Buddhism is one of the most practicedreligions today.
This religion was started bySiddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha wasprince of a clan called the Shakyas. Siddhartha didn’t likethe idea of a human going through pain.
Siddhartha was traveling outside the palace walls andsaw the unthinkable. Siddhartha couldn’t bear the thought ofhurting people so he left his palaceand lived his life as an ascetic.Siddhartha went through rough times, but that never stopped hisquest to be the buddha SiddharthaGautama was born on 563 B.C. he was born to a large clangroup called the Shakyas in what iscalled now Nepal. His father ruled the tribe Shakyas.Siddhartha’s mom died seven days after he was born.
Siddhartha was raised by his aunt andstep mother Prajapati Gautami.Meanwhile, Siddhartha’s dad built walls around the palace soSiddhartha didn’t know what badthings happened outside the world. Siddhartha’s dad wantedhim to stay away from religion and whenhumans had ruff times (hardship). After a while, whenSiddhartha was a teen he married at theage of sixteen. Siddhartha married PrincessYasodhara.
They then later had a babyboy named Rahula. Rahula was born shortly beforeSiddhartha left for his quest to beenlightened. Rahula was bound to see his father as a buddhamonk. Rahula soon actually became abuddhist monk. Later, his mom became a buddhist monkwhich is called a bhikkhuni.Siddhartha was riding in the chariotwith his charioteer and ventured outside the palace walls.While riding he saw an old man whichmade Siddhartha very curious. He asked why he was old,the charioteer said, ” All people grow.
” Siddhartha wanted toknow more so he traveled and sawa diseased man, a decaying corpse and anascetic. He was stunned by those images and thatencouraged him to live his life as anascetic. He left his whole life behind to find what lead tohuman suffering. And to be enlightened.After leaving, Siddhartha lived an ascetic life for sixyears. He was studying and meditating.
He learned new ways of life with other ascetic peoplewho liked that life style. Hisdedication to his quest was so strong that those ascetics becamehis followers. He cut down food andendured pain, and refused water since he had followers.Siddhartha could not reach thesatisfaction he wanted. He urged people to follow this specificpath called the Middle Way.That night Siddhartha sat under a Bodhitree and really meditated for one day without evenopening one eye until the sun came upthe next day. That’swhen he became the enlightenedone.
Siddhartha created teachings youmight have not even thought about like karma, dharma,the eightfold path, the four nobletruths and the middle way. The four noble truths were1. All of life involves suffering.2. Suffering is caused by selfishdesires.3.
The way to end suffering us toovercome selfish desires.4. The way to overcome selfish desiresis to follow the eightfold path. Some of his ideas werebased off of Hinduism but, what ideabuddha didn’t really like was the caste system that statesthat “You are to be kept from other and if you areborn poor or rich your going to be that.” Aftera while, Siddhartha created schools forteaching the different types of buddhism. There arethree types of buddhism Theravada,Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The difference between them isTheravada is the oldest closest to theoriginal teaching of buddhism and Mahayana andVajrayana both place more emphasis ontheir own texts (so basically the same) over the palicanon.
Siddhartha died in 483 B.C. inKusinara, India. Siddhartha was eighty years old when hepassed away.
He died of natural causes(mesenteric infarction) which means Siddhartha died ofold age. To conclude, Siddhartha wasvery compassionate, patient, loving, determined andindependent man. Which is proven in thisquote of his, “Wordshave the power to both destroyor heal. When words are both true andkind, they can change our world.” Siddhartha was quickto help people live an ascetic life andhe helped them try to find enlightenment. Siddhartha(buddha) was best at explaining that youhave to have have suffering to have a day with nosuffering.
On the other hand, buddhismis a religion never to be forgotten. It will remainpracticed for time to come.I chose Siddhartha Gautama because helike to help other which is really important to mebecause he helped them reach a stagethat you couldn’tget to on your own. He’s important toworld history because he created areligion that if that wasn’t created people who liked the ideaof buddhism might have to followhinduism which not satisfying to them because they don’t ;likesomethe teachings and they have to follow a caste system.
