Buddhism A Life Of Life - 1786 Words

Buddhism arose from its founder Siddhartha Gautama, or better known as Buddha. He was born into a life of luxury, as rightfully so a Prince should be. Born in Nepal, in 563 BCE Siddhartha grew up in a world in which all his desires and wants were fulfilled. His father had demanded that he live a life of seclusion from all of the world’s anguish. When Siddhartha was first born a fortune teller came, upon his father’s request, to tell of the boy’s future. They inform his father that, â€Å"if he succeeded his father he would unify India and become a world conqueror, and if he forsook the world he would become a world redeemer† (Smith, PG 60). To ensure that he followed the correct destiny his father went to great lengths to provide him with the†¦show more content†¦He said goodbye to both his wife and son and set off into the forest. Where â€Å"he discarded his royal attire, shaved his head, and entered into the forest to seek enlightenment† (Smith, PG 60). His quest for Enlightenment leads Siddhartha on a six year Journey that was broken in three separate phases. The first phase began with learning the tradition from two of the foremost Hindu masters of that period. The second phases were to join a band of ascetics and try to see how living their lifestyle was truthfully like. Buddha excelled at this way of living and often surpassed his teachers, bringing himself to near death numerous times. If it were not for his teachers stepping in to rescue him, Buddha would have died from starvation. Buddha made the final phase dedicated to strenuous thought and mystic awareness through the passageway of Hinduism’s Raja yoga. During the final stage Siddhartha sat under what would become known as the Bo Tree and had sworn to not rise until he had been enlightened. Mara, the chief of all demons, made his best attempts to try and break Siddhartha’s concentration. First by luring him with beautiful women, followed by throwing flaming rocks. Siddhartha did not detour from his meditation and in fact even reached a deeper level until The Great Awakening had arrived. At that moment