Siddhartha.
By Hermann Hesse.

A beautiful intiatic tale, Siddhartha takes us to ancient India, in the days of another Buddha, the one called Gotama. A little book for the young and old alike, with each lecture it comes with it's lessons or it's reminders. It speaks of simple things, with simple words.
" Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one can not communicate and teach it..."

Part 1

The Brahmin's son.
We meet Siddhartha and his friend Govinda. Siddhartha is the pride and joy of his parents. He listens to the Brahmans and is a good kid. Yet, to the sadness of his dad, he decides to go live with the Samanas, a sect of ascetics.

Samana.
Siddhartha and his friend Govinda stay 3 years with the Samanas. They learn the arts of thinking, waiting and fasting. But after 3 years Siddhartha thinks that he could have learned just as much by being around drunks or whores. He finds meditation and starving oneself to be another form of escapism, from which he always gets back to his "Self". A "self" which he wanted to quiet down, to destroy.

Gotama.
Him and Govinda go and meet the Buddha, the enlightened one.
They listen to his wise words. Govinda decides to follow the Buddha. Siddhartha goes on his way after a conversation with the Buddha. The buddha shows that enlightment is a private matter, only lived by the individual. Enlightment is gnostic in nature. Siddhartha can now leave his youth behind, represented in his friend Govinda. He can now become a man.

Awakening.
Siddhartha experiences the world as for the first time. The beautiful colors, the birds.
He sees that by calling the world illusion, one tries to escape the world. He sees that the value of things is in things themselves and not in hidden messages or metaphores. Siddhartha has his first Satori.

Part 2
Kamala.
He meets the beautiful Kamala, a rich courtisan. She can teach him the ways of love on her red lips. She enjoys the luxuries of life, the fine clothes and gifts.
As he decides to go find ways to please this beautiful woman:
" May it be so, my teacher. May my glance always please you, may good fortune always come to me from you!"

Amongst the people.
Siddhartha works for a merchant, Kamaswami. He learns the games of life, yet not attaching himself to the game itself.
He learns trading, taxes and fish basket prices. Yet he knows this to be a game.
His favorite is the time he spends with Kamana. He learns many things at her side, as he teaches her many things. They are alike in some ways, both, feeling a bit apart from others. Whithin each of them is an inner sanctuary, a place where they can go in order to rest their mind.
" Some day when I am older, I will have a child by you. And yet, my dear, you have remained a Samana. You do not really love me-you love nobody. Is that not true?"
" Maybe", said Siddhartha wearily. "I am like you. You cannot love either, otherwise how could you practice love as an art? Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can-that is their secret."

Samsara.
Deep inside, Siddhartha despises the others as all Samanas do. He is really jealous of them for being child like, for loving their wife and children, for feeling deeply for things and others.
" Slowly the soul sickness of the rich crept over him". As years pass, a veil covers him. His guiding inner voices silences. He dislikes his rich clothes, and the perfume in his hair.
After a last evening of love making in Kamala's secret garden, he goes out for wine and dancers, then falls asleep and has a dream. He wakes up to decide that he has to go away from this game as Kamana lets the bird out of the cage. The same bird which Siddhartha had just dreamed of.
Our hero goes on and walks into the woods again.

By the river.
After a long walk, by the river he falls alseep and wakes up to see his old friend Govinda watch over him. The disciples of Gotama were passing by and the monk saw a man dressed in rich clothes sleeping by there. After trying to wake him, the monk decided to wait for the stranger to wake up again. Govinda had not recognized his friend in those rich clothes. After a short talk, the 2 friends part again and go their ways..

The ferryman.
Siddhartha meets up with a wise ferryman, Vasudeva, whom he had met once as a young Samana. The ferry man offers him shelter in his humble hut. Siddhartha decides to stay by the river and to learn its many teachings. One day a group of people pass by, going to pay a last rite to the sick buddha. Kamana is one of them. As she sits to take a rest, a blalck snake bites her, and her son alarmerd asks help of the wise ferrymen. They cant heal the woman, but she goes away having found peace in the eyes of her love, Siddhartha. The ferrymen burn the body of Kamana as the ferryman had burned his wife years ago.

The son.
Siddhartha is left alone with his son. The son is a spoiled brat. He has not chosen to live in a humble hut. It is hard for him to enjoy the simple meals of the ferrymen, as he was used to a life of luxury. Finally the son leaves his dad, whom eventhough he admires and finds to be wise, he also finds boring with his kindness and soft ways. son's choice causes Siddhartha great pains and suffering, yet as Vasudeva tells him: he can not teach his son, he can only let his son live his own life.

Through the loss of his son, Siddhartha learns the value of love, and sees that what he thought to be futile illusions, are in reality the very fabric of life. He feels alone, and thinks of his dad, of Kamana, of his son. He has his second Satori. He now sees beauty in all the people he passes through with his ferry. He feels the love they have for their children, for their wives and husband as a valid expression of Bhraman.

After his pain has gone, he sits with Vasudeva, who asks him to listen to the river again.
" And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life". As they both listen to the river, they both hear the thousand voices of her call.
Vasudeva, after listening to Siddharthas grief, leaves for the woods, towards "the unity of all things".
Siddhartha is now alone, an old and wise ferryman.

Govinda.
When his old friend Govinda comes to see the holy wise ferryman, he asks Siddhartha what he has learned, to which Siddhartha replies:
" Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish..."
" Each truth contains its opposite". Words are dualistic in nature.
" Quite frankly, I do not attach great importance to thoughts either. I attach more importance to things". But is it not illusion? asks Govinda.
" This does not trouble me much. If they are illusion, then I also am illusion, and so they are of the same nature as myself. It is that which makes them so lovable and venerable. That is why I can love them. And there is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But i think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and oursleves and all beings with love, admiration and respect."
" But the buddha taught us not to love remarks Govinda. "He forbade us to bind ourselves to earthly love."
Siddhartha answers that he doesnt denie the buddhas teachings and that they most likely agree, only having words seperating them. "Not in speech or thought do I regard him as a great man, but in his deeds and life"

Govinda feels confused by the words uttered, he asks for one last word to help him along his search. Instead Govinda is asked to kiss Siddharthas forehead. In this kiss, he sees the thousands of faces that have been and ever have been, the animals, forms yet existing, in Siddharthas face, as the Illustrious one smiles, awake.

Critic:
2 things to ponder concerning this story.
- Siddhartha, as the other Buddha, leave their kids. The woman has to take care of the kid.
Question: is it not easy to speak about detachement when one does not take care of one's own doings?
- What type of a selfish idiot needs to loose his son, in order to realize what caring for others might mean, and that he would have loved to spend more time with his son?

Links:
Open source Siddhartha.
In french.