The Ferryman's Virtue by Fletcher Reich

The ferryman’s virtue is listening. I think that he chose to only listen because you can learn much more from listening than you can when you are talking. It says he knows how to listen, he misses nothing and Siddhartha believes that happiness can come from opening oneself to such a man. The river spoke to Siddhartha just like it spoke to the ferryman. The ferryman tells Siddhartha that he cannot teach only listen, this might give the hint of him being awakened. When Siddhartha tells the ferryman he wants to learn from him, “You will learn that,” said Vasudeva, “but not from me. The river taught me how to listen; you will learn from the river too. The river knows everything; everything can be learned from it…You will learn the other thing from it to.”pg 82. I think that this quote means that Siddhartha will learn more from the river than he has from all his teachers. This is a big part of the book because Siddhartha is learning that listening is a big part in enlightened people. I think listening will help him reach enlightenment from this man because he will only need to say what is necessary.