Contradiction is an illusion

[Hadeel]

"For I cannot deny, my words of love are in a contradiction, a seeming contradiction with Gotama's words. For this very reason, I distrust in words so much, for I know, this contradiction is a deception"(31).

I am in agreement with Gotama. How should he not know love, he, who has discovered all elements of human existence in their transitoriness, in their meaninglessness, and yet loved people thus much, to use a long, laborious life only to help them, to teach them. Even with him, even with your great teacher, I prefer the thing over the words, place more importance on his acts and life than on his speeches, more on the gestures of his hand than his opinions. Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.

[Charles]

I find it incredibly interesting that you (Hadeel) name contradiction to be an illusion. Throughout reading the novel, I found myself consistently presented with evidence to suggest that contradiction, certainly through Siddhartha's journey and perhaps among others, is in fact very real. For when Siddhartha first initiates his journey to reach enlightenment, through a philosophy that aims to escape rigid philosophies, he quite literally deviates from his set destiny to become a Brahmin priest only by reading verses instead. When sitting under the banyan tree with Govinda, Siddhartha "repeat[s] in a murmur the verse," (Hesse 4). That repetition of verse to reach nirvana parallels the rites of passage in order to reach salvation in Hinduism. In a way, I find that Siddhartha's discovery of a path to nirvana is therefore a conflict because the requirements that followers must subscribe to in order to reach nirvana, like repeating verses, the Eightfold path, as well as the process that Siddhartha follows for largely the remainder of the novel, contradict the philosophy of escape. In fact, the entire promise of a liberating religion is not truly liberation, if there is a plotted way of achieving it. And in addition to this contradiction between a freeing and constraining religion, Siddhartha finds personal trouble attempting to dismiss the physical world to focus on the inner self, while also attempting to embrace the world for its interconnection. So, I do differ in opinion; I believe the contradictions that Siddhartha encounters as he navigates through his spiritual journey and relationship with Buddhism exist, and are seminal, in that confusing exploration.