Blog Post #34

As the story of Siddhartha comes to an end, a lot is played out through the last few chapters. Siddhartha learns to live with loss, and to be happy with the completeness of the world. His understanding of life and death is full, and he no longer feels the need to find inner peace. He has discovered that by leaving his father he has caused his own son to leave him, and the circle of despair continues. There is nothing more he can do. Like a river, life flows on. Emotions of hate and sadness are anchors that will pass, like all things. Happiness is personal, and what Siddhartha wanted for his son was obviously not what he wanted. He must let him go out of love. "Water seeks out water; youth seeks out youth." (Hesse, 99) His son, made of his own flesh and blood, will also have a desire for Nirvana. It is up to him to find it for himself though. Siddhartha knows that inner peace cannot be taught.
In the end, Siddhartha finally achieves enlightenment and breaks the circle of life. "This countenance appeared unchanged once the depths of the thousandfold immensity had closed again beneath its surface; he was silently smiling, smiling quietly and gently, very kindly perhaps, perhaps mockingly, precisely as he had smiled the Sublime One." (Hesse, 126)  He has realized the one important thing, the only happiness he has ever seeked, and now he is free. To dwell on emotions and material possessions is not the true way to live, and Siddhartha has seen all of what he was meant to do. He is left with a life that he didn't need. Siddhartha spent so much time and energy trying to open the door to the spirit world that he almost forgot it wasn't there. Happiness was always right in front of him, but he had been scared to see it. Siddhartha finally gives up on his journey that he has been trying too hard on and simply accepts the world for what it is. Not just all the goodness and wealth the world has to offer, but the pain and sadness in it too. It is an endless circle with no beginning and no end. Siddhartha loves everything that has, is, and will happen. Nothing is completely sacred of sinful, and all babies carry death. The process of life has no direct path, but everything is effected by it. Once Siddhartha discovers that he has no control over anyone's destiny let alone his own, he has achieved complete Nirvana.