Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha, Part B
Keep on reading for some of my notes from The Life of Buddha, Part B.
1: Siddhartha Leaves
-Siddhartha gets his horse and leaves the palace to become a hermit; Siddhartha talks to the horse and the stable guy about how when someone pursues wealth he has a ton of followers, but when someone pursues holiness they don't; Siddhartha leaves vowing never to come back to the city
2: Siddhartha the Hermit
-when they reach a grove where there are other hermits, Siddhartha gives the stable boy the horse and his jewels and tells him to take them back to the palace and tell his father that he left to serve a noble cause (destroying old age and death); the stable boy tries to convince Siddhartha to come home, but Siddhartha refuses
-Siddhartha cuts off his hair and gives his prince clothes to a hunter in exchange to raggedy clothes; Siddhartha then goes off on his own to begin his journey and the stable boy and horse go back to the palace
3: Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve
-Gopa wakes up, finds out Siddhartha has left the palace for good without telling her and freaks out; Gopa cries to her maids about her life being dull without Siddhartha; Siddhartha's aunt hears the news and goes to Gopa so they can grieve together
-the king also hears the news and orders the servants to search everywhere, but no one could find Siddhartha; he sends horsemen all over to find him, but they find the horse and stable boy instead on their way back; the stable boy tells the servants that Siddhartha has decided to become a hermit; the stable boy then tells the king, Gopa and the aunt the same thing; Siddhartha's aunt takes the jewels Siddhartha had given to the stable boy and throws them in the pond in the garden
-the horse Siddhartha had ridden to the garden gets back to the stables and dies of sadness
4: Arata Kalama
-Siddhartha enters a hermitage where a monk named Arata Kalama is teaching to his disciples; one day, Arata Kalama asks Siddhartha to help him teach the disciples because there's nothing that Siddhartha needs to learn; Siddhartha ponders this, but ultimately decides to leave the hermitage because he thinks that Arata Kalama's teachings (that monks should strive to suffer because suffering leads to pleasures later) are vain, because apparently you can only obtain real religious virtue if you suffer without the intent of getting something good out of it later; Siddhartha leaves and goes to live on a mountain in Magadha
5: Siddhartha and King Vimbasara
-one day, Siddhartha goes into the city of Rajagriha to beg; people are surprised by him, because he's so regal-looking; thinking he's a god, a man runs to the king (King Vimbasara) to tell him that a god is begging in the streets; the king is interested, so he has Siddhartha followed to find out where he lives
-the next day, the king goes to where Siddhartha is staying on the mountain and asks him to come live in the palace; the king offers Siddhartha many things, but Siddhartha refuses them all; the king asks who Siddhartha is, and Siddhartha tells him his story and about his family; the king decides that they should be friends and asks Siddhartha to teach him what he learns when he becomes enlightened; Siddhartha visits another hermit in the area, decides he doesn't know what he's talking about and leaves for another city with 5 disciples with him
6: Siddhartha Deserted by his First Disciples
-one day, Siddhartha is meditating so hard by the river that he stops breathing; the gods freak out, thinking he might be dead, and send his mother Maya to check on him; when she sees him, she thinks he's dead too so she starts to put flowers on him; he wakes up and reassures her that he's not dead so she goes back to the gods
-Siddhartha stays near that river for 6 years; he stops eating, paying attention to other people or acting like a normal person in order to gain the true knowledge, but it never comes; so one day, he starts eating again and starts talking to others, so his disciples think he's given up on gaining the true knowledge and leave him
7: The Tree of Knowledge
-Siddhartha needs new robes because the one he'd been wearing for 6 years had become threadbare, so he takes some from a dead slave; Siddhartha looks for a place to wash the robe, so a god sends him a pool and he washes it; while he's in the pool, Mara (the evil one) makes the banks of the pool too steep for Siddhartha to get out; Siddhartha sends a prayer to the goddess of a tree nearby to help him, so she lengthens the branches of the tree to help him out
-he falls asleep under the tree and has 5 dreams; all of them had something to do with him becoming a part of the earth; he knew then that he would gain the supreme knowledge that day; he goes to a house in a nearby village and meets a woman who serves him milk in a golden bowl; Siddhartha realizes that he has to become the Buddha now, because when men become a Buddha they are served something in a golden bowl; he goes back to the tree of knowledge and makes a seat for himself, sitting under it and not moving until he obtained the supreme knowledge
8: Mara's Defeat
-Mara, the evil one, is told that Siddhartha is gaining the supreme knowledge and that if he does, evil will be eradicated; Mara decides to fight Siddhartha, and orders his army to advance on him
-some of the soldiers in the army try to convince the others that they shouldn't attack Siddhartha because it would be useless, but most of them don't listen and advance anyway; Mara tries to scare Siddhartha first by summoning fierce wind, rain and rocks, but Siddhartha continues to meditate and doesn't move; when the army looses their arrows, they turn to flowers at Siddhartha's feet; the army senses Siddhartha's power and flees
-Mara wonders what Siddhartha has done to deserve this power; the earth speaks to Mara, telling him that Siddhartha will destroy sickness, old age and death, and that is why he deserves to defeat Mara; Mara cries because he's been defeated
9: Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha
-Siddhartha gains the true knowledge and contemplates what causes old age and death; he goes through a long list of cause and effect and finds that everything happens because of ignorance; when dawn appears, Siddhartha is a Buddha; the gods celebrate
1: Siddhartha Leaves
-Siddhartha gets his horse and leaves the palace to become a hermit; Siddhartha talks to the horse and the stable guy about how when someone pursues wealth he has a ton of followers, but when someone pursues holiness they don't; Siddhartha leaves vowing never to come back to the city
2: Siddhartha the Hermit
-when they reach a grove where there are other hermits, Siddhartha gives the stable boy the horse and his jewels and tells him to take them back to the palace and tell his father that he left to serve a noble cause (destroying old age and death); the stable boy tries to convince Siddhartha to come home, but Siddhartha refuses
-Siddhartha cuts off his hair and gives his prince clothes to a hunter in exchange to raggedy clothes; Siddhartha then goes off on his own to begin his journey and the stable boy and horse go back to the palace
3: Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve
-Gopa wakes up, finds out Siddhartha has left the palace for good without telling her and freaks out; Gopa cries to her maids about her life being dull without Siddhartha; Siddhartha's aunt hears the news and goes to Gopa so they can grieve together
-the king also hears the news and orders the servants to search everywhere, but no one could find Siddhartha; he sends horsemen all over to find him, but they find the horse and stable boy instead on their way back; the stable boy tells the servants that Siddhartha has decided to become a hermit; the stable boy then tells the king, Gopa and the aunt the same thing; Siddhartha's aunt takes the jewels Siddhartha had given to the stable boy and throws them in the pond in the garden
-the horse Siddhartha had ridden to the garden gets back to the stables and dies of sadness
4: Arata Kalama
-Siddhartha enters a hermitage where a monk named Arata Kalama is teaching to his disciples; one day, Arata Kalama asks Siddhartha to help him teach the disciples because there's nothing that Siddhartha needs to learn; Siddhartha ponders this, but ultimately decides to leave the hermitage because he thinks that Arata Kalama's teachings (that monks should strive to suffer because suffering leads to pleasures later) are vain, because apparently you can only obtain real religious virtue if you suffer without the intent of getting something good out of it later; Siddhartha leaves and goes to live on a mountain in Magadha
5: Siddhartha and King Vimbasara
-one day, Siddhartha goes into the city of Rajagriha to beg; people are surprised by him, because he's so regal-looking; thinking he's a god, a man runs to the king (King Vimbasara) to tell him that a god is begging in the streets; the king is interested, so he has Siddhartha followed to find out where he lives
-the next day, the king goes to where Siddhartha is staying on the mountain and asks him to come live in the palace; the king offers Siddhartha many things, but Siddhartha refuses them all; the king asks who Siddhartha is, and Siddhartha tells him his story and about his family; the king decides that they should be friends and asks Siddhartha to teach him what he learns when he becomes enlightened; Siddhartha visits another hermit in the area, decides he doesn't know what he's talking about and leaves for another city with 5 disciples with him
6: Siddhartha Deserted by his First Disciples
-one day, Siddhartha is meditating so hard by the river that he stops breathing; the gods freak out, thinking he might be dead, and send his mother Maya to check on him; when she sees him, she thinks he's dead too so she starts to put flowers on him; he wakes up and reassures her that he's not dead so she goes back to the gods
-Siddhartha stays near that river for 6 years; he stops eating, paying attention to other people or acting like a normal person in order to gain the true knowledge, but it never comes; so one day, he starts eating again and starts talking to others, so his disciples think he's given up on gaining the true knowledge and leave him
7: The Tree of Knowledge
-Siddhartha needs new robes because the one he'd been wearing for 6 years had become threadbare, so he takes some from a dead slave; Siddhartha looks for a place to wash the robe, so a god sends him a pool and he washes it; while he's in the pool, Mara (the evil one) makes the banks of the pool too steep for Siddhartha to get out; Siddhartha sends a prayer to the goddess of a tree nearby to help him, so she lengthens the branches of the tree to help him out
-he falls asleep under the tree and has 5 dreams; all of them had something to do with him becoming a part of the earth; he knew then that he would gain the supreme knowledge that day; he goes to a house in a nearby village and meets a woman who serves him milk in a golden bowl; Siddhartha realizes that he has to become the Buddha now, because when men become a Buddha they are served something in a golden bowl; he goes back to the tree of knowledge and makes a seat for himself, sitting under it and not moving until he obtained the supreme knowledge
8: Mara's Defeat
-Mara, the evil one, is told that Siddhartha is gaining the supreme knowledge and that if he does, evil will be eradicated; Mara decides to fight Siddhartha, and orders his army to advance on him
-some of the soldiers in the army try to convince the others that they shouldn't attack Siddhartha because it would be useless, but most of them don't listen and advance anyway; Mara tries to scare Siddhartha first by summoning fierce wind, rain and rocks, but Siddhartha continues to meditate and doesn't move; when the army looses their arrows, they turn to flowers at Siddhartha's feet; the army senses Siddhartha's power and flees
-Mara wonders what Siddhartha has done to deserve this power; the earth speaks to Mara, telling him that Siddhartha will destroy sickness, old age and death, and that is why he deserves to defeat Mara; Mara cries because he's been defeated
9: Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha
-Siddhartha gains the true knowledge and contemplates what causes old age and death; he goes through a long list of cause and effect and finds that everything happens because of ignorance; when dawn appears, Siddhartha is a Buddha; the gods celebrate
Siddhartha under the tree of knowledge. Source: Untextbook.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"The Life of Buddha" by Andre Ferdinand Herold. Source: Untextbook.
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