Indian Epics Fall 2019

Siddhartha (the first Buddha) had grown up a prince and was sheltered from the real world for most of his early life. He was even married before getting the explore the world outside of the palace that he lived in. One day, The prince wanted to go into the city and see how the people around the palace lived. What he did not know, is that the king ordered all of the old, sick, poor, and weak people to be taken out of the city. This was done so that the prince would not see the bad things in the world.  While the prince was riding his chariot through the city he was struck with happiness at all of the youth that he saw in the people and buildings. He continued to ride through the city until he saw and old man come out from around the corner. The chariot stopped and the prince saw the old man. He was confused at first at the lack of youthfulness. He asked his adviser if this was normal and he replied that everyone awaits this same fate. The prince fell sad and returned the palace....

For the second half of the reading, I finally got to see the prince in a new light. The man who I thought was Buddha (and still was Buddha) gave me insight that the Buddha was not born without the normal thoughts/temptations of man. I have always made the comparison between Buddha and Jesus, thinking that he was always without the thoughts normal people have. This section of the reading really gave me a new view on who the Buddha is/was. At first when they were speaking of the three men who came to see him while he was going through the city, I was convinced that he was going to treat them with compassion and have something wise to say about it, but rather it was the opposite. He became sad with each new person that he saw. This is just like many children when they first experience these things. The difference between a child and the prince is that the prince was so sheltered that he was not exposed to sadness or the real world until after he got married. This made me mad at first an...

For this weeks reading I decided to read about Buddha. While it is not a traditional "epic", it makes me wonder how the story of the birth of Buddha was. My favorite part of "The Life of Buddha" was the birth of Siddhartha. The stories here are written in old English and it translates hard to read. It would be cool to write a story in this manner, but that would take me way too long and I do not think my audience would enjoy it that much. The birth of Siddhartha was very interesting to read. For some reason I thought Buddha would have been born in the winter under the light of one candle. What I read was the complete opposite. I envisioned a warm summers day with greenery surrounding a large house. Everything was so bright and vibrant. The reading even mentioned there were peacocks. The husband and wife were very interesting too. Their dynamics were like it was almost a business to birth the Buddha. At the same time it seemed like they both loved the child more th...