OVERVIEW Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was born in 1887 in a small West German province. When he was a child, he sold books, so he had the opportunity to read a lot. His career began with poetry, so his writing was poetic and concise (difficult to understand). The era he lived in was World War 2, during the heyday of Nazi Germany with Hitler slaughtering the Jews, he had to settle permanently in Switzerland. All of his works contain a pessimistic philosophy, expressing the suffering and loneliness of people in the midst of life. That person is also himself, so his work can be seen as an inner monologue. The type of person you mentioned is both very specific and very universal. These are people who are always trying to rise above the mediocre limits of life, and always fail in this effort. We can see our own image in it, so even though Hesse talks about a special type of person, we still see that they are very close to us.

Most of his work is built along the following lines:

1) There are always two characters of two opposite tendencies: disciplined and rebellious (or angels and demons, reason and emotion). These are also two opposite tendencies in the same person. He seems to mean that both are not okay, because being too holy is easy to be arrogant, proud of one's asceticism, of one's transcendence (Tat Dat sees himself as a star, and others are just like fallen leaves). When he practices asceticism, and he plays and plays with funerals are both extremes. When he became enlightened, he lived a middle life: not proud of his achievements, but also not indulging in worldliness.

2) There is unity in a person despite many different aspects, and the unity of life despite all the circumstances. Seeing that unity, it is truly liberating that there are no two opposing generals. When he became enlightened, he lived as an ordinary person (but not an ordinary person) to be able to guide Thien Hu to attain enlightenment. Thien Huu kept the ascetic vows all his life but still suffered because he still saw duality. In the end, he had to ask Tat Dat, the symbol of the middle way.

3) Hesse does not promote sensory, intellectual, or ascetic pleasure. A solution that brings peace to people is not science and technology, much less cathedrals or monasteries, but human love, Menschenliebe. It is that human love that saves us from loneliness in life (a form of arrogance because we feel that we are better than others). That's what he wanted to emphasize, and for that emphasis on humanity, he won the Nobel Prize at the end of his career, with Das Glaserspiel.

4) He also wanted to say that human conscience (i.e. Buddha-nature) is never lost. It was when Siddhartha was about to commit suicide (after seeing that he was running after life without getting anything but losing too much), he suddenly heard an "Om" from the river bed. It is the Buddha-nature by which we get out of the quagmire (in contrast to Sigmund Freud, who seems to emphasize the instinct of animals to control human beings in all activities from lowly to noble).

THE STORY OF THE RIVER The

life of Tat Dat is also the life of all of us. Tat Dat's three awakenings were equivalent to his three stumbling blocks. Enlightenment goes hand in hand with delusion, and wherever the disturbing emotions are, enlightenment (disturbing emotions, i.e., bodhisattva).

For the first time, due to his ascetic infatuation, Siddhartha realized that asceticism does not lead to wisdom, and gave up asceticism to go out into the middle of life, using his senses to learn the lesson of suffering caused by sensory pleasure passion. This second delusion was awakened by the mysterious "OM", reminiscent of the days of asceticism, and by this he abandoned the intention of giving birth. The third time he was suffering because his beloved son had left him, Siddhartha realized that life was "like that", and no longer had an attitude of pride and contempt for worldly people, but saw that they were all brothers, and had reached a deep compassion for all life. Only then will people be truly happy, because they are everything.

1. Before meeting the Buddha,

the Buddha was born to eradicate 5 classes in Indian society at that time: Brahmins, Killers, Phaksa (merchants), Dharmala (working class) and slave class. He declared, "There is no class in blood and red, in tears and salty," so he renamed the common names at that time as recluses and brahmins. For him, a monk is a person who separates from sexual desires, and is detached from the unwholesome Dharma. A brahmin is a wise person who has eradicated greed, hatred, and ignorance. In the story, these two nouns refer to class. The life of Tat Dat was at first very holy, orderly, and exemplary. Father Siddha, a Brahmin who was a self-devotional Brahmin, saw his son's holy tendencies, and he was very happy to hope that his son would continue his career. But Tat Dat was a rebellious and critical type. He was suspicious of all the traditional Brahmanic rituals (such as bathing to cleanse sins) and he was suspicious of the Vedas, which were the supreme authority in Brahmanism. He resisted all the order in the society in which he lived. In short, Siddhartha is a symbol of purity, an ideal and exemplary person, but his heart is always hard because he has not yet found the truth.

Thien Huu, on the other hand, is a person who always obeys an existing order, eagerly lives according to the good and never doubts life. Goodness is the shadow of Satdat, but it can also be another aspect of Satdat's soul. Each of us has these two contradictory aspects, so we have to suffer.

Siddhartha meditated to the point that he could live in the non-self, as if he could go out of his soul to enter a bird, the purpose of which was to forget his self for a moment in order to resist the sufferings of life. But when he returned to his self, he still wondered, still wondered about the fate of man.

(The Buddha called that concentration like a stone crushing the grass because when he came out of concentration, he was still an ordinary person with full of greed, hatred, and ignorance.)

Siddhartha also had a critical attitude towards this kind of concentration, and with all the rituals of Brahmanism. He thinks that truth is something that cannot be communicated. Like his father who lived a holy life with ritual sacrifices, and still suffered.

Siddha asked his father for permission to follow a group of monks to practice asceticism. After a while, he said to his fellow practitioner, Thien Huu: The most necessary thing worth knowing (ultimate happiness, nirvana) cannot be learned, but only the things that depend on the margins. Thien Huu was very worried, when he saw that although he had mastered all the esoteric arts of the monks, he still remained dissatisfied with his possessions, and Thien Huu did not know when he would leave the group of monks.

Hearing that the Buddha was coming to give a lecture in the vicinity, Thien Huu suggested that Siddha come to him with him. Tat Dat told the chief monk to leave, but he was angry. Tat Dat then proved what he had learned from him. He began to hypnotize the old monk, winning his will, causing him to bow his head and mutter his praise before leaving. Thien Huu admired his friend very much, saying: "You have really come a long way, more than I thought. If you stay in this place, you will probably learn how to walk on the water one day." He said that he had no interest in learning how to walk on water or such divine powers.

Contrary to Thien Huu who wanted to leave the monks to find the Buddha, leaving one teacher to find another, Tat Dat only wanted to leave to find himself again.

After listening to the Buddha's teachings, Thien Huu happily stood up and asked to join the sangha, convinced that Siddhartha would do the same. But when he heard Tat Dat say: "For the first time, Thien Huu knows how to walk one step ahead of me, I bless you", Thien Huu burst into tears. Siddhartha looked at the Buddha, admiring his every posture, a holy man to the heels. But he did not ask to stay to follow the Buddha. The

passing of the Siddha made Thien Huu doubt his teachings. Knowing your psychology, Tat Dat said: "You can rest assured! How can I find the flaw in His teachings?"

When he came to retire from the Buddha, Siddhartha asked him three things:

1) If the world is complete in every moment, then why is it necessary to save sentient beings?

2) Why is there no one who has become a Buddha at the moment except him?

3) The most important thing to learn, the liberating nirvana that He witnessed, why hasn't anyone learned it?

The Buddha did not answer, he just said, "You reason very well, but beware of excessive wisdom! My doctrine is not for reasoning."

Yet the images of the Buddha influenced Siddha's whole life indirectly, until he attained peace. Siddhartha always remembered the image of the Buddha: "I have never seen a person with such a tolerant posture, reflecting such a peaceful inner state. This is a person who has subdued the self. I also have a day when I can subdue myself like that. I have seen a man, before whom I must bow my head. I will never bow down to anyone else again. No doctrine can sway us anymore, when this man's teachings have not seduced us. The Buddha has robbed me, He has robbed Good-Friend, who has long been my shadow and now follows Him. But the Buddha gave me myself."

It can be said that Tat did not follow the Buddha because there was no "predestination", and because there was still a "karma" with Kieu Lan later. But indeed, Siddhartha was very fond of the Buddha, and his image haunted him all his life until he came to his senses.

3. After retiring from the Buddha,

this was the first awakening of Siddha. He felt that he could no longer return to his family or to his ascetic life, after he had retired from the Buddha. He felt extremely lonely, standing in the middle of heaven and earth without knowing what to do. This is the state that in the meditation house is called standing on the top of a hundred meters high pole and below is the abyss.

Cultivators sometimes go to a place of despair, there is no place to cling to. If he does not pass this stage, he will escape the fire and enter a ghost, becoming a depraved person.

B. TAT DAT, THE HUMAN BEING IS

After deciding not to return home or follow the Buddha, Siddhartha wandered out of the forest when he encountered the palanquin of a splendid prostitute with fragrant fragrances coming. He stared intently. Kieu Lan had never seen anyone look at her in such a strange way as that shaggy-haired bearded monk. Bound by karma, she immediately fell in love with her, while Siddhartha was following the servants to inquire about her. When Kieu Lan gave the audience, Tat Dat said: I want to learn about love? Can you teach me? Kieu Lan laughed and said, the people who come to me must be rich and have many gifts! Then she advised Tat Dat to come and work with Van My, one of the wealthy merchants who often came to her. Kieu Lan also gave Tat Dat valuable instructions on the way to moving forward in the middle of life. Van My was very satisfied to have Tat Dat as a partner.

a) In the early stages of his worldly life, he was still governed by the three principles of the monastic life: reflection, waiting, and fasting. At this stage he was the ideal type of person in society: having a lot of money without being a slave to money, helping people with an equal mind, be happy with everyone and live in moderation. Wan Mei remarked: "This brahmin never became a true merchant. He was always relaxed at work, never worried about losing his belongings and still living the life of a monk." He often told Kieu Lan about the Buddha and his ascetic life in the past.

b) But once it has fallen, it does not stop there. Tat Dat went deeper and deeper into depravity. Gradually, he learned how to drink, gamble, and master the art of play. Slowly he permeated all the habits of those who had money, but in his heart he still despised people, still saw himself as a separate star in the sky, and others were like leaves falling in the wind.

c) To prove his contempt for money, he splurges in games, throwing money through the window. But when he lost too much, he no longer had an attitude of liberation. Tat Dat began to collect debts for money to gamble, to frown at debtors, and then to the end of his depravity to become a rich man: gradually his facial expressions became infected with the usual appearances of rich people, discontent, fatigue, leisurely and absent of love. The inner illness of the false patriarch was deeply infected with him.

2. Boredom and pleasure When he has

reached the lowest point of depravity, there is a force in him that saves him from the abyss. It is the point of spiritual light or Buddha-nature or conscience in a person that no matter how long he rolls in the quagmire, he does not lose. That is when Siddhartha lies down dreaming of the Buddha, about the Virtue, about the Sangha, about the pure scene in the garden of the lonely False Head where he had met the Buddha. The dream had awakened Siddhartha from the quagmire of desire, so when he awoke, he was infinitely sad because he saw that he had given up the most precious things in life to follow the nothing. but still can't find happiness, still suffer many times over. He remembered the pure and holy life he had lived before, remembered the image of the Buddha, and looked back at who he was. He looked in the mirror, feeling extremely disgusted with his face, and saw that it was old and ugly. Money and lust have pushed him to become such a ruined person, life is indeed tasteless and boring. Tat Dat recounted his dream to Kieu Lan, then disappeared. He wandered to a river bank, looked down at the water, caught sight of his monstrous countenance, disgusted with it, spat on it. He loathed himself, reflected on his life and saw that it had been a complete failure, had reached the end of suffering, had nothing left to cling to. The intention of donating lives hovered in Tat Dat's mind. He climbed a branch that jutted out of the water and bowed his head and tried to plunge down. At that moment he heard it again from the river bed and from the bottom of his heart, emitting the miraculous sound of Om (the secret word at the beginning of each mantra) that awakened him and saw clearly his madness. He was startled, did I fall to such a terrible place? Tat Dat crawled to the ground and knelt his head on the root of the tree, and was very surprised to see that the depraved life for so many years had not affected him, let alone the sound of Om echoing from the unconscious. It was the moment of enlightenment for the second time.

He recited the sound of Om for a long time and then closed his eyes and fell asleep with the sound of Om in his mind, a deep sleep without dreams.

When he woke up, Tat Dat saw a monk sitting guarding his sleep and he recognized Thien Huu at once, but Thien Huu did not recognize him. Thien Huu said: "Seeing him dressed luxuriously and sleeping in a secluded place like this, he could be robbed or bitten by snakes, so I watched him sleep. Now that you're awake, I'm going to say hello to you." Tat Da said, "Thank you for watching over me. But I really don't need anyone to guard me? Then you just go, Thien Huu!" Thien Huu was surprised: "Why do you know my name?" Tat Dat replied: "I have known your name since the day you were born and I also know the names of your father and mother,... your family, too, because I used to meditate with you in the past, I used to practice asceticism with you, and then you went with the Buddha's relics." Thien Huu was overjoyed to see Tat Dat again and asked, "Where are you going now?"

- Tat Dat replied, "Am I going on a pilgrimage?"

- Thien Huu said, "I have never seen a monk go on a pilgrimage in such stylish clothes!"

- Tat Dat replied: "But now you have seen. And where did I say I am a monk?"

(The pilgrimage that Siddhartha spoke of had a profound meaning; he was on his way back to his spiritual homeland. No matter how you know how to purify yourself, go through suffering to learn from life, that life is a pilgrimage. It's not just the cultivators who are making the pilgrimage, but everyone is making the pilgrimage to rise from the quagmire of life.)

Thien Huu is still attached to nouns and forms, so he does not understand. He greeted Tat Dat and left. Tat Dat watched with affection for his childhood friend. After waking up, he felt that he was living a new life, looking at the universe of all things with equal love, and the first person he shared his love with was Thien Huu. That was the miracle that OM had given him: for the first time he loved everything around him with joy. And he seemed as if he had been suffering for a long time just because he did not know how to love.

Now he could not return to his former depraved life. This was his second awakening. He lay down to think about his fate, and to find out what was the cause of his past mistakes. He fought hopelessly with the self as a Brahmin, an ascetic: "Too much knowledge has hindered him, too much holiness, asceticism has forced the body; He was too arrogant, always the smartest, the most energetic, always one step ahead of him, always an intellectual, a preacher, a sage. His own self has crept into that preacher, into that pride, into that knowledge. It settled there steadily and grew steadily, while he thought he was ruining it by fasting and repentance. Now he understood why he had to become a merchant, a gambler, a rich man, until the preacher, the intellectual recluse in him, died. He had to live through the terrible years, endure nausea, learn the crazy lessons of a tasteless and empty life until he came to the point of bitter despair so that Tat Dat, the man of pleasure, the man of riches, also dies. He is dead, and a new Siddhartha has awakened from a revived sleep."

In the first awakening after meeting the Buddha, it was that Tat Dat woke up with a dream of squeezing the ascetic body. When he let go and opened the gateway of his senses, he immediately fell into a life of pleasure. It was because of the long years of suppressed desire, and now his senses, like an overly compressed spring, began to unravel. In his second awakening, he awoke from his depraved dream and pursued worldly pleasures. Both of these attitudes are reprehensible extremes, so the Buddha taught that it is necessary to live the middle way. At the stage of

ascetic cultivation, Tat Dat was also "afflicted" by the "disturbing emotions" pointing to the attachment to the holy self, and this was a dream of forcing the body. At the stage of depravity due to alcohol, the boy and girl Tat Dat also suffered from the "karma" of the six detachments, and this was the dream of letting go. At the last stage, after waking up from the dream of letting go of depravity, Tat Dat also had to suffer because of his child, which can be called "retribution". Only after overcoming all three obstacles can he truly be liberated.

Thanks to the river that he awakened, Tat Dat felt in love with the river and did not want to leave. He walked along the river and when he reached the wharf he met the Vedic Shi, who had taken him across the river when he had retired from the monastic life to go into a depraved life. Wei Shi didn't realize because he had changed too much and was dressed luxuriously.

Tat Dat said: "The river is so beautiful, I want to stay to learn from this river. Then can you let me stay as an apprentice to take the ferry with you?"

Guardian Shi replied, "How can a luxuriously dressed person like you endure the hard life of a ferryman, and moreover, you must have enjoyment to do this profession."

Tat Dat said: "I have been criticized for this outfit twice today. Can you change me for an old torn suit so that I can sail with you?"

Wei Shi said, "What made you make such a decision? People like you are not meant to go boating!"

Tat Dat confided in Guardian Su. Xu Shi said, "I see that you are acquainted. Are you the monk I took across the river a long time ago?"

Wei Shi was willing to let him stay in the hut by the river. "You should stay, but not with me, but from the river." Since then, the two have been very close friends.

Gradually, rumors spread about the two saints living by the river. Many curious people take a boat across the river to find out the truth. Some people recognize them as holy and holy, but many people just think it's.

One day, it was reported that the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, and a large number of pilgrims came to visit the Buddha for the last time. Among these pilgrims, one day Qiao Lan brought her young son with her. When she arrived at the riverbank, Kieu Lan was bitten by a snake. The child ran for help, and met Tat Dat and Wei Shi in the hut. The two of them took Kieu Lan into the hut, she was dying. Tat Dat observed the transformation on the face of his dearest person who was gradually going to death, and felt as if he himself was dying. He watched strangely as he watched the transformation from a beauty that had fascinated him to now only a mutilated body.

Kieu Lan said: "I was going to visit the Buddha to get peace, but now that I have met him, I have found that peace. Have you reached it?" And she introduced Tat Dat to their child.

Tat Dat happily received his son after burying Kieu Lan, but the child not only did not love him but also resisted. One day he scolded Tat Dat, refused to recognize him as his father, stole all their savings and took the boat and fled. Tat Dat remembered the spinning wheel. He asked Wei Shi to look for the child, but Wei Shi said, "No, I'm just looking for the boat. The young bird was used to a different way of life, a different nest. It doesn't run away from money and the city with the same sense of boredom as you did, it reluctantly retires from those things. I asked the river many times, but the river laughed at me, laughed at you, laughed at our madness. Water will come to water, youth will find youth. Ask the river, and listen!"

But Tat Dat still had the karma of missing his child. He hid from the Guardian and went down to the street to look for him for many days but did not find him.

This suffering of Tat Dada helped him understand more about the sufferings of life. He no longer felt that he was higher than the world, no longer despised the world, but could sympathize with everyone. He rowed a boat to carry everyone across the river, feeling that they were all brothers. He shared the suffering of a mother who lost her child, a wife who lost her husband. He no longer saw their sufferings as trivial, as he had seen when he was a monk. Now, having gone through all the long roads of life, he has the ability to sympathize with everyone. This is the final awakening, from which great compassion arises.

One day when his wound was aching, Tat Dat rowed across the river, his heart numb with nostalgia. He went ashore with the intention of going down the street to find his child. The river was still flowing gently, it was the dry season, but the sound of the water roared miraculously. The river was clearly laughing at the boatman muttering. Tat Dat stood leaning over the water to listen. He saw his face reflected on the stillness of the water. There was something in that image that seemed to resemble his father. He remembered that when he was a young man, how he had upset his father by forcing him to let him go with the ascetics, how he had gone away and never returned! Didn't his father endure the pain he now endures for the sake of the child! Could he have died long ago in loneliness, not seeing his child again? Didn't he expect a similar fate? The river laughed: Yes, that's it! Everything, if we don't endure it once and for all, the vicious cycle will recur, the same suffering will recur forever.

Tat Dat returned and told everything to Wei Shi. Wei Shi said, "I've listened to the river, and I've understood a little. But listen more."

Tat Dat listened. He saw the image of his father, his own image, and the image of his son running wildly at each other. The image of Kieu Lan also appeared and disappeared, the image of Thien Huu and many others also appeared and passed. They all became part of the river, the river was also full of aspirations, sorrows, sorrows, and unfulfilled desires. All the waves of water rush to their destination, flowing to the waterfall, to the sea, to the plain, to the ocean. The water becomes steam, the steam becomes rain and falls into streams, sources, rivers and creeks, and then changes and flows again. It still has the echo of sorrow that seeks it, but there are many other voices in it: the voice of joy and love, the voice of evil, the voice of good, the voice of laughter, the cry, hundreds of hours, thousands of hours. All of these voices make up the world, the universe. When Tat Dat listened attentively to the multi-melodious instrument, when he did not listen to the sorrow or the joy in particular, when he did not bind himself to any particular sound, but listened to the Oneness, the Comprehensive, at that time the multi-tone bow only contained one OM.

Tat Dat also saw many other images, saw the whole of life, saw the vast universe in which he was not alone in suffering. At that time, he saw that life was inherently "like that". Reaching that point, it is not sad when spring is over, nor happy when spring comes, living freely and casually. This was the third and final enlightenment of the Siddha.

Tat Dat returned to confide in the Guardian. He looked into Tat Dat's eyes and knew that he was enlightened: "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time! Now that my work is done, goodbye." Then he went into the forest.

The image of the Guardian is the image of the Bodhisattva in life to take people from one shore (the shore of the enlightenment) to the other (the wharf of enlightenment). The bodhisattva is not on one bank or the other, nor is he in the middle of the stream, he does not dwell anywhere. A bodhisattva is a friend who helps without saying that he has helped him, nor does he consider himself anyone's teacher.

One day, Tat Dat rowed a boat for a group of monks, including Thien Huu, to go to the river. Seeing the boatman happily taking the monk across the river without taking money, (not recognizing Tat Dat) Thien Huu complimented:

"You are so good! You must also be the one who is looking for the righteous way, right?

Tat Dat:

"Do you consider yourself a seeker?

Thien Huu:

- Yes. All my life I have always searched for the righteous way.

Tat Dat:

- Because you are always looking, I will never meet you!

Thien Huu was astonished and asked:

"Why are you talking so strange?

Tat Dat:

"The person who searched for it had a purpose, so he just focused on it, and didn't see much else. People who don't look for it always live leisurely, freely, and are happy with what they meet. Because I don't search, I always encounter new things. Also because of his eagerness to search, he still didn't recognize his old friend several times.

At that time, Thien Huu cried out in amazement:

"Oh Tat Dat, I didn't recognize you this time! Why did you give up your luxurious clothes to become a boater?

Tat Dat replied:

"All parts of life are false layers! Neither do you and me.

When he looked closely at his friend, Thien Huu saw the elegance radiating from his person. The recluse said,

"After all these years of seeking, I still suffer because I have not found peace. I see that you seem to have attained it. Please tell me.

Tat Dat said:

"I see that in the world, only love is the most important!

The

Buddha advised practitioners not to have worldly feelings such as love and clinging.

Tat Dat:

"But I know that I am not speaking against your will! How could He not have love, when He spent his whole life educating people to escape suffering and achieve peace. He must be a Man of love!

Thien Huu still didn't understand what you said, and pleaded earnestly:

"Please tell me something that is easy to understand. My life is often arduous and dark!

Tat Dat said as if commanding:

"Good Friend! Bend close to me and kiss my forehead!

This is a shocking behavior, which Zen and Tantric masters often use to awaken students, when words are not effective. It says that only love with intellectual content can bring peace and liberation to people, not just empty wisdom.

In the end, Thien Huu felt as if he had just been relieved of all suffering by the Buddha himself, and found peace.

 
VERDICT

A. CHARACTER

It is a symbol of the type of person that Buddhism calls Wisdom of Liberation. That person must be brave, alert at all times, have a critical and reflective attitude. Siddhartha possessed all these qualities, as we see even during his depraved life.

Attitude of watching, watching:

- The first stage of depravity: Although he lived a debauched life, he still had the conscious attitude of a monk: "He saw that people lived in a childish way, like animals, which made him both sympathize and despise. He felt that they were toiling, miserable, and headless because things were not worth anything to him: money, illusory fame, small pleasures. They swear at each other, lament about sufferings that only make a recluse smile, and they suffer because of deprivations that a recluse does not feel."

- Stage Two: "Sometimes he hears in his mind a weak, soft voice, reminding him silently, complaining so quietly that it is difficult for him to hear clearly. Then suddenly he realized that he was just playing a game of cards, that he was having fun, and that he was enjoying pleasure sometimes, but that the real life was going by without touching him." And the image of the Buddha is always in the mind of the Buddha. He said to Kieu Lan: "I will never forget him. Every day thousands of people surround Him, living according to His teachings. But they are just fallen leaves, without wisdom and direction in them."

Siddha's Critical Attitude:

Dear Enlightened One, I don't think anyone finds liberation through instructions. He could not impart to anyone in words what came to him in the moment he attained enlightenment. His instruction teaches a lot: how to live, how to avoid evil. But there is one thing that the teaching does not contain, and that is why he alone has achieved what he has witnessed to become an enlightened being. That is why I had to go my own way, not to find a better theory, because I knew it was impossible, but to give up all theories and teachers, to reach the destination myself – or to die. But I will forever remember this day and this moment, O Enlightened One, when I saw a saint with my own eyes.

Siddhartha, the type of person who lives by emotion rather than reason:

The type of person of Siddhartha is a sensitive type, so in the face of the Buddha, he prefers to admire His posture and compassion rather than listen to what he teaches. An emotionally heavy person like Tat Dat, if he goes to the monastery, will become a mystic, which means that he cannot think abstractly, but must have a specific symbol. They are artists, people who live "to the fullest", so they are easily miserable.

In the work The Ascetic and the Wanderer, Hermann Hesse also let Dan Thanh (equivalent to the character of Tat Dat here) have a dialogue with Huyen Minh (the rational type) as follows.

Dan Qing: How can you think without images?

Huyen Minh: Reflection and imagination are completely different. Reflection is expressed by concepts, formulas, not by images. When the image ends, the philosophy begins. For him, the world is made of images, but for me, it is with ideas. He is a master of the realm of imagination. If you go to the monastery, you will be a mystic, someone who cannot separate thoughts from images. Therefore, he is not a thinker. A mystic is a kind of silent artist, a poet without rhyme, a musician without sound, a painter without brushes.

(Thus, rational orthodox religion considers tantra to be an evil religion, because imagining too much is easy to deviate from the truth, and symbolic images can mislead others – for example, images in a Hindu temple.)

After many years of separation, when she met Dan Thanh again and got to know him better, Huyen Minh confessed:

I used to take art lightly, but now I understand that there are many paths to the truth. Thinking is not the only way, and it is not the best way. Both you and I are trying, and of course we are both imperfect, but art is indeed more bluff than thinking (in the realm of art there is never war).

After Dan Thanh finished carving the statue to give thanks for his enlightenment, he returned to his wandering life, making Huyen Minh miss him and have to reconsider his life. "Thanks to Dan Thanh, his soul became fenced, but also because of Dan Thanh, he became poor and weak. The world in which he lived and considered his home: the world of academia, the monastic life, the ecclesiastical office, the castle of solid thought, all of which had been shaken to the root by Dan Qing. Now the abbot's heart was full of doubts. Of course, in terms of reason and morality, his life is better, more correct, more orderly and more exemplary, it is a life of service, dedication, always striving for light, justice. His life is purer than that of a wandering artist, a woman seducer. But in the eyes of God, what is better than Dan Thanh's life? Are real people born to live a mechanical, moderate life, learn Aristotle and St. Thomas, learn Latin, Greek, extinguish the senses, flee from the world? Isn't man also created with senses and instincts, with bloody shadows and the ability to commit that terrifying and frustrating crime?

These questions swirled in the abbot's mind every time he thought of Dan Thanh. Yes, perhaps living like Dan Thanh is more innocent, more "human", more courageous and even more noble, when immersed in the chaotic reality, engaged in sin to accept the bitter consequences. Perhaps Dan Thanh's work is more difficult, more courageous and more realistic: wandering the heavenly road with torn shoes, playing with the senses to pay the price with suffering. Huyen Minh has looked deeply into your tumultuous life without losing the slightest respect and love. Oh no, ever since the abbot saw the statues made by the artist's bloodstained hands, Huyen Minh knew very well that in the heart of that impulsive man, the man who seduced the woman, there were natural talents full of light and talent.

The artist endures to let people despise him, as in Bui Giang's Rain, he said:

I beg to be crazy for the sake of wisdom,
I am blind to love you The

similarity between the artist and the thinker is that, to the pinnacle of art, the artist is also bound like a thinker who has no words to express the truth. Dan Thanh from Leave the sculpture workshop to wander again, because he sees no painting, no sculpture that can express the flexibility of life. Life is like a mysterious mother who never shows her whole body to us, so Dan Thanh had to die so that the masterpiece of the mother of life will forever be a mystery.

In short, Tat Dat is the type of person who is enlightened, following the Vajrayana path of Tantra. Those who do not have precepts, do not have the power of wisdom, are arrogant, selfish, and have wavering minds, but take the path of wisdom or Vajrayana are very dangerous and easily fall. Therefore, we should not forget that, before entering the depraved life, Siddhartha had practiced asceticism and had very high concentrations, so that he could hold back once he was about to drown in the beauty of life.

is a type of thinker, ascetic, so he likes abstract things. He was the type of person who was heavy on reason. Thien Huu follows the path of teaching according to the faith, as a person who has cultivated many lifetimes, so he knows how to choose how to send his news, and is lucky to meet good knowledge. Although Thien Huu followed the Buddha all his life, when he met the Buddha, he abandoned the Buddha and did not blindly follow his friend. Thien Huu is the type of person who has cultivated many good roots, so he cannot fall, even though he has long understood the truth.

This character symbolizes conscience or Buddha-nature, transcending both emotion and reason. The role of the Guardian is the image of a bodhisattva who lives silently in the middle of life. The boatman is a person who is always on the move, not in any place: not on the shore of life and death, not on the shore of Nirvana, nor in the middle of the stream. The Middle Way, too, is not the middle way, but transcends the extremes.

Wei Su took people from the shore of the enchantment to the wharf, he was the one who quietly instructed Tat Dat how to learn to listen from the river. Tat Dat was also a good student, so when he followed the Vedic History from the river, he realized one thing: not only the river is sacred, but all things are sacred. We can learn the Tao from everywhere: the top of the tree, the leaf... not just the river.

The Guardian has a special ability to listen, in Buddhism it is called reflection, turning the listening back to the mind to listen to the pure nature, listening to the unity, not clinging to any object. Thanks to that listening, people can be liberated.

B. CORE THOUGHTS

Hermann Hesse conveyed his reflections on truth, on life and on liberation through the characters of the Siddha and the Vedas. The core ideas can be summarized as follows:

1) Truth is something that cannot be taught. The sutras do not bring us Nirvana and peace, but we have to experience it ourselves.

2) Every statement implies the opposite: saying "good" implies evil, saying "humility" implies arrogance.

3) Time is not real. Liberation is seeing reality in a holistic, uncircumcised way. In the child, the old man was hidden, and in the birth there was death. Death is the beginning of a new life in a new form. Tat Da said: Time is not real, Thien Huu! I have always acknowledged that. And if time is not real, then the imaginary path that separates this world from the infinite realm, the division of good and evil, happiness from suffering, is also an illusion.

Thien Huu: Why is that?

Tat Dat: "Hey, friend! I am a sinner and you are a sinner. But one day the offender will also attain Nirvana and become a Buddha. The idea of "one day" is just an illusion, just a comparison. No, the potential Buddha (Buddha-nature) is already in the sinner, the future is already in the present. That potential Buddha has to be realized in the other person, in you, in me, in everyone. Good Friend, the world does not slowly advance on the long road to attain perfection. No, it's perfect every moment, every moment. Every sin carries with it a forgiveness, every child is a potential old man, every nursery has already borne death, and in every dying person there is eternal life."

We are used to seeing one dimension, either birth or death, so we suffer. An enlightened person sees the rotation of all things as well as the four seasons, in the cessation of birth and vice versa, as the Manchu Zen master said: "

The spring and the flowers fade away, and the
Dinh of the Forerunner is the most beautiful in the morning.

4) Fears and sorrows are all in time, (that is, one is only afraid when predicting the future, and comparing it with the past) so all the suffering in the world will be overcome when we overcome time, when we defy it (only living in the present with all awareness to see that the concept of "present" is also unreal).

5) What is valuable and true to one person seems to mean nothing to another (Therefore, it is true that we should not impose our thoughts and lifestyle on others).

6) Everything is sacred if we know how to see and listen. Every living being reminds us of eternal truth if we don't cling to it. Do not seek God anywhere, for God is everywhere. The pinnacle of religion as well as of art, is the silence without words. When we stop at something to think that it is God, then we are separated from God (A. Gide).

Without clinging to any symbol, you can see the truth (non-existent). It is our attitude to look more important than the object we see.

Tat Dat said: "To be honest, I don't give nouns or thoughts any importance, I am more interested in things. A man on this river has been my teacher, he is a holy man, for so many years he only believed in the river, not in anything else. The river was like a god to him. For many years he did not know that every wind, every cloud, every bird's body, every insect was equally sacred, and could teach him just as the river did."

7) Loving life is more important than learning and analyzing it. "Now Tat Dat looks at life with a different attitude first: not too wise, not too proud, and therefore more curious and friendly. When he brought across the river the everyday figures, they were no longer as strangers to him as before. Although he had reached a high level of self-awareness and endured his last boil, he now saw that those ordinary people were all his brothers, and that their frivolous dreams were no longer irrational, but had become understandable, pitiful, and admirable."

8) Nouns do not speak the truth.

Tat Dat told Thien Huu: "It seems to me that love is the most important thing in the world. Great thinkers may put a lot of emphasis on understanding the human life of the universe, but I think the only important thing is to love life, not to despise it, not to hate each other, but to look at life and everything with love and respect."

Thien Huu: "But this is what the enlightened one calls delusion. He taught generosity, patience, compassion... but does not teach love. He commands us not to bind ourselves to worldly love."

Tat Dat: "We are confused about nouns and meanings. I do not deny that my word of love is contrary to the instruction of Cu Dam. I despise the noun for the same reason: I know the contradiction is an illusion. Indeed, how can He not know love when He, in spite of the perpetual vanity of the world, is committed all his life to helping and educating people?"

So don't cling to words and turn away from meaning. Nouns cannot describe everything.

9) Man's conscience (or Buddha-nature) always rises when he has the opportunity, no matter how long he wanders in the afflictions of ignorance. It was like an indestructible diamond: Tat Dat's whole life of play did not affect him with an OM when he stood on the brink of the abyss.

C. SYMBOL OF THE RIVER

1) The river symbolizes the flow of time and life. All classical and modern philosophers liken time to flowing water. Confucius, Héraclite, and Henri Bergson all likened time and consciousness to a stream of consciousness. Human life is like a flowing river that never stops, this is the impermanence of life. Because of impermanence, each stage of life is only temporary, unreal: it is selflessness, as well as the river that is not real.

Tat Dat: "The phenomenon wheel is spinning very fast, Thien Huu! Where is the Brahmin Siddha? Where is the Śāṇa? Where is the rich man Tat Dat? What is fake will change."

In the volume Source Rain, poet Bui Giang wrote:

As for human life: The

2) The unity of life: The river is at the same time everywhere, so life is an indivisible whole: life and death, glory, good and bad, gain, loss, joy and sorrow... It's all life.

3) The river is also often used to compare it to the unconscious flow that flows incessantly, occupying an important position as the underground water below, where the aquatic species live.

4) The river always returns: "The water goes to the sea and the rain returns to the source," (Tan Da) life is also cyclical like the four seasons of rotation, so separation is also a coincidence:

Saying that the separation in the future
is the coincidence between the scent of the original spring (
Bui Giang)

The story of the river is first and foremost a work of literature and art, Therefore, any ideological analysis is more or less subjective due to the reader's own assignment. Therefore, those who criticize this book for defaming Buddhism or promoting Buddhism are not aiming for it.