Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama, often referred to as “the Buddha”, was a prince who lived around 500 BCE in modern-day India. His father, the King, sheltered Siddhartha and kept him largely confined to a royal life of luxury within the palace. At the age of 29 Siddhartha felt that material wealth was not the ultimate goal of life so one night he summoned his charioteer Channa and they snuck out of the palace. This is where his story begins.

The first man they came across was an old man, then a diseased man, and then a dead man. Disturbed by this, Siddhartha now knew that all people would eventually grow old, become diseased and die. The prince continued on his journey until coming upon an ascetic. He asked Channa who this was and he replied “Siddhartha, this is a man who has renounced all worldly possessions in the pursuit of enlightenment”. Siddhartha immediately disrobed from his royal garments and followed the ascetic into the woods in the pursuit of enlightenment. He goes from one polarity to the other extreme, thinking this is the way to create radical change. I find it so interesting to observe this within my own mind. It is the all or none mindset. It rarely works as Siddhartha eventually discovers. 

Over the next six years Siddhartha studied with different yoga masters trying to find enlightenment through near total deprivation of worldly goods (including food) and practicing self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. After asceticism and concentrating on meditation, Siddhartha is said to have discovered what he called the Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He came to this realization while sitting under the Bodhi tree. Bodhi means enlightenment and Buddha means one who has achieved bodhi.

He found complete awakening and insight into the nature and cause of human suffering—ignorance. His awakening was simply categorized into the Four Noble Truths of Life. The four noble truths are: suffering, causes of suffering, happiness and causes of happiness. Many people whom I have come across who have studied and live Buddhist philosophy are very quick to say that this is the only teaching you ever need. They are also very quick to say the Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist. Siddhartha became enlightened. He woke up to the power that each and every one of us possesses. He saw the very nature of reality and the interdependence of the universe. Much of his insights have been proven over the last 50 years through research into quantum physics.

Siddhartha original mindset is a root cause of suffering for many. I see it all the time. I am quitting on Monday. I am going to lose 50 pounds. Someone who goes from sitting on the couch to saying they are going to run a marathon. Our minds think that radically going from one polarity to the other is somehow going to be the answer. What happens is that we fall flat on our face because our ego set the bar too high. When we approach something in a moderate fashion and understand that change and enlightenment is a gradual process which requires a larger mind-set. If you are attempting to make some changes within your life, keep moderation and the middle path within your awareness.