The Buddha

Buddha had to be one of the greatest beings to walk the earth because of what he achieve. He defiantly was the enlightened one in all forms and meanings. Born an India prince and denied all worldly influences Siddhartha Gatama felt as if he was a prisoner. His father, the king wanted Siddhartha to be as he felt he should be, a rightful and powerful king to his throne. The king had a plan to deny all the ugliness of life from his son, he only let Siddhartha gain the knowledge that he himself saw fit for his son to become a great king. The king realized from the council of a wise man the godly potential of his son and only wanted his son to be nothing more then a great king for his kingdom. Siddhartha was kept away from witnessing all that we as people witness from day to day like suffering, and death. He also kept all of the sick old and ugly away from Siddhartha, only the young, vibrant and beautiful were aloud around him. This defiantly felt off for young Siddhartha and he wanted to go outside of the kingdom walls to see what else life could hold. It was a day that would change Siddhartha’s life forever, he would venture outside of the kingdom walks and witness what his father thought to keep from him. He saw the elderly and he saw the dead. He saw the sick and the poor. He saw the ugly. Maybe if it was anyone else they would have ran back to their kingdom and never come out again but for Siddhartha it wasn’t so. He knew that if he lived, as his farther wanted him to then it would be as good as living in a prison cell for the rest of his life. Siddhartha knew that he was more then just some pampered prince and he would run away from all of the riches and fame.

Siddhartha abandoned his wife and child, he abandoned his father and the kingdom that he was set to rule one day and went into the woods. He gave away all of he extravagant clothes and cut down his hair. Siddhartha would take on the life of a hermit to gain the truth and to be free.

He suffered greatly and almost killed himself for his mission. He talked to many wish men and went though many trials and tribulations but still was unable to gain the truth that he would seek. He would fast and he would meditate for hours on end, people would see the greatness in him and become his followers then leave him when they felt he’d change. He at a time would ignore his body and let it be, his followers saw this as great and thought that this had to be the way, just forget your physical because it is not a part of you. Once Siddhartha saw that he would get nowhere from doing that except dead and started to tend to his body, his followers would abandon him and leave him alone. It was time for Siddhartha to make his transformation; he would sit under the so-called bodhi tree and meditate. The demon Mara would come to him, Mara would attack Siddhartha’s mind with enticing advances and indulgences. First he offered him all the knowledge in the universe and Siddhartha denied. Siddhartha felt as if he wasn’t looking for knowledge, he wasn’t looking for anything because he felt there was no need to search, if he would search and want and want it would be a never ending battle of searching and nothing would be achieve. Then at that moment Siddhartha threw away the attachment of wanting to gain knowledge all together and that made Mara first advance pointless. Then he came to Siddhartha with three beautiful women, promising him all three and even though Siddhartha did recognize them as beauties he knew that if he would attach himself to indulgence in sex and women then he would be chained and trapped in the prison that he thought to escape when he left his father. The joy that indulgence brings is but only temporary and if one confuses it with true happiness then that individual is lost and delusional. When those few moments of false happiness end then what else is there? If this kind of joy is what one would seek for true blissfulness, a temporary joy, then his or her life must be a farce. That person will never gain freedom or happiness, how can you be free if you crave something so temporary and that is all you live for. When it is over then what do you have? You will go crazy searching for something else; another temporary high, then once you have found that and that well runs dry then what next? Siddhartha realized this and rejected those temptations. Mara grew anger and tried to scare Siddhartha. He said that he would have his demons kill him on the spot right then and there for his impudence. Siddhartha simply said, “I have to be here for you to kill me and I’m not here so I have no reason to be afraid.” He cut being attached to life itself; he cut being attached to his name, his body, his being. He right then and there cut all attachments and this made Mara so anger that he and his demons started to fade away. A lie will never out shine the truth, light will always shun though darkness and Mara was nothing but a lie. Siddhartha made a great discovery that day and right then and there he became Buddha (the enlightened one)

I have only told the gist of Buddha’s story but I feel I have told the meaning of Buddha himself within it. First off the problem to life is something that in all reality doesn’t have to be a problem at all. People tend to first attach themselves to whatever they can get a grasp on. I love Buddha’s philosophy because it shows how easy things can be if we just cut all attachments and just let be. Truth can be like a shape with many sides, the Truth that Jesus taught may seem to contradict what Buddha taught but in all reality they are all different sides to the same shape. Jesus taught that we need to acclaim suffering and the Buddha taught how to relieve our self from suffering. Both went though suffering and both were relieved of it, both had great realizations and both had to deal with temptations and lies. Both became God, both were one with the everlasting oneness that God is. Buddha became so unattached to anything that would be attachable that he all together stopped acknowledging God all together. He just had his realization and let things be. He eased up and looked within, then after he felt that everlasting presents, that all powerfulness that resigned within and became one with it there was no need to acknowledge that it even existed. He just let be, he didn’t mean for his philosophies to spawn a religion, that was not his intentions. To become an organized religion is to take a piece of knowledge and toss it into something with rules and regulations, then in turn putting a name to it. Once something is named then it is limited, then following that it becomes a label and the only way to claim the label is to become attached to it. To make it you, to make it what you are, to attach yourself to it. Buddha did at times make some rules as such when asked if he saw fit but it wasn’t to make a rulebook to live by. He did have his four noble truths but those so-called rules were set to free up folk from feeling the need to gain attachments all together. Another example of Buddha setting so-called rules would be when his father asked him to make it so that one needs to gain permission from there parents before they would become a monk. Buddha saw this as logical because he knew that the respect and love for your parents is the first and truest love you could give. This love is needed in order to learn how to love at all, people that hate there parents will never learn to love in life and if you can’t love then you have lost all together. Love is something that non-attaching embodies because it is the most unconditional feeling one can have. It is given regardless, one doesn’t need to have an attachment or even get any in return to give it. This is true love, an unconditional feeling, a part of what you embody that you give without needing anything back in return. Loving our parents is the first step to this and respecting them comes right along with it. If our parents love us then they will support our actions and decision even if it seems they don’t agree on them. Faith also comes with love, having faith in the once that you love and knowing they will do what is right for them regardless of what it may be. When we give love in its purest and truest form then we can also let go and let things be. We are not attached to our love ones, we can enjoy there company, we can enjoy them and we can want to be with and around them but we also have respect for them in the highest form so we also will let them do as they feel even if it isn’t with us or even if we many not approve. Buddha knew this and this is why he let his father know that it was a must to get the parents blessings. The Buddha has brought the realization of true love out of me along with so many more and this is why I truly, utterly believe that he had to be one of the greatest men to walk this earth.