Siddhartha

Siddhartha is a classic. It is for the thoughtful not for the light reader. I first read this in high school in the 70s and have read it several times since. I will not talk about the plot or characters. Both are well developed. It is the message of the book that matters and why this book has persisted for so many years. It isnt a long book. You can probably finish it in an evening.

As stated in the headline, it arrived just right. I got this as a gift for a friend and the book came in perfect condition. When I received it, it wasnt bent or dirty. My friend loved it and really enjoyed the book, thinking of purchasing it again for myself.

Hesses books have always found me in very specific moments, Steppen wolf first marked me as it showed that theres a place for all and everyone of us. Now Siddhartha, has shown me that I/we have been looking too far, learning from others, and lost track. Put it down after finished, but still in/with it in my head. One of my professors in college said a good book is like and axe has struck your head. Well Siddhartha is a double strike, one to the head and one to the soul.

I liked the way the book incorporates the journey of life and how sometimes events that may seem like the end of the world are actually just a stepping stone. Siddhartha is able to touch on all aspects of life that people will encounter. From looking for the answers to life in our youth to finding our purpose and passion later on . It also touches on loss, indulgences, death, desires, and love. It is a story that can and will open up new perspectives on how to approach life as it has with me. More than worthy of five stars.

Awesome book for anyone looking for life meaning. Deep thoughts, beautiful words full ok knowledge, masterfully presented to the reader.

I really love this book so much. The only true way for me to review Siddhartha is to write about how this beautiful book leaves me feeling. Heres what I have gleaned. When we look deeply into something, we are no longer really looking, we are experiencing. It is the experiencing that is us, not us experiencing. We are simply bearers of light bearing the light of awareness. Looking through the veil, through the thin mist of mind, we gaze upon the unseen. In that moment of blissful gaze, there lies eternity. All appearances have their source in pure awareness. At the moment of our birth, we have no mind, no concept of self. Yet we are already complete, before thought or word. We are entirely without possession. Yet everything is in us. Being without the all, we contain the all, the whole universe in us. Just as the cup is the container for water, so life flows from us and is us. Life is, in all its entirety and splendor, occupying our emptiness, filling our cup, our holy grail, and evermore filling. When mind is formed through conditioning of other minds, everyone takes and everyone gives and such is life. It is a game, but the content on which we play this game does not enter our heart because we are already the openness upon which we pretend to be. Look right now, more deeply at the world...and there you will see everything but your face. There is space where your face is. We are looking out from a clear, boundless openness, and it is because of no-face that we pretend there is one, and we create a mask to wear, and we call this mask our being, being a person (and person of course, means persona, a mask). And so we are constantly seeking our true self wearing a mask, not knowing we are already what we are seeking! When we remove the mask, when we stop the game, we see clearly again. Light fills the void. We are the river of life. We see everything stays the same, yet constantly everything is changing and renewing. Everything is flowing...as an aspect of everything else; A tree, a bird, a stone, a cloud... all flowing...all life simply experiencing itself. Enlightenment is simply the art of being. The art of pure awareness. The art of love. There is no I. No face. Only openness, where everything and nothing are one. The cup and the water, though not together, they are one. And in this openness, we are open to all life. The boundless all. The clear state of being awake. The invisible source of being. Inside you and me, there is peace and refuge. The nameless. The faceless. The perfected. It is our home we never left. Robin Craig Clark peliguin.com

Wonderful book. Five stars, but I have to dock one star because of the way Amazon is handling the translations. If choosing the right translation matters to you, be aware that the Kindle version on Amazon is the Susan Bernofsky translation, no matter what the cover image shows or (seemingly) what the author information says on Amazon. After initially downloading a Kindle version (reasonable at 99¢) I found the translation to be awkward in places and wanted to compare others. The translator is not listed anywhere in the actual Kindle book. I determined, by searching on other websites, that I probably was reading the Susan Bernofsky translation. After doing some investigating, I decided I wanted to read the Hilda Rosner translation and looked for a Kindle version of that translation. Twice I thought Id downloaded the preferred edition--once going by the cover, which matched the Rosner paperback, and once going by the fact that Rosner was listed along with Hesse as the author. Both times the downloaded copy turned out to be the Bernofsky. Caveat emptor.

Siddhartha takes the reader on a journey with a man as he starts his physical and spiritual growth. The reader clearly sees the mans wants, desires, ego, and conceptions/misconceptions. There are so many nuggets of perception that I will reread passages many times for the insights they give me. Love this book for its message which is as timely now as when it was written in 1921.

The beautiful thing about this book is how it encompasses a life so fully. When one reads this book, one cannot help but to see oneself in each and every stage of Siddharthas life. To read this book is to experience unity each step of the way with the love, curiously, joys, and sufferings of the character. Whenever you put this book down, one cannot help but smile at the world around them, more awake than when picking it up.

Great book, my husband recommended I read it when we first met. He mentioned he identified with the main character and I would understand parts of him he had not yet shared if I read it. Its a great read. Vivid imagery through the words of the author