World Religion Essay

Nathanael Moise
February 25, 2013
World religion
Buddhism

Buddhism originated from Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama who said, “He whose aim will be accomplished”. Being aware of human suffering the prince was determined to penetrate the root cause of frustration and pain and discover a more deeply satisfying way of life. After he accomplished his goal, prince Siddhartha became known as the Buddha, the Awakened one. But even before he was born and was just in the womb his mother had powerful dreams and ambitions for her son and got her husband and everybody else that was around her into spiritual practice. She then gave birth to him in the garden of Lumbini. His calling was so great that during his young manhood he went to temple to get his blessings and the statues rose and bowed down to him. Meditation first started when he was wondering through the fields and he sat underneath a tree and just went into a deep meditative state all day and the shadows were still and nothing moved amazed his father and made him realize his son’s true nature. The prince saw four things that made him see there was suffering and not everybody lived his life he saw, an old man suffering, a lifeless corpse, a man that was disfigured and diseased and a tranquil renunciate intent on liberation. After seeing these things he wanted to go on a quest and told his father that he granted him four things; old age would never take hold of him, always possess the radiance of youth, have perfect health, and he would never get sick. The king couldn’t grant him that so Siddhartha set forth on a quest for enlightenment and no more suffering of his people. On his quest he studied more into the various systems of meditative practice and different philosophies including, theism, skepticism, materialism, hedonism and fatalism. Siddharta practiced asceticism for six years until he thoroughly demonstrated that this path would not yield the knowledge of necessary to pass completely out of the realm of suffering, old age and death. He claimed that “this is the path of enlightenment, which will lead to the disappearance of the miseries of birth, old age, sickness and death. This was my thought.” Then one night on his quest, Mara the lord of illusion tried to frighten then seduce him but they both failed and that’s when he called the earth itself as witness to the innumerable deeds of compassion he had performed over countless goodness. That night he understood the inner workings of samsara, the cycle of birth and death, he understood the past lives of all beings and observed karma in operation. He also understood the patterns of suffering, their interlocking causes and condition’s, and the way to end them. After dawn he broke through the most subtle obstacles to knowledge and went way past suffering to become the fully awakened Buddha. For seven weeks, Buddha remained in deep meditation experiencing many different realns of existence. Brahma, the highest God appeared in front of him. Brahma wanted Buddha to teach but Buddha wasn’t too sure but he was moved by great compassion and agreed to teach. Buddha began his process of bringing truth into the world at Deer park in Varansi. Then for the next forty-five years he traveled around the world and taught the Dharma to about 84,000 people. Buddha said “if knowledge depends on the doctrines of another or the experience of another, it’s not ultimately satisfying and has little power to transform one’s life”. That’s when he made the twelve acts of Buddha, which are resolve to be born in the

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