is very simple indee , sidhartha is a metaphore of buddha's life because the buddha is nothing but sidhartha , the gotama that everyone looked for in the book existed only in hesse character and perhaps thats also very interesting because it brings out the question of why the name of the budhha was used in this book , perhaps is was only meant to be a reference of what really hesse wanted to tell us . maybe hesse himself was the buddha , of course all of this is just a supposition , realitywise is , they just just happen to have the same name but differernt last name .

hello everyone , i beleive that back in those days there were many who felt awoken from the buddha's word and thought they were the next buddhas themselves its no surprise that hesse character also did this , maybe hesse created this character to define the buddha that was awaking inside himself and for him there was no other appropiate name for the character rather than siddhartha and that is why he named it .This two siddharthas are different in looks and at some point in the story they meet eachother , the achiever and the one that has yet to achieve . the last one was hesse character when he encountered the buddhas in the story he was already in the path to enlightment and seeing the buddha and asking him questions was of no longer of interest for him.

I have just read Siddhartha and have come across the problem that i don't have a clue about buddhism or any religion that might help me understand this book. I'm going to have to discuss this book in class and I was wondering if someone could break it down for me and help me understand the book and what it's all about--even if it's just your opinion of the book-that would help. Please, if you could just summarize what you think it is about and the whole thing about the names? please help me...thanks.

i am the buddha
everything you people have said is nonsense

~ b.

if your were the buddha then i must say the need for writing in this forum is totally obsolete and nonsense as well.

I believe it would be a mistake to think that Hesse didn't intentionally chose to name his characters as he did. The existence of what the reader perceives to be two different characters is meant to show that they are in fact one and the same (or "two sides to the same coin" as someone wrote earlier). That is to say that they are two beings separated by the physical world but actually are part of something much more universal in nature; the idea that we are all of one spirit and one mind. We can seek and find answers within ourselves but also, more importantly, we can seek and find even more answers within each other. That is a central tenet of Buddhism. Every living being on this planet is privy to a portion of the universal energy that is life and existence. I think that Hesse simply took this idea and implemented it in a very creative and thought provoking way. He used the very founder of Buddhist thought in his illustration of this belief in order to show not only the true universality of all living things but also to show that our fellow beings may provide only a portion of what we seek. After speaking with the Buddha and listening intently to him Siddhartha shows his genuine respect and admiration for the man but then proceeds to launch into a profound and concise critique of the very concept of teaching, specifically that of a spiritual nature. By doing so, Siddhartha acknowledges the importance of men like the Buddha but at the same time recognizes the absolutely vital role that self searching and introspection plays in the path to enlightenment and self-realization. He acknowledges that only through living and not just simply following can a person understand him or herself. This is exemplified in the course that Siddhartha's life then proceeds down. He becomes a seeker of pleasure both of the sensual and materialistic kinds and finds himself on the banks of a river after many years of living, learning, loving, and suffering. It is only then that he reaches a conclusion about himself and becomes truly aware of lifes meaning. It is the confluence of experience, knowledge, and natures profound simplicity (i.e. the river) that bring about this event in his life. Every thing flows together, much like the river, and seems at once to be everything and nothing, many things and one thing. I would like to know what anyone else thinks about this.

The theme of dual parts of one's personality or character is evident not only in this Hesse novel, but many of his novels: "Beneath the Wheel", "Demain", and "Steppenwolf". I'd be interested in discussing the theme of duality that runs throughout his writing. That dark/light, good/evil, materialism/simplicity, higher truth/every day reality, enlightened/not enlightened that seems to me a consistent and constant theme. Has anyone else seen this trend?

If you look at the teachings of Buddha you will notice one strong central thread - That each person has to experience nirvana by himself and this cannot be really taught through a preceptor.There is even one school of Buddhist taught (whose influence is also seen in Zen ) that does not believe in texts or formal teaching.They believe that the seeker is a student of life.This is what I understood when he uses the expression , "Song of the river" near the end of the book and his interactions with the old ferryman.

Hesse has used this underlying idea and probably skilfully combined it with the concept of duality that was referred to earlier in this thread.

1. Gautama was the clan name of the Buddha, hence the name of Sakyamuni Buddha.

2. Prince Sidhartha was the name of the Buddha before his renunciation of the world.

One theory: Hesse is copying Nietsche in Zarathustra, naming the character after the founder of Zoroastrianism. Another theory, with this naming, Hesse is strenghtening the idea that the realisations attained by Siddhartha is just as valid as those by the Buddha.