Buddha's Life

Just finished the story of Buddha's life. It is important to know this before trying to understand his teachings. Buddha, by the way just means "awakened one" in sanskrit (Budh) and is not a real name.

I will do my best to be succinct.

Buddha was born "Siddhartha" - a prince to a wealthy, affluent family whose father shielded him from the realities of life. Even when he took trips, the people were practically staged like a movie set to show only the good.

When Siddhartha started seeing the holes in this (a man who had gotten old, a funeral service, someone who was ill) in his travels, he couldn't believe what he was seeing and how he had not been exposed to these things for so long.

His father continued to throw money, jewels, luxuries, women, etc, at Siddhartha to shield him from these things, but it did no good. One day, as the most sensual of women danced around for Siddhartha (who was married to a beautiful woman and had a kid of his own), he became tired and fell asleep. The girls, seeing no point in performing, decided to nap as well. When Siddhartha awoke, he saw the women who just a little while ago seemed nothing but sensuality and beauty, now sprawled out in awkward positions, sweaty, and asleep.

Siddhartha then took this moment to leave everything behind him and get the answers he sought. He went into the woods and studied with numerous teachers, whom he soon surpassed. He tried almost starving himself, which would not work, and only after realizing that he had to eat and be healthy to have a mind capable of happiness and enligthenment, did he go out and sit under a fig tree where he came to the realization that everything is interconnected.

He saw that our mortality automatically brings with it cravings that will not be fulfilled, thus starting us off on the wrong foot, and denying us happiness if we so choose to let it. We lock ourselves into these prisons and traps of the mind, and saw that true happiness comes from deconstructing that prison, which can lead us to true freedom.

Buddha met his end after eating some bad alms. And while his followers all worried that they could not carry on without him, he re-assured them that he was not necessary - that his teachings could be practiced without him.

Life is a gift and Buddha knew this. He told his followers that every meeting implies a departure. We are all born with the capacity to live a good life - one with love, joy, energy, harmony, etc. All you have to do is be it to enjoy it.

A lot to be learned, even from this.