Can Wisdom be Taught?

            Can wisdom be taught? All throughout Siddhartha, Siddhartha is trying to acquire knowledge; he wants to learn how to reach nirvana. When he was younger he was a very bright boy. He learned things much easier and quicker than other children. Because of this he was ahead of many other kids and knew more then they did. This created the thirst for more knowledge that would control over most of Siddhartha’s life.

            Siddhartha leaves his family when he is young and goes off to live with the Shramanas. His father didn’t want him to go but Siddhartha believed that not one of the Brahmins could teach him anymore and that he must move on and find a new teacher. His best friend, Govinda also went along with him but not because he wanted to but because of his loyalty to Siddhartha. After spending a few years with the Shramanas, Siddhartha realizes that none of the Shramanas have reached nirvana. He does meditation to separate himself from his inner I and try to get to the dream like state, which is supposedly what heaven is like, but always ends up coming back to his body. Siddhartha tells Govinda how he has had a thirst for knowledge and that none of his teachers has been able to quench that thirst. Siddhartha does not believe that what his teachers do will lead them or him to nirvana. Siddhartha later leaves the Shramanas with Govinda by bewitching the eldest of the Shramanas and making him perform the necessary rituals to let them leave. Siddhartha showed the old man what he had learned by bewitching him. 

            Siddhartha and Govinda then traveled to the city of Savatthi. Here they found out that Gautama, the Buddha, is in the city. Govinda really wants to listen to the Buddha’s teachings but Siddhartha doesn’t want to because he’s heard them from other people. Siddhartha sees the Buddha and realizes that every part of the Buddha, even his fingers, radiate truth. Siddhartha now knows that the Buddha is a holy man. Siddhartha listens to the Buddha’s teachings but has a problem with it. He tells the Buddha that he teaches that all life is like a circle and that we are going around it constantly without stopping, but then there becomes a giant gap in this circle and that is what deliverance is, that is reaching nirvana. Gautama listens and Siddhartha goes on to tell how his followers will not reach nirvana because everyone has different ways of reaching it and they must find their own path. He then goes on to say that he will continue his journey and will not find another teacher for no one can teach him how to reach nirvana, only he can find his way. The Buddha then warns him to not become too clever. 

            This is a main turning point in the story. Ever since the beginning, Siddhartha has wanted to find a teacher so great that they can teach him how to reach nirvana. Now Siddhartha realizes that they are no such teachers and that he must find the way to nirvana by himself. Govinda does become a follower of Gautama but Siddhartha isn’t mad because that might be Govinda’s way and he must let Govinda find his own way. Siddhartha now believes wisdom cannot be taught and that he must find it himself. Siddhartha changes his path in life like has done before and now goes off to reach nirvana alone. Siddhartha gains the wisdom that there are no teachers that can teach him how to attain nirvana, he doesn’t learn this from the Buddha, he learns this himself from his past experiences and the Buddha’s teachings help Siddartha realize it further. Siddhartha does not want to get away from his inner I but now to know his inner eye.

            Siddhartha now knows he must center his thought on himself to reach nirvana. He thinks he got lost with all the teachings and went off track. He wants to get to know himself better to figure out what he is going to do. Siddhartha wants to center his attention on himself so he can become and know the fullest of himself. He no longer thought the world to be an illusion and to avoid it so now he learned much on his wonderings. He learned from nature and animals and everything under the sun. All this he was learning was knowledge, not wisdom. Siddhartha then takes a ferry across a river and the ferryman tells him that everything returns and that Siddhartha will too come back to this river.

             This is the beginning of a new chapter in Siddhartha’s life. After crossing this river he will not return to that state he was in. He was a young man ready to find nirvana but he did not know how. Because he did not know how and because he no longer believed the world was illusion he would learn many things from the child people, people who were not trying to reach nirvana. Siddartha first met Kamala who would teach him how to make love. Kamala taught him that he needs clothes, money, and shoes to make it in the world. Remember all this is just knowledge, Siddhartha does not gain knowledge until he leaves this city.

            Siddhartha gets a job as a merchant’s apprentice and makes money from that. At first he doesn’t care about the money and if he loses money or gains money, it doesn’t bother him. He lives in the city for quite a long time and after a while starts to forget his path and that he must reach nirvana. He starts drifting away from his path and becomes one of the child people; he becomes what he had always scorned. He had become rich from business and now cared about money. He gambled and now cared if he lost, which he never used to. He loved the feeling of fear while gambling, the fear of losing it all or winning it all. He never used to have possessions but now he did and this was a big change for him. He no longer begged for food but ate delicacies, he had parties with people, and still practiced love making with Kamala. The only thing that hadn’t changed in him was that he still didn’t love; he didn’t love Kamala like a wife and didn’t love anything else. Siddhartha was like a man that was living another man’s life and at first didn’t take much interest in it but later came to become engulfed in this other man’s life, but would never love this life because it wasn’t his own.

            After coming home from dinner, Siddhartha falls asleep in Kamala’s pleasure garden and has a dream; his dream is that the pretty little songbird that Kamala owns dies. The bird represents this life he has been living and that it is not the way and that it will end because it is human of nature. Siddartha then sits under the mango tree and thinks about his life. He has realized he has just been living this fake life, this life he considers a game. He had looked at everything of this life as being a game, getting money, losing money, becoming rich, living like a rich person, and now realizes he shouldn’t live to play this game, he shouldn’t play it over and over. He realizes that this game is at an end and that he must move on.

            Here is where he gains wisdom and no one taught it to him, he realized it on his own. He had been living this game of samsara, the game of the child people, and learned many things from it. He had learned how to live like a wealthy person but this was only knowledge that didn’t matter. Knowledge is good to know, but is useless in the long run. Wisdom is what helps you get through life and attain inner peace.

            Siddhartha gets up and leaves the city and goes to the river. At the river he wishes himself to be dead because he had became engulfed by samsara. It had almost become his life and now he couldn’t get back to his old ways. He grabbed onto a tree and was hanging over the river, ready to let himself go, when he heard it. The holy Om was coming from the depths of his soul. At the sound of the holy Om Siddhartha realized his wrong doings in trying to kill himself. He realized that death was not the right way to release oneself from the body. He then fell asleep and woke up later feeling better than ever. He realized that his sleep was just a long meditation of Om, of perfection. He had remembered all the divine things. He awoke rejuvenated, refreshed, and knowing that he has forgotten much of what he had learned when he was younger and that he must learn it again. He was not sad about it but laughed and found it ironic.

            Siddhartha was depressed and was ready to kill himself because he had forgotten so much and did not think he could get back to the way of life he used to have. After hearing the holy Om and sleeping he realized how divine life was and that he cannot kill himself to be released from his body. He had in that moment been able to go back to the way he was when he first entered the city. He now knew what to do, but this wisdom was not new to him. It had been in him but had just been covered up by years of living samsara. The Om that his soul uttered was like its last attempt at saving itself and it worked. It caused Siddhartha to realize what he was doing wrong. This wisdom he now had back was not taught to him but was always in him. This wisdom was that he does not know his way in life and that he may live one way but then change and change again and that is just the rule of things. He must live the life of many other people to find the path of his own life.

            Siddhartha learns from the river that it is ever flowing but is always there but at the same time is always new. He believes that the one who understands all of the river’s secrets knows also many more secrets, all secrets. He then works for the ferryman, Vasudeva. Vasudeva and Siddhartha both learn from the river, both have learned that nothing is past or future but everything is present. Vasudeva taught Siddhartha that the river has all voices and when you can hear all of the rivers voices at once, that sound is Om, perfection. Hearing all the voices is understanding all, so that is why you hear Om.

            Siddhartha then sees Kamala for the last time when she comes for the Buddha’s death but she gets bitten by a poisonous creature and dies. Siddhartha is left with her child, which is also his child. He tries being nice to the child and lets him get away with anything. Vasudeva sees Siddhartha’s wrong doing but does not tell him because he wants him to realize it on his own. Finally though Vasudeva tells Siddhartha that this boy does not want to live with them because this is not his path. Siddhartha loves the boy though and doesn’t want to let him go. Love, that is the thing Siddhartha thought he would never feel. One day his son runs away and Siddhartha goes into the city to try and find him. He does not see him and sits down and meditates on Om, trying to make the wound of love he felt for the child blossom and not hurt him anymore.

            He went back with the ferryman and it took a while before the wound blossomed. It blossomed when he realized the unity of the world, the unity of all life. He was able to breathe unity, feel unity, to think the thought of unity at every moment of life. This wisdom he gained through thinking about it but he first learned about the unity of all life from the Buddha’s teachings. Siddhartha’s wound still pained him and he went across the river but heard the river laughing at him and looked at it and saw his fathers face. At this he remembered how his father didn’t want to let him go but did because he knew he couldn’t hold back his son. Siddhartha never saw his father again. His father died alone without his son. Siddhartha wondered if that is what his life would be like, if his life was just a cruel circle and that all sufferings would come back. Siddhartha then tells Vasudeva about this and Vasudeva tells him he hasn’t heard everything. They go back to the river and look into it. Siddhartha sees the images of friends and family flowing into each other in the river, the rivers voice is of longing and pain. He sees the goals of all humans in the river. He saw the river striving to reach its goal, to go to the many lakes or rivers or waterfalls. To become vapor and to rise to the clouds only to come back down to the river. He then heard different voices of the river and then heard thousands of voices of the river. He listened harder and could no longer tell the difference between the voices, all the voices were now together. All the goals, all the voices, all the suffering and desire, all the good and evil, everything he saw and heard and felt in the river was the world. He didn’t listen to one voice of the river, but listened to all then he heard Om, perfection. He had heard it and now his wound blossomed and his inner I flowed into unity. He accepts everything and no longer toils with his fate. He has reached perfection, nirvana. Vasudeva then leaves him and goes into the forest. Vasudeva had nirvana too but only after Siddhartha had reached it.

            All that he has learned since he has come back from the city seems like he learned it from the river. This is somewhat true, the river did teach Siddhartha much wisdom, so much wisdom that he reached nirvana. But the river represents the world and all its feelings and goals so wasn’t it really the whole world that taught Siddhartha this wisdom? Wasn’t he part of this world so didn’t he also teach himself wisdom? The river brought everything together for Siddhartha to understand. So the answer is, no, wisdom cannot be taught, at least not by any teacher. It was through meditation and concentration that Siddhartha saw these things in the river. The river didn’t teach him perfection and wisdom, it only put the things before him to understand. He had to understand these things to gain perfection and perfection was knowing all wisdom.

                 This story is a lot like my life. I do not know what I will do when I am older and am constantly thinking about it. I do know one thing though and that is that is that small negative things that happen during my life will not affect my whole life. I do not see each day is its own, I see my whole life. I do not worry about a big test or project because I know I will get it done. I know the test will not last forever. Before an oral presentation I am nervous, but then think, “Tomorrow morning this will all be over, and will it really make a huge difference in my life? Is it so bad as to lose sleep over? No it’s not.” If I get a bad grade, I don’t worry because I know I can get my grade back up. I want to travel the world one day and maybe I won’t have the money or maybe I will. I don’t worry about my future because I know it will turn out well. This is what Siddhartha finally realizes at the end. You can’t make your own fate, you have to let fate guide you where it wants.