Siddhartha Ch.5-12 Reflection

All throughout my life I have had man, many teachers. Some I remember warmly, some are only names to me which I occasionally forget about completely. There is a line between these teachers: I was either taught something I found to be a life lesson or I was taught useless information. It could be an opinion, I suppose, over what counts as a life lesson and what counts as invaluable, utterly useless information. According to how one wants to live their life, different lessons will help them in their own way. This is what happens in Siddhartha; he picks and chooses what he believes will help him on his journey to find his self.




All throughout the book Siddhartha, Siddhartha meets many different teachers of many different subjects. Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, is the first of his teachers. Before these two soon to be lovers met, all Siddhartha knew how to do was to think, wait, and fast. Kamala taught him how to love and how to be loved; one of the most important things a person needs to know how to do. As well as teaching him an invaluable life lesson she also pushed him through a tough time; a relationship. He talked to her, gave her advice, received advice. She pushed him to become a man of wealth and luxurious pleasures, eventually forcing him to realize what he had become and embark once again on his journey to self-discovery. In one point of view, it can be seen that if Siddhartha had never met and fell in love with Kamala, he may have never realized the importance of his journey to self-discovering and in the end may have never reached his Nirvana. The ferryman Vasuveda was the greatest teacher Siddhartha had. He taught Siddhartha how to learn from the river that it is good to "strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths." Though the river doesn't actually speak, it provided Siddhartha with inner peace. "The river knows everything, one can learn everything from it." Vasudeva was the greatest listener Siddhartha had ever met, and listened to and gave advice to Siddhartha when needed, until he reached Enlightenment at the end of the book.