1. “The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect or confined at a point somewhere along a gradual pathway toward perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment.”
2. “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.”
3. “Everything not fully suffered, not fully resolved came again: the same sorrows were suffered over and over.”
4. “I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.”
5. “All this had always been and he had never seen it; he was never present. Now he was present and belonged to it. Through his eyes he saw light and shadows; through his mind he was aware of moon and stars (p. 38).”
6. “Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”″
7. “I felt knowledge and the unity of the world circulate in me like my own blood.”
8. “I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
9. “I have always thirsted for knowledge, I have always been full of questions.”
10. “He sat thus, lost in meditation, thinking Om, his soul as the arrow directed at Brahman.”
11. “wisdom cannot be passed on. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness.”
12. “Let us enjoy this fruit and await further ones,”
13. “You show the world as a complete, unbroken chain, an eternal chain, linked together by cause and effect.”
14. “Mit Kummer, und doch auch mit Lachen, gedachte er jener Zeit.”
15. “I have no desire to walk on water,” said Siddhartha. “Let the old shramanas satisfy themselves with such skills.”
16. “In the shade of the house, in the sunshine of the riverbank near the boats,”
17. “Perhaps that is what prevents you from finding peace, perhaps it is all those words.”
18. “Alas, Siddhartha, I see you suffering, but you’re suffering a pain at which one would like to laugh, at which you’ll soon laugh for yourself.”
19. “One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking — a detour, an error.”
20. “I wish that you, oh exalted one, would not be angry with me,” said the young man. “I have not spoken to you like this to argue with you, to argue about words. You are truly right, there is little to opinions. But let me say this one more thing: I have not doubted in you for a single moment. I have not doubted for a single moment that you are Buddha, that you have reached the goal, the highest goal towards which so many thousands of Brahmans and sons of Brahmans are on their way. You have found salvation from death. It has come to you in the course of your own search, on your own path, through thoughts, through meditation, through realizations, through enlightenment. It has not come to you by means of teachings! And—thus is my thought, oh exalted one—nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! You will not be able to convey and say to anybody, oh venerable one, in words and through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment! The teachings of the enlightened Buddha contain much, it teaches many to live righteously, to avoid evil. But there is one thing which these so clear, these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery of what the exalted one has experienced for himself, he alone among hundreds of thousands. This is what I have thought and realized, when I have heard the teachings. This is why I am continuing my travels—not to seek other, better teachings, for I know there are none, but to depart from all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die. But often, I’ll think of this day, oh exalted one, and of this hour, when my eyes beheld a holy man.”
21. “Often, they sat in the evening together by the bank on the log, said nothing and both listened to the water, which was no water to them, but the voice of life, the voice of what exists, of what is eternally taking shape.”
22. “I have learned that learning is impossible! I believe that in fact there is nothing in anything that we could call ‘learning’. There is only a kind of knowledge that is everywhere, my friend, and that is Atman.”
23. “… for you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than force.” ― Hermann Hesse, Vyasadeva to Siddartha
24. “There are few people who know how to listen and I have not met anybody who can do so like you.”
25. “After so many years of foolishness, you have once again had an idea, have done something, have heard the bird in your chest singing and have followed it.”
26. “It is not for me to judge another man’s life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.”
27. “I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.”
28. “He looked around, as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Beautiful was the world, colorful was the world, strange and mysterious was the world! Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, the sky and the river flowed, the forest and the mountains were rigid, all of it was beautiful, all of it was mysterious and magical, and in its midst was he, Siddhartha, the awakening one, on the path to himself.”
29. “I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self. I also will conquer my Self.”
30. “Therefore, I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me.”
31. “Most people… are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground. But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path.”
32. “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else … Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”“Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish… Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
33. “You have done so by your own seeking, in your own way.”
34. “You, oh venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don’t see, which are directly in front of your eyes.”
35. “I am not going anywhere. I am only on my way.”
36. “They knew everything, the Brahmans and their holy books, they knew everything, they had taken care of everything and of more than everything, the creation of the world, the origin of speech, of food, of inhaling, of exhaling, the arrangement of the senses, the acts of the gods, they knew infinitely much—but was it valuable to know all of this, not knowing that one and only thing, the most important thing, the solely important thing?”
37. “Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity.”
38. “You, Venerable One, may indeed be a seeker, for, striving toward your goal, there is much you do not see which is right before your eyes.”
39. “And time after time, his smile became more similar to the ferryman’s, became almost just as bright, almost just as thoroughly glowing with bliss, just as shining out of thousand small wrinkles, just as alike to a child’s, just as alike to an old man’s. Many travelers, seeing the two ferrymen, thought they were brothers. Often, they sat in the evening together by the bank on the log, said nothing and both listened to the water, which was no water to them, but the voice of life, the voice of what exists, of what is eternally taking shape. And it happened from time to time that both, when listening to the river, thought of the same things, of a conversation from the day before yesterday, of one of their travelers, the face and fate of whom had occupied their thoughts, of death, of their childhood, and that they both in the same moment, when the river had been saying something good to them, looked at each other, both thinking precisely the same thing, both delighted about the same answer to the same question.”
40. “Ephemeral, highly ephemeral is the world of formations; ephemeral, highly ephemeral are our clothes and hairstyles, and our hair and our bodies themselves.”
41. “… and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still.”
42. “When someone is searching, then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search. Searching means having a goal. Finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”
43. “I do not want to kill and dissect myself any longer,”
44. “When someone seeks,” said Siddhartha, “then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”
45. “Seeking nothing, emulating nothing, breathing gently, he moved in an atmosphere of imperishable calm, imperishable light, inviolable peace.”
46. “will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha.”
47. “Writing is good, thinking is better. Intelligence is good, but patience is better.”
48. “Thus Gotama [Buddha] walked toward the town to gather alms, and the two samanas recognized him solely by the perfection of his repose, by the calmness of his figure, in which there was no trace of seeking, desiring, imitating, or striving, only light and peace.”
49. “Everyone takes, everyone gives, such is life.”
50. “my path had led me at that time into a new life, which had now grown old and is dead”
51. “Nothing is effected by daemons, there are no daemons. 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.”
52. “He has robbed me, yet he has given me something of greater value . . . he has given to me myself.”
53. “Everything that was not suffered to the end and finally concluded, recurred, and the same sorrows were undergone.”
54. “”
55. “And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.”
56. “this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment!”
57. “He loved that anxiety, that terrible and oppressive anxiety which he experienced during the game of dice, during the suspense of high stakes.”
58. “But where were the Brahmans, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge but also to live it?”
59. “In this hour Siddhartha ceased struggling with his fate, ceased suffering. On his face blossomed the serenity of knowledge, which no will opposes any longer, knowing perfection, in agreement with the flow of events, with the stream of life, full of compassion, full of sympathy, abandoned to the flow, belonging to unity.”
60. “…he knew more than you and I, without teachers, without books, just because he believed in the river.”
61. “Was it not a comedy, a strange and stupid matter, this repetition, this running around in a fateful circle?”
62. “But he learned more from the river than Vasudeva could teach him. He learned from it perfectly. Above all, learned from it how to list, to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without results.”
63. “There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge-that is everywhere, that is Atman, that is in me and you and in every creature, and I am beginning to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the man of knowledge, than learning.”
64. “He lived in friendship beside Vasudeva, and sometimes they would exchange words with each other, few and well-considered words. Vasudeva was no friend of words, Siddhartha seldom succeeded in inducing him to speak.”
65. “It is not my place to judge another person’s life. Only for myself, for myself alone, I must decide, I must chose, I must refuse.”
66. “Nothing was and nothing will be: everything is, and everything is present and has existence.”
67. “Siddhartha stopped fighting his fate this very hour, and he stopped suffering.”
68. “… the opposite of every truth is just as true! That is to say, any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything that can be thought with the mind and said with words is one-sided, it’s all just the half of it, lacking completeness, roundness, or unity.”
69. “I want to learn from myself, want to be my student, want to get to know myself, the secret of Siddhartha.”
70. “It was clear to the one speaking that each of his words was being allowed to enter into his listener, who sat there quietly, openly, waiting’ not a single word was disregarded or met with impatience; Vasudeva attached neither praise nor blame to what he heard but merely listened.”
71. “You love nobody. Is that not true?” “Maybe,” said Siddhartha wearily. “I am like you. You cannot love either, otherwise, how could you practice love as an art? Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.”
72. “Even in him, even in your great teacher, I prefer the thing to the words, his actions and his life are more important than his speech, the gestures of his hand more important than his opinions.”
73. “Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.”
74. “No, a true seeker, one who truly wished to find, could accept no doctrine. But the man who has found what he sought, such a man could approve of every doctrine, each and every one, every path, every goal; nothing separated him any longer from all those thousands of others who lived in the eternal, who breathed the Divine.”
75. “Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
76. “The opposite of every truth is just as true.”
77. “Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.”
78. “Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good—death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly.”
79. “To listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinions.”
80. “It seems to me… that love is the most important thing in the world. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain it and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.”
81. “I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha.” He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.”
82. “Words do not express thoughts very well. they always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.”
83. “Whither will my path yet lead me? This path is stupid, it goes in spirals, perhaps in circles, but whichever way it goes, I will follow it.”
84. “With a thousand eyes, the river looked at him.”
85. “a person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful.”
86. “Were not the gods forms created like me and you, mortal, transient?”
87. “Seeking means; to have a goal; but finding means; to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.”
88. “Be aware of too much wisdom!”
89. “The world was beautiful when one just looked at it without”
90. “Never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner.”
91. “Your soul is the whole world.”
92. “The purpose and the essential properties were not somewhere behind the things, they were in them, in everything.”
93. “soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than violence.”
94. “…and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still.”
95. “And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world.”
96. “It was one of the ferryman’s greatest virtues that, like few people, he knew how to listen.”
97. “My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life.”
98. “Let me say no more. Words do no justice to the hidden meaning. Everything immediately becomes slightly different when it is expressed in words, a little bit distorted, a little foolish…It is perfectly fine with me that what for one man is precious wisdom for another sounds like foolery.”
99. “Anyone can reach his goals if he can think, if he can wait, if he can fast.” Kamala”
100. “everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me.”
101. “In the beauty of countless danseuses in my palace, I saw an endless suffering in the form of distorted and diseased figures as the absolute certainty towards which they were heading even as insects unwittingly consign themselves to the blazing flame.”
102. “Siddhartha has one single goal-to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow-to let the Self die. No longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart, to experience pure thought-that was his goal.”
103. “The world was beautiful, the world was particolored, strange and quizzical…. Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were inside things, in everything.”
104. “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 it cannot be expressed in words and taught.”
105. “He felt in this hour, more deeply than ever before, that every life was indestructible, that every moment was eternity.”
106. “But as a young man, I followed the penitents, lived in the forest, suffered of heat and frost, learned to hunger, taught my body to become dead.”
107. “We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”
108. “I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha.”
109. “Revealing his wound to this listener was the same as bathing it in the river until it grew cool and was one with the river.”
110. “Govinda spoke: “Nirvana, Friend, is not only a word. It is a thought.””
111. “Love can be begged, bought, or received as a gift, one can find it in the street, but one cannot steal it.”
112. “… and gradually his face assumed the expressions which are so often found among rich people – the expressions of discontent, of sickliness, of displeasure, of idleness, of lovelessness. Slowly the soul-sickness of the rich crept over him.”
113. “love can be obtained by begging, buying, receiving it as a gift, finding it in the street, but it cannot be stolen.”
114. “Whether it is good or evil, whether life in itself is pain or pleasure, whether it is uncertain-that it may perhaps be this is not important-but the unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same stream, from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying.”
115. “But though the ways led away from the self, their end nevertheless always led back to the self.”
116. “Knowledge can be imparted, but not wisdom. You can discover it, it can guide your life, it can bear you up, you can do miracles with it, but you cannot tell it or teach it.”
117. “With a smile, the man at the oar moved from side to side: “It is beautiful, sir, it is as you say. But isn’t every life, isn’t every work beautiful?”
118. “No, a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something. But he who had found, could give his approval to every path, to every goal; nothing separated him from all the other thousands who lived in eternity, who breathed the Divine.”
119. “Om is the bow, the arrow is soul,”
120. “Dreams and restless thoughts came flowing to him from the river, from the twinkling stars at night, from the sun’s melting rays. Dreams and a restlessness of the soul came to him.”
121. “. . . gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.”
122. “Once all of my self was overcome and had died, once every desire and every urge was silent in the heart, then the ultimate part of me had to awake, the innermost of my being, which is no longer my self, the great secret.”
123. “lucid and quiet his voice hovered above the listeners, like a light, like a starry sky.”
124. “What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.”
125. “He saw mankind going through life in a childlike manner… which he loved but also despised…. He saw them toiling, saw them suffering, and becoming gray for the sake of things which seemed to him to be entirely unworthy of this price, for money, for little pleasures, for being slightly honoured….”
126. “He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied.”
127. “The river is everywhere.”
128. “They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
129. “But of all the water’s secrets, he saw today only a single one-one that struck his soul. He saw that this water flowed and flowed, it was constantly flowing, and yet it was always there; it was always eternally the same and yet new at every moment! Oh, to be able to grasp this, to understand this!”
130. “What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one? Perhaps that you’re searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don’t find the time for finding?”
131. “Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.”
132. “The world was beautiful when looked at in this way—without any seeking, so simple, so childlike.”
133. “It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”
134. “It happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”
135. “He had heard a voice, a voice in his own heart, which had commanded him to seek rest under this tree, and he had neither preferred self-castigation, offerings, ablutions, nor prayer, neither food nor drink, neither sleep nor dream, he had obeyed the voice. To obey like this, not to an external command, only to the voice, to be ready like this, this was good, this was necessary, nothing else was necessary.”
