Life Is Suffering : Siddhartha Gautama, The Man Who Would Be Buddha

God is dead. There is no reason to believe otherwise. The concept of God used to be something, mean something. Any significance that a Higher Being used to hold has now vanished without a trace. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared “God is dead.

Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, wrote Parable of a Madman, a writing that explains the ranting’s of a seemingly madman. This madman is running through the streets yelling that “God is dead”. His initial reaction is despair and grief; he is beside himself with the knowledge that we have “killed God”. The madman goes on to realize that he has come too early and that human race isn’t ready to hear something so profound. We cannot even comprehend the magnitude of the death of God and what it means for us. With the death of

The main focus of Buddhism is that the faith centers on correct understanding of human nature and ultimate reality, The Buddha was also called the Enlightened One, he taught that the way to eliminate suffering begins with understanding the true nature of the world. He rejected speculation about such matters as God, the nature of the universe, and the afyterlife, urging his folloers to focus instead on the Four Noble Truths by which they can free themselves from suffering. “We do not believe that this world is created and ruled by God.” The disbelief in God does not make Buddhism an atheistic religion. The Buddha rejected the concept of the atman, or soul. In

Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha began spreading his knowledge to help others achieve ?Nirvana?, which means to be released from the reincarnation cycle. He preached that there were 4 Noble Truths: (1) all life is suffering; (2) the source of suffering is desire; (3) to end desiring is to end suffering; (4) there is an eight-fold path to end suffering; to have the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This idea of being released from suffering attracted many people, and Buddhism soon spread rapidly through Northern India, and then through Southern India.

Throughout the first part of the novel Siddhartha written by Herman Hesse, each chapter represents one of the Four Noble Truths. This chapter “The Brahmin Son” represents the Noble Truth “Life is Suffering”, in translation life consists of suffering and dissatisfaction. Suffering does not only come from the body but there also forms of mental suffering. On page 5 of the novel it states, “That was how everybody loved Siddhartha. He delighted and made everybody happy. But Siddhartha himself was not happy.” This quote shows that Siddhartha is in fact mentally suffering because he is not happy. From this it is clear that Siddhartha lives a life of suffering which demonstrates that Siddhartha wasn’t happy because all that he was taught by his father

Nietzsche's madman allegory represents the current moral situation of society during his time--a growing belief that God does not exist, a movement away from religious values. Nietzsche does not mean literally that God has been murdered, but because mankind created God, we also have the ability to kill God. In Nietzsche’s point of view, mankind created God by also creating a belief in God. By saying that mankind ‘murdered’ God, Nietzsche is proposing that we no longer believe in Him. With the grounding that religion provided in the past, Nietzsche fears that mankind will be left without purpose and virtues to lead them to do the correct thing. The ‘light,’ in Nietzsche’s allegory is belief in God; for this paper, light is a focus because of the implications that follow when there is none. With no light, everything previously known about moral beliefs and the world is overturned. Nietzsche proposes that instead of God guiding people (because people no longer believe in Him), people can follow their own virtues, such as courage, faith in oneself, and patience for the future.

Buddha is one of the wisest religious leaders in the world. He has forever influenced the world with his wise outlook on the world. He has shown people that being a kind person is more important than riches he or she inherits. Buddha’s number one goal was to put a stop to suffering (Thero). Buddha hated seeing others struggle and wanted to see them live a happy life and encourage everyone to be kind to everyone around you. Because of his simplicity, patience, and compassion, Buddha taught many people that wealth doesn’t measure how great of a person he or she is.

Siddharta Gautama was twenty-nine years old when he abandoned his family to search for a means to bring to an end his and other’s suffering after studying meditation for many years. At age thirty-five, Siddharta Gautama sat down under the shade of a fig tree to meditate and he determined to meditate until he reached enlightenment. After seven weeks he received the Great Enlightenment which he referred to as the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. Henceforth he became known as the Buddha.

Siddhartha Gautama lived in Nepal sometimes between 300 and 500 B.C., 2,300 to 2,500 years ago. He became known as Buddha. Scholars agree that he was a real person,but did not agree about his life. He explore different ideas. He achieve full awareness of the universe ,thereby becoming a buddha.He founded the first world religion. He began to take many trips outside his palace.On these trips he saw a very sick man,a dead person and an ascetic. The driver explained that the ascetic had given up the world so that he would no longer be afraid of death and suffering.Siddhartha was 29 years old,and the next day,he left his kingdom ,his wife and baby son to lead an ascetic life. He wanted to end suffering.

The question of what may result from the fostering of critical, individual thought may have never even risen let alone remain unanswered if not for the consideration of some of the world’s greatest minds. Rigorously questioning the objectivity and truth of values whilst preserving a focus on the impacts of religion and morality on contemporary culture, Friedrich Nietzsche was, and remains to be, one of the most notably influential figures within the domain of 19th century philosophy. Upon viewing a number of citizens who were adopting a pessimistic and distrustful standpoint against the societal values of the time, Nietzsche came to the belief that the system of morals which had been lived by were no longer resonating with the maturing populace and that God was effectively useless; it is for this reason that Nietzsche announces the “Death of God”. Though a particular brand of nihilist may have viewed this passing as a detriment to the social cohesion of the populace due to an absence of any universal, absolute values - once attributed to God - Nietzsche proposed that this was not necessarily the case. Instead,

Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?...This Son, on the other hand, who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don 't get it and opponents who don 't respect Him-what kind of a god is that?... This Son is a god who died in three hours, with moans, gasps and laments. What kind of a god is that? What is there to inspire in this Son? (63)

Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, Nepal during the 4th to 6th century B.C. He was born to the King Sakya Sudhodana, who ruled at Kapilavastu in Ancient India, and Queen Maya. After seven days of giving birth to Siddhartha his mother died however, a holy man was to have said that one of two great things would come of the newborn; he would grow up to become a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. After the passing of his mother, Buddha grew up in a rich household and lived an extravagant life. According to their beliefs, he married at the age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara, which they had a child together. During this time, his father had ordered that he were to live a life of isolation in

Buddhism arose in northern India in the 6th century BCE. The historical founder of Buddhism, Siddharta Gautama (c.560-480 BCE) was born in a village called Lumbini into a warrior tribe called the Sakyas (from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning 'Sage of the Sakyas'). According to tradition Gautama's father, Suddhodana was the king of a small principality based on the town of Kapilavastu. His mother, Queen Maya, died seven days after Gautama's birth. Following the death of Maya, Suddhodana married Maya's sister, Prajapati, by whom Gautama was brought up in great luxury and sheltered from the harshness of the outside world.

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” (Gay Science, 126) This harsh statement remains among Friedrich Nietzsche’s most powerful and disturbing quotes, spoken by a proclaimed Madman to a crowd of disbelievers. After making this claim, the Madman becomes horrified by his audience’s ignorance, noting that “This tremendous event is still on its way.” This has an effect of suspending the Madman’s message in time, expanding its audience infinitely, for the event of God’s death could still be on its way. Therefore, nearly 150 years after these words were written, we must ask ourselves, does God remain dead, and has our modern society killed him? This is a haunting and disturbing question, but in many ways our society does resemble Nietzsche’s masses. However, it also resembles the Madman himself, due to its inherent individualism.

The celebration of Wesak which is the annual ritual celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death (parinirvana), provides an opportunity for adherents to reflect on the Buddha’s life and teaching.