The Spiritual Journey of Self-Discovery

      Siddhartha reminds me of Chris McCandless from Into the Wild. Although Chris McCandless got high grades from a satisfactory university, he ceased communicating with his family, gave away his college fund, and began traveling. He dreamed of living in Alaska, far away from the city to "find himself." His adventure into a wild area without planning, experience or supplies such as money or a compass caused him to end his life. He wanted to travel and enjoy the freedom because he opposed to a lot of societies, routines, and values. 

  This situation is similar in Siddhartha. In the first pages of the book, it seems like Siddhartha is a perfect person. He was a son of a Brahman, wise, handsome, and strong. However, Siddhartha was not happy nor peaceful, because the Brahman teachings did not give him spiritual enlightenment. Siddhartha believes,"The Brahmins and their holy books knew everything; they had gone into everything-the creation of the world, the origin of speech, food, inhalation, exhalation, the arrangement of the senses, the acts of gods-but was it worth while knowing all these things if they did not know the one important thing, the only important thing?" (Page 4) He strongly desired to be a Samana, despite his father's opposition. Eventually, his father gave him permission and he became a Samana to understand life and its meaning in the deepest levels. Although life of a Samana was not easy, he continued to practice self-denial and meditation. According to page 12, Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas; he learned many ways of losing the Self. He travelled along the path of self-denial through pain, through hunger, thirst and fatigue.

  Siddhartha made me think of what I really want in life, and I realised that I should follow my own path through dedication, and achieve my goal little by little. (In that way, Siddhartha is also related to the Tao.) Siddhartha's passion of becoming a Samana and finding spiritual enlightment was extremely strong. Siddhartha and I have different personalities. He had deep thoughts and he was very patient to achieve his goal. He would travel without relying on anybody else. On the other hand, I ask a lot of people for their help, or come up with a new goal if the former did not work out. In conclusion, Siddartha taught me that religious teachings doesn't necessarily lead to one finding the true inner "self." Also, I noticed that, in Siddhartha's case, knowledge and wisdom come from experience, not books. Siddhartha could solve his unanswered questions through his journey, and this is similar to the Tao's teachings.