He tried several ascetic paths and but did not find the answers for which he was looking although he used aspects of these sects to form his own answers. It is said that he found these answers and enlightenment while watching a river flow and sitting beneath the Bodhi Tree.
Buddha discovered in his meditations that there are four Noble Truths which he expressed in what is called the First Sermon:
1) Life is suffering. In birth, in our encounters, in separating what brings us pleasure from what brings us suffering, and in facing and experiencing death.
2) The reason for this suffering is "thirst." Thirst for pleasure: be it food, shelter, clothing, sex, love, toys, any attachment or desire, whether we need it or not.
3) This thirst can never be satisfied. Even when we attain what we want, it leaves us, as all things must, and so we again suffer, craving for it anew--endlessly more and more and more.
4) The only way to go beyond this eternal struggle is through the Eightfold Path: a) Perfect view, b) Perfect resolve, c) Perfect speech, d) Perfect conduct, e) Perfect livelihood, f) Perfect application, g) Perfect mindfulness, and h) Perfect concentration.
This answer allows one to live one's life within society but still attain satori or enlightenment.
There is much more in the way of doctrine and mythology surrounding Siddhartha until what is fantasy and attribution has long ago overtaken the reality.
The best Buddha story that I have come across clarifies the simplicity of his message. At a gathering of students, one of his wisest followers asked him to explain the meaning of life. Buddha held up a single rose in reply.
The rose is itself. It asks nothing. It seeks nothing. It harms nothing. It thrives and glows in its own beingness. It takes the barest necessities that it requires and gives a thousandfold in return.
It is said that Jesus spent a portion of his Lost Years in India studying Buddhism since there is such a parallel between their teachings. The above story illustrates the purity of Siddhartha the Buddha's teachings and when it is compared to the simplicity of the more obvious of Jesus the Christ's teachings, one sees a resounding note of clarity in them compared to the muddy sludge of the doctrines that are steeped in law and etiquette and which can be attributed more to those who set up the Religion than the words that have passed through the lips of the Masters.
Please compare Budha's rose and Jesus' lily of the field.
A good book based on the life of the Buddha is Siddhartha by Nobel-prize author Hermann Hesse. |
