This was such a waste of time...

This was such a waste of time. The prose was pretty but the message of finding your own path of enlightenment made me mad. I guess it was just frustrating because it left me where I started confused and unsure. What does Veeky Forums think of pic related?

Why would you ask a blind man to see?

I have know idea what that means. Did you get something from this book?

Not him. But he's implying that asking one to recognise the book's lesson is impossible for one who will not take that lesson.

In other words, you aren't ready for the book.

Admittedly, I read this book expecting the eventual moment of enlightenment to reveal some lifestyle change that could give me a happy life. Then I became angry at myself realizing I was Govinda, following a philosophy in hopes of reaching internal peace. In retrospect, it was foolish for me to think this book would magically fix my life only to be left facing the absurd once more. This book actually makes alot of sense now that I think about it and will probably make even more sense as I get older.

>u-u jus don't get it

Read this quite some time ago when I was heavily depressed, Don't remember much about it but remember feelig foolish and at peace when I finished it.

>waste of time
the book takes like two hours to read

You might prefer Demian, it's just as short but I thought it was better

I found it interesting if only because it encouraged me to get an overview of eastern religions.
The prose is also enjoyable and the atmosphere that Hesse builds up. As for the actual themes, I wasn't particularly receptive to them, but then I'm in general not particularly enticed by that sort of philosophy.

Read NarziƟ und Goldmund and Glas Bead Game and then return to it perhaps.
You will most likely appreciate Siddhartha a lot more after reading those other two Hesse books.

>spoonfeed me or else I'll be confused and angry
kys

Not sure about that, and I know that finding your own path of enlightenment is the overarching idea, but to me it was more about the concept of acceptance of one's self. It also gave me a jarring awareness of life's brevity, leaving me with both a peculiar distance (>20+yo) and simultaneous urgency.

Don't cast pearls before swine.

That's pretty much the reason I read anything (and daydream about hitting the gym) but firstly any book takes a while to digest, and you don't magically notice some changes. Siddhartha isn't the Bible (not that the Bible would do that either.)
It's about sharing your worldview slowly, you won't really realize it, like you don't wake up everyday and notice your muscles got toner and bigger if you go to the gym, they just do over time. Digest the book for a while, read Steppenwolf and "Narcissistic and Goldmund" and just let it all shape you a bit.

good job (unironically)

agreed. that's a revelation.

Damn, I feel like I just saw someone pass through several stages of understanding in real time.

unironicallyneat.jpg

Both you and I know Hesse was a nobody. He didn't dive that deep into Buddhism so understood very little. The only reason why Siddhartha is read because it was a euro babby first intro into eastern philosophy.

>he's a nobody, he can offer you nothing, don't dare call his words pearls
kys asshole

I had the same experience

This book seems like a must re-read.

me too.

i alread read it twice but maybe i will return to it again

That's what you get for reading G*rman Coelho.

Maybe you should read actual buddhism instead of a novel with buddhism

thats the gayest shit ive ever heard

I think the message was more about the difference between knowledge and wisdom than it was about the actual path or whatever

but yeah hesse is peak "lost young person" literature so good on you with that. what other authors can y'all think of that fit the theme? all i can think of is vonnegut and maybe hemingway

This is the sort of book that ditsy white "spiritual but no religious" people eat up. Becoming one with the river and nature and everything being connected sounds deep but it's just a bunch of pagan nonsense.

>im gay
me too

What are you on about?

lazy uncontroversial contrarian

huh? wuh? hmm? immm gay?
yeah, obviously.

If it's so uncontroversial then what's your problem?

>i can't think of any other reason

Growing up in a Buddhist family from a Buddhist country it was sort of odd reading this book, there was a lot more aspects of Vedic religions than Sramanic like one'd expect.

The book barely touched on Buddhism and pretty much never talked about it. I sorta hated how there was a message that one must go through life and fuck up in order to truly understand why certain paths should not be taken. I hated Siddhartha in the beginning too, whiny little shit that thought he was better than the actual Buddha himself and in the end it was sort of dissatisfying that he obtained Nibbana through literally doing nothing.

Shit aside, I've had people think that this is an okay representation of Buddhism and people are genuinely suprised to find that it's more Hindu and that it's a useless book when it comes to telling anyone how to reach true peace.

I would never ever consider this fictional work as a primary-source on any religion. It relates to Buddhist/Hindu religions and philosophies, but anything I got out of it is strictly a lesson from Siddhartha and not a lesson from either of those religions. I believe it would be foolish to consider it any other way. But, this doesn't discredit anything people get out of the book.

dude if you get mad about someone achieving something ur just jelly

why would you read fiction and expect a self-help book or a treatise on buddhism

> I sorta hated how there was a message that one must go through life and fuck up in order to truly understand why certain paths should not be taken.

That is a rather superficial interpretation of the book

I found it extremely closeted, and hoped that Govinda would finally just start sucking Siddhartha's cock.