Buddhism is one of the most practiced
religions today. This religion was started by
Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha was
prince of a clan called the Shakyas. Siddhartha didn’t like
the idea of a human going through pain.
Siddhartha was traveling outside the palace walls and
saw the unthinkable. Siddhartha couldn’t bear the thought of
hurting people so he left his palace
and lived his life as an ascetic.
Siddhartha went through rough times, but that never stopped his
quest to be the buddha Siddhartha
Gautama was born on 563 B.C. he was born to a large clan
group called the Shakyas in what is
called now Nepal. His father ruled the tribe Shakyas.
Siddhartha’s mom died seven days after he was born.
Siddhartha was raised by his aunt and
step mother Prajapati Gautami.
Meanwhile, Siddhartha’s dad built walls around the palace so
Siddhartha didn’t know what bad
things happened outside the world. Siddhartha’s dad wanted
him to stay away from religion and when
humans had ruff times (hardship). After a while, when
Siddhartha was a teen he married at the
age of sixteen. Siddhartha married Princess
Yasodhara. They then later had a baby
boy named Rahula. Rahula was born shortly before
Siddhartha left for his quest to be
enlightened. Rahula was bound to see his father as a buddha
monk. Rahula soon actually became a
buddhist monk. Later, his mom became a buddhist monk
which is called a bhikkhuni.
Siddhartha was riding in the chariot
with his charioteer and ventured outside the palace walls.
While riding he saw an old man which
made Siddhartha very curious. He asked why he was old,
the charioteer said, ” All people grow.” Siddhartha wanted to
know more so he traveled and saw
a diseased man, a decaying corpse and an
ascetic. He was stunned by those images and that
encouraged him to live his life as an
ascetic. He left his whole life behind to find what lead to
human suffering. And to be enlightened.
After leaving, Siddhartha lived an ascetic life for six
years. He was studying and meditating.
He learned new ways of life with other ascetic people
who liked that life style. His
dedication to his quest was so strong that those ascetics became
his followers. He cut down food and
endured pain, and refused water since he had followers.
Siddhartha could not reach the
satisfaction he wanted. He urged people to follow this specific
path called the Middle Way.
That night Siddhartha sat under a Bodhi
tree and really meditated for one day without even
opening one eye until the sun came up
the next day. That’s
when he became the enlightened
one. Siddhartha created teachings you
might have not even thought about like karma, dharma,
the eightfold path, the four noble
truths and the middle way. The four noble truths were
1. All of life involves suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by selfish
desires.
3.The way to end suffering us to
overcome selfish desires.
4. The way to overcome selfish desires
is to follow the eightfold path. Some of his ideas were
based off of Hinduism but, what idea
buddha didn’t really like was the caste system that states
that “You are to be kept from other and if you are
born poor or rich your going to be that.” After
a while, Siddhartha created schools for
teaching the different types of buddhism. There are
three types of buddhism Theravada,
Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The difference between them is
Theravada is the oldest closest to the
original teaching of buddhism and Mahayana and
Vajrayana both place more emphasis on
their own texts (so basically the same) over the pali
canon. Siddhartha died in 483 B.C. in
Kusinara, India. Siddhartha was eighty years old when he
passed away. He died of natural causes
(mesenteric infarction) which means Siddhartha died of
old age. To conclude, Siddhartha was
very compassionate, patient, loving, determined and
independent man. Which is proven in this
quote of his, “Words
have the power to both destroy
or heal. When words are both true and
kind, they can change our world.” Siddhartha was quick
to help people live an ascetic life and
he helped them try to find enlightenment. Siddhartha
(buddha) was best at explaining that you
have to have have suffering to have a day with no
suffering. On the other hand, buddhism
is a religion never to be forgotten. It will remain
practiced for time to come.
I chose Siddhartha Gautama because he
like to help other which is really important to me
because he helped them reach a stage
that you couldn’t
get to on your own. He’s important to
world history because he created a
religion that if that wasn’t created people who liked the idea
of buddhism might have to follow
hinduism which not satisfying to them because they don’t ;like
some
the teachings and they have to follow a caste system.
