Buddhism - Select, describe and explain the events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama which illustrate his religious development.

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Buddhism Coursework

Select, describe and explain the events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama which illustrate his religious development.

Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha or ‘the enlightened one’ was born about 560 BC and died at the age of eighty. He was the founder of the Buddhist religion. Siddhartha lived in north-eastern India, an area which followed the Hindu religious tradition, which was, in those days a great variety of Indian traditions and practices.

Indian society was then divided up by the Hindu caste system. The highest caste were the Brahmins or priests, with the next caste down being the Kshatriyas, who were rulers or soldiers.

Siddhartha was born in a place called Lumbini, into the Shakya clan. He was a prince, and was therefore in the Kshatriyas caste. The story of his birth to Queen Maya, wife of Raja Shuddhodana of the Kingdom of Kapilavastu, said that his mother had a dream that eight Brahmins or priests said was a good omen. They said the child would be holy and achieve perfect wisdom. Siddhartha’s mother died seven days after his birth, and his aunt brought him up.

There is a tradition that a seer predicted that Siddhartha would become a great religious leader. His father tried to stop this by keeping all ideas of suffering from his son. Siddhartha lived a royal life and married a princess called Yasodhara. They had a son called Rahula.

When he was 29, Siddhartha went riding and saw four things that made him think about his life and want to change it. He saw three examples of suffering: an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. Siddhartha realized that suffering came to everyone. He also saw a holy man, or Sadhu. He decided to leave his life of luxury and become a Sadhu to try and fin a cure for the world’s suffering.

Siddhartha went to two Brahmins, but was not happy with their teaching. He then tried living in the forest with Sadhus who tried to become better spiritually by living very simply. He lived this way for six years and nearly starved himself to death, but did not find an answer to suffering.

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He was now 35 years old, and had not found an answer to the question of suffering. Siddhartha decided to sit under a tree and meditate until he had an answer. The tree he sat under was a papal tree.

The first thing that happened as he sat under the tree was that a devil figure called Mara tried to frighten him away from his meditation.  The story then goes that the Hindu earth goddess Vasundhara appeared and helped him. The devil then left and Siddhartha carried on meditating until he became enlightened, and experienced the peace of ...

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