Suffering from the Siddharta syndrome modern urban man confronts his prospects: secure with wife, child, house and car. Serenity is what we strive for; survival what we settle on suspended somewhere between the two with a confusing backdrop of various cultural influences we invariably, ultimately settle for survival: perhaps because it is physically comfortable perhaps because serenity doesn’t come so easily nowadays perhaps serenity as a panacea (as the Gautama would be the first to admit) is rejected doctrine today: however, the eye is not blinded when the eyelid falls; in any case, when crawling through the great doughnut of existence, those who do find it do not suffer the Siddharta syndrome. The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC