Siddhama Gotama - The Buddha

Siddhama Gotama, who will later be known as the world-renowned religious icon, Buddha (founder of Buddhism), lived in the 6th century BCE. He was born in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Kapilavatthu, where Suddhodana (Gotama’s father) was a prominent leader. This meant that as a boy Gotama was surrounded by luxury, and if he chose, someday he could become a World Leader, as his father had wanted. (Armstrong, Buddha,132) Suddhodana refused to accept it when his son left, but even the gods knew that Gotama was a Bodhisata, a man who was destined to become a Buddha. (Armstrong, Buddha, 32) Gotama belonged to the Indian culture, but in his time, the peoples strong belief in the previous gods like Indra (god of war) or Agni (god of fire), began to fade. (Armstrong, Buddha, 7) The people began to recognize that their sacrifices and worship would not rid them of suffering. In realizing this they decided that they must rely upon themselves. Gotama too would disregard the gods and search within himself for the answer to end his suffering. Gotama left his home at the age of 29 with a shaved head and a yellow robe (symbols of a monk), setting off on his journey to find a teacher who would lead him to his “Self”. With his home, he abandoned his wife and child because he felt that they too bound him to a life that he no longer wanted. The holy life Gotama had undertaken demanded that he leave behind everything he loved and made up his egotistic, emotional personality. (Armstrong, Buddha, 35) Anything that could make him feel pain, suffering, and sorrow had to be removed, if he were to become “expansive, without limits, enhanced, without hatred or petty malevolence”. (Armstrong, Buddha, 79) Gotama’s greatest achievement happened in the Spring of 528 BCE, and after six years of striving for it, he finally achieved enlightenment. (Armstrong, Buddha, 80) It is not the enlightenment itself that is necessarily what makes this his greatest achievement, but the attainment of Nibbana through his enlightenment. To have achieved Nibbana implies that you have “extinguished” or “snuffed out” your tanha (desire). This does not mean that he as a person had been snuffed out, what had been snuffed out was the evils of hatred, greed, and delusion that constantly plague the unenlightened mind. This is the closest thing we have to a definition of Nibbana, and although it has been labeled in many ways (“nothing”, “peace”, “natural inner being”), Gotama refused to define it because he claimed it would be “inappropriate” to do so; there are no words to describe this state to an unenlightened person. (Armstrong, 334) Throughout his quest for enlightenment Gotama was involved with many teachers and teachings. He went from seeking a teacher to aide him in beginning his search for “Self”, to the complete opposite end of the spectrum where he was the teacher for hundreds of thousands of bhikkhus (almsmen). (Armstrong, Buddha, 9) Gotama himself was a bhikku, begging for food and living in the forest. Gotama’s first teacher was Alara Kalama, located in the neighborhood of Vesali. Kalama’s school of thought was a form of Samkhya, which stated that ignorance, rather than desire, lay at the root of our problems; our suffering derived from our lack of understanding the “true Self”. The “Self” was eternal and identical to the spirit that is dormant in everyone and everything but is concealed by the material world. (Armstrong, Buddha, 44) Gotama had made quick strides into the school of Samkhya. Kalama even accepted him as his pupil, but no matter how deep Gotama emerged himself in the teachings, he felt that nothing was happening. Being a ruthlessly honest man, Gotama would not allow himself to be gulled by an interpretation that was not warranted by the facts. So, Gotama refused to accept Kalama’s Dhamma (system of doctrine and principle) and asked him how he achieved his “Self”. He admitted that he did not achieve this through rational thought, but through the practice of yoga. The goal of yoga was to link the yogin with his “Self”, so that consciousness becomes unified in a way usually impossible for human beings. Yoga was an essential piece in the Bhudda’s path to enlightenment, and also became an essential piece of his Dhamma. (Armstrong, Buddha, 47-49) Yoga usually required a long apprenticeship that could last a lifetime for some, but in a short time Gotama had mastered it. Unfortunately, he still could not accept his master’s interpretation of this meditative experience, so he left to another yogic master named Uddaka Ramaputta. Gotama was again successful in reaching the final plane where he was supposed to experience “the Self”, but when he returned to his body he was still plagued with suffering. (Armstrong, Buddha, 62) Nibbana could not be temporary, so this could not be the way to enlightenment. So, Gotama abandoned yoga for some time and tried to attain enlightenment through asceticism. During this period of time he punished himself every time he let desire take ahold of his mind through severe acts such as sleeping in the open during freezing winter nights, laying on beds of spikes, and eating his own urine and feces. All this brought him was more thoughts of lust and craving, a gravely damaged health, and he was still no closer to “the Self” he hoped to attain. When he later became the Buddha, he would claim that there was no upper or lowercase self. He would conclude that the “self” was only a delusion that leads to inept thoughts about “me and mine”. (Armstrong, Buddha, 111) At this dead end, the beginning of a new way declared itself to him. (Armstrong, Buddha, 65) From this point on Gotama began his self crafted path to enlightenment, which would eventually be successful and he would achieve the ultimate goal of Nibbana. Buddha is most famous for his quest of enlightenment and how he impacted humanity after he achieved it. He first set off to attain enlightenment after he witnessed the four disturbing sights a Brahmin predicted would convince him to discover a new spiritual path. The first three disturbing sights would be the gods coming down as a senile old man, a sick man, and a corpse. The final disturbing sight was his servants when he awoke that night and saw them all asleep on the floor looking so distraught. The suffering that their bodies emitted caused him to resolve and “Go Forth” that very night. (Armstrong, 327) Once he began his quest east (toward the Ganges) he would seek out his previously mentioned teachers, whose methods of enlightenment would fail him. When he felt as though he hit a dead end, he recalled a memory from when he was a child. This memory was one of spontaneous compassion that he felt for creatures’ pain that had nothing to do with him, but still pierced his heart. This selfless empathy brought him a spiritual release that he had not experienced since that moment, and would not experience until he achieved Nibbana. Gotama then concluded that if he reached this state as a mere child, then he must work with human nature and not fight against it. He became extremely in touch with his mind through thoughtful yogic meditation. When a sensual desire arose he would observe it, think of what had given rise to it and how it would soon fade away. In his system, meditation would take the place of sacrifice. (Armstrong, Buddha, 66-77) He continued in his daily quest for enlightenment continuing his deeply mindful yogic practices while being able to suffer, empathize, and feel compassion for and with others. Eventually he slipped into the first state of yogic mindfulness and progressed through higher states of consciousness until he gained an insight that forever transformed him. It was on this night he became a Buddha. It was not until Brahma begged the Buddha to preach his Dhamma that Buddha gazed upon the world with “the eye of the Buddha”. Buddha’s first bhikkhus were his old friends that he experienced extreme acts of self-punishment. He went to them and preached his first sermon and soon after they began to experience his teachings directly and all became “stream-enterers” of the Dhamma. This meaning that they had not been fully enlightened, but their doubts had disappeared, they were no longer interested in any other Dhamma, they were confident that Buddha’s method would carry them forward to Nibbana, and eventually they were able to attain enlightenment. (Armstrong, Buddha, 105) It was here in Sarnath that the Wheel of the Dhamma was set into motion. (Gardner, 429) Now they had to bring the Dhamma to others, just as Buddha had to them. This would continue and in a very short period of time there were sixty-one practicing Buddhists in the world. Buddha would continue to different towns and preach the Dhamma to everyone who came to listen. By the time Buddha died at the age of 80, there were hundreds of thousands of followers of Buddhism, and even on his deathbed, he was traveling to the most remote towns to bring help to the wider world. It was in his death, after 49 years of enlightenment, that he finally attained paranibbana, or the “final rest”. He was able to be absorbed fully into the peace and immunity of Nibbana. (Armstrong, Buddha, 182-187) Buddha’s most important creation was undoubtedly the Dhamma. This was Buddha’s system of discipline, which had very strict instructions, including the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths were regarded as the fundamental teachings of Buddhism. The first three were that existence was dukkha (suffering), desire was the cause of our suffering, and that there was a way out of this predicament. The fourth was Gotama’s claim to have discovered the path leading from suffering and pain to its end in Nibbana. (Armstrong, 333) This fourth Noble Truth claimed that he had found the way to enlightenment through a method called the Noble Eightfold Path, which has been broken down into a three-fold plan. The first fold consists of morality (sila), which entails right speech, right action, and right livelihood, the second fold is meditation (Samadhi) the practice of Gotamas revised yogic methods, and the third fold is wisdom (panna) which involved the virtues of right understanding and right resolve. (Armstrong, Buddha, 82) The Dhamma is commonly described as something that one should “come and see” for oneself, and the experience of perceiving the true nature of reality. (Trainor, 6) Buddha always insisted that the Dhamma, not himself was important. The concepts of mimesis and catharsis were ever present throughout my research of Gotama. It seemed as though on every other page there was something I could relate to. In the following passage from Karen Armstrong’s Buddha, I found an overwhelming experience of mimesis.
As Gotama observed the way one craving after another took possession of his mind and heart, he noticed how human beings were ceaselessly yearning to become something else, go somewhere else, and acquire something they do not have. It was as though they were seeking a new kind of existence, a rebirth. (Armstrong, Buddha, 75)

This passage can be related to in the simplest of ways. For example, we always want what we don’t have whether its having blue eyes and wanting brown eyes, or we have curly hair and we want straight hair, the taller want to be shorter and the shorter want to be taller, no matter what you have you are never truly satisfied. For me, this passage can also be related to on a deeper level of mimesis in the opposite desire scenario of people who hate their jobs not wanting them anymore, and people who don’t have jobs doing anything they can to get one. I am seeing both ends of this spectrum right now in my parents. My father has recently lost his job, so he is in desperate need of one, and my mother hates her job so much that she wishes it were her who had lost her job. The catharsis I experienced through this has made me realize how single minded we as people can be. How we constantly want the petty little things that we don’t have when there are significant needs that a persons life could depend on that really matter. I believe that Buddha experienced his most prominent moment of mimesis and catharsis when he recalled his childhood experience of enlightenment. When he recalled this moment he was able to take what had happened in that moment (his deep compassion and empathy for something completely selfless) and use it to propel him forward in his quest for enlightenment. His experience of catharsis was actual renewal of energy and hope for his quest. He felt completely rejuvenated and ready to take on the quest toward Nibbana and he would push forward until he found it. This moment was a significant turning point in Buddha’s journey. Gotama’s story fits into many of the stages in Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth Theory Chart. The first stage Gotama experiences is the Refusal of the Call, which begins when he has attained his enlightenment. He knows the way to enlightenment and that he could teach others the way as well, but he feels that people would not understand the Dhamma and that would be exhausting and disappointing. His Dhamma was too difficult to explain and the people would not be willing to undergo the strict discipline that is required, not to mention the frightening abandonment of self. (Armstrong, Buddha, 94) It is when Buddha proclaims this to himself that he experiences the stage of Supernatural Aide. Brahma himself leaves heaven and descends to Buddha and begs him to preach the Dhamma to the human race that is drowning in pain and suffering. It is then that Buddha realizes that it would be uncompassionate to keep his teachings to himself, to leave the world in suffering, when there is another way. So, with the appearance of Brahma (the Supernatural Aide), Buddha agrees to his destiny. Short after this stage Buddha experiences the Crossing of the First Threshold. He officially becomes a Bodhisata and embarks on his quest to preach the Dhamma to all who are willing to hear it, to help those who are willing to achieve enlightenment. The next stage that the Buddha experiences is further along the chart, Temptation. He does not experience this temptation at the time indicated in the chart, but there was always a force tempting Buddha to take the easy way out. That force was Mara; Buddha’s shadow self, who appeared to Buddha just as he was about to attain his Nibbana. Mara epitomized the ignorance that holds us back from enlightenment. Once he had overcome Mara, which was really a victory over his shadow self, there was nothing to hold Gotama back. (Armstrong, Buddha, 91) The final stage in the Monomyth Theory Chart is the Apostasis. This is where Buddha dies of old age, and finally attains his paranibbana. In achieving his paranibbana he would be absorbed wholly into the peace and immunity of Nibbana. Paranibbana was the supreme good of human and gods alike, an incomprehensible Peace, and an utterly safe refuge. (Armstrong, Buddha, 182) My first selection for this paper was actually Zoroaster (I started reading from the beginning of the book, oops) because I had already begun to understand the concept of Zoroastrianism, but by the time we had gotten to Buddhism something really clicked for me. I have always had a difficult time believing in gods of any kind, or something that cannot be factually proven, so Buddha’s teachings really hit home for me, as it did for all of his followers. Although I am not religious at all, I am technically Presbyterian, and if there’s anything that I feel about religion it is that some people throw themselves into it full heartedly to never find what they hoped to from it. So it is crazy to me that Buddha said “you don’t have to believe my teachings, try them for yourself and if they do not work for you then so be it”. Another thing that drew me towards Buddha was that he did not force his teachings upon you, but try to relate to you in a way that helped you to understand his teachings. It almost reminds me of material I am learning about in my ethics class. For example, to King Pasenedi, who agreed with his own wife that nothing was dearer to them than their own selves, Buddha said, “a person who loves the self should not harm the self of others.” This was a preview of what is now called the Golden Rule; Buddha was telling the King that he should not do unto others as he would not have done to himself. (Armstrong, Buddha, 147) Along with all of these cool realizations and relations, I even managed to get my mom interested in Buddhism. Much like myself, she has had a difficult time believing in gods and she wants to hear more about this Buddha fellow. Not only has this assignment introduced me to a new religion that I find interesting, but it has also taught me a lot about my beliefs and the way I look at things. Even just from reading my book I would begin to gage my reactions to certain things that Gotama said, just like he would gage his reactions toward his desires. I guess you can say that I am not quite a stream-enterer, but perhaps a layperson that focused more on the morality and not so much the enlightenment.

Works Cited

1. Armstrong, Karen. Buddha. New York: Viking, 2001. Print.
2. Armstrong, Karen. The Great Transformation: The Beginning of
Our Religious Traditions. New York: Knopf, 2006. Print.
3. Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner 's Art Through the
Ages: A Global History. 14th ed. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
4. Trainor, Kevin, ed. Buddhism - The Illustrated Guide. New York:
Duncan Baird, 2001. Print.

Cited: 1. Armstrong, Karen. Buddha. New York: Viking, 2001. Print. 2. Armstrong, Karen. The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. New York: Knopf, 2006. Print. 3. Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner 's Art Through the Ages: A Global History. 14th ed. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. 4. Trainor, Kevin, ed. Buddhism - The Illustrated Guide. New York: Duncan Baird, 2001. Print.