Siddhartha Essay- Ann Allan
Renouncement is a critical value in
Buddhism. How does this principle operate in Siddhartha's life? It it
a positive or negative force?
Throughout Siddhartha's life and
journeys, Siddhartha's greatest value and savior is his ability to
renounce. Renouncement means to put aside or reject voluntarily
unnecessary or inferior pleasures, often in order to gain personal
joy or enlightenment. In the book, it gives Siddhartha the ability to
be more at one with his surroundings and be able to sustain and
understand his inner self in a more sophisticated and learned way.
This positive act and broad capacity of understanding is what starts
his journey and what saves him along the way, right until the end.
In the beginning Siddartha's life is
that of a privileged man. He is the son of a Braman and adored by
many, in particular, his friend Govinda. However, he has the
realization and urge to leave this life to become a Samana, since he
could no longer find joy in materialist things that adorned his life.
So, he left his family and did just that, joined by his loyal
companion Govinda as they being the toilsome and rigorous task of
'unselfing'. This process consisted of fasting and meditation, giving
him the ability to endure fatigue, hunger, thirst and allowed him to
have a clearer mind. With this he is able to ponder fully without
need for gratuitous physical materials, the exceptions being life
providing substances. He then begins to question this life of
deprivation and total renouncement. He speaks to Govinda, saying that
experience is the best way to learn. In this new frame of mind, he
moves on again.
In order to have those such thoughts
however, Siddhartha had to completely empty himself. In his
meditations he described leaving the self for long moments of time,
but that he would always return. This lead him to believe he had
learned all he could from the teaching of the Samana, and went to
acquire experience. He soon delights in lust with Kamala, an entirely
new kind of relationship for Siddhartha. She requests he find a job
and new clothes in order for her continued companionship, which
against all he has worked for, he does. His natural abilities allow
him to become a very care free merchant who become quite successful.
His Samanas skills slowly leech from him amoungst the 'child people'
though, and he begins to enjoy the life of comfort and riches. He
losses himself again in the absence of renouncement.
Siddhartha had forgotten what the
purpose of his renouncement was. In all cases, renouncement helps us
find what makes us happy or unburdened, the lack of grasping and
greediness. While with the child people he became involved with much
greed in his love for gambling. It gave him a drive of emotion in
which he felt so little of. His excitement and happiness with Kamala
had left him, and his involvement with drink, women, and foods that
were once forbidden to him (such as meats) drove him to the ultimate
sadness. Realizing how far he had fallen, he leaves his riches,
renouncing them all again to end himself by the river he had crossed
to attain them. He is stopped though, by hearing the sacred 'Om' that
refuels his original desire to find his Atman. Even when his child
leaves him, he is able to renounce once more, returning to a happier
and wiser mind.
Throughout his life, Siddhartha had
made many selfish and hasty decisions. Whenever his path was lead by
the drive of renouncement, he had only found knowledge and happiness.
When his path was driven by the gain of material or physical
pleasures, he found his range of emotions dim. It was this lack of
renouncement that pulled him away from his goal of true wisdom, and
if it weren't for his second successful attempt at it, he would have
taken his life. This shows the true positive force renouncement had
been throughout his entire life, and proved the evils of greed and
want. Although his ideas of how you retain or gain knowledge varied
throughout his journeys, at first believing in teachings, and then in
experience, it was the common variable of renouncement that lead him
to his wisdom, and was the most powerful action of all.
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