Buddhism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Buddhism - Research Paper Example Buddha taught people that awakening and enlightenment comes through self realization and it has nothing to do with one’s beliefs and ideals. After Buddha’s death, his followers spread his teachings to distant places and Buddhism appeared as a new religion in Asia; today it is the fourth largest religion of the world (Fisher ). Siddhartha Gautama was born to King Suddhodana of Shakya near Nepal in 583 B.C. His mother died soon after giving birth to Siddhartha. It was predicted by one of the holy men of Suddhodana’s court that Siddhartha will be a great conqueror or a great spiritual leader in future; his father was delighted to hear this because he wanted his son to be a great conqueror. Siddhartha spent his early life in his palaces in great luxuries; he was being trained to become a great prince and conqueror, therefore, his father kept him away from the realities of life and the disturbing thoughts of any religion. Siddhartha Gautama went out of his palace for the first time at the age of 29. He was amazed to see the life of people living outside the palace as he observed an aged man, a sick man and a corpse during his journey. The bitter realities of life greatly aggrieved him and the prince started to think about the truth behind this life. Siddhartha started to take journeys out of his palace; during one of such experiences he saw an ascetic. He was told that ascetics are people who leave the worldly life in search of the divine truth. Impressed by the life of ascetics, Gautama decided that he would start searching for the realities of life on his own (Armstrong). Gautama along with his five disciples started off their journey in pursuit of truth of life by visiting the renowned religious scholars of that time (Serinity). After months of learning of almost every known religion of the time in that area of the world, Gautama was not satisfied as a lot of questions remained unanswered in his mind. Therefore, he and his five disciples deci ded that they will search for enlightenment themselves through physical suffering and meditation. A series of physical sufferings which included extreme fasting, holding of breath and enduring great pain taught Gautama about the suffering and pain in the life of human beings. Gautama has already experienced a life of great pleasures at his palace; therefore, at this stage he had personally experienced both extremes of life. However, he wanted to find out a middle way, a life to end the sufferings of people. During one of his rounds of meditation, Gautama recalled his childhood experience when his mind achieved a state of deep peace and satisfaction. This made him realize that the reality of life can be found out by achieving peace of mind. At this point he decided to end fasting because he felt the need of energy in his quest for reality of life. But when Gautama ended his fast, his companions thought he has ended the quest to find the truth of life and abandoned him. After this, he continued his pursuit of enlightenment through long meditations and soon achieved the peace of mind he wanted and, thus, he believed himself to be enlightened because he found out the reality of life (Serinity). During the immediate period which followed his enlightenment, Gautama did not want to teach whatever he had learned about life because he thought that the