| Siddhartha Gautama
was born around 563 BCE into the kshatriya class in northern
India. Both his birth and life are veiled in mystery and legend. At
his birth, it was predicted that he would be a great king if he did not
view human misery and suffering. If he were to see the unpleasant side
of life, he would become a religious teacher. Eager to have him become a
great ruler, Siddhartha's father surrounded him with luxuries and the
finer things of life. Siddhartha married a beautiful woman, had a son,
and apparently had everything that the good life could offer him. In spite of his
father's efforts to shelter him from the unpleasant aspect of
life (and according to the legends, with some help from the gods), Siddhartha encountered
what became known as the four passing sights: old age, sickness,
death and a monk who had
withdrawn from the world. The first three sights revealed the
suffering that all people experience. The fourth sight, however,
hinted at the possibility that one could transcend suffering. Troubled
by the suffering he had seen and intrigued by the possibility of
overcoming suffering, Siddhartha
decided to follow the path of
the monk to find meaning and purpose in life.
In an act that became known as the "Great Renunciation" Siddhartha
left his family and the privileged life he had known. He spent the
next six years studying various philosophies, but did not find the
answers to the mystery of suffering. He spent six more years as an
ascetic, fasting and meditating, but still failed to find a satisfactory
answer to the mysteries of suffering. Consequently, he chose a middle way between the two
extremes of radical self denial and self indulgence. He decided to
meditate until he became enlightened. Finally, in the midst of
meditation, Siddhartha came to a profound realization of the nature of
reality and the causes of human suffering. He became the Buddha - the
Enlightened One. The truth he
discovered and taught until his death at age 80 became known as the
dharma. |
