Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, divine author of Glasperlenspiel aka The Glass Beads Game – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-glass-bead-game-by-herman-hesse.html - 10 out of 10

 

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, divine author of Glasperlenspiel aka The Glass Beads Game – my note on this is at  https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-glass-bead-game-by-herman-hesse.html

 

10 out of 10

 

“Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it, French hoard it, Italians squander it, Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Know what I say? I say time is a crook.” This is attributed to Truman Capote and it came to my mind because of the Hindu say it does not exist part, which appears in this magnum opus

 

It is interesting to find that Herman Hesse has three books on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, the aforementioned Glasperlenspiel, Steppenwolf https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/09/steppenwolf-by-herman-hesse-10-out-10.html and Narziss and Goldmund, but not Siddhartha, which seems to be the best known work of his

Indeed, I plan to read Narciss and Goldmund again, for I remember it was such a delight when taken the first time, I was about twenty-five – so we are talking about some 35 years ago – and could not leave the book, I even took it at the sauna, and that was in Austria, if I remember well, and there were naked women within

 

That is the way over there, here there are men who protest if the males do not have something on at the…sauna, few, admittedly, but still, it shows such a difference of attitude, albeit I have read in The Economist that nudity on the beaches and elsewhere is losing its appeal, in what were once bastions with nude beaches

Narciss and Goldmund https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/09/steppenwolf-by-herman-hesse-10-out-10.html has some aspects that we find in Siddhartha, most importantly, the friendship between men, mainly Siddhartha and Govinda, but we should also include Vasudeva, although the latter is seen as a saint, ultimately

 

‘The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language: siddha (achieved) + artha (what was searched for), which together means "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals" which is very interesting, and I see two features here, one, how he talked about seeking

Govinda was a seeker, but Gotama tells him that he may be too fervent, obsessed with this seeking, and that reminds me of Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/choose-life-you-want-by-tal-ben-shahar.html who spoke in his positive psychology lectures, the most popular in the history of Harvard about the road

The rat race is the trap on which we climb, we learn in school because we want good grades, then for exams, which are for admittance in a good university, which is for a good job, in which we work for promotions, but without enjoying it, and thus missing the point, seeking an illusion aka maya the world with its distractions

 

We have to enjoy the journey, positive psychology demonstrates and Siddhartha has said millennia ago – in the first place, he is a privileged, rich son of a brahmin, and all the pain of the world is hidden from him, until he has the chance to see it, and then he decides to leave his home, wife and family and become an ascetic

His father is against this project, and later on, Gotama will remember this, as he faces his own son, and his tantrums, the rejection that Freud https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/freuds-last-session-by-mark-st-germain.html will translate into the desire to kill your father, the Oedipus Complex, which includes the wish to copulate with the mother

 

Siddhartha leaves with his friend, Govinda, and they join the Enlighted one, Gautama, the famous Buddha, by the way, as far as I knew it, we reach Nirvana when we have no more cravings, we desire for nothing more, or as the ascetics, hermits, and especially the stoics would insist ‘wish for what you already have’

It is interesting that one of the most prominent, outstanding Stoics was Seneca https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/on-shortness-of-life-by-seneca.html and he was also one of the richest men of his time (actually, of all time, because we have to put things in perspective) and preached abstinence

 

We could see this as either the wealthy teaching the rest how good it is to ignore fortune, easy to say when you have so much, or, he was one who knew what he was talking about, and then again, this piece of wisdom was confirmed in our time, when psychology has looked at what happens when we get rich and win money

I would first say look at Elon musk, Orange Jesus and other such clowns and monsters, the list is long, and it includes tyrants in dictatorships, those who basically have power over all that that poor state has, Putin, Kim of north Korea, but getting back, there is a fabulous classic of psychology called Stumbling On Happiness

 

Daniel Gilbert https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/stumbling-on-happiness-by-david-gilbert.html looks at the myths of happiness and we also learn about lottery winners, those who get one million over night, and then they just experience Hedonic Adaptation, in other words, Siddhartha, the Buddha and the Stoics were right

Siddhartha tries to experience the normal life, meets Kamala – interesting how this is the name of a prostitute in the narrative -and she wants him to get nice clothes, shoes, gifts, and then she will teach him what she knows…

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”