The Life of a Buddha

There are times in life that we all wish we could make the world stop spinning, change our course of action, and live an entirely new life. While sitting in class yesterday we discussed a few different ideas of how people should live their lives. One prince, Siddhartha Gautama, did in fact completley turn his life around and when he was finished becoming the person he sought out to be, he attempted to help others change their own.

Siddhartha Gautama was born into royalty and just a few days after birth his entire world was decided by one holy man. This man proposed two different paths that Siddhartha's life could take him. The first one being a great military conqueror and the second being a great spiritual leader. His father quickly decided on the first option and placed him in a palace where he would live a life of luxury and never experience the "real" world.

When the Prince became old enough to realize that there was a life outside of beauty and riches, he left to experience what was beyond the walls that confined him. What he found amongst his very own city was old age, sickness, and death. These realizations of the world that he had been taken from created an unsettling emotion inside of him.

He cut his hair, changed his clothes, and began a quest of enlightenment soon after he realized the life of the rich was not for him. Along his journey he first attempted the polar opposite of his earlier life, physical discipline and pain. He quickly realized that there must be a place in the middle of these two extremes.

As he settled into meditation underneath what is now known as the Bodhi Tree, his mind fought battles with the demon of destruction. He refused to let his guards down and in the end became one with the land. After his defeat of the demon he realized that he had found englightenment and became a Buddha.

After this change, he was reluctant to teach the people around him what he now knew. This was because he was positive that they would not understand his method nor would they comprehend what he was truly trying to teach them. When compassion overcame him he preached his first sermon, which focused on the four noble truths:

1. The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4. The truth of that path that frees us from suffering (magga)

http://buddhism.about.com/od/thefournobletruths/a/fournobletruths.htm

After this sermon, Siddhartha Gautama became an inspiring teacher with hundreds of followers eager to become enlightened themselves. Before his death at age eighty his final words to his followers were:

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

http://buddhism.about.com/od/lifeofthebuddha/a/buddhalife.htm

The prince, Siddhartha Gautama, was just one of many men to provide the people with their ideas on how life should be lived. Even though each idea had several different aspects, they were all extremely important to the people of that time. Their ideas were not kept to themselves or to the royalty, but instead brought out to the people, with teachers and sermon's, to help them come together and to become better as a whole.