I am currently reading Siddhartha-a Buddhist chronic-, one of the most thought-provoking novels in literature. Although I’m not totally finished, this book, by Hermann Hesse, has changed my perspective of life.
Siddhartha is a novel that narrates the life of a man named Siddhartha, and explains his spiritual journey of self-discovery. What made Siddhartha unique was that he understood that the eternal liberation could not be reached through doctrines because it could not be taught- enlightenment comes from within. At first, he sought for external guidance, from some kind of organized religion or any type of orientation, though all the sources he goes to fail to bring him the awareness and consciousness he was seeking. Siddhartha then changes his route to the material world, and there is where the trouble starts to come. He replaces the spiritual guidance for Kamala, her lover, and Kamaswami, his business partner. His wisdom allows Siddharta to succeed in the material world, he starts to win a lot of money and little by little alcohol, gambling, and women start to consume the spiritual richness that he had built until then. However, he realized that he was being consumed by this new, horrible world, since his ability to meditate and reflect was now gone. Therefore, he left everything behind and went escaped to the woods, seeking no longer for external sources, but for his internal guidance.
It is clear that eagerness binds us to the world with forces that are unknown to man; it prevents us from accepting the changing flow of life. We live willingly chained to a system that feeds our desire, our permanent state of dissatisfaction, and our constant want for possessions. And once we are chained, those with a “fixed mindset” are incapable of coming back. According to Buddhism wisdom, the mere origin of sadness is the tṛṣṇā –the desire to want more. Being totally focused in what we want blinds us from seeing all the beautiful things that surround us. Having a growth mindset requires –not only an open mind- but also, the ability to recognize our failures and learn from them, as Siddhartha did. Also, one needs to understand that teachers or books can only introduce the concept, but may not give one a growth mindset, one must trust in his internal guidance and develop the necessary qualities to earn it.
Siddhartha is a novel that narrates the life of a man named Siddhartha, and explains his spiritual journey of self-discovery. What made Siddhartha unique was that he understood that the eternal liberation could not be reached through doctrines because it could not be taught- enlightenment comes from within. At first, he sought for external guidance, from some kind of organized religion or any type of orientation, though all the sources he goes to fail to bring him the awareness and consciousness he was seeking. Siddhartha then changes his route to the material world, and there is where the trouble starts to come. He replaces the spiritual guidance for Kamala, her lover, and Kamaswami, his business partner. His wisdom allows Siddharta to succeed in the material world, he starts to win a lot of money and little by little alcohol, gambling, and women start to consume the spiritual richness that he had built until then. However, he realized that he was being consumed by this new, horrible world, since his ability to meditate and reflect was now gone. Therefore, he left everything behind and went escaped to the woods, seeking no longer for external sources, but for his internal guidance.
It is clear that eagerness binds us to the world with forces that are unknown to man; it prevents us from accepting the changing flow of life. We live willingly chained to a system that feeds our desire, our permanent state of dissatisfaction, and our constant want for possessions. And once we are chained, those with a “fixed mindset” are incapable of coming back. According to Buddhism wisdom, the mere origin of sadness is the tṛṣṇā –the desire to want more. Being totally focused in what we want blinds us from seeing all the beautiful things that surround us. Having a growth mindset requires –not only an open mind- but also, the ability to recognize our failures and learn from them, as Siddhartha did. Also, one needs to understand that teachers or books can only introduce the concept, but may not give one a growth mindset, one must trust in his internal guidance and develop the necessary qualities to earn it.