Section V: Guided By Others toward Wisdom
The interactions that Socrates and Siddhartha confronted along their journeys tremendously impacted their lives. They each learned vastly from these interactions about how to find what is true in life. They lead both characters to a life of sacrifice for what they believe to be true. With Socrates searching for what is true and good he was able to do so by the wisdom he learned through his experience and conversations with others. These conversations ultimately lead him to a life that was sacrificed for truth and goodness. In similar ways to Siddhartha, Socrates learned how others were living life immorally, and how they are pretending to have wisdom, when they really have none at all. He learned…show more content… He moved through life with constant questions for himself. His connections with others also taught him the ways he should live by allowing him to continue his search. Ultimately, he sacrificed his life by renouncing his previous life as a prince in an exchange for enlightenment.
During Siddhartha’s awakening he gained wisdom about the truth in the world through each of these interactions. He began by learning from the Samanas, where he realized that he did not need to experience suffering in order to become enlightened. Govinda spoke to him and said, “Siddhartha, you have learned more from the Samanas than I was aware. It is difficult, very difficult to hypnotize an old Samana” (Hesse 19). This demonstrated that the Samanas, too where learning from Siddhartha in return. This allowed him to gain wisdom through a place of disappointment because he knew he needed to keep searching. Gotama’s guidance eventually allowed him to see that the only way for him to fully achieve his own enlightenment was to look inside the self. He knew he must attain the wisdom through personal experiences rather than any direct teachings from the Buddha; yet another great disappointment. Shortly, he moved on to experience