Buddha's life Flashcards
can you explain the buddha’s birth
Siddhartha (the buddha) was born to a king and queen. One night the queen had a dream and in that dream a white elephant entered her womb and told her that her son would either be a holy man or a king. After the dream, the queen went for a walk In the lumbini gardens and it was in there that she gave birth.When siddartha was born it was said that after every step he took a lotus flower bloomed from under his feet. The queen and king then were told again that he would either be a holy man or a king
can you explain siddharthas life of luxury
After finding out that he would either grow up to a king or a holy man, his father wanted to make sure that he was a king and so he made sure that Siddhartha lived a life of luxury, being given everything he could ever want in order for him to not only become a king but also to sheild siddartha away from pain.
can you explain the story of the fours sights and what the four sight are
One night Siddhartha grew curious and wanted to see what was outside the palace and so he took his chariot driver and they went into the nearest town.When there, Siddhartha saw four sights and these sights were an old man, an ill man, a dead man and a holy man.
what did siddhartha realises from seeing the four sights
the four sights made Siddhartha realise that old age, illness and death are inevitable and all the people he saw suffered except the holy man.The lack of suffering shown through the holy man made Siddhartha think that there must be a spiritual answer as to why suffering exists and so after he saw the sights he wanted to understand why suffering exists and then he left the palace to find the answer
what did Siddhartha do after he left the palace to try and understand suffering
after he left the palace he being an ascetic.
whats an ascetic
an ascetic is a person who lives their life through harsh and strict laws in order to teach themselves self-discipline and in order to undertstand other people’s pain.
what did Siddhartha do when he was an ascetic
- he lived in dangerous, remote forests
- he slept on a bed of thorns
- he ate little to no food
- meditated
what did Siddhartha realise whilst an ascetic
-he realised that being an ascetic and denying himself from all his cravings and living so dangerously will not allow him to understand suffering.He realised that if living a life of luxury and having everything you want didn’t help him to solve it neither would living a life of the complete opposite help him either
after Siddhartha rejected asceticism, what did he do?
He made a vow to himself to meditate until he reached enlightenment
whilst meditating what did he experienced
Whilst meditating he experienced mara, the devil.
what did mara try to do to Siddhartha whilst he was meditating
whilst meditating Siddhartha tried to
- seduce him with his daughters
- tried to attack him with his armies
- questioned his right to reach enlightenment
these symbolise the three poisons
- greed
- hatred
- ignorance
what did Siddhartha do when mara questioned his right to Enlightenment
-he called upon the earth and the ground shook to aknolwledg this right
what did Siddhartha become known as when he reached enlightenment
the buddha
what were the three watched of the night that Siddhartha experienced during his enlightenment
- he came to understand his pastlives
- he came to understand the cycle of life, death and rebirth
- he came to understand that suffering is an inevitable part of life.
