Prior to Siddhartha’s birth his father King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakyas, was told by the sages that his son was to become either a great ruler or great teacher. Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince in 623 BC in a region of southern Nepal know as Kosala.
Siddhartha lived a life of luxury within the castle grounds. His father the King did not want his son to be a teacher and keep him close to home, providing him with every pleasure. Eventually Siddhartha was able to visit the surrounding country side and witnessed the realities of the people’s poverty, suffering, sickness, old age and death. He also came into contact with ascetics who chose to renounce the people’s way of life and live in contemplation in the nearby forests.
Siddhartha was extremely disturbed by what he had seen outside of the castle grounds and began to question if he could help relieve the suffering in the lives of others.
Before I go on, I must let you know that I am not a practicing Buddhist. I don’t wear robes nor do I meditate much. I try to see things clearly and not let my mind live a life of it’s own in the past or the future. My belief is that any thoughtful person who is kind and has abandoned preconceived notions follows the Buddha whether they know it or not.
I will also take a minute to make a snapshot of Buddhism from what I have learned. There is no god in control of everything which I am sure you have noticed. There are what I call the three “imps”. Life is is impermanent, imperfect and impersonal. There are the three poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance; just look at our politics today. Nothing, including you, is permanent, solid or fixed but continually flowing and changing on different time scales.
Finally to complete my snapshot I will share the core Buddhist concept of anatta or non-self. Similar to a view that god is in control of everything our survival instincts have persuaded us that we are separate from everything and must be in control, which of course we are not. Particularly in our world of nuclear weapons, algorisms, robots, artificial intelligence and the like the belief in a separate self is a very dangerous fiction. Look around, is there any difference between you and anyone else other than what is or is not on your mind. Ask yourself if you are a separate self, an agent, who breathes, who digests, who sees, who feels, who tastes, who smells, who thinks, who hears, who pumps your blood. None of these functions are being done by you. You are not a separate self, an agent doing them. You are a human being and its many parts interacting with
our environment. Enough of this for now. Let’s get back to the story of Prince Siddhartha.