Setting foot outside the
security and comfort of the palace, he was staggered by the sight in
front of him. Unlike the healthy and beautiful
courtiers and servants he has grown accustomed to seeing in the royal
household, the streets were filled with the destitute, maimed and sickly – and
most importantly, death, which was a foreign concept to him. His escort
explained to him that this was a common scene and part of life in the
real world.
Siddhartha then saw a sage and was baffled by the serenity on the man’s
face. His escort told him the sage had renounced all materialistic possessions
and thus, he was content and at ease. This left a permanent mark on the
psyche of the young prince, and a few nights later, just short of his
thirtieth naming day, he bid farewell to his wife and children and began
his journey to attain the meaning of life.
He travelled from place to place, cities, towns, and villages, never
doubting the eventual success of his quest. Along the way, he began to
perform heavy penances on himself. It eventually reached a stage where
his body began to break down from the self-inflicted strain.
Siddhartha eventually took a rest underneath a Bodhi tree and began to
meditate. By then, the 35 year old man begun to question himself, and
the path that he has chosen.
Suddenly, amidst the soul searching and self-doubt, he achieved enlightenment,
and from then henceforth, he was call Gautama Buddha, or, The Enlightened
One.
His first sermon was conducted in Benares, in a little village called
Sarnath and his last sermon was performed in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh,
where he was laid to rest soon after at the age of eighty.
The Philosophy
Gautama Buddha abandoned the Vedic Brahmanical classification, which
divided a community into ironclad castes and further separate the people
from each other based on their social standing. He vehemently opposed
elaborate rituals, blood sacrifices and idol worship. According to his
dogma, the existence of The Lord God is irrelevant. He placed focus on
self-effort to attain salvation and achieve deliverance. He believed
that the soul is immortal and the successful attainment of Nirvana, a
state where the soul has exited the material plane, is the principal
objective of each human.
Four Noble Truths
Gautama Buddha constructed The Four Noble Truths that forms the basis
of Buddhism
• Life is full of dukkha (suffering)
• Suffering is due to material desires
• Freedom from suffering can be attained from removing lust and
craving
• Removing lust and craving can be achieved by heeding the Eight-Fold
Trail.
Eight-Fold Trail
The way to remove your lusts and cravings, and to break free from the
cycle of Samsara (birth and death) is by following the Eight-Fold Trail,
which consists of:
• Right understanding,
•
Right target,
•
Right speech,
•
Right action,
•
Right livelihood,
•
Right effort,
•
Right awareness,
•
Right concentration
By successfully following the above and adopting it into one’s
daily live, one can achieve Nirvana or deliverance, exiting the agony
of Samsara.
Legacy
During the lifetime of Gautama Buddha, a sizeable number of people became
his proponents, as his messages struck a chord with the less fortunate
and the idealist. Buddhism became the official religion of several Kingdoms,
including the great Mauryan dynasty under the legendary warrior King
Ashoka. The spread and influence of Buddhism in Eastern and Southern
Asia can be credited directly to King Ashoka, as he was a fanatic advocate
of the religion and was responsible for the construction of over 80,000
stupas (a spiritual monument) in the region, as well as encouraging the
conversion of his conquered subjects. The people of these lands has remain
steadfast in the faith in Buddhism until this day
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