Siddhartha Gautama's Report

Growing up, Siddhartha Gautama lived a lavish and sheltered life. He is said to have grown up in a palace with his father, Suddhodana, until he married Yasodhara at the age of 20. He was rarely allowed out of the palace. However, once married and independent, he began to go for rides through Kathmandu a city which was 145 miles Northeast of his ornate home. On one such excursion he came across four men: an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a monk. He had never before realized how often humans suffered and was immediately inspired to find a solution to the suffering he had encountered. After years of trying, to no avail, he finally realized that ridding yourself of material possessions does not make you any happier or closer to enlightenment, the end of suffering can only come as a result of detachment. This revelation transformed one man into the founder of a religion that is now followed by three hundred and seventy-five million people worldwide.
Buddha had experienced both extreme wealth and extreme deprivation, and as a result, he was able to reach an understanding of the distinction between suffering and detachment. Unaccustomed to anything
Most people worshipped a god or multiple gods. They did not know for sure what would happen to them after they died and they would try to please the god(s) in order to ensure that whatever did happen to them after they died was good. Many of those who did not worship a god worked in a similar way to Budha pre-enlightenment. These people were trying to reach enlightenment, however, not many knew what enlightenment would be. They participated in things such as extreme self-deprivation and meditation. Unlike the majority of monks at the time Buddha had an aim for his endeavors for enlightenment. He set out to find the answer to two problems: what causes suffering, and what happens to us after we