Thursday, October 2, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Sidharth Gautum Buddha Early life..
The
Buddha, or "enlightened one," was born Siddhartha (which means
"he who achieves his aim") Gautama, a prince in India in the 6th
century B.C. His father was a king who ruled an Indian tribe called the
Shakyas. His mother died seven days after giving birth to him, but a holy man
prophesized great things for the young Siddhartha: He would either be a great
king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. To keep his
son from witnessing the miseries and suffering of the world, Siddhartha's
father raised him in opulence in a palace built just for the boy and sheltered
him from knowledge of religion and human hardship. According to custom, he
married at the age of 16, but his life of total seclusion continued for another
13 years.
Beyond
the Palace Walls
The
prince reached his late 20s with little experience of the world outside the
walls of his opulent palaces, but one day he ventured out beyond the palace
walls and was quickly confronted with the realities of human frailty: He saw a
very old man, and Siddhartha's charioteer explained that all people grow old.
Questions about all he had not experienced led him to take more journeys of
exploration, and on these subsequent trips he encountered a diseased man, a
decaying corpse and an ascetic. The charioteer explained that the ascetic had
renounced the world to seek release from the human fear of death and suffering.
Siddhartha was overcome by these sights, and the next day, at age 29, he left
his kingdom, wife and son to lead an ascetic life, and determine a way to
relieve the universal suffering that he now understood to be one of the
defining traits of humanity.
The
Ascetic Life and Enlightenment
For
the next six years, Siddhartha lived an ascetic life and partook in its
practices, studying and meditating using the words of various religious
teachers as his guide. He practiced his new way of life with a group of five
ascetics, and his dedication to his quest was so stunning that the five
ascetics became Siddhartha's followers. When answers to his questions did not
appear, however, he redoubled his efforts, enduring pain, fasting nearly to
starvation, and refusing water.
Whatever
he tried, Siddhartha could not reach the level of satisfaction he sought, until
one day when a young girl offered him a bowl of rice. As he accepted it, he
suddenly realized that corporeal austerity was not the means to achieve inner
liberation, and that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping
him achieve spiritual release. So he had his rice, drank water and bathed in
the river. The five ascetics decided that Siddhartha had given up the ascetic
life and would now follow the ways of the flesh, and they promptly left him.
From then on, however, Siddhartha encouraged people to follow a path of balance
instead of one characterized by extremism. He called this path the Middle Way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)