Landscape vs. Siddhartha - Derek Bryant

The book "Siddhartha" is a novel that follows the life of Siddhartha Gautama and how he came to be enlightened. In Lane's "Landscapes of the Sacred" he looks at how landscape in and of itself can effect someone in a spiritual way. There are signs of this in the book "Siddhartha." In the beginning as a child, Siddhartha's father shelters him in the castle and does not let him outside and shows him nothing of pain or suffering. The castle, the landscape, serves literally as a wall to shelter the mind of Siddhartha from seeing the truth. The lush and lavish lifestyle within the castle creates this false image of life. And had Siddhartha stayed there he would have learned nothing. In his second stage when he and his friend Govinda go out into the wilderness to learn from the Buddha who lived out there. In the woods Siddhartha learned what a simple life was like and how nature was. But he does not find enlightenment. So Siddhartha moves on and indulges in pleasure with his lover Samsara. And again the environment and surroundings only amplify the way of life he was living. A once again lavish living, but aware of the sufferings that can occur around him. Finally he retreats to the riverbank under a tree. And once he has seen all facets of life and the landscape with it he can understand life from all sides and reaches his enlightenment.