through the arc of a sacred journey and the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy of returning home, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse comes into the fair conclusion that love is the most important thing in the world. my edition starts with an introduction by Paulo Coelho; I took a deep breath that morning, a breath that sought all the scents the world could contain and I made a promise: that I would choose life.
the first sentence i underlined while reading Siddhartha is: i will no longer devote my thoughts to the Atman and the sorrows of the world. I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins. Atman means the essence of a person, the core self. when read in depth, it reminds me of a quote from Tom Robbins, in a more modern or humorist setting, perhaps, all depression has its roots in self pity and all self pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously. similarly, Siddhartha promises not to devote his thoughts to his essence, his self, and destroy his life trying to uncover ruins.
the second sentence that was underlined says, writing is good, thinking is better. cleverness is good, patience is better. while reading the book i read this sentence a couple of times, multiple times to absorb it. i love writing, but i love spending some time laying and just thinking perhaps a lot more. and cleverness is useful, but patience can pay you better in an emotional state. and explaining your thoughts, the flow of your thinking, the light that you see in your head while writing can be drowning sometimes. when done beautifully, it is more satisfying than ever, though.
the state of detachment, finding yourself completely elsewhere is portrayed so obviously hidden; he played with his business, with the people around him, watched them, derived amusement from them; but with his heart, with his real nature, he was not there. his real elf wandered elsewhere, far away, wandered on and on invisibly and had nothing to do with his life. not feeling like you belong in your life, not getting the sense that this life is indeed yours.
my favorite part in the book and my favorite passage reads; and gradually his face assumed the expressions which are so often found among rich people – the expressions of discontent, of sickliness, of displeasure, of idleness, of lovelessness. slowly the soul sickness of the rich crept over him. this observation both amused and amazed me. rich people do have the sickliness in their faces, the discontent that comes from effortlessness, the loveliness and how it eats them away as their souls drown in displeasure despite every material surrounding lacking actual depth.
when someone is seeking, said Siddhartha, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. related or unrelated, this part reminded me of a quote from Oscar Wilde saying that if you know what you want to be in life, you will become it, that is your punishment. when you are fixated on finding one thing, you are only focused on it and that is the only thing you will find, leaving you eventually purposeless. when you do not know what you want to be in life, you are on the road, if you are on the road, you are to encounter new things. you can become something better you could have wanted to become.
wisdom is not communicable. the wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish. when you especially think of soul work, religions, sacred teachings, or meditation, or the qualities and observational results you obtained through various experiences in life, they are all not communicable. and when they are made communicable, they are easily ridiculed or underestimated. but when you know, you know. when you believe, you believe.
love is the most important thing in the world. the most beautiful and honest statement in the whole book and the whole point, just like it every time is. love is the most important thing in the world. and it is as simple as that.
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