Siddhartha Quote Analysis

Siddhartha learns that existence is suffering many times in the first and second chapters. On page 11 Siddhartha says, ¨… and all were not worth a passing glance, everything lied, stank of lies; they were all illusions of sense, happiness and beauty. All were doomed to decay. The world tasted bitter. Life was pain¨(11). While Siddhartha lives with the Samanas he realizes that by simply existing, life is pain. When you live and deceive yourself, rather than denying yourself you cannot be at peace and you will suffer. Another example to note is on page 3 where it says, “Siddhartha had begun to feel the seeds of discontent within him. He had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend govinda, would not

While discovering the third noble truth, Siddhartha departs from the Buddha and his friend, Govinda, leaving him to possess the carte blanche to do whatever must be done to uncover what he desires to know. On the path away from his friend and the Buddha, he says, “I was seeking Brahman, Atman, I wished to destroy myself, to get away from myself, in order to find in the unknown innermost, the nucleus of all things, Atman, Life, the Divine, the Absolute. But by doing so I lost myself on the way” (31). In summary, Siddhartha ponders about his desire to attain more wisdom and how he knows that desire causes suffering, which leads him to realize that he has strayed and that he needs to end his desire to end his suffering. He will only obtain what he wants if he rids his desire to learn more. By giving up his desire for knowledge he finds himself. Another indication of this can be unveiled in chapter 3 stating, “This is why I am continuing my travels--not to seek other, better teachings for I know there are none.” In other words Siddhartha has desired more knowledge all of his life and now he has had his eyes opened. He now knows that because he has desired more wisdom so badly he has suffered so much trying to get it, and not getting it. The knowledge Siddhartha wants is the one thing that after years of searching for he has not found and that is how he suffered from his own