The story of Siddhartha as told by Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse in his book "Siddhartha" is certainly one of the most influential works I have come across. It has left me thinking, wondering... "wisdom cannot be passed on. Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness." Knowledge can be conveyed but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but cannot be expressed in words and taught.
Opposite of every truth is just as true! It's like this: any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything is one sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with words. A person or an act is never entirely Sansara or Nirvana, a person is never entirely holy or sinful. It does seem like this, because we are subject to deception, as if time was something real. Time is not real. And if time is not real, then the gap which seems to be between the world and the eternity, between suffering and blissfulness, between evil and good, is also a deception. The sinner is a sinner today but in times to come he will become Brahman again, he will reach the Nirvana, will be Buddha and now see: "these times to come" are a deception, are only a parable! The sinner is not on his way to become a Buddha, he is not in the process of developing, though our capacity for thinking does not know how else to picture these things. No, within the sinner is now and today already the future Buddha, his future is already all there, you have to worship him, in you, in everyone the Buddha which is coming into being, the possible, the hidden Buddha.
The world is not imperfect or on a slow path towards perfection; no, it is perfect in every moment, all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself, all small children have the old person in themselves, all infants already have death, all dying people have the eternal life. In the rodder and dice gambler, the Buddha is waiting; in the Brahman, the robber is waiting. In deep meditation, there is the possibility to put time out of existence, to see all life which was, is and will be as if it was simultaneous, and there everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman.
When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what fools call magic and which they think is effected by demons. Nothing is effected by demons, there are no demons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast."
