Episode 183: On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2025

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF in this episode, the novel serves as the foundation for a discussion on spiritual journeying, the ideal of enlightenment, and the challenge of living in an ensouled universe. Sign up for JF's new Weirdosphere course on the supernatural, starting on February 6th, 2025. Purchase tickets to the Weirdosphere screening of Aaron Poole's Dada on February 1st, 2025. Support us on Patreon. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Herman Hesse, Siddhartha Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard, Siddhartha Gustav Holst, The Planets Richard Wagner, Parsifal G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Colin Wilson, The Outsider Adam Kirsch, “Herman Hesse’s Arrested Development” Dogen, Genjakoan Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdst. This is J.F. This week's episode is on Herman Hess's classic spiritual
0:55.7	novel, Sadartha. Set in India during the time of the Buddha,
1:00.0	Sadartha tells the story of a young Brahman's son who decides early on that the life of scholarship
1:06.0	and priestly duty, his birthright, isn't for him. Instead, he sets out to seek enlightenment in the
1:12.4	rough and tumble world, initially in the company of his best friend Govinda. Together they become
1:18.5	Samanas, wandering ascetics who reject worldly ways to live a life of renunciation and meditation.
1:25.5	Rumors of a new teacher named Gotama, the Buddha, eventually lure them away from the
1:30.6	Samanas.
1:31.9	After Govinda decides to take shelter in the Buddhist teachings, Sadartha continues his journey alone,
1:37.9	convinced that enlightenment can only come through direct experience.
1:42.4	He embraces the ways of the world, becomes a wealthy merchant,
1:46.7	gets lost in the whirlwind of samsara, but eventually returns to the spiritual path in the
1:52.6	nadir of his despair. Finally, he finds his place as the apprentice to a simple peasant,
1:59.5	whose only teacher is the river he ferries travelers across.
2:04.7	Siddhartha is a seminal novel, whose influence on what Eric Davis calls the cultures of consciousness
2:10.6	in the West would be difficult to quantify. In the conversation you're about to hear, we reflect on
2:16.9	this influence, discussing the ways in which Hesse was able to tap into humanity's fundamental desire to find knowledge, wisdom, and peace amidst the turmoil of existence.
2:28.7	Two brief announcements before we start. First, starting on February 6, 2025, I'll be teaching a new course on the
2:37.8	Weirdo Sphere Learning Platform. It's called It's All Real, an inquiry into the reality of the
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