Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 12 - Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

Transcript

12 - Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve Govinda, together with other monks. Govinda used to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: spend the time of rest between pilgrimages in the pleasure
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: grove which the courtazan Kamala had given to the followers
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of Gautama for a gift. He heard talk of an
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: old ferryman who lived one day's journey away by the river,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and who was regarded as a wise man by many.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: When Govinda went back on his way, he chose the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: path to the ferry, eager to see the ferryman because
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: although he had lived his entire life by the rules,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: though he was also looked upon with veneration by the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: younger monks on account of his age and modesty, the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: restlessness and the searching still had not perished from his heart.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: He came to the river and asked the old man
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to ferry him over, And when they got off the
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: boat on the other side, he said to the old man,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you're very good to us monks and pilgrims. You've already
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: ferried many of us across the river, aren't you too, ferryman,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: A searcher for the right path, quoth said Arthur, smiling
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: from his old eyes. Do you call yourself a searcher,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: oh venerable one, though you are already old in years
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and are wearing the robe of Gautama's monks. It's true,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I'm old, spoke Govinda. But I haven't stopped searching. Never
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I'll stop searching. This seems to be my destiny. You too,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: so it seems to me have been searching. Would you
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: like to tell me something, O, honorable one, quote, said Arthur.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Perhaps that you're searching far too much, that in all
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: that searching, you don't find the time for finding. How come,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: asked Govinda. When someone is searching, said said Arthur, then
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: still see is that which he searches for. That he
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: because he always thinks of nothing but the object of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: his search, because he has a goal, because he is
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: obsessed by the goal. Searching means having a goal, but
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: finding means being free, being open, having no goal. You,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: oh venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because striving
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: for your goal, there are many things you don't see
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: which are directly in front of your eyes. I don't
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: quite understand yet, said Govinda. What do you mean by this,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: quoth said Arthur, A long time ago, oh venerable one,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: many years ago, you've once before been at this river
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and have found a sleeping man by the river, and
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: have sat down with him to guard his sleep. But, oh, Govinda,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you did not recognize the sleeping man, Astonished as if
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: he had been the object of a magic spell. The
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: monk looked into the ferry man's eyes. Are you, said Arthur,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: He asked with a timid voice. I wouldn't have recognized
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: you this time as well. From my heart, I'm greeting you,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: said Arthur. From my heart, I'm happy to see you
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: once again. You've changed a lot, my friend, and so
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you've now become a ferryman in a friendly manner, said Arthur,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: laughed a fairy man. Yes, many people, Govinda, have to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: change a lot, have to wear many a robe. I
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: am one of those, my dear. Be welcome Govinda, and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: spend the night in my hart. Govinda stayed the night
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: in the hut and slept on the bed which used
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to be Vasudeva's bed. Many questions he posed to the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: friend of his youth, many things, said Arthur had to
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: tell him from his life. When in the next morning
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the time had come to start the day's journey, Govinda said,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: not without hesitation these words before I'll continue my path,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: said Arthur. Permit me to ask one more question. Do
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you have a teaching? Do you have a faith or
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a knowledge you follow which helps you to live and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: to do right? Quoth said Arthur. You know, my dear,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: that I, already, as a young man, in those days
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: when we lived with the penitents in the forest, started
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: to distrust teachers and teachings and to turn my back
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: to them. I have stuck with this. Nevertheless, I have
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: had many teachers since then. A beautiful courtesan has been
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: my teacher for a long time, and a rich merchant
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: was my teacher. And some gamblers with dice once. Even
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a follower of Buddha traveling on foot has been my teacher.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: He sat with me while I had fallen asleep in
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the forest on the pilgrimage. I've also learned from him.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I'm also grateful to him, very grateful. But most of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: all I have learned here from this river and from
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: my predecessor, the ferryman Vasudeva. He was a very simple person. Vasudiva,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: he was no thinker, but he knew what is necessary
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: just as well as Gautama. He was a perfect man,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a saint. Govinda said, still, oh, Siddhartha, you love a
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: bit to mock people, as it seems to me. I
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: believe in you and know that you have followed a teacher.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: But haven't you found something by yourself? Though you found
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: no teachings, you still found certain thoughts, certain insights, which
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: are your own and which help you to live. If
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you would like to tell me some of these, you
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: would delight my heart, quoth said Arthur. I've had thoughts, yes,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and insight, again and again, sometimes for an hour or
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: for an entire day. I have felt knowledge in me
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: as one would feel life in one's heart. There have
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: been many thoughts, but it would be hard for me
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to convey them to you. Look, my dear Govinda, this
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is one of my thoughts which I have found. Wisdom
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: cannot be passed on. Wisdom which a wise man tries
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to pass on to some one always sounds like foolishness.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding, asked Govinda. I'm not kidding. I'm telling
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: you what I've found. Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: It can be found, it can be lived, It is
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: possible to be carried by it. Miracles can be performed
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: with it. But it cannot be expressed in words and taught.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: This was what I, even as a young man, sometimes
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: suspected what has driven me away from the teachers. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: have found a thought, Govinda, which you'll again regard as
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a joke or foolishness, but which is my best thought.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It says, the opposite of every truth is just as true.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: That's like this. Every truth can only be expressed and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: put into words when it is one sided. Everything is
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: one sided, which can be thought with thoughts and said
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: with words. It's all one sided, All just one half.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: All lacks completeness, roundness, oneness. When the exalted Gautamas spoke
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in his teachings of the world, he had to divide
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it into sansara and nirvana, into deception and truth, into
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: suffering and salvation. It cannot be done differently. There is
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: no other way for him who wants to teach, but
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the world itself, what exists around us, in inside of us,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: is never one sided. A person or an act is
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: never entirely sansara or entirely nirvana. A person is never
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: entirely holy or entirely sinful. It does really seem like
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: this because we are subject to deception, as if time
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: were something real. Time is not real, Govinda. I have
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: experienced this often and often again. And if time is
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: not real, then the gap which seems to be between
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the world and the eternity, between suffering and blissfulness, between
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: good and evil is also a deception. How come, asked
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Govinda timidly, listen well, my dear, listen well. The sinner
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: which I am and which you are, is a sinner.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: But in times to come he will be Brahma again.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: He will reach the nirvana, will be Buddha. And now
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: see these times to come, our a deception are only
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a parable. The sinner is not on his way to
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: become a Buddha. He is not in the process of developing,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: though our capacity for thinking does not know how else
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to picture these things. No, within the sinner is now
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and to day already the future Buddha. His future is
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: already all there. You have to worship in him, in you,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: in every one, the Buddha which is coming into being
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the possible, the hidden Buddha. The world, my friend Govinda,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is not imperfect or on a slow path towards perfection. No,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it is perfect in every moment. All sin already carries
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the divine forgiveness in itself. All small children already have
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the old person in themselves, All infants already have death,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: all dying people the eternal life. It is not possible
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: for any person to see how far another one has
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: already progressed on his path. In the robber and the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: dice gambler, the Buddha is waiting. In the Brahman, the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: robber is waiting. In deep meditation, there is the possibility
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to put time out of existence, to see all life
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: which was, is and will be, as if it were simultaneous.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And there everything is good, everything is perfect, Every thing
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: is Brahman. Therefore I see whatever exists as good. Death
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: is to me like life, sin, like holiness, wisdom, like foolishness.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Everything has to be as it is. Everything only requires
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement to be
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: good for me to do nothing but work for my benefit,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to be unable to ever harm me. I have experienced
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: on my body and on my soul that I needed
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: sin very much. I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and needed the most shameful despair in order to learn
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: how to give up all resistance, in order to learn
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: how to love the world, in order to stop comparing
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: it to some world I wished I imagined some kind
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of perfection I had made up. But to leave it
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: as it is, and to love it, and to enjoy
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: being a part of it. These, o Govinda, are some
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of the thoughts which have come into my mind, said
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Arthur bent Down picked up a stone from the ground
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and weighed it in his hand. This, here, he said,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: playing with it, is a stone, and will after a
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: certain time perhaps turn into soil, and will turn from
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: soil into a plant or an animal or human being.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: In the past, I would have said, this stone is
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: just a stone, it is worthless. It belongs to the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: world of the Maya. But because it might be able
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to become also a human being and a spirit in
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the cycle of transformations, therefore I also grant it importance.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Thus I would perhaps have thought in the past. But
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to day I think this stone is a stone, it
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: is also animal, It is also God. It is also, Buddha,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I do not venerate and love it because it could
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: turn into this or that, but rather because it is
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: already and always everything. And it is this very fact
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: that it is a stone, that it appears to me
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: now and today as a stone. This is why I
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: love it and see worth and purpose in each of
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: its veins and cavities, in the yellow, in the gray,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: in the hardness, in the sound it makes when I
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: knock at it, in the dryness or wetness of its surface.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: There are stones which feel like oil or soap, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: others like leaves, others like sand. And everyone is special,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and praise the Olm in its own way. Each one
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: is Brahman. But simultaneously and just as much it is
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a stone, it is oily or juicy. And this is
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: this very fact which I like and regard as wonderful
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and worthy of worship. But let me speak no more
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: of this. The words are not good for the secret meaning.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Everything always becomes a bit different as soon as it
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: is put into words, gets distorted, a bit, a bit silly. Yes,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: And this is also very good, and I like it
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a lot. I also very much agree with this that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: this what is one man's treasure and wisdom always sounds
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: like foolishness to another person. Govinda listened silently. Why have
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you told me this about the stone, he asked hesitantly,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: after a pause. I did it without a specific intention.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Or perhaps what I meant was that love this very
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: stone and the river and all these things we are
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: looking at and from and which we can learn. I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: can love a stone, Govinda, and also a tree or
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: a piece of bark. These are things, and things can
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: be loved. But I cannot love words. Therefore teachings are
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: no good for me. They have no hardness, no softness,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: no colors, no edges, no smell, no taste. They have
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: nothing but words. Perhaps it is these which keep you
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: from finding peace. Perhaps it is the many words, because
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: salvation and virtue, as well sansara and nirvana as well
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: are mere words, Govinda. There is no thing which would
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: be nirvana. There is just the word nirvana, quoth Govinda.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Not just a word, my friend, is nirvana. It is
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a thought. Sid Arthur continued, per thought. It might be so,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I must confess to you, my dear, I don't differentiate
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: much between thoughts and words. To be honest, I also
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: have no high opinion of thoughts. I have a better
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: opinion of things here on this ferryboat. For instance, a
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: man has been my predecessor and teacher, a holy man
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: who has for many years simply believed in the river,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: nothing else. He had noticed that the river spoke to him,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: He learned from it, It educated and taught him. The
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: river seemed to be a god to him. For many
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: years he did not know that every wind, every cloud,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: every bird, every beetle was just as divine and knows
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: just as much and can teach just as much as
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the worshiped a river. But when this holy man went
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: into the forests, he knew everything, knew more than you
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and me, without teachers, without books, only because he had
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: believed in the river. Govinda said, but is that which
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you call things actually something real, something which has existence?
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Isn't it just a to say option of the maya
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: just an image and illusion? Your stone, your tree, your river?
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Are they actually a reality? This too, spoke said Arthur.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I do not care very much about let the things
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: be illusions or not. After all, I would then also
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: be an illusion. And thus they are always like me.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: This is what makes them so dear and worthy of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: veneration for me, they are like me. Therefore I can
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: love them. And this is now a teaching. You will
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: laugh about love, oh, Govinda, seems to me the most
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: important thing of all to thoroughly understand the world, to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: explain it, to despise it. Maybe the thing great thinkers do.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: But I'm only interested in being able to love the world,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: not to despise it, not to hate it, and me
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to be able to look upon it and me and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: all beings with love and admiration and great respect. This
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I understand, spoke Govinda. But this very thing was discovered
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: by the Exalted One to be a deception. He commands benevolence, clemency, sympathy, tolerance,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: but not love. He forbade us to tie our heart
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: in love to earthly things. I know it, said said Arthur.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: His smile shone golden. I know it, Govinda. And behold
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: with this, we are right in the middle of the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: thicket of opinions, in the dispute about words. For I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: cannot deny my words of love are in a contradiction,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a seeming contradiction, with Gatarma's words. For this very reason
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I distrust in words so much, for I know This
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: contradiction is a deception. I know that I am in
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: agreement with Gattarma. How should he not know love? He
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: who has discovered all elements of human existence in their
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: train ansatoriness, in their meaninglessness, and yet loved people thus
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: much to use a long laborious life only to help
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: them to teach them. Even with him, even with your
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: great teacher, I prefer the thing over the words. Place
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: more importance on his acts and life than on his speeches,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: more on the gestures of his hand than his opinions,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: not his speech, not in his thoughts. I see his
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: greatness only in his actions, in his life. For a
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: long time, the two old men said nothing. Then spoke Govinda,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: while bowing for a farewell, I thank you, sir Arthur,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: for telling me some of your thoughts. They are partially
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: strange thoughts, not all have been instantly understandable to me.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: This being as it may, I thank you and wish
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you to have calm days. But he thought to himself,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: this Siddartha is a bizarre person. He expresses bizarre thoughts.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: His teachings sound foolish. How differently sound the Exalted One's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: pure teachings clearer purer, more comprehensible, nothing strange, foolish or
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: silly as contained in them. But different from his thoughts
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: seemed to me, said Arthur's hands and feet, his eyes,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: his forehead, his breath, his smile, his greeting, his walk.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Never again, after our Exalted Gautama has become one with
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the Nirvana, Never since then have I met a person
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: of whom I felt this is a holy man. Only him,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: this Siddartha, I have found to be like this. May
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: his teachings be strange, May his words sound foolish. Out
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of his gaze and his hand, his skin, and his hair,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: out of every part of him shines a purity, shines,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a calmness, shines a cheerfulness and mildness and holiness, which
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I have seen in no other person since the final
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: death of our exalted teacher. As Govinda thought like this,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and there was a conflict in his heart, he once
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: again bowed to said Arthur. Drawn by love deeply, he
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: bowed to him, who was calmly sitting, said Arthur. He spoke,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: we have become old men. It is unlikely for one
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of us to see the other again in this incarnation.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I see, beloved, that you have found peace. I confess
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: that I haven't found it. Tell me, oh, honorable, one
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: one more word. Give me something on my way which
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I can grasp, which I can understand. Give me something
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to be with me on my path. It is often hard,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: my path, often dark, said Arthur. Sir Arthur said nothing
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and looked at him with the ever unchanged quiet smile.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Govinda stared at his face with fear, with yearning, suffering,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: and the eternal search was visible in his look, eternal
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: not finding. Sir Arthur saw it and smiled. Bend down
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to me, he whispered quietly in Govinda's ear. Bend down
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: to me like this, even closer, very closer, kiss my forehead, Govinda.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: But while Govinda, with astonishment and yet drawn by great
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: love and expectation, obeyed his words, bent down closely to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: him and touched his forehead with his lips. Something miraculous
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: happened to him while his thoughts were still dwelling on,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: said Arthur's wondrous word words, while he was still struggling
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: in vain and with reluctance to think away, time to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: ignore Nirvana and Sansara as one while even a certain
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: contempt for the words of his friend was fighting in
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: him against an immense love and veneration. This happened to him.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: He no longer saw the face of his friend, said Arthur.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Instead he saw other faces, many a long sequence, a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: flowing river of faces, of hundreds of thousands, which all
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: came and disappeared, and yet all seemed to be there simultaneously,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: which all constantly changed and renewed themselves, and which was
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: still all, said Arthur. He saw the face of a fish,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: a carp with infinitely painful opened mouth, the face of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a dying fish with fading eyes. He saw the face
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of a newborn child, red and full of wrinkles, distorted
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: from crying. He saw the face of a murderer. He
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: saw him plunging a knife into the body of another person.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: He saw in the same second this criminal in bondage,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: kneeling and his head being chopped off by the executioner
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: with one blow of his sword. He saw the bodies
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: of men and women naked in positions and cramps of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: frenzied love. He saw corpses stretched out, motionless, cold void.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: He saw the heads of animals, of bores, of crocodiles,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: of elephants, of bulls of birds, He saw gods, he
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: saw Krishna, he saw Ugny. He saw all of these
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: figures and faces in a thousand relationships with one another,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: each one helping the other, loving it, hating it, destroying it,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: giving rebirth to it. Each one was a will to die,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a passionate, painful confession of transitoriness. And yet none of
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: them died. Each one only transformed, was always reborne, received
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: evermore a new face, without any time having passed between
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the wine and the other face. And all of these
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: figures and faces rested, flowed, generated themselves, floated along and
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: merged with each other, and they were all constantly covered
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: by something thin, without individuality of its own, but yet existing,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: like a thin glass or ice, like a transparent skin,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: a shell or mold, or mask of water. And this
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: mask was smiling, And this mask was saird Arthur's smiling face,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: which he Govinda, in this very same moment touched with
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: his lips. And Govinda saw it like this, this smile
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of the mask, this smile of oneness, above the flowing forms,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: this smile of simultaneousness, above the thousand births and deaths,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the smile of Siddartha was precisely the same, was precisely
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: of the same kind as the quiet, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps benevolent,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: perhaps mocking wise, thousandfold smile of Gattama, the Buddha, as
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: he had seen it himself with great respect a hundred
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: times like this, Govinda knew, the perfected ones are smiling,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: not knowing any more whether the time existed, whether the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: vision had lasted a second or a hundred years, not
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: knowing any more whether there existed a Siddhartha, a Gattama Ami,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and a you. Feeling in his innermost self, as if
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: he had been wounded by a divine arrow, the injury
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: of which tasted sweet, Being enchanted and dissolved in his
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: innermost self, Govinda stood still for a little while, bent
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: over said Arthur's quiet face, which he had just kissed,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: which had just been the scene of all manifestations, all transformations,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: all existence. The face was unchanged, after under its surface
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the depth of the thousandfoldness had closed up again. He
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: smiled sweetly, smiled quietly and softly, perhaps benevolently, perhaps very mockingly,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: precisely as he used to smile the exalted one. Deeply.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Govinda bowed. Tears he knew nothing of ran down his
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: old face like a fire burnt, the feeling of the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: most intimate love, the humblest veneration in his heart. Deeply
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: he bowed, touching the ground before him, who was sitting motionlessly,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: whose smile reminded him of everything he had ever loved
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: in his life, what had ever been valuable and holy
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to him in his life. End of Chapter twelve and
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: end of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse