The Philosophy of Inner Peace (Hermann Hesse)

[Music] i believe that i am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life but that i am responsible for what i do with the life i've got when someone is seeking said siddhartha it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking that he is unable to find anything unable to absorb anything because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking because he has a goal because he is obsessed with his goal seeking means to have a goal but finding means to be free to be receptive to have

no goal you a worthy one are perhaps indeed a seeker for in striving towards your goal you do not see many things that are under your nose i have always believed and i still believe that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value [Music] it may be important to great thinkers to examine the world to examine and despise it but i think it is only important to love the world not to despise it not for us to hate each other but to

be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love admiration and respect most people are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air flutters and falls to the ground but a few others are like stars which travel one defined path no wind reaches them they have within themselves their guide and path every man is more than just himself he also represents the unique the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect only once in this way and never again that is why every man's

story is important eternal sacred that is why every man as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature is wondrous and worthy of consideration in each individual the spirit has become flesh in each man the creation suffers within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest if you hate a person you hate something in him that is part of yourself what isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us [Music] to hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping to smile without hostility at

people and institutions to compensate for the shortage of loving the world with more love in small private matters to be more faithful in our work to show greater patience to forego the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism all these are things we can do [Music] there is no reality except the one contained within us that is why so many people live such an unreal life they take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself [Music] words do not express thoughts very well they always become a little

different immediately after they are expressed a little distorted a little foolish [Music] what could i say to you that would be a value except that perhaps you seek too much that as a result of your seeking you cannot find i have been and still am a seeker but i have ceased to question stars and books i have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go i began to understand that suffering and disappointments in melancholy are there not to

vex us or cheapen us or deprive us from our dignity but to mature and transfigure us wisdom cannot be imparted wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom one can find it live it do wonders through it but one cannot communicate and teach it oh love isn't there to make us happy i believe it exists to show us how much we can endure those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey laws others sense

their own laws within them [Music] often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them i learned through my body and soul that it was necessary to sin that i needed lust that i had to strive for property and experience nausea in the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them in order to learn to love the world and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary version of perfection but to leave it as it is to love it and be glad to belong to it

each man had only one genuine vocation to find the way to himself his task was to discover his own destiny not an arbitrary one and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself everything else was only a would-be existence an attempt to division a flight back to the ideals of the masses conformity and fear of one's own inwardness [Music] it is not for me to judge another man's life i must judge i must choose i must spurn purely for myself for myself alone [Music] we are sun and moon dear friend we are sea and

land it is not our purpose to become each other it is to recognize each other to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is each the other's opposite and compliment youth ends when egotism does maturity begins when one lives for others whoever wants music instead of noise joy instead of pleasure soul instead of gold creative work instead of business passion instead of foolery finds no home in this trivial world of ours trees have always been the most penetrating preachers i revere them when they live in tribes and families in forests and

groves and even more i revere them when they stand alone they are like lonely persons not like hermits who have stolen a way out of some weakness but like great solitary men like beethoven and nietzsche in their highest boughs the world rustles their roots rest in infinity but they do not lose themselves there they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only to fulfill themselves according to their own laws to build up their own form to represent themselves nothing is holier nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful strong tree when a

tree is cut down and reveals its naked death wound to the sun one can read its whole history in the luminous inscribed disc of its trunk in the rings of its ears its scars all the struggle or the suffering or the sickness all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written the narrow years and the luxurious years the attacks within the storms endured and every young farm boy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible the strongest the ideal trees grow trees

are sanctuary whoever knows how to speak to them whoever knows how to listen to them can learn the truth they do not preach learning and precepts they preach undeterred by particulars the ancient law of life a tree says a kernel is hidden in me a spark a thought i am life from eternal life the attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique unique the form and veins of my skin unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark i was made the eternal in

my smallest special detail [Music] you