Prince Siddartha and His Teachings

      Prince Siddhartha was born into great wealth and privileges. He was born in India and always had everything he wanted. Women, money, food and everything else one could wish to have. His father, the king, was very protective of him after his wife died giving birth to Prince Siddhartha. One day the prince took a trip into town. There for the first time he came into contact with the real world. It was full of suffering; sickness, famine, death, poverty, and other facts of life. While seeing this all for the first time he wondered how all this could be, since he only knew life as pleasant and free of suffering. After returning to his life of protection and privilege he pondered the meaning of life and why those people were suffering in town. At 29 years old Prince Siddhartha left his palace, wife and child. In the search of the meaning of life and the suffering that accompanies it.

He arrived at a bondi tree and sat under it and swore to himself not to leave from under it until he understood the meaning of life and the suffering that accompanies it. While sitting under the tree he put his body through hell. Not eating, or drinking unless it came from his body. Meaning he only drank his urine and ate his feces.  He punished his body any way he could think of almost to the point of death. While he was punishing his body to the point of death, he recalled a time when he was a child watching bull’s plow a field for planting crops. At that time he realized that at that moment, when he was a child, nothing was missing.  While remembering this he knew that it was possible to be in that state of consciousness in the present. After realizing that, Prince Siddhartha knew that punishing his body was not the way to enlightenment.

     Instead he came to the realization that the middle path, which is not denying yourself of things but also not giving yourself too much, but to live the middle path in life. After realizing this he knew he had awoken and was on the path to finding out the meaning of life and why there is suffering in the world; enlightenment. The first thing he realized meditating under the bondi tree was that life is full of suffering, pain and sorrow. Second, the cause of suffering is the desire for things that are really illusions, such as riches, power and long life. Third, the only cure for suffering was to overcome desire. The way to overcome desire is to follow the eightfold path. The eightfold path is the right view, intentions, speech, action, livelihood, effort, concentrations and the right mindfulness. The right view is always having a positive outlook about life no matter the circumstances. The right intention means your intentions are good. You don’t try and use people. The right speech means you don’t say hurtful things. Right actions mean you help people and show love and compassion to everyone, as yourself. Right livelihood means you do work that helps humanity. Instead of work that hurts humanity. Right effort means that you try and not except things to just happen. Right concentration means you give your mind and thoughts to the right things. The last of the eightfold path is the most important, it is the right mindfulness. Without being mindful all the other paths are not possible, because you won’t know if you are practicing the other pathways without mindfulness in every moment. Mara, the lord of desire, will do all he can to keep you suffering in life. The funny thing is that Marais ourselves; the ego that is in us all. We can realize that we cause our own suffering. We can become awaken and reach our full potential, a word called enlightenment and escape death and enter nirvana. Prince Siddhartha was becoming enlightened as he sat under the bondi tree, becoming Buddha. This means enlightened one that has reached his full potential.