Anicca And Siddhartha

Elaborating on the Buddhist concepts of Anicca and Samsara, the passage from the novel Siddhartha resonates with me because of the many levels to its description of Buddhist ideas. Firstly, the excerpt elaborates thoroughly upon the Buddhist concept of Samsara, or rebirth. At first, one might notice that the quote deeply describes that it takes thousands of lifetimes to reach a state of happiness, and these lifetimes often strongly contradict with each other. All of this depends on the Buddhist idea of Karma. Similar to other Eastern religions, Karma is the idea that all actions are the results of former actions which have generated either positive or negative karma. This idea plays a substantial role in the Buddhist religion, as the nature of one’s rebirth
Sometimes referred to simply as impermanence, much Dukkha results when one chooses not to accept this idea as true. When one does not accept the concept of impermanence, they grow attached to Earthly desires that are in a constant state of change, which only leads to more suffering than is necessary. This quote from the novel makes me deeply consider the idea of Samsara. Although I do not identify as Buddhist, studying Buddhist doctrines, especially Samsara, has caused me to be living in an academically Buddhist mindset. For example, it seems now that whenever something of bad fortune happens to me, I always wonder what I have done in this or even past lives that has caused me to deserve such bad fortune. I also ponder about what my past lives were like, and I desire to know more about the nature of my existence throughout the course of time. Although I am not sure if I completely believe in all the concepts of Buddhism, they definitely have caused me to think in a different sense about my life and the way I treat others, which I believe to be more important than any other doctrine of Buddhism. Lastly, the passage provides me with hope for my