Siddhartha

As part of my "classic a month" reading goal, I picked something a little shorter than the tomes I tackled in the first quarter. Now I wish this book were a bit longer. I can't imagine what this must read like in the original German but the English translation sings.

In a nutshell, Siddhartha - son of a Brahman, raised on spiritualism - leaves home on the journey of his lifetime. The language feels like a Buddhist sutta - spun out with evocative language, overflowing with symbolism, and carrying lessons for the ages. In this case, all of Siddhartha's ages from callow youth to old man. At every turn he thinks, "At last, this is enlightenment." At each turning, he discovers that one thing still eludes him.

The story swept me along, recognizing myself in so many of his mis-steps and mis-conceptions. I'll be thinking about this book for a very long time.

Highly recommended.

[Note: I read the Project Gutenberg. Credited Translators: Gunther Olesch, Anke Dreher, Amy Coulter, Stefan Langer and Semyon Chaichenets]

A really beautiful book, full of poetry and teachings, this one goes directly in my Life Changing category. I must admit that I didn't know much about Siddhartha before reading this (my only glimpse was the movie Little Buddha so...), and this was really interesting. It teaches you a lot about how everything intertwines, but also how to deal with pain, longing, patience, suffering, and life as its whole.

Great book. It at first appears to be contradictory of the Buddha's teaching but all in all it is not. It is a wonderful lesson to traveling paths and finding the destination isn't the purpose.