I downloaded a new mindfulness app last night. I've done some meditation off and on over the past few years. Mostly off. I did a little bit during the first lockdown, but eventually abadonned it.
So, I would say that most readers today have some exposure to Eastern philosophy, more than people did when this book was written, or during it's heyday.
Very important in the novel is the fact that Siddartha (inevitably feels the need to) stays true to himself and Gothama cannot find himself and needs to rely on others and that relying on other is not the way to happiness. In that way the first part of the book serves to show us who Siddartha is and what he knows and how gifted he is at being in touch with himself. The second half then is more about path, lessons and mistakes that he makes that he needs to try and reject to show us that the concerns of the material world are nothing but traps.
In some ways my thoughts on this book are a lot like my thoughts on the Brothers Karamazov, the viewpoint we have resounding rejected in west. But, at least here, the idea of mindfulness is a much more personal choice, one that is less incompatible with the society we live in.
I can't help but read these books, look at the state of the world and think about everything that's going on and to think that we've given too much power to the corporations of the world and that our need to measure and compare things and to fetisize GDP has cost something of our souls.
To believe in a soul, in the non-religious or mystical sense, is not something that can be measured, valued, and therefore we've surrendered our colective desire to improve it, and substituted it with things that can be bought.
So in the end Siddartha finds what he's looking for through a life of discipline and moderation.
Which is all to say, thought provoking book. Instruction manual. Whatever it may be. But not sure how long I'll really be thinking about it.
So, I would say that most readers today have some exposure to Eastern philosophy, more than people did when this book was written, or during it's heyday.
Very important in the novel is the fact that Siddartha (inevitably feels the need to) stays true to himself and Gothama cannot find himself and needs to rely on others and that relying on other is not the way to happiness. In that way the first part of the book serves to show us who Siddartha is and what he knows and how gifted he is at being in touch with himself. The second half then is more about path, lessons and mistakes that he makes that he needs to try and reject to show us that the concerns of the material world are nothing but traps.
In some ways my thoughts on this book are a lot like my thoughts on the Brothers Karamazov, the viewpoint we have resounding rejected in west. But, at least here, the idea of mindfulness is a much more personal choice, one that is less incompatible with the society we live in.
I can't help but read these books, look at the state of the world and think about everything that's going on and to think that we've given too much power to the corporations of the world and that our need to measure and compare things and to fetisize GDP has cost something of our souls.
To believe in a soul, in the non-religious or mystical sense, is not something that can be measured, valued, and therefore we've surrendered our colective desire to improve it, and substituted it with things that can be bought.
So in the end Siddartha finds what he's looking for through a life of discipline and moderation.
Which is all to say, thought provoking book. Instruction manual. Whatever it may be. But not sure how long I'll really be thinking about it.