Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf Treatise

harry haller · #10 (**permalink**) 25-May-2012, 01:18 AM

brother,

i have the same problem myself, type it in word and paste it in, try and remember it

*

TigerStyleZ · #11 (**permalink**) 25-May-2012, 01:37 AM

no paji,

i wrote whole post here on spn, but I guess somehow it was deleted... Anyway...

What do you think of that line paji? It is the same with Gurbani - many people just recite it - they don´t contemplate.

"No prospect was more hateful and distasteful to him than that he should have to go to an office and conform to daily and yearly routine and obey others. "
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/38545-herman-hesse-steppenwolf-treatise.html

I often have the same problems , I am thinking in future - will I be able to recite this all my life , can I hold on this "rehat"? In my opinion now it is gettin useless.. because I only can understand and internalize bani - Why should I hold this rehat, if it doesn´t helps me? This is just forcing myself.. and that isn´t right or?

harry haller · #12 (**permalink**) 26-May-2012, 14:06 PM

Tigerji,

You have read the entire book, so you have an inkling about what Hesse was trying to say. The question you ask are beautiful questions, they show you are thinking, they show you are sincere, that you are not prepared to live a lie, they also show that you are one that will never be content walking the middle line, but how do we survive without going mad.

You know the answer, it is humour, and acceptance, both in line with Gurbani, Chardi Kala and tera bhana meetha lage, I have a simple rule about Bani, I only read what I am prepared to contemplate and practice, anything else, is in my opinion a waste of time, reading for the sake of reading, reciting for the sake of reciting, empty practices in my view.

A rehat should not be held on to, that implies lack of understanding, you are squeezing too hard, relax, let the rehat guide you, not own you. Consider that the rehat is man made and the Bani is Guru made, draw your own conclusions from that..

If rehat is describing how one should feel when is in love, then following rehat will not automatically act as a love potion. First fall in love, with Creation, make a difference, think, contemplate, act, and then you may find you fall in line with rehat, not through obedience, but through love and wanting to.

My opinion only, hope it helps

Quote:

No prospect was more hateful and distasteful to him than that he should have to go to an office and conform to daily and yearly routine and obey others. "

Yes, I love this line, it is engraved on my heart, it brings to mind the complete futility of any ritual, ie, actions done for the sake of doing the action without any underlying reason, in the hope that divine blessings will follow.

harry haller · #13 (**permalink**) 26-May-2012, 14:06 PM

Tigerji,

You have read the entire book, so you have an inkling about what Hesse was trying to say. The question you ask are beautiful questions, they show you are thinking, they show you are sincere, that you are not prepared to live a lie, they also show that you are one that will never be content walking the middle line, but how do we survive without going mad.

You know the answer, it is humour, and acceptance, both in line with Gurbani, Chardi Kala and tera bhana meetha lage, I have a simple rule about Bani, I only read what I am prepared to contemplate and practice, anything else, is in my opinion a waste of time, reading for the sake of reading, reciting for the sake of reciting, empty practices in my view.

A rehat should not be held on to, that implies lack of understanding, you are squeezing too hard, relax, let the rehat guide you, not own you. Consider that the rehat is man made and the Bani is Guru made, draw your own conclusions from that..

If rehat is describing how one should feel when is in love, then following rehat will not automatically act as a love potion. First fall in love, with Creation, make a difference, think, contemplate, act, and then you may find you fall in line with rehat, not through obedience, but through love and wanting to.

My opinion only, hope it helps

Quote:

No prospect was more hateful and distasteful to him than that he should have to go to an office and conform to daily and yearly routine and obey others. "

Yes, I love this line, it is engraved on my heart, it brings to mind the complete futility of any ritual, ie, actions done for the sake of doing the action without any underlying reason, in the hope that divine blessings will follow.

TigerStyleZ · #14 (**permalink**) 28-May-2012, 00:54 AM

Thanks,
harry ji, yes you are right - I already know the answer - but for me this isn´t enough ...
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545
Your opinion is really nice , but I don´t know - if it satisfies me ... I think I am a lost soul...

Question;Have you read the whole book?

Like all men Harry believes that he knows very well what man is and yet does not know at all, although in dreams and other states not subject to control he often has his suspicions. If only he might not forget them, but keep them, as far as possible at least, for his own. Man is not by any means of fixed and enduring form (this, in spite of suspicions to the contrary on the part of their wise men, was the ideal of the ancients). He is much more an experiment and a transition. He is nothing else than the narrow and perilous bridge between nature and spirit. His innermost destiny drives him on to the spirit and to God. His innermost longing draws him back to nature, the mother. Between the two forces his life hangs tremulous and irresolute. "Man," whatever people think of him, is never anything more than a temporary bourgeois compromise. Convention rejects and bans certain of the more naked instincts, a little consciousness, morality and debestialization is called for, and a modicum of spirit is not only permitted but even thought necessary. The "man" of this concordat, like every other bourgeois ideal, is a compromise, a timid and artlessly sly experiment, with the aim of cheating both the angry primal mother Nature and the troublesome primal father Spirit of their pressing claims, and of living in a temperate zone between the two of them. For this reason the bourgeois today burns as heretics and hangs as criminals those to whom he erects monuments tomorrow.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545

These lines just tell everything... but I don´t know...... I think I am mad... confused..

harry haller · #15 (**permalink**) 28-May-2012, 12:40 PM

Tigerji,

my dear young brother, of course I have read the whole book, I read it when I was in my early 20's, and then passed it to my brother. I have read it maybe 30 times, and the above never fails to give me goose pimples. I lived by the book for 15 years, my brother maybe for 7, I think he found the middle ground in the end, he was lucky, he was able to compromise enough to live in the middle ground and visit the sublime on occasion., me? Steppenwolf was the only writing I had ever read that resonated with me, until I got a clearer view of what Guru Nanakji was talking about, Hesse was close, very close, but in the absence of sin and guilt, Guruji was closer.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545

You are not mad, and you are not confused, you are brimming with creativity, thoughts, desires, goals, I am attempting desperately to put across that you do not need to experience all to find the answers, but in all honesty, I cannot, what am I supposed to say having come face to face with myself aged 17, do they both ever sit down and make peace?, that is what you wish to know the answer to, no, they do not, nothing ever changes, the conflict continues and never fades, all you can do is learn not only to live with it, but to utilise it, to make you stronger, remember, the world only works because of the steppenwolves, it is you and me that grant the bourgeois the freedom to continue, to be a Sikh is to be a super steppenwolf, the same ideals, the same principles, but the wolf listens to Guruji.

About this time last year, I was struggling with 4 or 5 different personalities, Sikhi helped me fuse them as best I could, if it assists you in any way, here is a link to some material you may find interesting, I would certainly value your comments on them, as a fellow wolf.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/blogs/...r/index17.html

TigerStyleZ · #16 (**permalink**) 16-Aug-2012, 18:01 PM

Sorry for late replay -

I never got an email from Sikhphilsophy that you replied.. Any wayTHanks Harry ji!
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=38545

YOu are so right... all must sit together and need to be fused to Sikhi... I reveleaed it myself in last months...

"Super Steppenwolf" haha great idea! Mhh... had many sleepless nights - I came to the exact same conclusion...

jasbirkaleka · #17 (**permalink**) 18-Aug-2012, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harry haller

Tigerji

yes, I understand now what you mean about Maya,. I have never thought of humour as the divine before, it is an interesting concept, I will give it some thought tonight. Also Bani represented by Hermine is another interesting concept,

I have to confess to making a concerted effort to forget this book, at around the time I wrote this post

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-s...f-sikhism.html

So I will probably read it again I think, just for old times sake

Read it when I was in high school, and it changed my perception about human existent forever.