Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
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In the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, the protagonist takes a journey that mirrors the journey through life and that shows him developing from an impetuous youth to a man with the wisdom that comes with age. His goal in life is to attain Nirvana. He sees the need always to seek his own goal, but the Buddha may argue with him and encourage him to become a monk and join the Sangha. A consideration of what this means will lead to a consideration of the arguments Buddha might offer to persuade Siddhartha to do just that, though in fact Siddhartha continues to follow his own path and does not accept the invitation. He does this in the belief that the individual may find his own way, and while he does not denigrate those who choose to be taught and to participate in a group activity such as the Sangha, he knows this way is not for him and that he can serve as an example to others to find their own path.What the Buddha suggests for Siddhartha mirrors ordination in the Buddhist context, meaning initiation into the Buddhist Order, or Sangha, which occurs in the presence of witnesses, or members of the Sangha. There are two kinds of Buddhist Order. The first is the lower, or pabbajj, by which a man becomes a smanera or novice; the second is the higher, or upasampad, by which a novice becomes a monk, or bhikku (Ling 200-201). For the Buddha to make this suggestion to Siddhartha shows that the Master sees potential in the other man and sees a community setting as the way
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t on two levels, the ordinary and the transcendent. Most Buddhists seek to practice the ordinary Path. Those seeking Nibbana or Nirvana enter the Holy Eightfold Path (Harvey 68). Siddhartha seeks this path from the beginning, but he does not enter the Sangha because he wishes to seek and achieve in his own way.
For Siddhartha, then, achieving the Middle Way comes through personal effort and understanding and not through the teachings of others. He follows Atman as the ideal of perfection. The arguments Buddha would use to try to get him to join the Sangha would fall on deaf ears given that Siddhartha has determined to follow his own path and has done so to this point and will continue to do so after.
In the Dhammapada, the wisdom of Buddha is presented in a series of precepts and maxims. The Buddha therein states,
Of paths the Eightfold is the best; of truths the Four Noble Truths are the best; of all states Detachment is the best; of men the Seeing One (Buddha) is the foremost (Dhammapada 109).
The Buddha suggests in fact that this is the only path, for "there is no other path that leads to purity of insight" (Dhammapada 109). One problem the Buddha may have in persuading Siddhartha is that many of the Buddha's own sta
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Approximate Word count = 2714
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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