Among the Samanas
When the purified and pondering mind is absorbed in Atman, The bliss of the heart cannot be stated in words.
He killed his senses, he killed his memory, he slipped from his ego into a thousand different formations. He was animal, was carcass, was rock, was wood, was water, and he always found himself again upon awakening. Sun was shining or moon, he was self again, swinging in the cycle, felt thirst, overcame thirst, felt new thirst.
Siddhartha learned much among the samanas, he learned to follow many paths away from his ego. He followed the path of unselfing through pain, through the voluntary suffering and overcoming of pain, of hunger, of thirst, of fatigue. He followed the path of unselfing thorugh meditation, through thinking till the mind was empty of all notions… But though the paths led away from the ego, in the end they always led back to the ego.
“What do you think, Govinda,” Siddartha once said during their begging, “what do you think? Have we made progress? Have we reached goals?”
Govinda replied: “We have learned, and we are learning more. You will become a great samana, Siddhartha. You have learned every exercise quickly, the old samanas often admire you. Someday you will become a saint, O Siddhartha.”
“What is meditation? What is abandonment of the body? What is fasting? What is holding of the breath? It is flight from the ego, it is a brief breakout from the torture of ego, it is a brief numbing of pain and of the senselessness of life. The same flight, the same brief numbing is found by the ox driver at the inn when he drinks a few cups of rice wine or fermented coconut milk… Asleep over his cup of rice wine, he finds what Siddhartha and Govinda find when they slip away from their bodies after long exercises and linger in the nonself. That is the way it is, O Govinda.”
