“Now Siddhartha also knew why his fight against this ego had been futile. Too much knowledge had held him back… Into this priesthood, into this high-mindedness, into this spirituality, his ego had crept… That is why he had to… be a merchant, a dice player, a drinker, and a man consumed with greed- until the priest and shramana within him were dead.”
Siddhartha is saying that what he had been trying to fight, his ego, had been absorbed by everything that made him who he was. Siddhartha used to be the priest in training or the ambitious shramana determined to rid himself of his ego, but in doing so he was just intergrading it further. When he became controlled by wealth and greed, he stopped meditating and distanced himself from everything he once was. When he let go of his knowledge, his ego left as well. I loved how the only was to really save himself was to destroy himself. "Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer." –T.D.
Siddhartha's ego had anchored itself to his priesthood, and when he became a shramana he only fueled it. His ego did die out after he became a merchant, and then Siddhartha was able to kill the merchant, the gambler and the rich man inside him after he slept and heard OM. Maybe your right, the answer is self-destruction.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I really like your post is because you chose the perfect quote to explain the death of Siddhartha's ego. I also love how you added your own opinion.
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