Lessons from Hermann Hesse with David Silver & Raghu Markus – Mindrolling Podcast Ep. 547

OG Mindroller David Silver reunites with Raghu to discuss the themes of consciousness and spirituality that lie at the heart of Hermann Hesse's literary work. This week on Mindrolling, David Silver connects with Raghu over: Inspiration from Hermann Hesse The book Siddhartha and embarking on a spiritual search Descents into decadence and an attachment to the material world Embracing everything that is in front of us Comparing lessons from Ram Dass and Hermann Hesse The inevitability of suffering How World War II likely influenced Hesse’s understanding of suffering and isolation Living on more than one plane of consciousness The book Steppenwolf and Carl Jung’s conceptualization of the shadow Fear and owning up to ourselves Raghu’s experience at the Garchen Buddhist Institute The problem with media and accessing constant information Assuming an altruistic perspective About David Silver: David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. K.C. Tewari—in the guise of a headmaster of a boys school in the foothills of the Himalayas—was secretly a High Yogi, frequently able to go into altered states of trance, known as Samadhi, at any moment. “Hesse’s novels created for me a world that I aspired to but didn’t understand in any way at that time, in the sixties. It just fitted in with the flashes of wisdom that would come with an acid trip.” – David Silver