Free Siddhartha Reflections And A Quote Essay Sample

General reflection of the book.

I liked the book. It gives a good perspective of the the life in India during that period and it is a good read if you are in the wondering phase of your life and want to learn what spirituality and wisdom are and how to obtain it. This book is about the journey the main character, Siddartha, learns to master himself to become wise like Buddha. I felt like I could be Siddartha on this journey and meeting people then moving and meeting some more people. It is almost like when you go to University you end up leaving some of your old life and building something new far away. Then you finish University and you do something and restart. However in this book I feel people can learn to reflect on their previous lives before being reincarnated into something new. It was a good time to read this book in University because it covers a similar journey: knowledge, hopefully some wealth after University, and possibly some wisdom.
At some point I felt that Siddartha was like another religious figure, Jesus. Jesus also had many teachings in Judaism that he abandoned to walk with 13 people to question things about society. Jesus was also passionate about learning but more passionate about wisdom. Looking at both Siddartha’s and Jesus’ journey I felt like asking myself what is my next step in life?
My favorite part was when he was young and learning and experimenting from Samanas. He learned to fast and hold his breath. And he started to really question what he was doing with this knowledge. At this point he was very thirsty for knowledge and was only at the beginning of his journey. I was incredibly struck by the amount of freedom and amount of bravery Siddartha had to go on this journey of self discovery. Even during this time period he managed to find people to help him along the way. I am not sure if it is as easy for people today to leave their family and get people to help you.
I have recommended this book to a lot of my friends as I think Herman Hesse’s not only made a wonderful book about how to find oneself but it also give a nice view of India at the time.
2. Paraphrase a Memorable passage and why it is memorable.
Siddartha is talking to his friend Govinda as old men and he says tells him about how he got to this place and explains that people always thought it was a joke or foolishness when he went away from his teachers. Siddartha tells that when he was looking for the truth of things he found that the teachers always had a one sided argument and that although this knowledge can be conveyed the person cannot find wisdom there. He then explains that world is three dimensional and is not one sided. There was always ‘ deception and truth, into suffering and salvation’ in the world that you cannot learn but you have to experience to get wiser. This was memorable because I can reflect that sometimes when you are University many times things are one sided and you are only gaining one-sided knowledge but not wisdom. Both Govinda and Sidartha started on this same journey then one hanged paths. You can put it in an analogy like using Mark Zucherberg meeting one of his Harvard alumni. Both started off on the same journey at Harvard. Mark quit and left to start Facebook and had this incredible journey and learned wisdom, how to lead and yet his friend only found knowledge. This phrase made me think that some people need to let go of what they are taught in school and go out and find the real meanings of things.