Buddhism Origins

Siddhartha Gautama, who lived form 560—4 80BC, founded Buddhism. Siddhartha was a wealthy prince, had a beautiful wife, and two sons. He lived a good life to say the least. But material satisfaction was not enough and at the age of 29 he saw four visions. The first three were of suffering: death, old age, and sickness. The finial vision showed happiness and it was of monk. These visions left him dissatisfied with his current life so he gave up his life as a prince. This part in his life is often referred to as the Great Going fourth. It’s the triumph of the spiritual over the worldly life. Siddhartha Gautama sat under a tree until he became enlightened. Then he spent the rest of his life wandering and preaching.

I find the origins of Buddhism very interesting. In some ways I can relate Siddhartha Gautama and Buddhism to my own beliefs of Jesus and Christianity, in the sense that both of them had a lowly life style and wandered around preaching their word. But what is interesting about Siddhartha is that he gave up his life, his perfect life. To me, that’s a little disconcerting. I mean, he had everything that I’m working toward right now: wealth, a nice spouse, and a good family. He had all these desirable things, and he gave them up, and now a whole religion is based onhis life. A whole religion is based on giving up everything that I’m working towards. It just makes me wonder if I’m on the right path with my life. If I achieve my goals, will I be happy? Will I be content with my worldly life? Or will I seek more?