Prince Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha

Approximately 2,500 years ago in a kingdom in Northern India, a prince was born. His name was Siddhartha Gautama. In the future, Siddhartha is going to become the Buddha. The name “Buddha” is given to someone who is “enlightened” or “awoken”. When he was born, his parents believed that he was going to be something special. They decide to ask an astrologer to consult the stars to see what will happen in the future. The astrologer gives the king and queen two outcomes- Siddhartha will either become the strong ruler of the kingdom like his father, or a holy man with no power. Siddhartha’s father of course wanted him to become the ruler of the kingdom like him, so he decided that he would try to prevent Siddhartha from becoming interested in the life of a holy man. To do this, he orders that all proof of suffering is to be hidden from Siddhartha; which includes old age, illness, and death. This way, he would be totally oblivious to all pain and suffering experienced by humans.

That is indeed what happened for a long time. Siddhartha grew up living a life of luxury in the kingdom. He ended up getting married and having a child, without ever meeting any of his people living outside of the palace. However, not all went as planned for the king- Siddhartha developed a growing curiosity that couldn’t hold him back from leaving the palace. Eventually, Siddhartha convinces his chariot driver and friend, Channa, to take him out of the palace against his father’s will; so that he can see the city surrounding the palace for the first time of his life at the age of 29. This is where Siddhartha first encounters suffering.

Siddhartha saw four specific important things for the first time in his city that changed his direction in life. Firstly, he saw an old man. Since this was the first time he has ever seen a person of old age, he was shocked and confused by his physical appearance. Channa then explained to him that when people age, they physically become weaker and unhealthier. Secondly, he saw an ill person. Once Siddhartha saw the sick man lying on the side of the road, he felt sympathetic and upset. Channa, again, explained that people get physically ill during their lifetimes. Thirdly, he saw a dead person being carried away. Channa told him about death and its inevitability. Lastly, Siddhartha saw an ascetic meditating. An ascetic is someone who removes all of the luxuries they experience in normal life and instead chooses to live a life of suffering, usually for spiritual self-fulfillment. Ascetics usually do things such as starve themselves or eat hardly anything for a very long period of time (fasting) and live a frugal lifestyle. When Siddhartha saw how calm and at peace the ascetic was amongst the hectic city surroundings, he was deeply impressed. From that moment, Siddhartha changed his path- he wanted to take the path of sympathy and understanding, instead of ignorance and luxury. He wanted to end all suffering from taking place.

Siddhartha left behind the palace, as well as his wife and young child- this decision of leaving behind his relationships and luxury was his gateway into becoming a Buddha. Siddhartha decided to become an ascetic, the same as the holy man he saw in the streets of the city. He chose to become an ascetic because he wanted to understand suffering to its fullest capacity. He lived with other ascetics in the forest for many years, only eating very minuscule pieces of food every so often; until the point where he almost starved himself to death. He then realized that him dying is not useful at all for anyone. At this point, he decides to eat some rice, which is considered a luxury amongst ascetics. The ascetics he was living with felt betrayed; they felt as if Siddhartha had given up this way of life. However, by eating this rice, Siddhartha realized that this path of immense suffering is the wrong path to take. He decides that he will change to a far more balanced path that he named the Middle Way. This is the ideal way of life, a perfect balance between both suffering and luxury. Siddhartha then decides that he is going to meditate under a Bodhi tree, and he isn't going to stop until he finds the true answer to why humans suffer. During this meditation, the evil spirit Mara appears. Mara tries to distract Siddhartha from his meditation and to stop him from meditating by tempting him with lots of luxurious things. However, Siddhartha just ignores Mara and continues meditating the same as he has been for so long. Mara has failed. Eventually, after roughly 49 days of meditation, Siddhartha finally understands why suffering is caused. Humans are never fully pleased- we always want more and more. 

This obsession with wanting more never ends, which means that suffering never ends as well. Once Siddhartha comes to this conclusion, he becomes enlightened. Now, he is not known as Siddhartha, but as Buddha. Enlightenment is when someone becomes spiritually “awakened” through knowledge and wisdom. He also realizes that the only way to be freed from this endless cycle of suffering is to escape the cycle of rebirth, known as Samsara. If you don’t become free from Samsara, suffering will never end. Once you escape Samsara, you are not reborn again, but you achieve “Nirvana”. Nirvana is not a place, but a condition where all of your desires are “blown out” and you live at peace. Buddha spends the rest of his life preaching to others about his realizations and how to reach Nirvana. By the time he dies, he has lots of disciples who take on the responsibility of passing Buddha’s wisdom on to others.