It is stated that Budhism was born in Sarnath which is near Varanasi city in the country of India. There were not many followers then and only 5 were present at the time of its birth. From that point, Budhism started spreading far and wide to many lands and as of today, there are over 600 million followers of Budhism. Through the use of universal love and compassion as the only weapon, the dhammadutas spread the dhamma to many parts in India and the world with no disturbance of the religions that already existed.
The founder of budhism the budha is believed to have lived some 2,500 years ago and is well known as Siddhattha Gotama. Suddhodana was his father and was the king of Kshatriya where he ruled over the lands of Sakyans at Kapilavatthu on the frontiers of Nepal.
As human beings we lack interest in complexity, in result we turn to simply accepting life as it without questioning the deeper meaning within it. Saddhartha Gautama was born a prince among a clang of warriors. Tales say that he was destined to be ruler or a spiritual leader. His father wanted him to be king and in result he comforted him with all the riches hid his son from seeing all the suffering the people of the earth faced. In fear of losing him he prevented him from seeing anything that might distort the image of the perfect world he had carefully crafted within his son’s mind.
However, as the prince grew older he had his first visit to city where he had three encounters, death, old age and illness. Only to learn that all human beings have to face this in the cycle of life. While driving one time at the royal gardens with his personal driver known as a charioteer then named Channa, he saw a very old man who was very weak and looked close to his death. He cried to him for help to reach his house so he doesn’t die on the way. He also had an encounter with a man who was smitten from pest and he looked very weak his body was just a skeleton looking human being due to suffering. Another encounter was with kinsmen lamenting and grieving of the death of their loved one who they carried to the cremation site. Those are signs that really moved his feelings.
This is the moment at which the prince began to crave knowledge and understanding of life as a whole, his curiosity drove him to want to gain the deeper meaning of this continuous cycle we call life. He desired to know and comprehend why is it in this cycle of life humans have to suffer.
My first impression of the prince was that his conceptualization of life was rather primitive and naïve but he was not to blame for his lack of knowledge on life as for he was purposely brought up that way by his father. However, gradually my impression of him changed, as the prince began to change as a person I began to see him as daring and focused. His determination and efforts to finding the answers to the problems that challenged his mind and inner peace was moving. He left his family behind and chose a life of poverty and spirituality over a life of wealth and power hoping to discover the true way out of suffering. This made him shave off his hair, dressed up in torn bad looking clothes and went to live alone in the woods so he could really understand the real life experience (Thera13).
If given a scenario where Buddha was a roommate of mine and he gracefully shared all his thoughts and complaints on death, illness and old age. I would take time to listen to him, try to understand what he sees or is trying to comprehend from his point of view. This way it will make it easier for me to share my thoughts and views on the three matters that seem to challenge his mind and hopefully learn from each other.
However, I would not respond to him as I would with a normal roommate because i cannot compare a man like him to a roommate. If the prince was to be alive today, I would consider his attitudes to be remarkably admirable and ambitious because through his struggle of trying to grasp the idea of life he was able to conclude that in life everything is connected, life is continuous even after death. His attitudes and beliefs are what awakened the path to his journey of becoming Buddha, with his teachings revealing the beauties and evils of life today.
Manimekhalia can also be considered as an attractive hero because just like Buddha she is also a teacher of life but in different nature as for she has gone to the extent of using creativity to spread theses teachings we all encounter in life as humans. She has achieved this through her poetry, films and documentaries. Her form of sharing wisdom is more attractive in today’s society which makes it easier for one to quickly grasp and relate.
Work Cited
Thera, Piyadassi. The Buddha His Life and Teaching.Buddhist Publication Society (1982): 13-20. Print.
