Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha, Part B

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Reading Part B:

Part Eight: Siddhartha Leads a Life of Pleasure

King Suddhodana built three different places for his son. One for the winter, one for the summer, and one for the rainy seasons. The palatial life offered nothing but pleasure for Siddhartha. In the mean time his father practiced doing only good and seeking to help others.

Finally a son was born to Gopa and Siddhartha. His name was Rahula. This made the King very happy, but the king feared that the day would come that Siddhartha would wish to leave the palace life.

Part Nine: The Three Encounters

Despite the King’s efforts to keep Siddhartha happily naïve to the darker side of life, the Prince eventually felt compelled to leave the palace to seek the beauty of the gardens outside the city. Upon hearing this, the King ordered that the path be cleared of anyone who wasn’t youthful and beautiful. The Gods did not like this, so they created an old man to be put into the prince’s path so that he would be forced to encounter him and become aware of old age. The prince went back to the palace disturbed.

Eventually the Prince decided to try to visit the gardens again and the king, to keep Siddhartha from the human condition, forced all the sick and infirm out of the city so the likelihood of an encounter with the prince would be low. The Gods, again not liking this, placed a sick man in the prince’s path and he became aware of disease.

Finally, the same situation happened again, but this time the Prince witnessed a dead man being carried by four pall bearers and the prince became aware of his own mortality.

Part Ten: Gopa’s dream

Upon learning of death and disease, Siddhartha could not be swayed into pleasure in the gardens. He returned to the Palace distraught.

Gopa, waiting for her Prince, fell asleep and had a dream that she was naked and natural disasters had occurred all around her.

The king deciphered her dream and told her to rejoice and that she would soon be honored.

Part Eleven: Siddhartha is Eager to Know the Great Truths

The prince decides he wants to live a monk’s life. He asks the king to grant him this wish and the king says that he should not waste his youth on religion.

Part Twelve: Siddhartha Leaves His Father’s Palace

Siddhartha seeks the aid of his father’s horse to silently leave the palace at night when all are asleep.

Part Thirteen: Siddhartha the Hermit

Siddhartha gave his jewelry to Chanda, who had accompanied his escape from the palace. He took a gold hilted sword, cut his hair off with it and threw it into the heavens where the Gods kept it to honor him. When a hunter came near, he exchanged his regal robes for the course clothing of the hunter. (Note: the hunter remarked that his clothes were made to camouflage against animals. Then they were portrayed as “reddish.” Is this an acknowledgement that most animals that are hunted are color blind and that a reddish color would only appear gray to them?)

Part: Fourteen: Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve

Gopa woke up in the middle of the night sensing that her husband was gone. The princess and the king grieved the disappearance of Siddhartha.

Bibliography:

Andre Ferdinand Herold, The Life of Buddha, http://sacred-texts.com/bud/lob/lob03.htm#page_3