So you find yourself surrounded by death and horror in the world, and you escape it into lust. But lust has no duration; it leaves you again in the desert.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the transient nature of lust as a temporary escape from the harsh realities of life.
Hermann Hesse's quote delves into the human tendency to seek escape from the grim aspects of existence, such as death and horror, through lustful pursuits. However, he points out that this escape is short-lived, ultimately leaving an individual in a desolate state, akin to a barren desert. The message emphasizes the futility of relying on fleeting pleasures to address deeper life challenges and suggests a need for more substantial forms of fulfillment.
In practice
In a discussion about the consequences of hedonism at a philosophy club meeting.
I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha." He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.
That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged β to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.
I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self. I also will conquer my Self.
You're quite right there," he said. "I have practiced abstinence myself for years, and had my time of fasting, too, but now I find myself once more beneath the sign of Aquarius, a dark and humid constellation.
I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding, and to fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side.
Sports is to war as pornography is to sex. We get to exercise some ancient, ancient drives.
This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.
races condemned to 100 years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.
Human rights is the only ideology that deserves to survive
I hope to see the two great religions, Islam and Christianity, hand-in-hand, embracing each other. Then the Torah and the Bible and the Qurβan will become books supporting one another being read everywhere, and respected by every nation β¦ [I am] looking forward to seeing Muslims read the Torah and the Bible.
The human moral sense can excuse any atrocity in the minds of those who commit it, and it furnishes them with motives for acts of violence that bring them no tangible benefit.
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