The Buddhist way begins with a simple proposition: Any step taken towards spirituality should be assessed by the directives of your own experience. Nothing should be accepted on blind faith.
Buddha’s journey to enlightenment was not a straightforward path. If anything, it was a labyrinth mired with obstacles.
Yet the enigmatic Siddhartha Gautama remained steadfast in a spiritual quest which has profoundly influenced our understanding of human nature.
Axial Age
The origins of Buddha’s insatiable desire for deeper meaning was not an exceptional endeavor. It was in fact a mere cog in the collective pursuit for spiritual fulfillment beyond what orthodox religion had to offer. This was the zeitgeist of the axial age — the age that steered away from external imposement to an internal perception of reality.
In India, the traditional Vedic religion was swiftly losing the spirit of the masses as more people become disgruntled with its class based ideals. In Vedic tradition spirituality was limited to the Brahmans — members of the highest caste.
Prophecy
Hence, the prophecy told to King Suddodana of the Shakya clan in modern day Nepal regarding his young child Siddhartha Goutama (later named Buddha) should not be mistaken for a mystical foresight.
The king was told his son would either become a world ruler or a spiritual leader.
Desperately wanting his son to become a world ruler, Suddodana created every obstacle in his power to obstruct Gautama from ever pondering upon a spiritual journey.
He increased the number of guards to prevent Siddhartha from witnessing the angst miring human existence beyond the confines of his lavish palace.
He surrounded his son with pleasures and increased the amount of guards to prevent him from leaving the confines of his lavish palace.
Ironically, it was precisely this pleasure filled life that fueled a gnawing void in Goutama. He had everything yet felt unsatisfied.
One day, Goutama sneaked out of the palace with his charioteer to have a look around the city. He came across four sights that would irrevocably change the trajectory of his life.
First, stumbled across an old man and became startled. He had never seen a human being in such a fragile condition. Upon inquiry, Gautama was informed by his charioteer every human suffers the same condition eventually.
Next, Goutama came across a sick man. His bewilderment exacerbated. His entire life had been confined to a reality devoid of any pain. Now his eyes were suddenly exposed to another reality marked by decay. And he was told this reality was just as real as the one he had been living.
The third sight was that of a corpse. Gautama’s distorted perception of life shattered to pieces.
Finally, Gautama come across a monk, peacefully meditating under a tree. The monk seemed content despite his ailing health and minimal lifestyle. This image etched inside Gautama’s head, instilling the belief that despite suffering being an inseparable part of life, there might be a path to eternal joy.
After he returned to his palace, Gautama’s alienation with his luxurious lifestyle burgeoned. And, one night he decided to leave the walls of comfort and embark on a spiritual quest.
Going Forth
Gautama joined the wave of individuals who had given up conventional living and flocked to spiritual teachers for guidance.
He quickly learned the meditative techniques and rigidly followed the instructions of his teacher. Yet he didn’t feel liberated. The flames of desire, hatred, and greed still roused within him.
Consequently, he sought another teacher known to be enlightened. Yet again disappointment followed.
Having failed to achieve spiritual fulfillment under the guidance of two renowned teachers, Gautama decided to lead the extreme life of an ascetic. It is known that some days he survived on his own urine. His physical appearance was reduced a skeleton.
Yet he found no relief from the burning flames of desire, hatred, and greed.
Frustrated, Goutama decided to eat. Nothing had seemed to work, and Buddha was not willing trudge through the stairs of futility.
Enlightenment
The universe has a way of bestowing answers when you least expect them to appear. The Buddha had run out of methods to explore. However, an unexpected recollection of a childhood memory provided an invaluable insight and inspired Gautama’s final act in search for answers.
As a child, Gautama was once taken to a ploughing field where he saw insects and cleared away to begin cultivation. This sight of insects and plants dying evoked sharp pain in young Gautama. After feeling this pain, a profound feeling a joy followed.
This recollection laid the basis for the famous middle way of Buddhism: Eternal peace can be achieved without extreme forms of mental control and asceticism.
Compassion lay at the heart of enlightenment.
After this, Gautama decided to meditate under a tree until he permanently achieves the state of bliss inspired by his flashback.
This act finally led to Gautama’s enlightenment, freeing him from the flames of desire, greed, and hatred. He had become ‘Buddha’, a word that literally translates to ‘enlightened one’.
He devised an eightfold path for achieving enlightenment which he later preached to the masses.
Lesson
The most important lesson from Buddha’s journey is not settling for answers that cannot be verified through our own experience. Had he ignored his intuitive voice and stuck to the prescribed methods of his teachers, enlightenment would not have been possible.
This is also precisely why he would have despised the idea of a gold statue built in his reverence. Buddha has explicitly warned against glorifying his personality and urges to solely focus on his teaching. Enlightenment is not a supernatural phenomenon reserved for a select few; it is an entirely natural state available to all human beings.
The acclaimed historian Karen Armstrong writes in her biography of the Buddha by saying “…to write a biography of Siddhartha Gautama is a very un-Buddhist thing to do.”
The practical essence of Buddhism is not dependent upon accepting certain beliefs. This sets it apart from other major religions like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
Siddhartha Gautama was not a divinely gifted being. He was simply someone who cultivated ferocious perseverance in the pursuit of deeper meaning.
And eventually he woke up to it.
