Siddhartha Response Part I

“The doctrine of the enlightened Buddha contains a great deal, it teaches many how to live righteously, to shun evil. But one thing this doctrine, so clear, so venerable, does not contain: it does not contain the secret of what the Sublime One himself experienced, he alone among the hundreds of thousands.”

Siddhartha is saying that no matter how much he learns or hears through teaching about how to live like the Buddha, he never actually has the experience. No matter how much you teach somebody about an experience, you do not actually attain it. It is like saying that as much as you tell somebody about a party, they haven’t actually experienced the party. (Unless they were there too.) He is saying that even that is true; the Buddha has shown him the path to awakening.

It reminds me of the High Tech style of teaching things in projects, instead of reading and listening to stuff about whatever we are studying, we actually experience it using hands on activities ( or as close as we can get ) I think that this rule applies to learning in general, you do math homework instead of just learning how to do it. It is a bit more pronounced in things where you have a spiritual or philosophical experience, such as enlightenment.

“When someone reads a piece of writing and wants to find out what it means, he does not feel contempt for the written signs and letters, calling them illusion, chance, and a valueless husk, but he reads them, he studies and loves them, letter by letter. But I, who wanted to read the book of the world and the book of my own nature, I have held the signs and letters in contempt, for the sake of a presumed interpretation; I called the world of phenomena an illusion, I called my eyes and my tongue an accident, valueless phenomena. No, that is all over, I have awakened, I have really awakened and I have just been born today.”

Siddhartha finds the truth for what he was seeking, he realized that the samanas’ way of teaching was wrong; he was hiding and trying to escape from himself, “I” to find out about his soul, instead of trying to understand himself. He relates it to a piece of writing, but it could be related to any sensory input in general, to try to understand the deep meaning or purpose of any music, artwork, action, or basically anything, one does not shun or escape from it, obviously. He realizes that it applies to the soul as well, ridding yourself of yourself or “I” is equivalent to trashing the music or artwork, or forgetting the action.

It is a good philosophy and attitude to have, a simple and effective way to describe it is to have an open mind, and learn from your mistakes.

(Took me forever to write this, but it was a really enlightening and helpful activity which I did a lot of contemplation and reflection. )