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
For six years Siddhartha dedicated himself to his new life He studied with religious teachers He practiced yoga He meditated Still Siddhartha did not reach the enlightenment he desired He joined five ascetics who practiced an extreme form of asceticism The ascetics believed punishing themselves physically would give them peace and wisdom Siddhartha lived without shelter choosing instead to live in the elements He sat in the cold and in the rain spending his waking hours meditating He ate almost nothing The five men were so impressed by Siddhartha’s devotion to his new way of life they became his disciples or followers Siddhartha however was still not satisfied Siddhartha nearly killed himself with his extreme form of asceticism as shown in a modern artist’s interpretation 10
Siddhartha’s asceticism grew so extreme he ate as little as a single pea a day One day a girl offered Siddhartha a bowl of rice When he agreed to take it Siddhartha had an important realization the physical harshness of asceticism was not the way to reach the spiritual goal he desired He needed to embrace life and by taking the rice he did just that Siddhartha’s five followers thought he had given up on living an ascetic life and stopped following him They believed he had chosen extravagance over simplicity However Siddhartha had not given up his quest He realized he needed to turn his journey inward BECOMING BUDDHA Siddhartha bathed in a river and then took shelter beneath the Bodhi tree a sacred fig tree He decided he would not leave the spot until he achieved enlightenment He meditated He saw his current life and previous lives Siddhartha considered the entire universe At last answers emerged to the many questions about suffering he had spent years asking Reincarnation Buddhists believe in samsara or transmigration which many people call reincarnation The belief comes from Hinduism Buddhists and Hindus believe the soul lives on after death and takes on the form of another body Samsara is the cycle of birth life death and rebirth The soul continues to be reborn with each birth affected by the soul’s karma or good or bad conduct in the previous life When the soul achieves nirvana or salvation it has no desires and has achieved a state of passivity Nirvana releases the soul from samsara The state of nirvana is eternal endless and free of karma 11
