Siddhartha meets Vasudeva the ferryman. He sees in Vasudeva a quality of peace that he associates with enlightenment. Vasudeva embodies that which Siddhartha has been looking for since he was a boy. His materialistic existence momentarily comes back to haunt him when Kamala approaches Siddhartha with their son. Kamala dies, leaving the son with Siddhartha. The son is a great disappointment who steals Siddhartha's money. Siddhartha has no choice or inclination to do anything else but live the rest of his years on the river, learning lessons from the day-to-day existence of a ferryman. Encounters with the immediacy of nature help Siddhartha cultivate the Zen mind that has come to represent the essence of true Buddhist philosophy.

Siddhartha more than anything represents the sprit of Buddhism. Buddhism is ill defined as a religion. A religion is that which Siddhartha was running from: a set of social and religious rituals reinforced by norms. Siddhartha did not want to be told what to believe, but rather how to live. His life path took him to experience a multitude of journeys and all of them offered Siddhartha valuable lessons. The message of Siddhartha is that enlightenment can only be found from immediate personal encounters or the willingness to experience life to the fullest. Enlightenment does not come from going to church, reading the Bible, or any other religious behavior.

Herman Hesse's story reflects the historical narrative of the Buddha. Like Siddhartha, the historical Buddha was a Brahman prince who felt dissatisfied with his father's Hindu religion. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with a plethora of rituals, rites, ceremonies, and a complex cosmology. Siddhartha, like the historical Buddha, wanted to do away with the trappings of religion to discover a distilled essence of...

The historical Buddha was also believed to have found enlightenment after a period of time spent living a materialistic existence. In fact, enlightenment came not from asceticism nor from materialism but from a "middle path." The true key to enlightenment, according to the teachings of the Buddha, is learning how to be in the present moment without being entrapped by it.
Similarly, the essence of Buddhist teaching is to completely discount proscribed knowledge or charismatic leaders. Truth does not lie within a religious text or teaching. The Buddhist doctrine is that which Siddhartha learns from the ferryman. What Hesse imparts in his novel is the branch of Buddhism called Zen, which is nothing like the Pure Land Buddhism that became the prevailing religion of much of East Asia.

In Siddhartha, Hesse demonstrates that Buddhism itself should not become a religion. The Gotama is just another religious figure to Siddhartha in Hesse's book. I have followed a spiritual path nearly identical to that of Siddhartha. I drew away from my religious upbringing because I found it dissatisfying and distasteful. Then I sought out New Age and other alternative spiritual readings. Through them I found some answers but still did not feel satisfied. Afterwards, I left behind my spiritual quest in search of a materialistic happiness. That passed, too. Like Siddhartha I am ready to find enlightenment in an immediate here-and-now moment.

Conventional organized religion offers few genuine opportunities for growth, whereas the present moment offers a wealth of potential for joy and understanding. Herman Hesse's Siddhartha exemplifies the Buddhist religion by showing that the figure of the Buddha is practically irrelevant. Siddhartha finds enlightenment in the mundane circumstances of life by a river.