Herman Hesse
06/2018
Buddhism Religious Change Patience
I have spent a long time and have not yet finished, in order to learn this, Govinda: that one can learn nothing. There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge- that is everywhere, that is Atman, that is in me and you and in every creature, and I am beginning to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than a man of knowledge, than learning (19)
Let us enjoy this fruit and await further ones, Govinda. This fruit, for which we are already indebted to Gotama, consists in the fact that he has enticed us away from the Samanas. Whether there are still other and better fruits, let us patiently wait and see (23)
[every finger of his hand] reflected a continuous quiet, an unfading light, an invulnerable peace (28)
Nobody was so alone as he. He was no nobleman, belonging to any aristocracy, no artisan belonging to any guild and finding refuge in it, sharing its life and language. He was no Brahmin, sharing the life of Brahmins, no ascetic belonging to the Samanas. Even the most secluded hermit in the woods was not one and alone; he belonged to a class of people... But he, Siddhartha, where did he belong? Whose life would he share? Whose language would he speak? (41)
Then he suddenly saw clearly that he was leading a strange life, that he was doing many things that were only a game, that he was quite cheerful and sometimes experienced pleasure, but that real life was flowing past him and did not touch him... His real self wandered elsewhere, far away, wandered on an on invisibly and had nothing to do with his life (71)