Siddhartha

Samana. He did not treat the rich foreign merchant any different than the servant who shaved him and the street-vendor whom he let cheat him out of some small change when buying bananas.

It has required a great deal of time, and even now I have not come to the end of the journey of learning this fact, O Govinda: that man can learn nothing! The thing that we call ‘learning’ is, in truth, nonexistent! It is inherent, oh my friend, in a knowledge that is everywhere, that is Atman; it is in me and in you and in every essence. I am star

These words are not sufficient for this secret meaning. Everything always comes out a little differently as soon as it is put into words. It gets distorted slightly and seems a bit silly—yes, this is also very good and I like it quite a bit, and I agree with the idea that what is one man’s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to someo

He had learned this one thing by the river: how to wait, how to have patience, how to listen attentively.

The realization and knowledge of what wisdom actually is slowly blossomed and ripened within Siddhartha; he now knew what the goal of his long search was. His goal was nothing more than a readiness of the soul, an ability and secret method of thinking the thought of unity every moment of his life, and being able to feel and inhale the unity. This i

However easily he succeeded in talking to all of them, in living with all of them, in learning from all of them, he was still aware that there was something that separated him from them: this was the fact that he was a Samana. He saw mankind going through life like a child or an animal that he both loved and despised at the same time. He saw them t

Amidst his accumulating wealth, Siddhartha had gradually assumed something of the childlike people’s ways for his own—something of their childlikeness and fearfulness. Even so, he envied them all the more as he became more similar to them. He envied them the one thing that he lacked and they possessed: the importance they were able to place on thei

He was a feared gambler, and so high and audacious were his stakes that few dared challenge him. He played the game because of the pain in his heart; wasting his wretched money on the game brought him ferocious joy. In no other way could he, more clearly and with more contempt, demonstrate his disdain for wealth, the false god of merchants. In this

“Have you,” Siddhartha once asked him, “also learned the following secret from the river: that there is no time?” Vasudeva’s face was filled with a bright smile. “Yes, Siddhartha,” he said. “It is even this that you mean: the river is everywhere at once, at the source and the mouth, at the waterfall, the ferry, the rapids, the sea, and the mountain