The Western World

"The world, friend Govinda, is not perfect or on a slow journey toward perfection; no, it is perfect every moment; all sin already bears its forgiveness within itself; every little boy already bears the old man within himself, every infant bears death, every dying man bears eternal life. No one is able to look at someone else and know how far along on his journey he is; in the highwayman and dice player lurks a Buddha, in the Brahman lurks the highwayman." p. 77 Siddhartha


In life everyone tries to define us. My parents tell me how to act, but they can't change me. I'm like a crumpled up piece of paper that must unfold. I already have everything: my personality and individuality. People shouldn't be judgmental towards me because I dress a certain way or talk funny, but people are always trying to change what they don't like and not accept it. Everyone feels the need to shape the world with their opinions, but some are more aggressive in conforming others. People that listen to others don't think for themselves, and like Govinda, they cannot be truly happy with their self.

Western thinking dose not agree with this thinking. People in school are supposed to have their friends. Everyone must act as part of a greater group or risk being excommunicated. That thinking is contradictory to being an individual, which is another Western value. Can anyone really be unique and part of a group, and can they live on not being uniquely part of the world? Western thinking tries to promote the individual and suppress it at the same time. The paragraph, however, says that there is no similarity or difference in anyone; we are all the Buddha, the highwayman, the old man, and everything else at some point in our lives. We all encounter each other in ourselves at some time in our lives.