From a Samana to a Merchant

In the chapter "Among the People" Siddhartha completes his transformation from an ascetic to a merchant tat lives in the real world. I thought the topic of "Self" is very important in this chapter. Although Siddhartha changes his way of life and his profession, he continues to be the same person, and keeps his "self".

At the beginning, the change is a bit awkward because the people in his old way of life, and people in his new way of life have very different ways of seeing the world. This is shown on page 68: "I am without possessions, said Siddhartha, if this is what you mean. Surely, I am without possessions. But I am so voluntarily, and therefore I am not destitute. But what are you planning to live of, being without possessions? I haven’t thought of this yet, sir. For more than three years, I have been without possessions, and have never thought about of what I should live. So you’ve lived of the possessions of others. Presumable this is how it is. After all, a merchant also lives of what other people own." The merchant fails to understand the ascetic, spiritual way of living. Later on, Siddhartha grows accustomed to the material way of living, and has great success as a merchant.

As Siddhartha becomes a merchant, he does not change his self. He doesn't become greedy nor selfish nor impatient: traits that are highlighted in Kamaswami. He remains patient, humble and careless. At some point, Kamaswami reproaches Siddhartha because he misses a harvest, however, in Siddhartha's eyes, he did not waste the trip. He says he  enjoyed it, and met a lot of new people, so it was worth his while although no profit was made. He also says that Kamaswami should learn to think, and that Siddhartha should be his teacher. I also think Kamaswami should learn to be more calm, and if he did he would be more successful. They both have a lot to learn about eachother. From my point of view (as a materialistic person) I understand why some of the people would be amazed at someone as stressless and as equanimous as Siddhartha. Because he was so open and calm, a lot of people came to him to get advice, or to impress him.

I don't like Siddhartha in the real world. I hope in the next chapters, he will find the real world as empty as he found all of the previous teachings he got, and move on to a different scenery. Here's hoping for abstract Siddharta.