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Finished Range and Siddhartha, and now reading Seneca's letters from a stoic. Range is a great book that extols the virtues of playing around and dabbling with

Finished Range and Siddhartha, and now reading Seneca's letters from a stoic. Range is a great book that extols the virtues of playing around and dabbling with multiple skills. Immensely readable. Siddhartha, is a fascinating take on advaita vedanta, Sramana, and Buddhism. As someone familiar with these 3 philosophies, I liked Hesse's take on them. The story is really simple and can be finished in 2-3 sittings. Letters from a stoic is full to the brim of wisdom and I've never filled a book with so many bookmarks and notes before. Seneca writes like a straight arrow and doesn't mince words. No wonder the book is still around, one of the best examples of Lindy effect.

rmb177 6y ago
I read Siddhartha three years ago. I realize this is a long quote, but when I read the passage below, I had a huge rush of emotions and joy. It's been easy to forget this passage with everything that has happened over the past year. Thank you for the reminder that I wish more moments of my life were like this one. >>> Siddhartha learned something new on every step of his path for the world was transformed, and his heart was changed. He saw the sun rising over the mountains with their forests and setting over the distant beach with its palm-trees. At night, he saw the stars in the sky in their fixed positions and the crescent of the moon floating like a boat in the blue. He saw trees, stars, animals, clouds, rainbows, rocks, herbs, flowers, stream and river, the glistening dew in the bushes in the morning, distant high mountains which were blue and pale, birds sang and bees, wind silverishly blew through the rice-field. All of this, a thousand-fold and colourful, had always been there, always the sun and the moon, had shone, always rivers had roared and bees had buzzed, but in former times all of this had been nothing more to Siddhartha than a fleeting, deceptive veil before his eyes, looked upon in distrust, destined to be penetrated and destroyed by thought, since it was not the essential existence, since this essence lay beyond, on the other side of the visible. But now, his liberated eyes stayed on this side, he saw and became aware of the visible, sought to be at home in this world, did not search of the true essence, did not aim at a world beyond. Beautiful was this world, looking at it thus, without searching, thus simply, thus childlike. Beautiful were the moon and the stars, beautiful was the stream and the banks, the forest and the rocks, the goat and the gold-beetle, the flower and the butterfly. Beautiful and love it was, thus to walk through the world, thus childlike, thus awoken, thus open to what is near, thus without distrust. Differently the sun burnt the head, differently the shade of the forest cooled him down, differently the stream and the cistern, the pumpkin and the banana tasted. Short were the days, short the nights, every hour sped swiftly away like a sail on the sea, and under the sail was a ship full of treasures, full of joy. Siddhartha saw a group of apes moving through the high canopy of the forest, high in the branches, and heard their savage, greedy song. Siddhartha saw a male sheep following a female one and mating with her. In a lake of reeds, he saw the pike hungrily hunting for its dinner; propelling themselves away from it, in fear, wiggling and sparkling, the young fish jumped in droves out of the water; the scent of strength and passion came forcefully out of the hasty eddies of the water, which the pike stirred up, impetuously hunting. >>> All of this had always existed, and he had not seen it; he had not been with it. Now he was with it, he was part of it. Light and shadow ran through his eyes, stars and moon ran through his heart.
randomopining 6y ago
Hesse is insanely good. I read almost all his books in the past year. I want to re-read Siddhartha soon, after only like 8 months. I don't think it's really about Buddhism persay. Hesse uses it to get across some ideas. The main point was that Siddhartha realized the oneness of the world, in that each part is not a distinct entity - because that "distinct entity" is defined by it's relations to everything else. The realization brings him joy to consider himself not second class, but simply part of it all. Right?

rmb177 6y ago

I read Siddhartha three years ago. I realize this is a long quote, but when I read the passage below, I had a huge rush of emotions and joy. It's been easy to forget this passage with everything that has happened over the past year. Thank you for the reminder that I wish more moments of my life were like this one. >>> Siddhartha learned something new on every step of his path for the world was transformed, and his heart was changed. He saw the sun rising over the mountains with their forests and setting over the distant beach with its palm-trees. At night, he saw the stars in the sky in their fixed positions and the crescent of the moon floating like a boat in the blue. He saw trees, stars, animals, clouds, rainbows, rocks, herbs, flowers, stream and river, the glistening dew in the bushes in the morning, distant high mountains which were blue and pale, birds sang and bees, wind silverishly blew through the rice-field. All of this, a thousand-fold and colourful, had always been there, always the sun and the moon, had shone, always rivers had roared and bees had buzzed, but in former times all of this had been nothing more to Siddhartha than a fleeting, deceptive veil before his eyes, looked upon in distrust, destined to be penetrated and destroyed by thought, since it was not the essential existence, since this essence lay beyond, on the other side of the visible. But now, his liberated eyes stayed on this side, he saw and became aware of the visible, sought to be at home in this world, did not search of the true essence, did not aim at a world beyond. Beautiful was this world, looking at it thus, without searching, thus simply, thus childlike. Beautiful were the moon and the stars, beautiful was the stream and the banks, the forest and the rocks, the goat and the gold-beetle, the flower and the butterfly. Beautiful and love it was, thus to walk through the world, thus childlike, thus awoken, thus open to what is near, thus without distrust. Differently the sun burnt the head, differently the shade of the forest cooled him down, differently the stream and the cistern, the pumpkin and the banana tasted. Short were the days, short the nights, every hour sped swiftly away like a sail on the sea, and under the sail was a ship full of treasures, full of joy. Siddhartha saw a group of apes moving through the high canopy of the forest, high in the branches, and heard their savage, greedy song. Siddhartha saw a male sheep following a female one and mating with her. In a lake of reeds, he saw the pike hungrily hunting for its dinner; propelling themselves away from it, in fear, wiggling and sparkling, the young fish jumped in droves out of the water; the scent of strength and passion came forcefully out of the hasty eddies of the water, which the pike stirred up, impetuously hunting. >>> All of this had always existed, and he had not seen it; he had not been with it. Now he was with it, he was part of it. Light and shadow ran through his eyes, stars and moon ran through his heart.

randomopining 6y ago

Hesse is insanely good. I read almost all his books in the past year. I want to re-read Siddhartha soon, after only like 8 months. I don't think it's really about Buddhism persay. Hesse uses it to get across some ideas. The main point was that Siddhartha realized the oneness of the world, in that each part is not a distinct entity - because that "distinct entity" is defined by it's relations to everything else. The realization brings him joy to consider himself not second class, but simply part of it all. Right?