Find It By Yourself — The Buddha Way
A few days back I came across the known fact about Ashoka “The Great” realizing about the path of Buddha and renouncing to Peace, This has been my motivation past few days/weeks to know and get the Insight of Buddha and Buddhism and I started reading 5 related books and these has been an Eye opener; and at this time the BUDDHA PURNIMA, an auspicious festival celebrating the Birth of the Awakened one ; was also being celebrated.
Buddhism is the Fourth largest religion in the world, sustained since 2500 years and attracting millions of devotees to the way that ends Sufferings.Impact has been prevalent mostly in Asian nations. To know about Buddhism, which i call this not as a religion but as a way of life dedicated to the teachings of Buddha and self realization; one need to know about the extreme situations that Siddhartha Gothama faced.
Some say Destiny is already prepared for an individual and same might have happened in the case of Buddha. Just a day before the Birth of the greatest Saint, his mother has a dream of a White elephant offering a lotus and entering mother’s womb through Right and this has been decoded as that the….
He will become either a Great king or a Great Teacher
His mother has died within 7 days after the birth and his Father has brought him up in such a way that at any cost Siddhartha should not feel any discomfort/ dissatisfaction and this has been done till almost 29 years. Miracles happens and these can’t have any explanation, one fine day during his childhood Siddhartha sat under a tree with crossed legs similar to a saint , now comes this ; the shade of the tree didn’t move from him during this all the people around the farm were awestruck in surprise. He enjoyed all the pleasures in the world that a king would enjoy and never ever got a thought of leaving the palace. sooner, during his 16 he loved his cousin and got married. At 29 they were blessed with son Rahula and when everything is good Just Four situations has completely changed the world to Siddhartha.
The old man
The sick
The corpse
The saint
The Time he was introduced to the reality of Life, the cycle of suffering and the cycle of death and re-birth is the Wound which he has to Heal . The Path which he chosen at the age 29 with a new born baby and with a role of king is the path with the Greatest sacrifice that i have never heard of.
“The Greatest Outcomes are the results of Greatest Sacrifices”
After choosing the Tough path, It took him 6 years to know the Ultimate Truth , the Ultimate end to suffering. These Six years he has met two Gurus and under him he didn’t find his answers.Later he has chosen to get the body to extremes , which is a way to get enlightened mainly recommended by the saints of those times. He went days barely eating a grain of rise, drank his own Urine, slept on bed with Nails, put his body under extreme weather conditions and much more. His body weakened and in a state of emptiness, still didn’t find the answer. Then out of somewhere a situation of childhood as i mentioned earlier in blog, which gave him ultimate joy under a tree has struck him.THE MIDDLE WAY .I believe “Nature, always supports the cause”. The same time he was offered a bowl of rice with milk with generosity. He took it and sat under a tree in Bihar known as BHODI tree, which fell of in 2nd century AD and was established by Britishers during 19th century . He decided for himself that unless he gets the answer , he would die doing renouncement.
The same night he has gone through his previous lives and as the morning sun shines, similarly he was also shined with enlightenment and answers.At age 35 and after 6 years of his search, finally it happened.
Pain is certain, suffering is optional
THE TEACHINGS :
The four Nobel truths — Suffering(Dukkha), Arising of Suffering, cessation of suffering and it’s way of cessation
The eight fold path
There are many books based on teachings of Buddha ; “ what the buddha taught”- by Walpola Rahula and “The life of Buddha”- by Rje Mkhan are the ones which i preferred. Starting from Sudra to Kings many were blessed by the his teachings. The main Motive is to make people know the truth and follow a way that ends sufferings.
Come, Listen, understand the truth yourself
In every grain of human existence there is suffering and desire is the one which causes it and it doesn’t mean not to have any desires but there should not be any thirst. “NIRVANA”, is nothing but the ultimate truth which breaks the cycle of death and re-birth i.e breaks the cycle of sufferings.
THE THREE GREAT STORIES WHICH MIGHT SHOW US TRUTH :
- Death is the Unavoidable : A woman was weeping by the loss of his son, seeing this Buddha asked her that she will get a solution to this, and asked her to find a house where the all family is alive. she went to every house and found none.
- Generosity, compassion and Wisdom : Once a wild elephant was in a rage in a town, damaging everything around and was coming towards Buddha, who stayed there without moving. seeing this the anger of elephant was calmed down by the generosity of Buddha. Anger, jealousy, Ignorance exists; but win it by Generosity, compassion and Wisdom.
- Not beneficial information : One of his Disciple has asked Buddha some questions on what is god? who is god? what he does? who are we actually? why are we? and so. Buddha replied “ There was a man travelling in a forest and on the way from somewhere around by mistake a hunter stuck an arrow on his knee, he was later admitted to hospital but he refused to take treatment unless he knew who hit him? what caste he belong? what is arrow made up of? why did he hit me? and so on………He would have got the information but before then he might have died” ! so Buddha teachings are with lots of wisdom , he taught what is necessary and what one should know necessarily.
The quest to find the truth lies in ones self i.e the mind, awaken it through deep meditation and understanding
His teachings went on till his 80, of 45 years .He also granted women to be a part of Sangha breaking all the stereotypes during those times. During his times Bimbisara was taught on peace and later Ajatasattu had realized his mistakes and committed to Buddhism; Ashoka, renounced after been to suffering post Kalinga war . Buddha attained Nirvana in kusinara. Later his attainment of Nirvana, till 500 years his teachings were oral. His main teachings known as Tripitaka , the three books depicting the truth. Sutta pitaka depicts his teachings. The journey and teachings has inspired many and have been inspiring many and the sangha at present known as “BUDDHISM”
All things change, this is the natural process
The relationship to LIFE involves, loosing it too
LAST WORDS :
Let the Dharma and my discipline be your teacher, all individual things pass on, strive on untiringly
SOURCES:
- What the Buddha taught by — Walpolo Rahula
- Gautama Buddha by — Chowdhury Rohini
- The life of Buddha by — Rje Mkhan
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDgd8LT9AL4
