The Psychology Of Buddhism And Buddhism

In a long gone kingdom at the foothills of the Himalayas a prince was about to be born. His father, a Kshatriya and king, wished to know what his child’s fate would be. He summoned a sage to him who said that either his son would be the most successful conquer the world had ever seen, or he would become a spiritual leader and an enlightened being. The moment his son was born pampered, and spoiled him with every luxury possible. He kept his son form hunger, sickness, age, and death. He sheltered his son form all the suffering of the world. His son, Siddhartha, lived like this for 29 years, when one day he wished to see the town beyond the palace. On his journey through the town Siddhartha had four encounters. On his first ride form the palace

In Siddhartha 's first phase, Siddhartha, a wealthy Brahmin found that even though “everyone loved” him, he could not “bring himself joy” and “please himself” (Hesse). This discontent was spurred by the fact that “the wise Brahmins had shared the majority and the best of their wisdom with him;” yet, he was not satisfied nor did this quench his thirst for knowledge but only fueled it (Hesse). Questions arose, about sacrifices, happiness and Atman, “did he who possessed so much wisdom live a blessed life” (Hesse)? At this moment in Siddhartha’s life, he was without peace and he wanted to find answers to these many questions. Focused and hellbent on the journey to enlightenment, Siddhartha made an audacious decision to “go to the Samanas [and] become a Samana” (Hesse). Through hours of an impasse between Siddharth and his father, his father finally agreed to let Siddhartha continue his life journey that began with becoming a Samana. Through this phase, Siddhartha learned he was unsatisfied with practices such as sacrificing, and that he had already achieved the wisdom obtainable from

Before the “Awakened One” or Buddha became known by this name he was known as Siddhartha Gautama. This was the name his parents bestowed upon him, his first name meant “he who achieves his goals” while his last name meant “descendants of gotoma”. Siddhartha was born in Lumbini, todays Nepal. His father was the king of the country and leader of the prominent clan called the Shakyas. His father married Mahamaya who gave birth to the future Buddha. His birth was noted as near painless and it was said that he was fully awake when he was born. Siddhartha’s father, King Shuddodana sought to seek his son’s future by a man who could foresee just that, the future. The man, Asita, prescribed two destinies for Siddhartha, the life of a great king or the life of an insightful, savior of mankind. His father in response to Asitas words made it his ultimate duty to shelter the boy from any sights that may be outside any one of their 3 palaces, especially the sick, the elderly, and death as well as any religious activities. This was to prevent Siddhartha from seeking

Siddhartha grew to be an intelligent boy, fluently speaking 64 different languages and excelling at mathematics as well as archery. He lived a sheltered life in the king’s palace, marrying his cousin, Yashodhara at 16 years old. It wasn’t until his late twenties that Siddhartha was finally allowed to venture from the palace. He witnessed sick people, old people, poor people and even a corpse. These slowly chiselled away in his mind, leaving him with a significant compassion for the suffering people. This made him develop a strong desire to free every being from their endless distress. At age 29, the very day off his son, Rāhula, was born, Siddhartha ventured off to lead an ascetic life, with his hair cut off with rich clothes replaced with religious robes, to find out a way to relieve universal

Every action he made, whether it was deemed right or wrong at the time, had let him to that final moment of becoming one with unity. Siddhartha started out his journey in a forest learning the ways of the Shramana which eventually led him into the city where he met his lover, Kamala. Siddhartha then learned the arts of business from Kamaswami and joined the wealthy world of the “child-people”. Once Siddhartha realized he lost himself in the gluttony, he left the city to live on the river with the ferryman. Finally, Siddhartha had reached the point where he was able to hear the world from the river. Every voice mumbling simultaneously filled Siddhartha’s mind leaving him with the long-awaited enlightenment he had searched for his whole

Siddhartha Gautama was born around 566 – 486 BCE to a royal family in the village of Lumbini in present day Nepal according to The Buddha. He had a normal life growing up, marrying and having children of his own. “Then one day when Siddhartha went outside the royal enclosure where he lived. When he went outside he saw, each for the first time, an old man, a sick man, and a corpse” ("The Buddha"). Siddhartha had a revelation when he saw these men that no matter what happens in life sickness, age, and death are inevitable for all human beings. After this revelation he decided to leave the wealthy life and become a holy homeless man. As he travels his eyes are opened to the sufferings of this cruel world. Siddhartha tried to escape inevitable fates of life by studying with religious men, following a life of self-denial and discipline, and even meditating but could not

While Siddhartha’s year of birth remains to be a topic of heavy debate amongst scholars, the importance of this man when it comes to Buddhism remains quite clear as it was he who founded Buddhism, and while his life and teachings may have been clouded by myths and legends some facts remain consentient and is generally regarded as true. He was born in Nepal in modern day Kapilavastuto, to a large but poor clan called the Shakyas to which his father was the king, which made Siddhartha a prince. It is said that a wise sage or priest had predicted that Siddhartha had the potential to become either a great military king or a great teacher depending whether he was exposed to suffering (Molloy 127). So his father, the king, kept

Siddhartha became enlightened by the sickness and death that surrounded him and gave up his life of royalty for one free of material possessions and full of meditation. Siddhartha became a holy man, The

In the forest, Siddhartha abandoned his royal title and set off on the path to enlightenment as a monk. The path was a difficult search that lead him through three phases….. The first phase involved learning Hinduism tradition by going into deep study with Hindu masters, however, he quickly become proficient of their ways and decided to seek further on to asceticism or abstinence of worldly goods to reach a spiritual level. Soon he conquered the practice, but felt that this was not helping him; he went so far into the practice that he almost died from

Buddhism, on the other hand, understands the psychological nature of humans very deeply and develops effective treatment methods. As revealed in the Flower Ornament Sutra [Avatamsaka Sutra], "Our perception Three Kingdoms arise from the mind, so do Twelve Links of Dependent Origination; birth and death come from the mind, which are extinguished when the mind is put to rest”. If we view Buddhism in this lens, itself in conglomeration with psychology has much to reveal about both practices (Williams-Oerberg, Elizabeth, 2012).

Siddhartha’s journey in attaining the Good Life highlights a number of challenges he had to

Mikulas (2007) claimed Buddhism is often confused with religion or philosophy, yet it is in fact a form of psychology. Firstly, Buddha did not claim to be a god – merely a human being. Furthermore, Buddhism does not involve rituals or worshipping intrinsic to many other religions; “rather it is a set of practices and free inquiry by which one sees for oneself the truth and usefulness of the teachings” (Mikulas, 2007). Mikulas (2007) declared that Buddha did not want to establish a religion – describing the Buddhist community as educational rather than religious. Moreover, Buddha even avoided discussing metaphysical questions which were deemed “ethically useless and intellectually uncertain” (Aich, 2013). This is vastly different from debates inherent to other religions such as life after death, the soul being opposed to the body and the eternalness of the world. The themes surrounding Buddhism are very closely shared with those frequently propositioned within Western psychology. Topics such as “sensation, perception, emotion, motivation, cognition the mind and consciousness” for example (Mikulas, 2007). Of all the existing world religions, de Silva (2000) suggests Buddhism is the most concerned with and closely related to psychology with a great focus on looking “inwards to the intricate dynamics of our mental and spiritual life”. Further harmonies exist between Buddhism and Western psychology, including the shared concern with easing suffering, the interpretation of the human condition as natural rather than religious, the importance of positive regard towards others and the functioning of the mind at a conscious and unconscious level (Mikulas, 2007). Ultimately, whether Buddhism is considered a religion or not, the fundamental teachings of Buddha run parallel with essential concepts of Western

When he was 17 years old, Siddhartha grew bored of his easy life and left his family. As he traveled through the town, he encountered three men: an old man, a sick man, and a dead man. These three encounters symbolized the different levels of suffering Siddhartha had never experienced while living on the estate. These encounters made Siddhartha realize how much pain and suffering filled the world.

Siddhartha then joined a hermitage, where he learned both philosophical knowledge and meditation techniques. He soon became equal to his teacher in knowledge and technique. He was unsatisfied. Mastering the knowledge and techniques of this hermitage did not lead him to the state of perfect enlightenment he was seeking. Nevertheless, he persisted. He joined another hermitage. He acquired all the knowledge there had to be gained, only to be met with the same disappointment. He ventured off into the forest, finding a little spot for himself to sit and contemplate. As he was making himself comfortable, he came across a small group of beggars, who asked to be his students. He agreed.

After, Siddhartha Gautama father heard his son’s future, he tried his best to keep him away from the real world. Siddhartha was not allowed to go beyond the palace walls, because his father was afraid that Siddhartha would see how the real world was before taking the thrown. Unfortunately, Siddhartha was only allowed to play with the children in the palace and be use to the nicer things in life. One day Siddhartha was let out beyond the palace walls and had a total different view on how the world