A Symposium on Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

A SYMPOSIUM ON HERMANN HESSE’S Siddhartha

SiddharthaStill Works

by Robert Mossman

udaism is to Christianity as Hinduism is to J Buddhism. To my SAT-satiated high school As a boy, Siddh≥rtha is already proficient in their seniors, this is the way I explain the origins of these understanding and practice. “He knew how to pro- four central religions. Though it is a simplistic nounce Om silently . . . he knew how to recognize 1 analogy and perhaps a disservice to the complexity Atman within the depth of his being.” In fact, of the religions, it works. But while it is easy to see Siddh≥rtha is something of a religious prodigy. His the connections between Judaism and Christianity acquisition of such salient religious practices is as they are reflected in the Bible, it is not always notable; most Hindus take years of practice and easy to understand how Buddhism arose out of discipline to obtain such success, if, indeed, it is Hinduism, particularly because the textual basis is ever mortally accomplished. His easy assumption more obscure. of religion might seem facile, yet to students it One modern text, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, suggests a serious purpose and the possibility that can work admirably to bridge this gap. Profoundly even though young, they, too, can accomplish the realization of religious ideas and practices. . . . what makes the popular in the sixties as a portrait of another world that somehow seemed more real and pure, the book Furthermore, these first several pages demonstrate now is often considered passé. I have found that for Siddh≥rtha’s concern with the Atman, a concept book (Siddhartha) so my high school students of comparative religion, that is very difficult for my students to compre- the truths, the searching, the wisdom so inherent in hend. It is Siddh≥rtha’s immersion in religion and accessible for the class the themes and concerns of the novel are still rele- exploring his soul that is, in fact, the Atman, that vant and persuasive. That it also illustrates truths spiritual being within everyone; this is a concept is its detail about the and knowledge about Hinduism and Buddhism and not easily intelligible to my students. has, at its heart, a Buddhist sensibility makes it an Obviously, too, there is a conscious attempt to two religions from the excellent choice for a transition text between these echo the life of the Buddha; indeed, many students two great Eastern religions. In the year-long com- assume Siddh≥rtha is like his namesake, Siddh≥rtha Gautama ª≥kyamuni, really the Buddha, until their Indian subcontinent. parative religion course, it comes between our study of Hinduism and the Bhagavad-Gıt≥ and famous meeting a few chapters later. And just like our study of Buddhism. the Buddha, Siddh≥rtha is unhappy. He has it all— Siddh≥rtha, the character, goes on a journey he is on the verge of moksha, the ultimate goal of of self-discovery. Achieving self-awareness is all Hindus, which means that he will be out of the one of the major obsessions of teenagers; thus, the samsaric cycle of reincarnated lives—yet he seems innate appeal of Siddh≥rtha as a character is readily peculiarly unsatisfied and disconcerted. The paral- apparent. But what makes the book so accessible lels to my students are obvious. While many come for the class is its detail about the two religions from rather normal families, their personal sense of from the Indian subcontinent. angst is real. The beauty of reading this novel is in Within the first two pages, several of the major the students’ instinctive identification with this concepts and practices of Hinduism are mentioned. mysterious despair which Siddh≥rtha is experiencing. It may seem distracted and diffuse, both to my

6 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 1997 students and to Siddh≥rtha, but that does not mini- EENAGERS DENTIFY WITH IDDH ARTHA S mize its reality. Pedagogically, it is often more T I S ¯ ’ OURNEY INTO THE EAL ORLD AND effective for students to identify intuitively with a J R W UEST FOR NLIGHTENMENT protagonist without too much overt teacher invita- Q E tion or intervention. Many students do identify with Govinda is impressed and decides to stay with Siddh≥rtha quickly because they sense what he is the Buddha, thus setting up a keen contrast between experiencing, even if they cannot name it. A stu- the two, which resonates throughout the novel. dent once plaintively remarked to me, “Everyone Siddh≥rtha resolves, “I will learn from myself, says these are supposed to be the happiest days of be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the our lives, but they sure aren’t for me.” secret of Siddh≥rtha.”3 While Siddh≥rtha never In illustrating the two traditions of these Asian acknowledges this awakening directly, he is, in religions, no section is more important than essence, taking a very Buddhist approach by find- Siddh≥rtha’s meeting with the Buddha. After sever- ing himself through his own efforts. Seeking one’s al years with the Samanas, Hindu ascetics, during own enlightenment, just like the Buddha had done which Siddh≥rtha undergoes extreme physical in his momentous night under the Bodhi tree, is one deprivation, he is still not satisfied. So he and his of the central notions of Buddhism. For teenagers, faithful friend Govinda go in search of the famous this effort rings true. Siddh≥rtha is seeking his own teacher of whom they have heard so much. The enlightenment, and for many teenagers, this chapter “Gautama” is central in teaching is exactly what they themselves would like to Buddhism. In several places the “Illustrious One” be doing. enunciates the major components of what is now Siddh≥rtha plunges into the maelstrom of real known as Buddhism. The descriptions of the life. Religion, philosophy, and wisdom are forgot- Buddha in this chapter are especially illuminating. ten. Siddh≥rtha, who never had the chance while Beyond the obvious They present the Buddha as a man, a special man young, now enters into what Hinduism identifies as to be sure, but nonetheless a man who has “paths of desire,” and he does so with passion. He lessons about the struggled and found, just like most human beings. lusts in the presence of Kamala, the courtesan, Students are quick to assume that the Buddha he joins the realm of business to provide for nature of Hinduism is some kind of deity, but the passages of descrip- Kamala’s desires, and he is completely “amongst tion emphasize his humanity, his peacefulness, the people” as the chapter title avers, living a and Buddhism, his reality. life of hedonism. Siddh≥rtha is impressed by the presence of the “Slowly the soul sickness of the rich crept Siddhartha can assist stu- Buddha, but ultimately not by his teachings: over him.”4 Many of my students cringe at this description of Siddh≥rtha. Many of them are, if . . . and so I think, O Illustrious One, that only by happenstance of birth and upbringing, very dents as an early step nobody finds salvation through teachings. much ensnared by this same disease. More effec- tively than any preacher or politician or moralistic on a journey toward To nobody, O Illustrious One, can you teacher, Siddh≥rtha’s descent into desire compels communicate in words and teaching what them to ponder their own private lives and their wisdom. consumptive nature. happened to you in the hour of your All this, too, Siddh≥rtha eventually finds inad- enlightenment. That is why I am going on equate. He leaves both Kamala and his consuming life, which he has found to be a trap—as many of my way—not to seek another and better my students would like to. Siddh≥rtha’s journeys doctrine, for I know there is none, but to lead him to the river, the ferry, and the ferryman Vasudeva. Here, beside the enduring and powerful leave all doctrines and all teachers and to Hindu symbol of a river, he decides to stay, to wait reach my goal alone—or die.2 for life to engulf him, to empower him by its inevitability. Such a decision has both Hindu and Buddhist instincts—Hindu, because it implies innate identification with the river, one of the key

Teaching About the Religions of Asia 7 A SYMPOSIUM ON HERMANN HESSE’S Siddhartha

natural symbols in Hindu iconography, and Inevitably, in spring parent/teacher confer- Buddhist, because he is once again asserting his ences, I am asked about my teaching of Siddhartha. own control over his destiny, and, in a keen sense, A few parents think it is quaint, some remember awaiting further enlightenment. reading it and being moved, some simply shudder Life does come to Siddh≥rtha, including the at this sixties relic. My stock answer to all is to life which he has unknowingly engendered; name- ask their children. Seldom do I hear of such ly, his own son. My students are usually somewhat discussions, but one mother once reported, refer- disconcerted by this episode. This man who has so ring to her daughter, “She said it was the best successfully mirrored so many of their own desires book she had ever read and that it made her and hopes seems a failure as a parent. Students are understand life.” Beyond the obvious lessons often of two minds about parents: they want them about the nature of Hinduism and Buddhism, to be helpful, compassionate, and tolerant, but Siddhartha can assist students as an early step when the parents are not so perfect in real life, as on a journey toward wisdom. Such a book still inevitably they will not be, the students become deserves to be taught. n flustered and frustrated. Siddh≥rtha’s lack of success with his own son, who seems such a spoiled brat to many of them, is too close to real life. Parenting is messy, but children do not want to acknowledge this. The years pass, and finally Govinda, in his wanderings as a Buddhist monk, returns for a final . . . one mother encounter with Siddh≥rtha. High drama and elo- ROBERT MOSSMAN currently teaches English, Comparative quent discourse ensue. The contrast between the Religion and Ethics at St. Gregory College Preparatory once reported, twin roles of committed religionist and dispassion- School in Tucson, Arizona. He holds Masters degrees from ate observer is dramatic and evocative. Yale Divinity School and the University of Arizona. referring to Govinda said . . . Have you not discovered certain knowledge yourself that has her daughter, helped you to live? It would give me great pleasure if you would tell me something “She said it was about this? Siddh≥rtha said . . . Wisdom is not commu- the best book nicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish. . . . NOTES Knowledge can be communicated but not 1 Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: Bantam, 1971, 3-4. she had ever read wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified 2. ibid., 34. 3. ibid., 39. by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot 4. ibid., 78. and that it made her 5 communicate and teach it. 5. ibid., 142.

understand life.” To ask a student after twelve years of schooling if he or she has gained any wisdom is revealing. Most will answer that they have not. They will acknowledge gaining knowledge, the kind of knowledge that may help with the SAT or final exams, but wisdom remains elusive. Many students confronted by this reality react with discourage- ment. They feel they have been cheated and are astonished that all their schooling has delivered so little. A few, the discerning ones, may argue this is precisely the point of religions, to offer wisdom. Most will feel like sitting by a river.

8 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 1997 Teaching Indian Buddhism with Siddhartha — or Not? by Catherine Benton

n teaching the perspectives of the Asian One such text is Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, I religious traditions, I am involved daily in the sometimes used to introduce students to Indian process of observing, interpreting, and explaining Buddhist thought. I emphasize that Siddhartha is the thinking of one culture to people whose minds problematic only when used as a reflection of have been molded by the world view of quite a dif- Indian Buddhism, not when presented as a narra- ferent culture. In structuring this process, one of the tive reflecting Hesse’s internal struggle to under- most important tasks is choosing texts that work to stand his own life as a spiritual process. Problems I emphasize that form bridges between a primarily (broadly speak- arise when Siddhartha is taken out of its European, ing) American way of seeing, and either an Indian, and more specifically German Protestant Christian, Japanese, or Chinese perspective. To this end, I am context, and used to present Indian Buddhist Siddhartha is always looking for writing that will create links thought, because many of the fundamental perspec- sufficiently clear to allow American readers to tives of the Buddhist tradition are obscured, if not problematic only grasp new paradigms while scrupulously maintain- turned completely upside-down. ing the integrity of the Asian conceptions. Once the Siddhartha-model is fixed in the when used as a In more than twelve years of this continual minds of intellectually curious and enthusiastic stu- search, however, I have sometimes discovered dents, reading and understanding primary Buddhist reflection of Indian writing which, under the guise of presenting an texts or more authentic interpretations and com- Asian perspective, presents instead something more mentaries become more difficult, as contradictory Buddhism, not when congruent with the author’s own cultural and per- models are described in these texts. Studying pat- haps religious values. Such writings appear to terns of thinking and perceptions of a culture differ- presented as a create bridges and links, but they, in fact, superim- ent from one’s own should feel at the very least pose their own culturally defined world views onto unfamiliar, if not unsettling, but Hesse’s presenta- that of a particular Asian tradition. Most often, a tion of Indian ways of thinking flows easily into narrative reflecting uniquely Indian or Chinese perspective is subtly our own cultural frameworks—influenced, as refashioned into a variant of a Judeo-Christian American intellectual thinking is, by European lit- Hesse’s internal model, sounding quite plausible and even intrigu- erary and philosophical ideas. After Hesse’s ing but no longer Indian or Chinese. In addition, “Indian Buddhist” world view has been made so struggle to understand precisely because these newly fashioned “Asian” comfortable in Siddhartha, reading Asvaghosa or perspectives have such a “familiar ring” to them, an N≥g≥rjuna or Vimalakırti and reconciling their his life as a American audience finds these presentations views with those of Hesse’s Siddhartha becomes “clear” and “easy to grasp”; they have seduced much harder work. For young American students spiritual process. both author and reader into thinking that real of Buddhism, the world-loving ways of Hesse’s insight into Buddhist or Hindu perception has been Siddhartha are much easier to relate to than the achieved. highly disciplined ways of Siddh≥rtha Gautama, Although the popularity of these works as the fifth century B.C.E. Indian ascetic. transmitters of Asian thought among a general Treating Hesse’s Siddhartha as a paradigmatic reading public is disturbing, my primary concern Buddhist figure not only misrepresents the nature is rather their use in college or high-school intro- of Buddhist practice, but subsequently makes it ductory Asian religion or world religion classes more difficult to grasp the genuine differences in because they contain enough of the terminology cultural perspectives that exist between the stu- and images of the Asian tradition to be compelling, dents’ own Euro-American monotheistic world but they lack a solid grounding in the tradition as a view and that of an Indian Buddhist culture. When whole. we accept Hesse’s Siddhartha as a bonafide exam-

Teaching About the Religions of Asia 9 A SYMPOSIUM ON HERMANN HESSE’S Siddhartha

ple of Indian Buddhist thinking and practice, superficial understanding of the Buddhist tradition. we camouflage the world view and accompanying Otten quotes a passage from Hesse’s diary written natural biases of the author’s cultural framework, in 1920 documenting his feelings about Buddhism. as well as the framework brought to the reading by My preoccupation with India, which has American students. been going on for almost twenty years and has passed through many stages, HESSE, SIDDHARTHA, AND THE BUDDHA: now seems to me to have reached a DISTINGUISHING ONE FROM THE OTHER new point of development. . . . now Hesse’s grandfather was a missionary in India for Buddhism appears to me more and thirty years, and Hesse wrote that he was greatly more as a kind of very pure, highly bred influenced from a young age by his grandfather’s reformation—a purification and spiritu- stories. As a result of this childhood fascination, alization that has no flaw but its great Hesse travelled to India and other Asian countries zealousness, with which it destroys in 1911 and ultimately wrote several books based image-worlds for which it can offer no 1 on these experiences. The novel Siddhartha was replacement.4 finally published in 1922 after almost four years of writing and rewriting. Through Siddhartha, Hesse expresses this From Hesse’s diaries, we get a glimpse of the skeptical view that Buddhism destroys old beliefs Hesse’s embarrassingly impressions of India which Hesse brought back without offering substantive replacements; with him to Germany and which helped shape his that Buddhism fails to provide effective guidance thoughts for Siddhartha. in the search for inner peace and meaning. In quaint homogenization We come to the South and East full of the novel, Siddhartha speaks these words to the Buddha himself: of Asian Indians as longing, driven by a dark and grateful premonition of home, and we find here a You have learned nothing through teach- paradise, the abundance and rich volup- ings, and so I think, O Illustrious One, that ’pure, simple, tuousness of all natural gifts. We find the nobody finds salvation through teachings. pure, simple, childlike people of par- To nobody, O Illustrious One, can you childlike people of adise. But we ourselves are different; we communicate in words and teachings what are alien here and without any rights of happened to you in the hour of your paradise‘ is matched citizenship; we lost our paradise long enlightenment. . . . That is why I am going ago, and the new one that we wish to on my own way—not to seek another and by a comparably build is not to be found along the equator better doctrine, for I know there is none, and on the warm seas of the East. It lies but to leave all doctrines and all teachers superficial within us and in our own northern and to reach my goal alone—or die.5 future.2 As the Buddha walks away, Siddh≥rtha reflects: understanding of Upon reading Hesse’s reflections, the editor of the Hesse Companion, Anna Otten, remarks that I, also, would like to look and smile, sit the Buddhist tradition. “it is no surprise that Hesse undertook to write a and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so novel about India; [but] by the same token, it restrained, so candid, so childlike and would be naive to read the book as an embodiment mysterious. A man only looks and walks or exegesis of Indian philosophy.”3 Yet readers less like that when he has conquered his Self. informed than Otten often fail to recognize I also will conquer my Self (29). that Hesse wrote primarily about his own inner struggles, and that he used his acquaintance with Siddh≥rtha continues this reflection, wondering to Indian thought only as the framework for this inter- himself: nal exploration. What is it that you wanted to learn from Hesse’s embarrassingly quaint homogeniza- teachings and teachers, and although tion of Asian Indians as “pure, simple, childlike they taught you much, what was it they people of paradise” is matched by a comparably could not teach you? And he thought: It

10 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 1997 was the Self, the character and nature of novel deeply peaceful and content in his under- which I wished to learn. I wanted to rid standing of life. In a final scene, seeing a radiance myself of the Self, to conquer it, but in Siddh≥rtha that he has seen only in the Buddha, I could not conquer it, I could only Govinda asks Siddh≥rtha to teach him so that he, deceive it, could only fly from it, could too, can attain this peace. only hide from it. . . . The reason why “[I]t is only important to love the I do not know anything about myself, the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate reason why Siddhartha has remained each other, but to be able to regard the alien and unknown to myself is due to world and ourselves and all beings with one thing, to one single thing—I was love, admiration and respect.” Students have afraid of myself, I was fleeing from “I understand that,” said Govinda, myself. I was seeking Brahman, Atman, “but that is just what the Illustrious One sometimes come I wished to destroy myself, to get away called illusion. He preached benevolence, from myself, in order to find in the forbearance, sympathy, patience—but not to me after struggling unknown innermost, the nucleus of all love. He forbade us to bind ourselves to things, Atman, Life, the Divine, the earthly love.” through Asvaghosa’s Absolute. But by doing so, I lost myself “. . . I will not deny that my words on the way. . . . I will no longer study about love are in apparent contradiction Yoga-Veda [sic], Atharva-Veda, or to the teachings of Gotama [the Buddha]. Buddhacarita, a asceticism, or any other teachings. That is just why I distrust words so much, I will learn from myself, be my own for I know that this contradiction is an first-century Indian pupil; I will learn from myself the illusion. I know that I am at one with secret of Siddhartha (31–32) Gotama. . . . Not in speech or thought do narrative that tells the I regard him as a great man, but in his As Hesse’s protagonist sets out to find “the deeds and life” (118–119). life of the Buddha in a Self” by himself, the concepts that are drawn from the Indian religious traditions begin to get muddy. Discounting as illusory any differences colorful and culturally- Is Hesse talking about the Self of The Upanishads, between his way and that of the Buddha, the Atman, or is Hesse talking about the philosoph- Hesse/Siddh≥rtha still dismisses any “greatness” in ical and emotional search that Americans and the words or thoughts of ªaky≥muni Buddha. specific form, and Europeans often feel caught up in, the existential Govinda is advised simply to respect the stature of search “to find oneself”? If Hesse is referring here ªaky≥muni Buddha as “a great man,” and to forget asked whether it might to the Atman of The Upanishads, we must remind his teachings. ourselves that the Buddha, after his enlightenment, While there is a certain appeal to the notion not be more helpful taught most categorically that there is no Atman, no that fundamentally, all differences among various Self (known as the Buddhist doctrine of an≥tma). religious traditions are insignificant or even simply to read Hesse’s Making a critical break from the Hindu tradition, illusory, a problem inevitably arises when we try to the Buddha taught that there is no Self to be found. sort out the reasons for the “apparent differences.” Siddhartha. Yet Hesse’s Siddh≥rtha, adopting what he per- Indeed, the Buddhist teachings of No Self, ceived to be the same goal as the Buddha, offers us Impermanence, and Emptiness communicate a very an alternate way to this same end, but by a way not different world view from that shaped by the bound by the discipline of the Buddhist precepts. In Christian belief in One God and the permanence of stark contrast to the way charted by the Buddha, the individual soul. Hesse’s approach is to pretend the novel’s character lives a life deeply enmeshed that no differences exist. As a historian of religion, in commercial enterprise and sensuality, though a however, I must examine the figure of Siddh≥rtha life which nonetheless brings even deeper insight in the light of such fundamental Buddhist teachings than that gained by his friend Govinda in his forty as the doctrine of No Self and the practice of taking years as a Buddhist monk. Having rejected the refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—a way of the Buddha and following instead his own practice understood by the tradition to encapsulate guidance, Siddh≥rtha appears at the end of the the fundamental guiding principles of the tradition.

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From the perspective of these teachings, Hesse’s ficult time accepting images of Buddhist practice Siddh≥rtha does not embody the Buddhist ideal, described by Indian Buddhists themselves or by rejecting as he does both the three refuges and the western scholars and practitioners immersed in the understanding of No Self which are of core signifi- tradition. In reading these texts, students find them- cance for any Buddhist. While Hesse’s protagonist selves pushed to let go of images and concepts that reaches out for knowledge of his “Self,” the they have found quite appealing. Particularly for Buddhist monk or nun strives to see the inherent those students who have taken earlier courses in emptiness of the “Self.” which texts like Siddhartha were held up as author- Students have sometimes come to me after itative and who feel confident in their grasp struggling through Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita, a of Buddhist thinking, it becomes difficult to read first-century Indian narrative that tells the life of primary text sources which describe a tradition the Buddha in a colorful and culturally-specific very different from that portrayed in Siddh≥rtha. form, and asked whether it might not be more help- These students find their confidence replaced by ful simply to read Hesse’s Siddhartha. Siddhartha, confusion and a vague sense of betrayal. If a practicing Buddhist they explain, is much clearer and provides an image of a spiritual seeker with whom they can CONCLUSIONS were to read Siddhartha, relate more easily, and isn’t he, as Siddh≥rtha him- My purpose in writing this article has been to self says in the final pages of the book, also a examine the assumptions and perspectives of a text he or she would most Buddhist? which I have found questionable in terms of gain- While Hesse appears to convey Indian con- ing insight into the Buddhist tradition. Students certainly wonder what cepts, he uses themes and motifs more common to have found Siddhartha a fascinating and com- western philosophical thinking, such as the individ- pelling work, and asked for my thoughts on its had ual’s existential search for meaning, the youth value as a reliable source for understanding rebelling against institutions and teachers, freedom Buddhism. Rereading Siddhartha with a mind happened to the as a paradigm for boundless potential, and perhaps trained in the study of, and respect for, primary most importantly, the image of the self-made texts, I found a very different story than I did as an person. Siddh≥rtha’s achievement of what he per- undergraduate who had not yet had any experience foundation of all ceived to be deep religious meaning, deeper than of Buddhists or Buddhism. Having now studied that of the Buddhist monks, is gained by following the texts and the contributions of Indian, Chinese, Buddhist insight, the models more expressive of European existentialist Japanese, and American Buddhists, I must argue thought than of Indian Buddhist thinking. against using Hesse’s narrative as an introduction deep reverence for Siddh≥rtha specifically rejects established religious to the Buddhist tradition. Without arguing that institutions and practices, as well as religious teach- the only authoritative sources are writers indige- the three refuges and ings and teachers. What an appealing model for the nous to a particular tradition, I do think that the American ideals of independence and individual- teachers and writers who speak from within the essential practice ism! When American students compare the the traditions must be used as serious “touchstones” Sanskritic eccentricities of the first century Indian for evaluating other translations and interpretations of meditation. Buddhacarita with the flowing prose of a story of the traditions. The guidance of indigenous prac- which highlights patterns of thinking already titioners and scholars as a whole, not simply the valued by them, Asvaghosa doesn’t stand a chance. work of one or two individuals, must be used as Ultimately, the packaging of Asian perspec- the “measuring stick” for determining the depth of tives in American and European patterns and understanding of the interpolations and elucidations values undermines methods of teaching that of “outsiders.” respectfully but firmly acknowledge cultural and Again, I do not want to say that all studies religious differences. I often find that American emanating from outside particular traditions must students have numerous preconceptions about be viewed skeptically until given the imprimatur of Asian traditions that run the gamut from “brain- an elite group of scholars within that religious washing cults” to “founts of mystical powers.” tradition. But I do think that all authors exploring When these preconceptions are combined with cultural and religious traditions outside their own reading works like Siddhartha, students have a dif- must first be aware of, and second, be sensitive

12 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 1997 to how the tradition explains itself to its own Siddhartha practitioners as well as to others. If a practicing Buddhist were to read Siddhartha, he or she would — A Journey to the East? most certainly wonder what had happened to the foundation of all Buddhist insight, the deep rever- by Mark MacWilliams ence for the three refuges and the essential practice of meditation. The challenge for all of us who are students of traditions rooted in cultures we were not born into ver seventy-five years after its initial publi- is to chart a course that is academically truthful and Ocation, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha enjoys sound, which at the same time allows us to “enter” the status of a minor literary classic. Yet, despite its that new culture with awareness, sensitivity, and continuing popularity, or perhaps because of it, an respect. Entering with these sensibilities, our goal important question for those of us teaching Asian is to emerge from our study truly grounded in an religions is whether Siddhartha has any useful role This imaginary India, understanding of the new culture, as well as with a to play in our classes. deeper understanding of our own. n Part of me inclines against using it in the typical religions of the East or introduction to which forms the Buddhism course. As Catherine Benton points out, Hesse was profoundly disappointed with what he timeless mytho-poetic saw of living Asian religions during his journey to CATHY BENTON has lectured in the Religion Department at the East in 1911. While the India of his own time world of Siddhartha, owes Lake Forest College for ten years. She teaches classes in Asian remained an uninspiring enigma for him, Hesse Studies, History of Religions, and Comparative Literature. constructed his own mysterious Orient out of his its genesis in part to literary imagination. This imaginary India, which forms the timeless mytho-poetic world of Hesse’s study of the Siddhartha, owes its genesis in part to Hesse’s study of the sacred books of the East—the Vedas, NOTES sacred books of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gıt≥, and the Therav≥da 1. Picture Book (Bilderbuch) was published in 1926, and Out of India (Aus Indien) in 1913. Buddhist Suttas. Passages from The Upanishads, in 2. Otten, 73. She is quoting here from Aus Indien but comments particular, are quoted in the novel. East—the Vedas, that much of this text was also reprinted in Bilderbuch. 3. Otten, 74–75. Upanishads, the Bhagavad 4. Otten, 74. Her quotation is from “Aus Einem Tagebuch des AN INDIAN POETIC WORK Jahres 1920,” Corona, 3 (1921), 201–202. How did he read these texts? He read them in much 5. Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha. New York: New Directions, the same way as other German romantics of his day G¯ıt¯a, and the 1951, 27–28. read them. The subtitle of Siddhartha, “Eine indis- che Dichtung,” an Indian poetic work, is highly Therav¯ada suggestive in this regard. Hesse saw Indian spiritu- ality in much the same way as the great orientalist Buddhist Suttas. BIBLIOGRAPHY Max Müller understood the hymns to the Vedic De Bary, William Theodore. The Buddhist Tradition in India, gods in the Rig-Veda. According to Müller, the China, and Japan . New York: Vintage Books, 1972. religion of the Indians was originally based upon a Freedman, Ralph. Hermann Hesse, Pilgrim of Crisis, a Biography. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. sensuous poetic intuition of the infinite through Hesse, Hermann. Autobiographical Writings. New York: nature. This pure nature mysticism was later cor- Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971. rupted by what Müller called “the disease of lan- Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: guage,” the unfortunate tendency of the later tradi- New Directions, 1951. tion to create phantasmagoric forms of the gods Otten, Anna. Hesse Companion. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1977. with their own mythologies out of what were origi- Strong, John S. The Experience of Buddhism, Sources and nally only the natural metaphors that the Vedic Interpretations. Belmont, California: Wadsworth poets used to express their experience of the ineffa- Publishing, 1995. ble transcendent.

Teaching About the Religions of Asia 13 A SYMPOSIUM ON HERMANN HESSE’S Siddhartha

Like Müller’s Vedic poets, the Buddha, whose own meanderings briefly inter- Hesse’s Siddhartha also intuits the sect his. While Siddh≥rtha’s life is loosely patterned infinite through the sensuous forms after the life of the Buddha, it is a different story. of this world. Above all else, it is the Anyone who conflates the two is making an elemen- river Siddh≥rtha crosses throughout tary and entirely preventable critical mistake. the novel that discloses to him the Hesse’s Siddhartha, therefore, is a story about a eternal but everchanging spiritual story. If students are made aware of this, then one reality from which all things flow. In can design a class to compare and contrast Hesse’s the end, Siddh≥rtha identifies his novel with the Buddhacarita, the J≥taka Tales, such true self (≥tman) with this river of as the story of Prince Vessantara, or stories from the being when he decides to live his life Buddhist avad≥na literature. As the historian of reli-

Copyright Tezuka Production as a ferryman attuned to the river’s gions Jonathan Z. Smith has said, “In comparison a Fig. 1. Siddh¯artha song.1 Here, Hesse skillfully incor- magic dwells.”4 By comparing Siddhartha with in Osamu Tezuka‘s Budda. porates into his novel a powerful other stories about the Buddha, could we not get Indian religious symbol. Hindu sacred sites are typi- students interested in different Asian ways of under- cally called tırtha, “crossing places” or “fords,” standing the spiritual journey? where one can traverse the flood of birth and death I like to compare Siddh≥rtha’s spiritual journey (sams≥ra) to unite with the sacred. It is important to with texts from the Japanese tradition. For example, note, however, that in Hesse’s hands, the tırtha is I have students read the Japanese haiku poet not the same as the Indian original. The typical Matsuo Bash¬’s travel sketches, The Narrow Road tırtha, with its many gods and rich iconographical to the Deep North.5 This is another story about the and mythological traditions, is totally absent in Buddha’s story. At the outset, Bash¬ contrasts his Hesse’s spiritual allegory. Thoroughly demytholo- own journey to Kashima shrine with his traveling gized by Hesse’s Protestant sensibilities in companions, one of whom is a samurai, and Siddhartha, it is portrayed as a desolate river bank the other, a Buddhist monk. David Barnhill has with the ferryman’s simple hut. It has been cleared suggested that Bash¬ sees his own journey as a of any specific associations with Krishna, Shiva, lifelong spiritual “wayfaring,” instead of a Buddhist Devı, or any other of the popular Hindu divinities.2 pilgrimage to a definitive sacred center out there, If there is a vision of Hinduism and Buddhism a difference that has all sorts of interesting religious in this work, then I would have to agree with Benton implications.6 that it is one that serves the author’s own introspec- Another interesting book to compare with tive spiritual interests. Hesse is not concerned with Siddhartha is the recently published Japanese interpreting Asian religions to a Western audience. manga version of the Buddha’s life, Budda, by the Rather, he is wrestling with his own spiritual comic book artist Osamu Tezuka.7 This immense demons, often related to the dilemmas of his own twelve-volume work of over two thousand pages has Christian faith, especially the Swabian pietism of gone through twenty-two printings and sold over his Indian missionary parents. Hesse’s critics have nine million copies in Japan. By looking at scenes thoroughly explored this Christian-centered preoccu- from the Budda, students can see how a popular pation of Siddhartha.3 modern Japanese version of Siddh≥rtha’s life differs But before we banish Siddhartha from the from both the Sanskrit original and Hesse’s own ver- classroom, I would like to consider one more thing. I sion (see figure 1). think that Robert Mossman is essentially correct One difference, for example, between Tezuka’s when he points out that Siddhartha, as a journey of Siddh≥rtha and Hesse’s has to do with the Budda’s spiritual discovery, “still works” to engage students’ focus on social issues. While Hesse’s Siddhartha interest in Asian religions. It does so, perhaps, for always seeks his own highly personal encounter the wrong reasons, but that is not Hesse’s fault. with God, a focus which perhaps reflects the Hesse is very clear that he is not writing a story author’s Protestant faith, Tezuka’s Siddh≥rtha works about the Buddha. The religious quest of his tirelessly for the social welfare of those he finds suf- Siddh≥rtha, which means “one who has found fering around him, perhaps reflecting the northern the way,” is juxtaposed in his novel with the story of Buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva, or the being of

14 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 1997 selfless compassion. Another difference has to do NOTES with the role of magic in the Budda. Feats of magic 1. The climax of the book is an epiphany that occurs when and spiritual healing have no role to play in Siddh≥rtha’s friend Govinda looks into his face and sees it as a mask that dissolves into a river of faces and living Siddhartha since they would be relegated to the forms. See Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha. New York: status of crass superstition by anyone from Hesse’s Bantam, 1951, 150. This owes much to the description of Does a spiritual background in German pietism. But Tezuka’s Arjuna’s mystical vision of Krishna-Vishnu’s absolute form in the Bhagavad Gıt≥. It also comes from a powerful dream Siddh≥rtha can perform all sorts of miracles. In par- of his father that Hesse had while in Singapore. See Ralph journey have to be ticular, he is able to journey to other spiritual realms Freedman, Hermann Hesse: Pilgrim in Crisis—A to bring back the souls of dying people. Tezuka’s Biography. New York: Pantheon, 1978, 152. 2. Two interesting books that highlight the role of icons, myths ascetical to have Siddh≥rtha would appeal to Japanese readers of the gods, and sacred geography in Indian pilgrimage are because it draws upon a shamanistic tradition of Diana L. Eck, Dar´san Seeing the Divine Image in India. possession, exorcism, spiritual healing, and miracle- Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: Anima Books, 1985 and a spiritually David L. Haberman, Journey Through the Twelve Forests: working Buddhist ascetics that has a rich history in An Encounter with Krishna. New York: Oxford University Japanese folk religion. Press, 1994. transformative effect? A third book that is interesting to compare with 3. G. W. Field sees Siddhartha as an essentially Protestant alle- 8 gory about the highly personal struggle to attain a true sense Siddhartha is Oliver Statler’s Japanese Pilgrimage. of Christian love or caritas and freedom from sin through That is the assumption Here one gets a story about a story that is based divine grace. See his Hermann Hesse. New York: Twayne upon the life of the Buddha. As a western scholar, Publishers, 1970, 81. Another critic sees the book as Hesse’s attempt to reconcile the contradictions of his own Swabian behind Hesse’s Statler writes about his own travels along the eighty- pietism with its call for rigid ascetic discipline and fear of eight Shikoku temple route, a pilgrimage devoted to corporeal sin, on the one hand, and its reliance on feeling Siddhartha, which shows the veneration of the Japanese Buddhist saint K¬b¬ and sentiment (over ritual and intellect) to experience the Daishi. K¬b¬ Daishi is believed to have realized intimacy of God, on the other. This struggle lies at the center of Hesse’s novels, especially his Narziss und Goldmund Hesse’s debt enlightenment and attained Buddhahood in this very (1930) which takes place in medieval Christian Europe body (sokushin j¬butsu). Pilgrims follow his foot- rather than on the shores of the Ganges. See Freedman, steps in a circular course that makes a circuit around Pilgrim in Crisis, 15–16. to the classic Christian 4. Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion: From Babylon the island of Shikoku. Here students can reflect on to Jonestown. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, many issues related to the Buddhist spiritual 1982, 19. penitential allegory journey. While the premodern pilgrimage took many 5. Nobuyuki Yuasa, trans., The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. London: Penguin Books, months and was understood as a form of ascetical 1987. of John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s discipline, today’s pilgrims prefer to do the route on 6. David Barnhill, “Bash¬ as Bat: Wayfaring and Antistructure in the Journals of Matsuo Bash¬,” The Journal of Asian air conditioned luxury buses. Does a spiritual jour- Progress, instead of ney have to be ascetical to have a spiritually trans- Studies 49 (May, 1990):274–290. 7. Osamu Tezuka, Budda, 12 Vols. Tokyo: Ushio Shuppansha, formative effect? That is the assumption behind 1992–1993. Chaucer’s more ludic Hesse’s Siddhartha, which shows Hesse’s debt to 8. Oliver Statler, Japanese Pilgrimage. New York: William the classic Christian penitential allegory of John Marrow, 1983. For the most current study of the Shikoku pilgrimage, see Ian Reader, “Pilgrimage as Cult: The Canterbury Tales. Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, instead of Chaucer’s Shikoku Pilgrimage as a Window on Japanese Religion,” in more ludic Canterbury Tales. The comparison Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth, ed. by P. F. between the two texts also raises the issue of cross- Kornicki and I. J. McMullen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 267–86. cultural interpretations of the other. Does Statler suc- ceed in understanding Buddhism in the Japanese context? Or can he be accused of being a modern romantic who superimposes his own idealized image of “the mystical orient” upon the pilgrims of Shikoku just as Hesse does in the case of India? Siddhartha can be useful in the classroom, pro- vided that we have our students carefully examine MARK MacWILLIAMS is currently an Assistant Professor the ways that it and other stories about the Buddha’s of Religious Studies at Saint Lawrence University in Canton, life offer vastly different interpretations of the spiri- New York. His research is devoted to Japanese religions, especially Buddhist pilgrimages related to the cult tual journey. n of Kannon.

Teaching About the Religions of Asia 15 A SYMPOSIUM ON HERMANN HESSE’S Siddhartha

Going Beyond Hesse’s The last year I taught Siddhartha, though, after Siddhartha a discussion of the many aspects of the novel that aren’t really Buddhist, one of my best students said, “Well, if we’re studying Buddhism, why by Joe Gawrys don’t we read something that really is Buddhist?” Good question. It’s not that Siddhartha doesn’t have its virtues; it clearly does. Nor do I think that in the hands of a sensitive teacher like Mossman, reading or years I used Hesse’s Siddhartha in my Hesse’s novel is going to warp students’ minds. In F 11th-grade world religions course; now my world religions class (like others, I suspect), I don’t. Here’s why. though, there are only about twelve class days for Siddhartha fulfills most teachers’ desires for a Indian Buddhism. Why not use these days for texts text (and no book fulfills them all). It’s an engaging that clearly are Buddhist or accurate in their read that’s accessible to even the weaker students portrayal of Buddhism? and yet is thoughtful enough for even the best. Lately, interest in Buddhism in the West has Students do, as Mossman says, often get very proliferated and matured, and there are now enthusiastic about it, and just about anything that numerous excellent translations of early Buddhist fosters a love of reading and encourages thought- materials such as The Dhammapada, The Sutra on fulness is worth assigning. Siddhartha also brings . . . I especially Lovingkindness, and “The Fire Sermon”. There are to life many of the Hindu terms we talk about in now also numerous Westerners who do understand class, such as Brahmin and Om, and gives a power- recommend Jack Buddhism and are themselves Buddhist: I especial- ful portrait of the Buddha. Without a doubt, a good ly recommend Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg Kornfield and Sharon novel like Siddhartha can do much to flesh out dry as two writers who are accessible to students historical and philosophical material. Salzberg as two and yet, unlike popularizers like Hesse or Alan The problem is, though, as Benton points out, Watts, are themselves deeply grounded in the that Hesse was German, and not Hindu or writers who are Theravada tradition. Buddhist, and though he knows something about We’re luckier than teachers of Asian studies accessible to students India and Hinduism and Buddhism, he’s not pri- were twenty or thirty years ago. Books like marily interested in (or probably even capable of) and yet, unlike Siddhartha can, in the hands of sensitive teachers, portraying them accurately—and sometimes he be helpful; today, though, we just have more accu- doesn’t. So when I taught Siddhartha I adopted an popularizers like rate materials available. n approach opposite from Mossman’s: rather than Hesse or Alan Watts, introduce Buddhism with Siddhartha, we read the novel after our study of Indian Buddhism. We then are themselves deeply based much of class discussion around the very grounded in the issues we’re discussing here in Education About JOE GAWRYS teaches World Religions and World Literature Asia—to what extent does Hesse accurately portray at Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He received Theravada tradition. his Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity Hinduism and Buddhism, and to what extent is the School. In 1991–2, he was an NEH Teacher-Scholar and philosophy of the novel itself Buddhist? studied the history of Buddhism in China and Japan. The students eventually come up with some of the same points that Benton and others have made: The novel is very confused in its use of the BIBLIOGRAPHY word Atman; in its treatment of Govinda, the novel Byrom, Thomas, trans. The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the doesn’t seem to understand the independence Buddha. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. the Buddha insisted on in his disciples (i.e., in the Kornfield, Jack, ed. Teachings of the Buddha. Boston: Anguttara Nikaya); Hesse romanticizes life in Shambala, 1996. India, etc. This exercise is useful in many ways. Kornfield, Jack. A Path with Heart. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. The students get to read a good book, and they Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove learn, if sometimes only by contrast, a bit more Press, 1974. about Hinduism and Buddhism. Salzberg, Sharon. Lovingkindness. Boston: Shambala, 1995.

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