“but hardly yet
Knew the young child of sorrow, pain, or tears,
Save as strange names for things not felt by kings,
Nor ever to be felt. But it befell…” (X239)


The French Revolution was a result of greedy bourgeois aristocrats, who, most would argue, didn't feel sorrow, pain, or tears.

When a swan is shot down “in the Royal garden on a day of spring…” (X239) Prince Siddartha “[sooths] with a touch the wild thing’s fright,/ Composed its ruffled vans, [and clams] its quick heart…”


A swan

This quote is referring to Siddartha’s first experience with exploring his compassion. Looking back on my childhood I can relate to the way Siddartha felt before he saw his cousin shoot the swan. I remember definable points in my life where I really felt sorrow, pain, or tears. Though I had always known what they meant, though I had used them interchangeably with other words, it wasn’t until I was able to recognize others’ real pain that I began to recognize my own. Whether this “pain” was a result of acknowledging my own suffering or having compassion for others, my ability to feel it was based on my exposure to the rest of the world. By opening my mind to people beyond my immediate family, I couldn’t be as self-centered as I once was.


This is me- but not really- opening my eyes to see the rest of the world.

However, before Siddartha discovered this enlightenment he “started to cultivate the seed of discontent within himself” (Hesse 7). He felt that “never had he quenched the ultimate thirst” (10) of living a blessed life. In his quest for understanding Siddartha joined a group of pilgrims and ascetics who “… wafted a hot scent of passion, of a duty that destroys, of a merciless self-effacing” (Hesse 11).

As I mentioned before, I feel like I can relate to Siddartha’s choice to forsake the “luxury” of living as a prince for a deeper spiritual understanding. Though I wasn’t seeking “spiritual understanding”, my quest to find the answer to “why the world is the way it is” resulted in a period of time where, like Siddartha, “nothing was worth even the glance of [the] eyes… [because] everything was decaying while nobody acknowledged the fact” (Hesse 16).

Siddartha’s journey to “…know the one and only thing that was most important…” (Hesse 8) had a great impact on his life and the lives of every Buddhist since 500 BC.




(snazzy ending…?)