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Books Worth Re-reading

Siddhartha

Summary

Siddhartha is the story of the journey of a young man who experiences all the riches and desires any man can have but soon becomes bored with them. He strives for a life of simplicity, peace and wisdom and finds them in an unexpected place

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Key Takeaways

  1. A goal stood before Siddhartha, a single goal: to become empty, empty of thirst, empty of wishing, empty of dreams, empty of joy and sorrow. Dead to himself, not to be a self any more, to find tranquility with an emptied heard, to be open to miracles in unselfish thoughts, that was his goal. Once all of my self was overcome and had died, once every desire and every urge was silent in the heart, then the ultimate part of me had to awake, the innermost of my being, which is no longer my self, the great secret.”
  2. Realizes he knows a lot, but nothing about himself
  3. “Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has existence and is present.”
  4. Siddhartha finally realized his goal was to be able, at all times, to feel and inhale the oneness. Knowledge of the eternal perfection of the world, smiling, oneness
  5. Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness
  6. The opposite of every truth is just as true
  7. And this is now a teaching you will laugh about – “love, oh Govinda, seems to me to be the most important thing of all. To thoroughly understand the world, to explain it, to despise it, may be the thing great thinkers do. But I’m only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect.”
  8. He claims he has 3 skills – he can wait, fast and think. And while these do not seem like great skills, they preclude Siddhartha from becoming impatient and making irrational decisions, he can wait to eat longer than others and can think through difficult situations or problems
  9. “It is good,” he thought, “to get a taste of everything for oneself, which one needs to know. That lust for the world and riches do not belong to the good things, I have already learned as a child. I have known it for a long time, but I have experienced only now. And now I know it, don’t just know it in my memory, but in my eyes, in my heart, in my stomach. Good for me, to know this!”
  10. The perfected ones are always smiling
What I got out of it
  1. One of the few books that have had a profound influence on me. Siddhartha’s up and down journey and how he eventually reached peace and wisdom after suffering resonated a lot with me. One must first know lust and riches and the evils it brings before one sees the true beauty of giving it up

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