SIDDHARTHA

No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin already carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people—eternal life.

Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.’

‘When someone is seeking,’ said Siddhartha, ‘it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to

a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something.

he learned from it how to listen, to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, and an open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgement, without opinions.

He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment it was new.

I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew.

‘I can think, I can wait, I can fast.’

Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through water, without doing anything, without bestirring himself; he is drawn and lets himself fall. He is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal.