Happiness and the Good Life for Siddhartha Essay Example

this decision because he is pursing what Taylor calls “Creative Intelligence” (“Happiness”). Siddhartha is deciding to make his own path and find salvation himself instead of trying to learn it from a teacher like so many people do. This takes Siddhartha to the city where he will spend the next several decades of his life experiencing the pleasures of love with Kamala and wealth as a merchant.

Right after Siddhartha has just taken a giant step in the right direction by deciding to go out on his own, he slips back into the trap of worldly desires. Siddhartha makes the two of the biggest mistakes that Taylor points out: confusing happiness with pleasure and possessions. According to Taylor the problem with pleasure and possessions is that they can be bought and acquired while happiness has to be achieved. After about twenty years Siddhartha begins to realize this as well and becomes so depressed that he attempts suicide.

Siddhartha is saved though and he begins his life along the river with Vasudeva the ferryman. Vasudeva is the most important person in Siddhartha’s life. With Vasudeva’s help Siddhartha is able to reach enlightenment by listening to the river. What is more important, however, is that Siddhartha is finally happy. Siddhartha is happy because he has that “kind of fulfillment” that Taylor said is the key to happiness. The good life for Siddhartha was happiness.

Nothing else would bring him as much joy or happiness as becoming as wise as Gotama the Buddha or the Vasudeva the ferryman. Taylor said in “Happiness” that “Happiness…is quite rare and is always the fruit of choice and effort exercised over a long period of

time. ” Siddhartha can relate to this because after struggling most of his life searching for knowledge and happiness he is finally at peace by the end his journey as he shows by quietly smiling to Govinda just as Gotama had smiled to Siddhartha several years before.