###Terms and Concepts (mostly from Wikipedia)
* brahmans: priest, teacher, preacher caste in Vedic Hinduism
* Vedic religion: religion practiced in northern India (~2000 BCE – 500 BCE); focus on brahmans performing sacred rites; Vedic liturgy is preserved in the Vedas (e.g. Rigveda, one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language)
* Brahman: “the unchanging reality amidst and beyond the world,” “creative principle which lies realized in the whole world”
* Ātman: soul/inner-self, essence of an individual; “in order to attain liberation, a human being must acquire self-knowledge, which is to realize that one’s true self (Ātman) is identical with the transcendent self, Brahman”
* śramana/samana: Sanskrit for “seeker”; an Indian religious movement contemporaneous with the historical Vedic religion; śramanas when mainly young men who renounced household life to follow paths alternative to Vedic rituals to seek liberation
* saṃsāra: literally means “a wandering through,” cycle of repeated birth, life, and death
* nirvāṇa: literally means “blown out” or “extinguished,” commonly understood to be liberation from samsara
* Three major schools of Buddhism today:
* Theravāda (Teaching of the Elders): descendants of one of the early Buddhist schools, practiced mainly in southeast Asia
* Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle): practiced mainly in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam), includes the traditions of Chan/Zen, Pure Land, Nichiren
* Tantric Buddhism or the Vajrayāna (Diamond, Thunderbolt, or Adamantine Vehicle): historically known for its practice of esoteric transmission, practiced mainly in Tibet, Bhutan, and Mongolia; believed by its practitioners to be the fastest method for attaining buddhahood
- Four fundamental doctrines of early Buddhism (all found in The Experience of Buddhism (3rd edition) by Strong):
- Impermanence/no-self: “Questions of Milinda”, pp. 99-107
- “Karma and the Six Realms of Rebirth”, pp. 38-42
- “Realizing the Four Noble Truths”, pp. 42-45
- Nirvana, pp. 114-120
###Discussion Questions
- The protagonists in both *The Alchemist* and *Siddhartha* leave the comforts of home in search of spiritual transcendence (consciously or not). Are there any significant similarities or differences in their experiences? (e.g. motivation, source of guidance, paths taken, ultimate outcome, etc.)
- Is there a message? Is this a religious text? What did you gain, if anything, from reading this novel? What were your impressions of the story and its themes?
- Both the protagonist of the novel and the historical buddha are named Siddhartha. How do you think the journey of Siddhartha the protagonist compares with that of the historical buddha? What is the significance of the Hesse's decision in naming his character Siddhartha?
See Strong, pp. 7-36, 45-50, 52-55 for the sacred biography of the Buddha as told in sacred scriptures
- What do you make of Siddhartha's conversation with Gotama? Specifically:
- "There is nothing to opinions...but the teachings, you've heard from me, are no opinion, and their goal is not to explain the world to those who seek knowledge...their goal is salvation from suffering" (26)
- "nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! You will not be able to convey and say to anybody...what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment! ...depart from all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die" (27)
- What does this imply about Buddhism as a religion? How should a Buddhist consider the teachings of the Buddha? Empiricism vs. rationalism?
- "you know how to talk wisely, my friend. Be aware of too much wisdom!" (28)
- See "Questions Which Tend Not to Edification" for an exposition on the Buddha's reluctance to answer metaphysical questions
- Chan koan:
Monk: "Where is the place from which all buddhas come?"
Yun-men: "Next question, please!"
- Tao Te Ching: "The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; the name that can be named is not the constant name."
- See "Parable of the Burning House", Strong pp. 146-151 for one of the classical sources of the doctrine of skillful means (upaya) and a doctrinal explanation for the emergence of the Mahayana school
- Why does Siddhartha choose to partake in the world of material desires (Kamala: lust, love, Kamaswami: wealth, power)? Did this surprise you? Do you think this is the right decision? What do you think Siddhartha gain from this experience (transition from thinking, waiting, fasting to material obsession)?
- "As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rise out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world and having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world"
- See "Tantric Buddhism, or the Vajrayana" in Strong pp.206-220; except: "the mantrayanist should always practice true meditation by making devotional offerings of such things as feces, urine, and semen as well as snot...he should seize the property of others; he should have intercourse with their wives. He should tell lies; and he should kill all the Buddhas"
- Chan koan: If you meet the Buddha, kill him.
- Let's talk about the end of the novel.
- Siddhartha's son leaves him behind to find his own life in the city. How did this event impact Siddhartha?
- What does Siddhartha learn from the river? What does he mean by the river's having all voices of the creatures/oneness? What about his denial of the concept of time?
- Govinda's conversation with Siddhartha: what is the difference between searching and finding? (98)
- Wisdom cannot be passed on. Cannot be expressed in words and taught. It just sounds like foolishness when one tries. (100)
- The opposite of every truth is just as true. Everything is one-sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with words. The world is never one-sided. A person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful. The sinner in times to come...will be Buddha. Things can be loved. But I cannot love words. (101-103)
- The stone is already everything, but it is also a stone today. (102)
- For classical sources on emptiness/nonduality (śūnyatā), see Heart Sutra, "Nargarjuna: Verses", Strong pp. 157-162, and Vimalakirti Sutra.
- Excerpt from Vimalakirti Sutra: Vimalakīrti remains silent while discussing the subject of emptiness with an assembly of bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas give a variety of answers on the question what non-duality is. Manjusri is the last bodhisattva to answer, and says that "by giving an explanation they have already fallen into dualism". Vimalakīrti, in his turn, answers with silence.
- Nargarjuna on the two truths doctrine in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā:
The Buddha's teaching of the Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth. Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth. The ultimate cannot be taught without resorting to conventions; and without recourse to the ultimate, one cannot reach nirvana.
The ultimate truth to Nagarjuna is the truth that everything is empty of essence, this includes emptiness itself ('the emptiness of emptiness').
- Nargarjuna's use of catuṣkoṭi (here is an article that has a somewhat lucid explanation on the catuṣkoṭi ) in his exposition of emptiness:
All things (dharma) exist: affirmation of being, negation of non-being
All things (dharma) do not exist: affirmation of non-being, negation of being
All things (dharma) both exist and do not exist: both affirmation and negation
All things (dharma) neither exist nor do not exist: neither affirmation nor negation
Emptiness is none of the above. To say that all things are 'empty' is to deny any kind of ontological foundation.
- Chan koans: A monk asked Dongshan Shouchu, "What is Buddha?" Dongshan said, "Three pounds of flax."
- A student asked Master Yun-Men (A.D. 949) "Not even a thought has arisen; is there still a sin or not?" Master replied, “Mount Sumeru!"
- Tiantai formulation: Three thousand realms in a single moment of thought:
Zhiyi taught the principle of Three Thousand Realms in a Single Thought Moment (一念三千) in his "Great Concentration and Insight", based on the Lotus Sutra. The number 'Three Thousand' is derived from the Ten Worlds, multiplied by ten [because of the Mutual Possession of the Ten Worlds], which gives 100, multiplied by ten [the Ten Factors listed in Ch. 2 of the Lotus Sutra] which gives 1,000. 1,000 multiplied by 3 [the Three Realms of Existence: Self, Other, and Environment] which gives 3,000. - Wikipedia
- "Indra's net" is the net of the Vedic god Indra, whose net hangs over his palace on Mount Meru, the axis mundi of Hindu cosmology and Hindu mythology. Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels. In the Avatamsaka Sutra, the image of "Indra's net" is used to illustrate the concepts of emptiness, dependent origination, and interpenetration in Buddhist philosophy:
Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.