Student Question

Interpret Siddhartha's statement in chapter 12 about needing sin to understand the world's perfection. How does it relate to everyone's life?

Quick answer:

Siddhartha's statement suggests that understanding the world's perfection requires experiencing its imperfections, such as sin. This reflects the idea that one can only truly appreciate goodness after encountering negativity, akin to the yin and yang philosophy where opposites are interconnected. This concept applies universally, as everyone experiences varying degrees of joy and sorrow. However, the depth of appreciation for happiness might be greater for those who have faced profound sadness or adversity.

Expert Answers

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In this quotation, I think Hesse is saying that to really love and appreciate the world, in all its perfection, one needs first to experience the most "shameful" aspects of life, such as "the desire for possessions" and "vanity." The implication is that only by experiencing the bad can one really appreciate how good the good is. One might argue that, in much the same way, one can only really appreciate happiness if one has first experienced sadness, and that the greater the degree of the sadness, the greater appreciation one will be able to have for the happiness.

This idea is reminiscent of the concept of yin and yang in Chinese philosophy, in which all opposite forces are interconnected and interdependent. In other words, happiness and sadness, or hope and despair, or ignorance and enlightenment, are all interconnected and interdependent. One cannot really be happy without sadness, hopeful without despair, or enlightened without ignorance.

I think this sentiment pertains to all people because I suspect all people have experienced degrees of happiness and degrees of sadness. Perhaps the sentiment only pertains in its fullest sense, however, to those who have experienced severe degrees of sadness. Perhaps is is only those who have, as it were, hit "rock bottom" who are capable of appreciating (to continue the metaphor) the awesome beauty at the mountain's peak.

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