Here are three recordings from Andrew Magliozzi’s lessons on Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. In addition to being a classic work and one of Andrew’s favorites, it is also a common summer reading assignment for high schoolers. It is highly recommended that you read this pithy novel before listening to the following lesson recordings.
First published in 1922 and translated to English in 1951, Siddhartha has become a cult classic among readers in the West seeking to understand Eastern mysticism. A major preoccupation of Hesse (b. 1877 d. 1962) when writing Siddhartha was to cure his ‘sickness with life’ (Lebenskrankheit) by immersing himself in Eastern philosophy, specifically the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.
The second half of the book took years to write, because Hesse “had not experienced that transcendental state of unity to which Siddhartha aspires.” In order to do so, Hesse lived as a virtual recluse and became totally immersed in the sacred teachings of both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures . His intention was to attain that ‘completeness’ which, in the novel, is the Buddha’s badge of distinction.
All of these themes and more are explored in the following lessons:
[To download MP3 files of these recordings, please visit the following link.]
These lessons are shared under the following Creative Commons Copyright
Siddhartha Lessons by Veritas Tutors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at veritutors.com.
