Background Of Buddha

Background Of Buddha

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When Prince Siddhartha, Buddha, was younger and still living with his parents who ruled as King and Queen over lands in northern India, he learned sixty-four languages with different alphabets and excelled in math. He grew up excelling in traditional arts and sciences needing no instruction; however, he studied to please his father who then asked him to gain skill in sports; archery and martial arts, as well as academic subjects.

Prince Siddhartha liked to weave spiritual messages with normal everyday occurrences in order to encourage others to seek spiritual paths, often doing so through incredible displays or feats. For example, during an archery contest once, he readied his arrow, pulled back the bow and said, "With the bow of meditative concentration I will fire the arrow of wisdom and kill the tiger of ignorance in living beings." Then he released the arrow and it reportedly passed through a series of five iron tigers and seven trees, then deep underground, lost forever.

The Prince also liked to travel to the capital city in his parent's kingdom to see how the people lived. Often he would encounter many elderly and sick people, even death. Such travels later led him to enlightenment about how everyone, without exception, is prone to human suffering; everyone will face some type of combination of sickness, aging and death. And his beliefs in reincarnation meant to him that these sufferings would continue again and again and again, as each person was reincarnated.

Depressing negative thoughts about suffering lead Prince Siddhartha to seek a remedy for everyone, something that would rid everyone of pain and end suffering. With all his learning and wisdom attained thus far in life, the young Prince realized that the only way to gain knowledge of such a huge remedy would be to gain more wisdom. So he decided to leave his family's home, retiring in silent meditation in a forested area.

However, when people started learning about the departure plans of their prince, they encouraged his father, their King, to arrange marriage, to see if that would help him change his mind and stay. So the King chose a daughter from Yasodhara, a respected Shakya family.

However, Prince Siddhartha, wanted no worldly attachments that to him would be like beautiful poisonous flowers that attract, then cause pain and eventual death. So he married to please his father, but still ended up leaving to seek the remedy to all pain and suffering as originally planned, even though his father still tried other means to get his son to stay home, like surrounding him with beautiful women and even posted guards to block his leaving.

All was in vain, though, as a trusted aide helped the Prince escape while all the guards mysteriously slept through the episode. The Prince then dismounted some six miles out, said goodbye to his helpers, cut off his hair and tossed it into the air.

Legend has it that a god from the Land of the Thirty-three Heavens accepted the hair and offered the prince some saffron robes, a religious mendicant. And the prince ordained himself, becoming a monk, by accepting the robes in exchange for his own royal clothing.

About the Author:
Tony Ha is a freelance writer who writes about buddhism. He loves to write about buddhism religion & he tries to make content about buddhism for beginners.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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