This is my compilation of the PBS documentary on the life of Buddha. The story has it that, the mother of Siddhartha was a queen of a small kingdom in India. She had a dream that lead to a conception of Buddha, after giving birth to a boy child, the mother of Buddha died after 7 days. Everybody understands suffering, its a very intimate feeling and thus can be a very effective starting point to begin a transitioning to a ever blissful nature of life. Things seem to have their values that are recollected by humans only after they are lost. It is thought that the state of mind and the bliss that Buddha had, can be found by any of us at any point of our life. I am not sure if Buddhism is a religion, its a philosophy of life. It was in Lumbini that Buddha was born, according to the historical texts.
The first biography of the Buddha was written after 500 years of his death. Until then all the records of Buddha was transmitted orally. Whether Buddhism and the life of the Buddha is a fiction or a reality, it does not matter as it touches every ones lives. Buddha is thought to have been born about 500 years before Jesus, according to tales until the first 3 decades, he was raised in the luxurious life cof a prince. He was given three ponds with red, white, and blue colored lotuses. Siddhartha, the birth name of the Buddha was expected to become a king and his father shielded him from seeing the reality of life. He was surrounded by luxury and never saw the blunts of life, enjoying his princely days. As Siddhartha turned to 16 years age, he was married to his cousin. Siddhartha indulged himself for 29 years and after that he travels outside his kingdom and experiences the 4 realities of life:
1) An old man: referring to everchanging time
2) A sick man: every man experiences this state of body.
3) A corpse: referring to the ultimate end of human life.
4) A spiritual seeker: trying to escape suffering of life and attain equilibrium mind-state.
The above encountered shocks Siddhartha, and shows Siddhartha the universal truth about everyone's life. Siddhartha experienced the loss of his mother after 7 days of his birth and perhaps this leads him to think of discovering an equilibrium life. It is told that Siddhartha had a son named Rahul. Siddhartha thought that Rahul, his son will be bonding him to the princely life. He could not commit himself to his family as he thought of it as a bondage and decided to pursue the ultimate happiness of mind. Of course, as Siddhartha had left his wife, child and father, he did leave them in utter sorrow, especially his new born son Rahul was left devoid of a father.
Siddhartha left home and became homeless, hoping to attain peace. Siddhartha traveled to the south India towards Ganges and lived a homeless life.At this point of time he is a seeker and does not have any answers. But, he know clearly the questions that he is seeking to understand. Siddhartha at this point of time was not satisfied by the Vedic religion prevalent at his time. At this time Vedic practices consisted of many ritualistic activities, the gods seem to have become less important that the rituals themselves. At his time, Siddhartha, was one among many people trying to discover the reality of life. He was not doing anything novel, renounciation was a trend of time where many people were giving up the lavish lives and trying to gain the happiness of the mind.
In this times, it was a sense that death was not the end of "life" as Vedic knowledge proposed the cycle of birth and death. Siddhartha met a guru and was advised to look within himself to search for happiness. Siddhartha took to a form of self-reflectance, yoga, and other meditation forms, with the aim of finding the true happiness within himself. This was a very typical path to take during Siddhartha's time. Although yoga seems to be a physical exercise, it is also a mental exercise process. If one were to concentrate on only object, them one has the skill of transporting the mind to any of the places. Interestingly, even thought Siddhartha was able to master anbd practice such methods, these were seem to him as temporary solutions to the problem of seeking happiness.
Siddhartha realized that this path of yogic life would not give him the inner peace that he has been looking for. He still was looking for answering the question, as to why humans suffers and how they can be happy always.
Asceticism, punishing the body to extremes of hardships and pains was another prescribed method to attain happiness. Siddhartha, adopted this method also he tried sufficiently paining the body so as to overcome the limitations of the human body. Ascetics, shed everything and meditate to attain peace of mind.Ascetics, are still seen in India ,hoping to attain the ultimate happiness. They give up "moha" the greed or the quality of needing things. Siddhartha practiced asceticism for 6 years to attain happiness. This practice left him to be very thin, pale and anorexic. His limbs became bamboo sticks, ribs showing up.......perhaps lke:
By pushing the body to the extremes, Siddhartha discovered that he had not answered the question he was seeking the answer for. One of the inumcidents that this documentary discusses, is the time when princely Siddhartha was young and was watching the ceremonial festivities of planting new season crops. He watched the insects being killed, insect homes, eggs in the mud being tilled away. This sight and his observation made him sad. It is quite interesting that Siddhartha was open to looking at his surroundings and perceiving new things, those were not seen by his neighbors.
Siddhartha thought about this incident during his philosophical search. At this point, he was sitting under the Bodha tree and he realized that in this transitory world where we all live in, the feeling of joy is present in this world. Joy and happiness is present in this world itself. Having learned this, Siddhartha wanted to experience this joy of life and in order to experience this joy, he realized that one needs to eat food, nourish the body and experience the life encountered by him. This flash of thought lead him to accept a rice porridge from a lady. This incident occurred near the Bodhi Tree and is considered as an historical event in Siddhartha's life. Life is painful, it involves change and he realized that the question was yet answered. Siddhartha, at this point gave up the life of asceticism and thought of living as a normal human, in order to attain the inner-happiness. Siddhartha, until now had put faith in two gurus and still could not find happiness.
Now while at the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha decided to follow his path of seeking inside of himself while living a normal life. It is interesting to note that while Siddhartha decided to stay near this Bodhi tree and meditate until the attainment of peace. The god of desires (Mara) tried to disturb Siddhartha's meditation by sending his three daughters.......some thing does not seem right here, in this story. Siddhartha, of course resisted all the temptations created by Mara. Nirvana means the reality of oneself. It is the current moment seen directly. There is no destination, its the quality of current moment that needs to be paid attention to. There is nothing like destiny to be attained in future. It took 6 years for him to discover this state of realization.
It is thought that god Brahma came down to the earth and urged the Buddha to pass on his attained knowledge to others and to help others to attain happiness and joy that was present in Buddha's life. Buddha was 35 years old when he started spreading Dharma, his teaching to the world. Buddhism is not about being extraordinary, but it is being just a normal person. Each person that one encounters can be Buddha.
Buddhism does not have a creator of world, life.Its pretty much concerned with the present time. There are 4 noble truth, they are
1) There is suffering present in this world. It refers to the dissatisfaction present in life. Our own mind causes it. Its not the physical pain.
2) Suffering has a cause
3) One can be free of suffering by knowing the cause of suffering. One must be smart about having "desires" that bring happiness.
4) 8-fold path that consist of moral discipline (I missed the other ones).
There is no belief in caste system. Its nobility of ones current thinking that is considered important.
