Required reading for the week of April 19th, 2020-
Part 1 of Siddhartha (first 4 chapters, roughly 42 pages)
It is 2:22 am and this is the book club blurb.
Hi, welcome, why not just get started?
In these uncertain times suffuse with escalating chaos and unchecked ignorance where it feels like we’re just loitering on the precipice of utter destruction and apocalyptic what have you, it’s best to take a moment to sit down, take a deep breath, clear the world from your mind, and look inwards. If there was ever a book that provided me with a sense of spiritual innocence and rejuvenation, this is pretty close.
Listen spiffy pilgrim, listen-
“IN THE NOVEL, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life-the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace and,finally, wisdom.”
I mean isn’t that great? Isn'’t that what we could all just about use right about now?
bored and sickened by lust and greed- my wouldn’t this world get along a lot better if we all learned to come face to face with our most human compulsions and right ourselves for a better path? Well shit I aint saying it’ll happen but it couldn’t hurt to try.
·؎
NEXT WEEK:
FINISH SIDDHARTHA
BEGIN KAHLIL GIBRAN’S
THE PROPHET
“The true profession of man is to find his way to himself”
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s.
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (what was searched for), which together means "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals."