Siddhartha Paper
In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse eastern precepts are well described, giving us a good understanding of their religion. He leads his main character Siddhartha through a journey to find inner enlightenment within the teachings of Buddhism. Grown from a high-class family, Siddhartha decides to leave town in order to find his way in life. But it didn’t take long for him to come across challenges that he would have to now face on his own. He visits the Buddha along his journey and finds that even the Buddha himself does not have the answer that Siddhartha was looking for, so he moves on. He ends up being with a river man after his talk with the Buddha and tries to find peace with nature just as the Buddha had told him to do. Herman Hesse shows the precepts of the Buddhist through Siddhartha well enough that western readers will have a better understanding of their teachings. One of the first precepts that Hesse tried to depict was the four noble truths: life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and the path of cessation is suffering. Hesse shows us these four truths when Siddhartha leaves his home and has to break off from his family and live as a Samarian. I think that Hesse has depicted this part of the story to us to show that if someone wants enlightenment, he/she has to let go of what they have in order to reach the higher being that the Buddhist believe to be in. Another part in the book that showed this is when Siddhartha and his friend’s beliefs where clashing with his own. Siddhartha and his friends had traveled together for a while and when they all realized it was best for them all to go their separate ways it then turned into a test of Siddhartha’s ability to let go. For so long Siddhartha had grown up with someone always there by his side, so of course doubt was on his mind when he left, but once he realized his ability in doing things on his own it was much easier. The Buddha had a