#4: Siddhartha Gautama

The story goes like this: Siddhartha was born as a prince about 2500 years ago. He had arranged marriage when he was 16. His father, the king, tried to prevent his son seeing the suffering that was going on in the world. Of course he failed and Siddhartha saw first an old crippled man (aging), then diseased man (illness), then a decaying corpse (death) and finally ascetic (poorness). Seeing all that made prince to question life seriously. At the age of 29 when his wife was about to give birth to their first son, Siddhartha had finally made his decision. At one night he went to watch his sleeping, pregnant wife. He looked at her for long time and then left the palace, left his life as a prince. The search of truth had begun.

Siddhartha spent many years wandering and wondering. He went from teacher to master, from master to guru. Whenever he could not learn more, he moved on. Finally he could not find anyone to teach him more so he started life as ascetic. Then one day when he was sitting under the Bodhi tree, after many years of seeking, he “got” it. After that he was known as “the perfectly self-awakened one”. He stated that he had realized complete awakening and insight into the nature and cause of human suffering, along with steps necessary to eliminate it.

I was always open to all religions in my youth and Buddhism was (and is) the most logical religion. There is nothing supernatural in Buddha’s (Siddhartha’s) teachings, they all make perfect sense and I would be seriously interested to meet someone who would argue against those teachings. When I became more acquainted with spirituality, Buddhism was one of the major factors in that “process”. However, I saw that all religions were only vehicles and at some point one must leave the vehicle as it can take you only to certain point and the rest is up to you. That’s the fundamental thing that most religious people miss. You can not find the truth by following someone else (your mind’s interpretation of someone else’s teachings), you have to walk that path yourself. Buddha kept saying that nobody should believe anything just because it is said by some authority, even by himself. He also said that such questions whether there was a God or not were not really important – I totally agree with him.

Here are quite a few nice quotes from Buddha:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then beleive them to be true.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.