Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

In the story of Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse, we see the main character discover lots of things on his journey to enlightenment. The story takes place around 500 BC where we find Siddhartha, the main character, and how perfect his life is. We see the prerogatives he gains just by being the son of a Brahmin, and being handsome and smart.. However, Siddhartha is not content even though he’s got everything, so he decides to disobey his father, a Brahmin priest, and leave to find enlightenment. His father does try to expostulate his son, but in the end finds how his son’s heart has already left. Through his journey we see him go through many things, but in the end, all of these experiences added up to one person leads him to enlightenment. Even though this took place about two millennia ago, we can still see how the lessons he learned relevant to people living in this day and age.
The samanas are monks who have no possessions and abominate people, who the samanas think are childlike and annoying. They say to find enlightenment you must be able to fast, wait, and think, which lets Siddhartha learn these from them. The essence of this teaching is patience, where one man is hungry and does whatever he can to get money, the other man trained in fasting can wait and get his food eventually. Then the ability to wait is having the patience to do nothing until the opportunity arrives. Lastly is to think and thinking is a patient game for people don’t always find what they want right away, so they think for a long time. Overall the lesson he learned from the samanas is patience, which we must also practice in our