Siddhartha the Life of a Prophet Essay

Meditating in the forest for six years he realized that he was becoming close to full enlightenment. Siddhartha found another spot to complete his meditation under the Bodhi Tree where he wouldn’t leave until he achieved his enlightenment. While in his deep state meditation Devaputra Mara the chief of all demons tried to stop him from achieving his goal by sending nightmarish vision to him to disturb him. With none of these tactics working Mara even tried luring him away with beautiful girls, but nonetheless Siddhartha wouldn’t break his concentration. Withstanding the chief of demons, he received the name Conqueror Buddha in which the next day of meditation he could become Buddha (“About Buddha”).

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

He lived in despair for several days just like everyone else, and then decided to challenge both himself and the disease.He came up with a plan to extend his life, in which changes his mode of living,including work and rest, bite and dup,also all kinds of activities.He cut out wine and abandoned smoking immediately, which is horribly painful at long journey to go through. He drank only 100% vegetable

“What is concentration? What is the ability to leave one’s body? What is fasting? What is retention of breath? It is a flight from the self, it is a brief escape from the torment of being ‘I’, it is a brief numbing of the mind to counter pain and the senselessness of life.” (Page 9)

Although he was still very aware of his mistakes, Siddhartha was able to use them as lessons. He learned to never again participate or become involved in situations like gambling or getting caught in the “ordinary” way of life. He now had new experiences under his belt and became more wise because of that. According to the Samsara cycle you have to go through the death stage of an experience in order to go through the process of rebirth. This is what happened to Siddhartha. He had to hit rock bottom before he could go on with his journey.

It took him half an hour to die. After his death, the natives had “stripped his body almost to the bones.”

After three years, Siddhartha realizes that he is not progressing toward his goal. He had learned all the Samanas could teach, and "he lost himself a thousand times and for days on end he dwelt in non-being. But although the paths took him away from Self, in the end they always led back to it" (15-16). Siddhartha discovers this was not the path he sought; escaping from one's Self did not bring one to salvation. His wisdom grew when he accepted there was another path and this short escape from Self is experienced by others in a quite different way such as people who drink numbing their senses like he did with the Samanas. He sees that in truth, there is no learning and that his questioning and thirst for knowledge could not be satisfied by teaching. Seeking another path, Siddhartha hears of a Buddha named Gotama, and with Govinda, who also chooses to leave, ventures to see him.

human body was fallible. He tried to prolong his life with an awareness into his diet,

“I will grow tired.” Siddhartha is so bent on reaching Nirvana that he lets nothing get in his way - this is proof. Although he stepped off the right path a few times throughout his journey, it is really the hardships and struggles he faced in his path that were the illuminating events. For example, this quote suggests that

As Siddhartha was growing up he excelled in everything such as mastering all traditional arts, sciences, mathematics, and knew sixty-four languages including their respective alphabets. Siddhartha was very wise at a young age, and didn’t have to study, but he did anyways to please his father and to help others. He also trained in martial arts, archery, and tried to constantly give spiritual meanings, and wisdom to people to help them on to a spiritual path. During an archery competition Siddhartha said, “With the bow of meditative concentration I will fire the arrow of wisdom and kill the tiger of ignorance in living beings.” After that he shot his arrow, and it was said to have went through five iron tigers, and seven trees before vanishing

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.

Buddhism’s founder was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, meaning “one who realized his goal.” Buddhists believe that when Siddhartha’s mother, Maha, was conceived she had a dream involving a white elephant carrying a lotus flower. She interpreted the dream to mean that her son would grow up to become a great spiritual leader. Just a week after Siddhartha was born, his mother died. Upon her death, he lived with his wealthy aunt and his father on a large estate. As Siddhartha grew up, his father kept him away from all suffering and anguish of the world. Unlike many of his peers, he was well educated and free from the world’s sorrows.

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.

One vital lesson Siddhartha comes to learn in the second part of Siddhartha!!!!! is the importance of experiencing the darkness of the world. Without this key element, Siddhartha’s path to Enlightenment may have never been reached. After he is consumed by civilization with lust, corruption, carelessness, and materialism, Siddhartha is disgusted with himself. His mind and spirit spiral further and further into despair until he ultimately wishes for death. However, in the last moments of his life, his inner Om stops him. Reflecting upon his foolish actions, Siddhartha realizes that everything he had experienced in the past years were necessary in order for him to “become a child again and begin anew.” (78). If Siddhartha had not reached those dark, low thoughts, the existence of his inner voice may have never been acknowledged again. In his early life, this internal guider led Siddhartha to refuse the Buddha as a teacher. At first, there appears to be no benefit in obeying that voice, but Siddhartha eventually becomes his own savior. If his internal voice was ignored, Siddhartha would be sheltered from the world, knowing only how to absorb to the words of others, yet incapable of creating his own words and rescue himself. At the end of this twisting path, after every phase, Siddhartha is back to the same state he began in. Siddhartha has casted off his old, desperate, and flawed self. He compares himself to a child, “nothing is mine, I know nothing, I possess nothing, I have