Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
Told in a simple mythical style, the story of Siddhartha is an inspirational classic by Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Hilda Rosner with an introduction by John Peacock.Siddhartha, the son of a wealthy Brahmin, is unable to find peace within his own religion and community so sets off on his travels through India in search of enlightenment. First he spends time with a group of ascetics called Samanas. For a while he embraces their doctrine and rejects all worldly goods. When he hears about a man called Gotama the Buddha he leaves the Samanas. However Buddhist teaching disappoints him and he realizes that self-discovery must come from his own experiences. He rejects the spiritual life, takes a lover and becomes a rich merchant. But after some years, dissatisfied with materialism, he takes off again in search of the spiritual peace he longs for.
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““And time after time, his smile became more similar to the ferryman’s, became almost just as bright, almost just as thoroughly glowing with bliss, just as shining out of thousand small wrinkles, just as alike to a child’s, just as alike to an old man’s. Many travelers, seeing the two ferrymen, thought they were brothers. Often, they sat in the evening together by the bank on the log, said nothing and both listened to the water, which was no water to them, but the voice of life, the voice of what exists, of what is eternally taking shape. And it happened from time to time that both, when listening to the river, thought of the same things, of a conversation from the day before yesterday, of one of their travelers, the face and fate of whom had occupied their thoughts, of death, of their childhood, and that they both in the same moment, when the river had been saying something good to them, looked at each other, both thinking precisely the same thing, both delighted about the same answer to the same question.””
Siddhartha • Hermann Hesse
““Govinda spoke: “Nirvana, Friend, is not only a word. It is a thought.”””
Siddhartha • Hermann Hesse