Page 11 - GALIET CRUX, NUX OR LUX: Nietzsche IV

they are. For Nietzsche, the philosopher is an “ascetic priest:” he does not deny existence, he affirms his, and only his, existence. Ascetics such as the Brahmins use a “sick will to power:” self-torture to dispel mistrust and to arouse fear so that others may revere them.
However, in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, we find it otherwise. Gautama, a Brahmin’s son, leaves his palace to journey with the ascetics “Samanas” to find himself because his heart is “distressed” to find truth. He yearns to master life for himself. After Gautama’s arduous journey through Samsara and through the River, he attains nirvana (o yes, Plato’s Forms) and tells Govinda, his friend,
“knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, but one cannot communicate and teach it...in every truth the opposite is equally true... a truth can only be expressed and enveloped in words if it is one- sided... Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, into Illusion and Truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise... Never is man wholly a saint or a sinner...time is not real...the dividing line that seems to lie between this world and eternity, between good and evil, is also an illusion.”6
6 Hesse, Hermann. Siddharta. Trans. Hilda Rosner. New York: A New Directions Book, 1951. 115
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