Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 3:04 pm
This is a thread to discuss Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha.
https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Novel ... 0553208845
I was just reading the discussion thread on In Over Our Heads(viewtopic.php?p=169390#p169390) and while I have not read that book and most of the discussion itself is beyond my comprehension, I found it very interesting in light of my recent reading of Siddhartha. I believe that Siddhartha (the character) progresses through each order of consciousness. The book begins with Siddhartha in the third stage, a "philosophy follower" to use Jacob's terminology, where he is a Brahman following the rules of his caste. When he decides to leave home and become a Samana, he begins a transition to the 4th stage (philosophy chooser).
It is fully cemented when he sees the connection between the Samanas and Brahmans; that they are both doomed because they constantly search for something unreachable. He decides to go to the city and reconnect with his most base human desires (sex, drugs and money). This is an attempt to universalize the tribe (https://ibb.co/JKvSDNy) as he is constantly bugged by the idea of the "child people" being preoccupied with desire that he does not possess. He wants to understand this desire by descending into their realm and becoming one of them. However, he becomes frustrated at the fact that he still cannot do this (maybe because he is an OOC above them?) and develops a habit for gambling and drugs, absorbing the worst that the child people have to offer.
After nearly drowning himself in despair, he gives up this quest and transitions into the 5th stage when living with the ferryman. He no longer wants to be a part of a certain tribe or enhance the tribe as a whole but instead gives advice to people as they need it (when ferrying them across the river). His newfound ability to "see and love things exactly as they are" is a 5th order conception. To use daylen's descriptions, he recognizes that universal communication is not feasible exactly because individuals are not phenotypically equal and that morality is not path dependent. He is no longer looking for a hidden universal truth, or a synthesis of truths that he can communicate to everyone; instead he realizes that the connection between all things shouldn't be his focus, the beauty of the individual incarnations of the One Thing should.
His 5th order cognition also explains his conversation with Govinda. Govinda remains a philosophy follower (3rd order) for as long as he stays with Siddhartha and arguably ascends to a chooser (4th) when he makes the independent decision to stay with the Buddha. To invoke the concept of Wheaton levels, it is hard for Siddhartha to explain his own enlightenment to Govinda because he has not reached Siddhartha's level yet. Siddhartha's 5th order status also explains his massive respect for and simultaneous problems with the Buddha. The Buddha, as a teacher, is still in the 4th order attempting to universalize the tribe. Siddhartha respects this because he made a similar failed attempt but has transcended it.
https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Novel ... 0553208845
I was just reading the discussion thread on In Over Our Heads(viewtopic.php?p=169390#p169390) and while I have not read that book and most of the discussion itself is beyond my comprehension, I found it very interesting in light of my recent reading of Siddhartha. I believe that Siddhartha (the character) progresses through each order of consciousness. The book begins with Siddhartha in the third stage, a "philosophy follower" to use Jacob's terminology, where he is a Brahman following the rules of his caste. When he decides to leave home and become a Samana, he begins a transition to the 4th stage (philosophy chooser).
It is fully cemented when he sees the connection between the Samanas and Brahmans; that they are both doomed because they constantly search for something unreachable. He decides to go to the city and reconnect with his most base human desires (sex, drugs and money). This is an attempt to universalize the tribe (https://ibb.co/JKvSDNy) as he is constantly bugged by the idea of the "child people" being preoccupied with desire that he does not possess. He wants to understand this desire by descending into their realm and becoming one of them. However, he becomes frustrated at the fact that he still cannot do this (maybe because he is an OOC above them?) and develops a habit for gambling and drugs, absorbing the worst that the child people have to offer.
After nearly drowning himself in despair, he gives up this quest and transitions into the 5th stage when living with the ferryman. He no longer wants to be a part of a certain tribe or enhance the tribe as a whole but instead gives advice to people as they need it (when ferrying them across the river). His newfound ability to "see and love things exactly as they are" is a 5th order conception. To use daylen's descriptions, he recognizes that universal communication is not feasible exactly because individuals are not phenotypically equal and that morality is not path dependent. He is no longer looking for a hidden universal truth, or a synthesis of truths that he can communicate to everyone; instead he realizes that the connection between all things shouldn't be his focus, the beauty of the individual incarnations of the One Thing should.
His 5th order cognition also explains his conversation with Govinda. Govinda remains a philosophy follower (3rd order) for as long as he stays with Siddhartha and arguably ascends to a chooser (4th) when he makes the independent decision to stay with the Buddha. To invoke the concept of Wheaton levels, it is hard for Siddhartha to explain his own enlightenment to Govinda because he has not reached Siddhartha's level yet. Siddhartha's 5th order status also explains his massive respect for and simultaneous problems with the Buddha. The Buddha, as a teacher, is still in the 4th order attempting to universalize the tribe. Siddhartha respects this because he made a similar failed attempt but has transcended it.