Narrative Inspired By The Life Of Buddha

Narrative Inspired by the Life of Buddha

Every one of his age were aware of the way life worked, in life there are hardships, moments of accomplishments and even defeat, it is the same for everyone. There was this child who was spoiled by luxuries since birth, his parents never wanted him to experience the real world and wanted to keep him safe and sane inside the walls, not realising that they were trapping him. The child grew up within these walls and boundaries that his parents created for him, he was given all the luxuries of life, gifts and good food. As children, I am sure all of us were lucky enough to grow up outside the walls and boundaries; learning new things everyday and gradually learning to accept the way life is supposed to be.

But this child was living a false dream, what did he do to deserve this? His parents wanted the best for him, but that was wrong, real life was unreal for him…

Children often get tired playing with the same toys every day, he however, was tired of his lifestyle and all the luxuries given to him every single day, the life he lived was meaningless; he felt dull, empty, depressed and his very existence had no purpose.

The walls and boundaries that we live in keep us protected from the outside world, but for him the walls had a negative effect, he grew up inside the walls not knowing anything of the life outside.

His frustration with life grows and one fine day he finally decides to sneak out of the palace, to see what’s outside, to experience and see things that he was protected from the very beginning. The moment he steps outside all he sees is pain and suffering everywhere, everything seems so overwhelming for him, he questions the meaning of life, his knees feel weak, his head dizzy and all the sights around him send a chill to his spine. He was not used to all this; he deserved a life like everyone else, he could have lived a life like everyone else.

After returning back to his palace he started questioning his very existence and wanted to blame his father for all the riches that had spoiled him and he decides to run away; he gives up everything he had; starts living in the streets, starves himself and lives like a beggar. After a few years: he comes to a realisation that suffering without any purpose is meaningless just like the rest of his life. Half of his life that he had lived had no purpose, he wanted to do something great in his life; maybe even inspire and change the lives of the people. On the side of the river he finds a tree where he decides to meditate until he finds his true purpose, he meditates for days, barely moving and eating anything.

After meditating he finally achieves his final goal, he finds himself a lot of profound realisations, he even achieves what we call “Nirvana” or enlightenment. He shares his knowledge with the rest of the world and most of his philosophies are still powerful to this day and age and specially back then it was a very big deal. His teachings later came to be known as Buddhism. The message he spread had a very powerful impact, people started getting along with each other, the overall goal was to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion.

He finally breaks his shell: he evolves from an egg to a roaring eagle and continues to build an everlasting community all across the world, his teachings unite people and create a strong community that still continues to thrive and follows good practices. However, the majority of his followers think of Buddhism as a religion, I believe that it is a strong philosophy that sends us all a very powerful message and creates a community where everyone is a family.

It was a brave move, a move that continues to spread kindness, he had finally conquered his fears and broken the shell of doubt and insecurities. He finally got rid of the meaningless life he was living, the walls that hid the outside world from him were finally broken. Sometimes the walls that are meant to keep us safe, hinder our growth and blind us from knowing the truth and enjoying the journey itself. I believe in this one life; risks should be taken and the walls that are meant to keep us safe can be harmful if it completely blocks the view of the outside world from us. The boundaries around us should be climbed if it tries to hinder the experience of life that we deserve to experience.

In interior architecture similarly, the outside world plays a very crucial role and in our modern day and age. We are very fortunate to achieve progress and the all the technological advancements that make our day to day life easier. But it should not disconnect us from our nature and our social life, that walls are created by us to keep us safe but always playing it safe is not worth it or is it.