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The Stop
According to Buddhist tradition, the child who would become the Buddha - Siddhartha Guatama - was born into relative privilege. The son of a tribal chief,1 Siddhartha was expected to inherit his father’s position. However, his education and social standing allowed him a degree of choice to decide his future. This concerned his father as Siddhartha’s mother - Queen Mahamaya - had been ‘troubled by a dream’ that was interpreted as meaning her son would either one day become king - or choose to become a holy man (sadhu) instead. His father decided to ensure the former choice was the one his son would make.2
Throughout Siddhartha’s childhood and adolescence, his father organised his son’s life to ensure he would want to become king. To keep him away from ‘all experiences of sickness, old age or death,’ the boy was raised in luxury, with every privilege imaginable. He was ‘surrounded by beautiful things’ and provided with every pleasure, but was nevertheless essentially confined to the palace grounds. One tradition tells that as a young child he briefly went outside while his father participated in a ceremonial ploughing event. The purpose had been for him to appreciate the beautiful countryside, but sitting alone under a tree Siddhartha only noticed the ‘reality - that the peasants and their oxen are exhausted by their work, and that small creatures like frogs, worms and insects are killed.’ Haunted by this knowledge and confronted by the falseness of his palace life, he decided to see the outside world for himself.
Siddhartha convinced his charioteer - Channa - to take him on a series of excursions outside the palace walls where he saw the four sights that would shape his future life.3 The first sight was an old man. Siddhartha asked Channa why the man was ‘so bent and frail,’ and was shocked by the charioteer’s response - that old age was the natural and unavoidable lot of all people - including himself - and he asked, ‘What is the use of this youth, vitality and strength, if it all ends in this?’
The second sight was a sick person. According to tradition, Siddhartha was surprised and saddened to realise ‘disease and malady afflict even the strongest and healthiest of individuals’ - and that there is ultimately no way of it being prevented. He was equally shocked by the third sight - a corpse being carried to the cremation ground. Though Channa explained this was an everyday part of life, the ‘lack of control and direction people ultimately have over their own life and destiny’ overwhelmed Siddhartha and he struggled to find meaning: ‘You don’t want to grow old but you can’t help it. You don’t want to fall sick but you can’t ensure against it. Death is unavoidable and yet it makes a nonsense of living.’
According to Buddhism, these three sights awakened Siddhartha to the ‘true nature of being’: the cycle of life, old age, sickness, death and continual becoming (samsara) that - despite all human knowledge and sophistication - cannot be stopped.4 Recognising this cycle as the root of human existence, Siddhartha realised that he could only fulfil his potential by transforming his understanding of what it means to take full advantage of human life. This understanding would lead to his journey to enlightenment, the starting point for which was inspired by the fourth sight: a sadhu.
Siddhartha realised the sadhu - walking the streets with an alms bowl, having surrendered his wealth and material property and entirely reliant upon others for his basic food, shelter and livelihood - understood that the ‘riddle of existence and human destiny cannot be resolved simply by pursuing one’s social duties.’ Just as prophesied in his mother’s dream, Siddhartha was confronted with a profound dilemma: to transform his life, fulfil his potential and find the answers for which he was searching, he had to surrender everything - his ‘future career, his marriage and family, his security in the life of the palace and his fulfilment of parental expectations.’ How he resolved the dilemma within himself is unknown, but he did. One night - during a full moon - Siddhartha said farewell to his sleeping wife and child, rode to the edge of the kingdom, ‘divested himself of his clothes, long hair and beard,’ and resolved to become a sadhu. In Buddhist terms, this was his ‘going forth’ - his total commitment to a search which would establish a philosophical and religious tradition that has lasted for millennia.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a short (4:01) video featuring cellist and composer Gretchen Yanover. Using a looper pedal, simple lines become complicated and textured. It’s a lovely diversion.
The Recommendation
Today’s recommendation is Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse.5 Though the title character and the Buddha share the same name, it is not about the Buddha but is instead the story of a different young man’s journey towards enlightenment. Leaving home with his best friend, near the beginning of his quest Siddhartha meets the Buddha. Though his friend joins the Buddha’s order, Siddhartha is dissatisfied with the Buddha’s philosophy and decides to continue his journey alone. Originally written in German and published in 1922, it was not released in the US until 1951 but became very influential in the 1960s. In the novel, Hesse ‘synthesises disparate philosophies - Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism - into a unique vision of life as expressed through one man’s search for true meaning.’
From the back: 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.
Siddhartha is a shimmering, iridescent tale of spiritual quest. It is Nobel Prize-winner Hermann Hesse’s most famous and influential work.
Remember: You can buy Siddhartha at Amazon, but you can also get it from your local new or used bookstore - or check it out from the library. And those options are better for everyone.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is composed of five tracks that have recently found themselves onto my rotation. They’re not connected to the Stop, but I think they work together to create a great atmosphere: ‘Counterpart’ (Bonobo 2022), ‘Lucifer On The Sofa’ (Spoon 2022), ‘Kim’s Sunsets’ (Fat White Family, 2019), ‘Like It Was Yesterday’ (TONE, 2022) and ‘Breathe Underwater’ (Scotch Mist, 2022). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from the celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.6 I thought it was quite fitting, considering the Stop:
‘Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next stop …
The title is interchangeable with ‘king’ or ‘raja.’
This Stop is Part II of Basic Buddhism (Part I was in Issue 1.39; 18 August 2022). Sources for today’s Stop include Cush, Denise. Buddhism. London: Hodder, 2010 and Erricker, Clive. Buddhism - An Introduction. London: Hodder, 2010.
It’s well recognised the story is entirely myth for many reasons - not least of which is the entirely implausible claim that at 29 Siddhartha had never encountered age, illness or death - no matter how good his father was at concealing them from him. But - like all religious origin myths - the importance is not in the story’s details but in its expression of a psychological and spiritual journey. In the Buddha’s case, it’s the inner struggle that leads to his transformation from a person of privilege into a travelling ascetic.
In an appropriately modern twist, he was also shocked to discover that people just accepted this situation as their natural lot in life.
A beautifully written, lyrical novel (Hesse was also a poet and artist), I taught Siddhartha for several years as part of a unit on ‘alienation and discovery’ and found it resonated best with the pupils who gave it time to really get into their heads. For more about Hesse, see: Hermann Hesse (Britannica).
Check out Murakami’s website here: Haruki Murakami