[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 40 KB, 239x400, 52036[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5171414 No.5171414[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Just finished pic related.

Was this is intended as something you read before or after to know a lot about Buddhism? Are you supposed to understand what Siddhartha realized at the end or not?

>> No.5171426

I don't know what it was intended for but it seems to influence younger people more. And I don't mean it in a bad way.

>> No.5171434

>>5171414
If you haven't reached Nirvana by now, it's because you're a total idiot. By the time I finished that book I had ascended into a state of a pure energy being.

>> No.5171478

>>5171414
I'm pretty sure it was intended to be read by people who had no knowledge of Buddhism. It's basically a fictionalization of the Siddhartha myth from a different point of view, like Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

I thought it was rather boring and uninteresting myself.

>> No.5171501

>>5171478
Well I really enjoyed it! It was like a simpler, more atmospheric Candide.

>> No.5171508

>>5171501
Or a simpler, less atmospheric Narcissus and Goldmund.

>> No.5171539

>>5171501
The problem was I grew up knowing the story and saga of Buddha and this version of the tale just didn't do anything new or interesting about it.

>> No.5172339

>>5171414
Probably after, but then again, it's not that good of a book.
I don't think you're supposed to understand anything by the end. Not unless you over analyze things and find meaning where there's none.
If anything, he learns by the end of it about the middle path.