Ever since we first started reading Siddhartha , one thing that always stuck out to me was our protagonist's disdain for spiritual teachings. He felt that despite his father and the other Brahmins teaching him all they knew from the Hindu scriptures, "the mind wasn't satisfied, the soul wasn't quiet, the heat wasn't stilled." When he and Govinda go on their pilgrimage to meet the great Gautama, Siddhartha reaffirms what he believes to be true. Although the Buddha is the wisest, most enlightened man he has ever met, Siddhartha refuses to take refuge in his teachings and become a monk, even when his best friend Govinda does. After we first read this chapter in class, I remember many people at my table commented on the "ego" that Siddhartha displayed. "He's just a kid, what wisdom can he find that the Buddha himself couldn't?" And while I do agree that Siddhartha may have initially believed himself to be better than the "child-p