Siddhartha (Wisehouse Classics Edition)

by Hermann Hesse

I wanted to be rid of my self, wanted to overcome my self. But I was not able to overcome it, was able only to cheat it, was able only to flee from it, to hide from it. There is truly nothing in the world that has occupied my thoughts as much as this self of mine, this puzzle that I am alive, that I am separate from one and all, severed from them, that I am Siddhartha! And there is nothing in the world that I know less about than myself, about Siddhartha!

There is a reason why I know nothing about myself, a cause for Siddhartha remaining so strange and unfamiliar to me, just one cause; I was in fear of myself, I was in flight from myself! I sought Atman, I sought Brahman, I had resolved to break my self apart, to flay it apart so that in its innermost, least known part I could find the kernel within all shells, Atman, life, the divine, the ultimate. But in the process I lost myself.

will learn by myself alone, be a student of myself, learn to know myself, the secret of Siddhartha."

That too is something I have learnt from the river: everything comes back again! Even you, samana, you will be back again. So, farewell! My fee can be your friendship. Think of me always when you make sacrifice to the gods."

Anyone can perform magic, anyone can attain his objectives if he is capable of thought, if he is capable of waiting, if he is capable of fasting."

softness is stronger than hardness, water stronger than stone, love stronger than violence.

Vasudeva had said nothing to him that he had not already thought and known. But it was knowledge that he could not implement,

Seeking means having an objective, but finding means being free, being receptive, having no objective.

wisdom cannot be taught. If a wise man tries to teach wisdom it will always sound like folly."

Time is not real, Govinda, that is something I have experienced many times. And if time is not real then the gap that seems to lie between the world and eternity, between suffering and being blessed, between evil and good, is also just delusion."

I needed only the slightest doubt to teach me to give up struggling against these things, to learn to love the world, to stop comparing it with any kind of imaginary world I might have wished for or any kind of perfection I might have invented, I learned to leave the world as it is and to love it and to enjoy being a part of it.

Maybe that is what is preventing you from finding peace, maybe it is all those words. As even redemption and virtue, even sansara and nirvana are nothing but words, Govinda. There is nothing for nirvana to be; there is only the word, 'nirvana'."