this. Are you ready for the big "but"? Even Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, studies. He studies the game, he studies his opponents, and he connects his studies to his throw – and that’s what makes him Tom Brady. In other words, surgeons who studied in medical school are more likely to heal sick people than surgeons who didn’t. And Siddhartha studies. He studies with the Brahmans, he studies with the Samanas, he studies with Kamaswami and Kamala, and he studies with Vasudeva.

So while you can’t just sit in a lecture hall and learn about philosophy, you also can’t just go out into the world and live without the build-up of knowledge. It’s about a balance between learning and living. And when you think about Siddhartha that way, you should definitely, definitely care.