Midterm

3) Explain the various stages of development that Siddhartha goes through. How effective is Siddhartha's philosophy of detachment as a response to nihilism?

In life we all go through different stages. In the novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse we encounter the character of Siddhartha who goes through various stages of development in his life to find oneness. The various stages Siddhartha goes through are first being the son of the Brahman, becoming a Samana, meeting Gotama, awakening from the teachings, the second stage is meeting Kamala, realizing he was living like the childlike people, realizing his life is like the game of Sansara, watching the river and wanting to die, seeing the ferryman again, discovering he had a son, seeing life through Om and finally reaching enlightenment.  These stages are effective in Siddhartha’s philosophy of detachment as a response to nihilism.

The first stage is being the son of the Brahman where Siddhartha’s life begins. He is not satisfied with this life and wishes to know more than what the Brahman’s teachings offer him, he wishes to find more knowledge and become enlighten. He decides to leave his father and follow the ways of the Samanas. He and his good friend Govinda become Samanas and follow their way of life for years. Here Siddhartha learns to fast, to think and to wait and also learns to cast spells on others. After so many years with the Samana’s still feels discontent and with Govinda after hearing many rumors decide to find a wise man named Gotama the Buddha. Siddhartha finds Gotama’s teachings interesting and wishes to be enlighten like him and realizes that by following Gotama’s teachings he won’t be able to be enlighten on less he experiences what Gotama has experience in life in order to have become enlighten. He leaves Gotama and his friend Govinda decides to stay behind and become a monk. After his talk with Gotama Siddhartha is awaken to a new life, one in which the teachings won’t be part of his life. With no destination Siddhartha decides to go to the city and on his way encounter a ferryman. He becomes enchanted be the river and expresses he sentiments to the ferryman about the river and gives the man his friendship since he is unable to pay the fair. The ferryman accepts seeing that Siddhartha is a Samana and tells him that he will pay him one day and return to the river.

The second stage of Siddhartha leads him to the city were he meets Kamala. He becomes enchanted by her and wishes to please her in any way possible and he asks her to teach him the art of sex. She requests that he get clean, money for gifts and is well dressed in order to be his teacher. Because he has no skill to offer other than fasting, waiting and thinking Kamala finds him a job with a merchant named Kamaswami. He becomes Kamaswami’s equal and learns the ways of the merchant, even though he mocks the man for being too worried about his losses in business and his dependence of wealth, Siddhartha ends up becoming like him. He becomes bitter, starves for more money, gambles, drinks and lives like a wealthy man, all the things he mocked and hated. He realizes that he has become like the childlike people around him who took from life but were not actually living for enlightenment. He analyzes his life and compares it to the game of Sansara and becomes sick with the thought of having no purpose in life and wants to runaway, which he does. He leaves everything behind and returns to the river. He is desolated and wanted to end his meaningless life. When he was about to end his life the river talks to him and he becomes amazed. He falls into a deep sleep that brightens his thoughts and he is reborn. When he wakes he finds a monk sitting close by and realizes is his friend Govinda. Govinda does not recognize him at first because of his clothing. Govinda is amazed with his friend’s change and Siddhartha exclaims to him the he is on a pilgrimage. They say their goodbyes and Siddhartha decides he wants to start from the beginning were everything changed for him in the river. He encounters the ferryman and learns his name Vasudeva. At first Vasudeva did not recognize like Govinda and Siddhartha tells him his tale and that the river spoke to him. Vasudeva is pleased with this and is happy for Siddhartha to join him and to learn from the river. He learns different skills from the ferryman and learns from the river as well. Word goes around about to wise man living by the river and many go to confirm the claims. Later there is news that Gotama is dying and many go to see him for the last time and in those many Kamala and her son are among them. Sadly she is bitten by a snake and tells Siddhartha of his son and dies. Siddhartha is happy to have a son but the boy is not happy living by the river and runs away to the city. Siddhartha follows him with no success and finds that Vasudeva was right behind him. They return to the river and he is very sad for the lost of his son. He tells the ferryman his fears and all that is in his heart and realizes that the ferryman is enlighten as a Buddha. The ferryman tells him the Om prayer for the Brahman’s to help him. The ferryman tells Siddhartha to listen closely to the river and his life passes before his eyes and that’s when he realizes that he has found himself and does not second-guess his actions. Vasudeva sees the change in Siddhartha and leaves him as the ferryman. After the death of Gotama, Govinda returns to the river looking for the wise man that everyone is talking about. At first he does not recognize Siddhartha and asks him how he found enlightenment. Siddhartha explains that enlightenment cannot be thought but has to be experienced. He kisses Govinda in the forehead and all the images of his life pass through his eyes. Govinda is amazed and with tears on his eyes bows down to Siddhartha whose face is that of an enlighten Buddha and with this they have both found the enlightenment that they as youth set out to find.

The philosophy of detachment is effective in the stages that Siddhartha goes to in response to nihilism because since the beginning of his life with the Brahman’s he question their teachings and knowledge typical of nihilism. He wanted to know more and why things were the way they were and how were the Gods, gods and how they passed their teachings. He question many things especially religion. In nihilism people goes against the norms. Siddhartha reached a down fall in his life with the gambling, drinking and wanting more money a typical characteristic related to nihilism. Destruction is always expected and not denied but at the end Siddhartha was able to wake and righten his path.
4) Explain the statement, "boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time", (Jünger p. 13) and its relationship to nihilism

      The book “On Pain” by Ernst Jünger has a close relationship to nihilism. His work touches the darkness of life and the pain that is behind everything we do in life. Jünger believes that pain is our goal in life with the things we do. There is no complete happiness, in the background there will always be pain hiding. Jünger thoughts of pain are relatively characteristics of nihilism.

In his book on page 13 Jünger states that, "boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time", this quotes relates to nihilism. In nihilism pain is inedible because it leads many times to the destruction of a person. To not believe in anything and have no purpose in life and lead to people to destroy themselves in the process of running away from the norms. Boredom plays an important key in the way people can change their lives because they become bored with the things around them.  

      In conclusion Jünger statement relates to nihilism because people involved in nihilism are usually bored of their way of living and seek for something more like in the case of Siddhartha. Being bore leads to pain in his opinion. In nihilism since norms are not followed this can lead to a person’s destruction. Siddhartha was a young man that wanted more and ended up finding lust, gambling, ambition and drinking. This was destroying him and when he realizes that this life had taken him away from the path of enlightenment he leaves everything behind and wishes to end his life but finds a river that gives him meaning in life once more. Jünger’s statement relates to nihilism and can be identified in Siddhartha.