THE BIRTH OF BUDDHISM Siddhartha Gautama seemed to have everything anyone could possibly need His father was King Suddhodana a member of ancient India’s warrior class Siddhartha lived in approximately the 500s BCE in Kapilavastu located at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains in an area that is now Nepal Siddhartha Gautama later known as the Buddha founded Buddhism and was a pivotal figure in ancient Indian history CHAPTER 1 7
The king wanted to protect his son from the woes of the world Siddhartha grew up in a lavish palace and had everything he could possibly need or want The king kept Siddhartha from learning about the troubles of life He did not introduce Siddhartha to religion The king married Siddhartha to a cousin at age 16 Siddhartha led a mostly secluded life That changed in his late 20s One day the young man traveled beyond his palace walls for the first time He saw a sick man The young prince had never seen a sick person before and asked his chariot driver about the man The driver explained that everyone gets sick Intrigued by Early Buddhism avoided using images of the Buddha but later followers across Asia created artwork depicting the Buddha
what he had seen the prince made three more trips to the world beyond his palace walls Each time he saw more scenes of suffering He also saw death These scenes were foreign to Siddhartha His chariot driver explained that people get old and everyone faces death Siddhartha realized this was his fate too Siddhartha also saw an ascetic someone who lived very simply and strictly avoiding physical pleasure in an attempt to achieve spiritual enlightenment The chariot driver told Siddhartha the ascetic had given up the physical pleasures of the world including food possessions and physical contact in an effort to overcome the fear of suffering and death that humans often experience What Siddhartha experienced on his trips beyond his life of comfort affected him greatly Siddhartha chose to adopt the ascetic lifestyle At age 29 the young prince walked away from his father his beautiful home and his wife and their son Siddhartha explained the drastic change I had been wounded by the enjoyment of the world and I had come out longing to obtain peace 1 There are countless stories of the Buddha Each tradition each culture each time period has their own stories We have lots of visual narratives and artwork from all over Buddhist Asia But the first written material actually the first biography say of the Buddha really we don’t see that before about 500 years after his death For the first few centuries Buddhist narrative was oral 2 D Max Moerman Buddha scholar 9
