Siddhartha meets Vasudeva the ferryman. He sees in Vasudeva a quality of peace that he associates with enlightenment. Vasudeva embodies that which Siddhartha has been looking for since he was a boy. His materialistic existence momentarily comes back to haunt him when Kamala approaches Siddhartha with their son. Kamala dies, leaving the son with Siddhartha. The son is a great disappointment who steals Siddhartha's money. Siddhartha has no choice or inclination to do anything else but live the rest of his years on the river, learning lessons from the day-to-day existence of a ferryman. Encounters with the immediacy of nature help Siddhartha cultivate the Zen mind that has come to represent the essence of true Buddhist philosophy.

Siddhartha more than anything represents the sprit of Buddhism. Buddhism is ill defined as a religion. A religion is that which Siddhartha was running from: a set of social and religious rituals reinforced...
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