Week 4 Reading Dairy: The Life of Buddha

This week I chose to read The Life of Buddha.

The first three stories of this unit (Maya's Dream, Birth of Siddhartha, Asita's Prediction) talk about how glorious the prince is and will become. I was surprised about how radiant the second two stories describe prince Siddhartha to be. There is so much joy in the world after he is born, and everything, ever the trees and rivers, become more beautiful from his birth.

The ones I enjoy most are the units about his encounters with the evils of the world. In his First Encounter he learns about old age. In the Two More Encounters, he learns about sickness and death. The prince talks about how mankind is able to seek pleasure knowing what death is. These two readings are definitely a reality check for the prince, who has seen nothing but joy his life. It also comes as a reality check for the reader.

In The Great Truths prince Siddhartha is finally starting to unravel. He cannot get the idea of death out of his mind until the Gods send him a monk that talks about his life of solitude. He finally understands what he wants to do with his life, and decides to become a monk. His mind had now become enveloped with the idea of "supreme blessedness, of beatitude, of nirvana."

Even I was saddened when I read about prince Siddhartha's exit from the palace. There is a great amount of sadness in Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve. It is hard not to feel like the prince is making a mistake. However, so many supernatural things happen for him to leave that one can't help but wonder that it is the right thing to do. I was very saddened to hear that his horse Kanthaka died from sorrow.

In the Arata Kalama the prince makes perfect sense in his reasoning for not preaching or following Arata Kalama's word. The prince asked what the difference is between indulging in desire and indulging in suffering. In each situation mankind was indulging in something, which in part is the root of old age and death.

Finally the true law comes to Prince Siddhartha's mind, in Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha. He realizes that it is an endless circle of birth to suffering to death and back to birth again. Beyond the religious implications, this reading makes a good point about cause and effect throughout the real world. Actions always have consequences, whether good or bad.