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The present!

"Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?"

Vasudeva's dace was filled with a bright smile.

"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "it is this that you mean, isn't it: That the river is everywhere at one, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"

"This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real. Also, Siddhartha's previous births were not in the past, and his death and his return to Brahman was not in the future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has existence and is present."

- Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

Comments

Rosh said…
ive read HERMAN HESSE several times, everytime hes managed to amaze me!!!
~ a said…
this is the first time i'm reading his words, and somewhere they have struck a chord with what i feel...

it's amazing to read something so well described and eloquently said!

this thought of being now, existing, living breathing as a whole, in the present! it's just so beautifully true! the child has in him the adult he will be! it's amazing!
Radha said…
awesome! will pick up this book!

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