Reading Notes: Life of Buddha Part B

Victory over mara

The whole idea of Siddhartha as a hero is really unique in the story of the Buddha. From all my previous readings, a hero is someone who has to physically fight the evil, usually with a weapon of some sort. In Buddha, Siddhartha is a hero because of his courage to conquer old age and death. By conquering old age and death, he gives up everything in pursuit of supreme knowledge. That idea of a hero pursuing supreme knowledge to conquer death seems completely different even from the other Indian Epics I've read in class. Overall, I think the story is great, but, it seems that Buddha's attempt to shine light into the world would be overall futile as if nobody gave birth and nobody had a desire to then there would be no humans. Thus it would lead to the end of humankind. This is similar to when Paul the Apostle said that marriage is a concession and although the ideal is to be celibate, most people are not that strong. I would have to look further into Buddhist ideas to understand this.


Bibliography:
The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Read Notes: Life of Buddha Part A

This is my first time exploring the story of the Buddha. Although in highschool I had friends that read Siddhartha, I never read it myself. One of the things that really stood out to me throughout college was the Buddhist idea of taking the "I" out of suffering and to think that there is suffering. That idea is really unique as throughout the story, none of the old age, sickness, and death, was present in Siddhartha himself, but rather, he saw it and felt it. This contrasts with his actual environment in which he has everything that he could ever really need. This idea of there IS something in the world became prevalent and is a coming of age moment for Siddhartha as he realized that the world has pain. It's quite beautiful.

Patrick meditating?

Bibliography:

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).