Siddhartha Research Paper

Siddhartha Gautama was a warrior prince who founded Buddhism and lived from 566 to 483 BC [1]. He was born in Lumbini,

     Siddhartha, set in India, is subtitled an "Indic Poetic Work," and it clearly owes much to Indian religions. But the question of the exact nature of Hesse's debt to various aspects of Indian religion and philosophy in Siddhartha is quite complicated and deserves detailed discussion. This essay will discuss the elements of Hindu and Buddhist thought present in Siddhartha and make distinctions between them.

Known as the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, was born between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, in what is now modern Nepal. He grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince because the ruler of the Sakya people, Suddhodana was his father. Custom dictated marriage and he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had prearranged that he live a life of absolute isolation, but one day Siddhartha embarked out into the world and was accosted with the reality of the unavoidable affliction of life. At the age of twenty-nine, he opted to leave his kingdom, wife and newborn son to in lieu of leading the life of an ascetic to ascertain a way to mitigate universal suffering.

The origin, traditional Buddhism began in the 6th century BC with the historical personage born Siddhartha Gautama, but better known by a variety of titles including Shakyammi, Tathagata, or most commonly Buddha, the enlightened one. The legend of the Buddha’s life has acquired plenty of variations and embellishments over the years, but the basic facts are accepted as traditional, including the dates of his birth and death (563-489 BC by Western reckoning, 624-544 according to Sri Lankan tradition). The story of Buddha’s birth is encrusted with myth and fable as that of any God-figure in human history. For instance, he is said to have issued from his mother’s womb stating that his cycle of rebirths was about to end. Again, some Buddhists

Siddhartha Gautama lived during a time of major social changes throughout the 6th century. In considering the ways of the world in the 6th century it is important to understand it wasn’t a global society as occurs today but rather a number of distinct civilisations defined by independent cultural, technological and social practices. Dominant civilisations in this time included Persia (Turkey, Iraq), Greece, Eastern Zhou Dynasty (China) and North India (Nepal). Sataal (1996) notes this period of history saw the emergence of four major philosophers in different parts of the world: Zoroaster in Persia, Pythagoras in Greece and Confucius in China

Siddhartha was the child of the king of the time named Śuddhodana and his wife the queen. When, the queen fell pregnant, the kingdom was overjoyed as the king now had a male heir to his kingdom so that when he died, someone could take over and be the most powerful man in the land. However, just before Siddhartha was born, the queen had a dream. The royal dream experts and soothsayers concluded that her son would either become a great teacher or a powerful king. The king therefore thought the best thing for his son would be to become a king in the lap of luxury and not a religious man who devoted their life to religion.

In the beginnings, Buddhism was started singlehandedly by Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince who was the son of Queen Maha Maya, Mahapajapati Gotami, and King Śuddhodana. He was born in Lumbini (present day Nepal) during the fifth century BCE. According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha lived a wealthy and comfortable life as a prince until at one point, he left on a journey and was horrified at the sight of four people suffering of old age, illness, poverty, and death. At the age of 29, after witnessing their sufferings, he decided to leave his family in an attempt to seek enlightenment through self-discipline, or asceticism, but even his most intense asceticism didn’t bring him enlightenment. He then sat under a tree for 49 days vowing not to move until he had reached enlightenment. He came out as the Buddha,

After both came into being by miraculous birth there early years were much different. Siddhartha’s father was a king and had taken his son to a soothsayer who said his son was destined to be either a great and powerful king or a sage who would become the savior of humanity. Determined for his son to be a king Siddhartha’s father, Shuddodana Gautama, shut his son away in his palaces and refused to expose him to any suffering of the world which may sway him to a life of spirituality. Siddhartha his early life surrounded by health and beauty, was trained as a warrior and was married at 16. Eventually the essence of his being could not be contained and asked his father to see his future kingdom from outside the palace walls. Still reluctant a parade

When Siddhartha learned how to understand the suffering of life, he made his own teachings to help others understand too. Siddhartha's teachings then became his power to help people. Siddhartha helped many who have felt the same way as him when he saw the suffering of a person out on the street. He helped others who didn’t want to accept the suffering of life with wise words to help them realize why they need to accept it. The Buddha did not use his power to harm others or to get what he wanted, he used his power to help others.

Siddhartha Gotama was born into a royal family in Lumbini, now located in Nepal, in 563 BC. At 29, he realised that money and luxury did not guarantee happiness, so he explored the different teachings religions and philosophies of the day, to find the key to human happiness. After six years of study and meditation, he finally found 'the middle path ' and was happy. After he found what made him happy, the Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching the principles of Buddhism called the Dhamma, or Truth until he died when he was 80 years old.

The four main areas or expressions of Buddhism in the world are Theraveda Buddhism, practiced in South and Southeast Asia; Zen Buddhism, practiced in Japan; Pure Land Buddhism, practiced in East Asia, and lastly; Tibetan Buddhism, practiced in Tibet. The three main types of Buddhism are Theraveda, Mahayana, and Tantric. All Buddhists share and respect the teachings of the Buddha, trace their origins back to Siddhartha Gautama and follow a set of ethical rules. There are around 350 million practicing Buddhists in the world today and this number is being conservative (Engelmajer, 4-5). The Buddha’s teachings were known as the middle path or the path to enlightenment. Buddhism in the Vedic context consisted of a soteriological goal, the path to achieve that goal, and social order in the class system. The Mahayana branch of Buddhism focuses on meditative practices and the path of the Bodhisattva. It is important to have compassion, wisdom, and skillful means in order to follow this path. The ultimate purpose of this path is to liberate all beings from suffering and help all to reach enlightenment. So this differs from other forms of Buddhism because it focuses on others reaching nirvana before oneself reaching nirvana. The Mahayana’s felt that mainstream Buddhists were selfish as they themselves followed this path for the benefit for all beings. This was considered to

In this week’s readings, it was stated that Siddhartha, or better known as wish-fulfiller, had lived in a lap of luxury. The gods arranged for Siddhartha to be shown four sights. These sights consisted of a bent old man, a sick person, a dead person, and a monk seeking eternal pleasure. To Siddhartha this happening to him seemed to be what we would call a “wake up call”, because of this “wake up call” Siddhartha began to question his existence of wealth and luxury while so many others seemed to be suffering. At first I was somewhat confused when I thought about Buddha leaving his wife and his son behind to search for knowledge, but after reading about this I have learned that there are many cultures out there that do encourage this kind of

For Lise Vail it was at 6th century BCE where Siddhartha Gautama setted the formation of religion, Buddhism,but patheos.com claims that “most historian agree that Buddhism originated in northern India in 5th century B.C.E. At 563 B.C.E., Lumbini (now known as Nepal) near the Himalayan foothills is where Siddhartha was born, and Sarnath, Bernares is where Siddhartha started his teachings (Vail). According to Vail, “Siddhartha Guatama was the warrior son of king and queen.” AboutBuddhism.com said that Gautama’s earthly name is Buddha Shakyamuni where “Sharkya” is royal family name and “Muni” means “Able One”, but he is also given a name “Siddhartha” due to great prediction of his future. According to Lise, legends told that Siddhartha was received

The book Siddhartha is told in chronological order. The reader follows him from his wealthy childhood to a time of spiritual and an unworldly journey until he accomplished his goal of peace and understanding. The form is biographical, but it is also a symbol because the characters portray the attributes that their names indicate. Many events that Siddhartha goes through could also be understood as a figurative internal quest. From one chapter to another Siddhartha has also been compared with the tales of well-known heroes. The book is divided into two uneven parts of four chapters in Part One and eight in Part Two. Part one takes Siddhartha from his father's home, through the years with the Samanas and the chance meeting with the Buddha,

The relationship between Sidd and his father was a rocky one. The plan for Siddhartha wasn’t to follow the same path as his father and he was in disagreement with that. “One had to find it, the primal source in one’s own self, one had to make it one’s own!” (Hesse 7) Even though his father lived a pure life he believed that he wasn’t like him, that there was something else in the world for him; he believed the perfect life his father had wasn’t ideal for him, he sought his own way. Siddhartha wasn’t concerned with arguing with his father or discussing an alternative option, he was focused and was pushing for the Samana path; his father just had to accept the fact that his son was leaving even though he wanted his son to follow his path. “go into the forest and become a samana. If you find bliss in the