A book some of us found helpful during the 1960s, during the formation of our social and personal identities was Hermann Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha. Like Siddhartha we wanted to solve the riddle of self, that is, “Who am I, intrinsically?” the answer of which might help us to realize who we actually are and aid us, positively, throughout our adult life with its many changes, eventually, facing our death in some hospital bed or in a chair.
The who-am-I-intrinsically question, is about identity formation—finding out who we truly are; having looked deeper within, going beyond ordinary personal identity.
I can remember as a teenager going through high school with identity formation at the back of my mind. I came to learn much later that it was the psychoanalytic writer Erik H. Erikson who seriously delved into the subject of identity formation during adolescence where we stand between childhood and adulthood. Biologically, we change and become sexual entering into the world of Darwinian fitness with all its responsibilities, but we also come to have an intellectual process which can be productive or counterproductive. We realize, in addition, that in a very short period of time we have to meet societal expectations displaying adult behavior. This period of tremendous change was Erikson’s fifth stage, Identity vs. Role Confusion (ages 12 to 20).
A lot has been said about this stage. It has also been used as a launching point for “identity politics” adding more confusion to Erikson’s thought—even altering its context, dramatically.
But going back to Hesse’s novel and with it also Buddhism, both Siddhartha’s were in a quest for true identity which is beyond doctrines and teachings, none of which contains the direct mystical experience of enlightenment. Minus this kind of identity, we are left with a life of role confusion which is an insecure, somewhat unstable identity. It might consist of confusion as to sexual orientation or reliance on various kinds of political/ideological oriented groups or even reliance on religious groups which. All this leaves behind a path of personal discovery seeking authentic identity which concerned both Siddharthas.
For Buddhism, the matter of identity goes much deeper than anything in Erikson’s world of thought. I tend to think that Identity vs. Role Confusion is an ever present burden that many in later years still carry in which it is difficult to distinguish between identity and role. The latter is more of a persona, i.e., a kind of social mask that the wearer projects and may even forget to take off after many years.
For those in the ages between 12 to 20, reading Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, is not a bad idea. But no book or teaching contains the secret of Zen which Siddhartha experienced under the Bodhi Tree.
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