The three primary aspects of the Mahayana Buddhist path to enlightenment are contained within the story of Buddha. Those aspects are renunciation, bodhichitta, and the wisdom realizing the middle way. Renunciation involves an emotional detachment from the material world and it's distractions. Bodhichitta is a compassionate mind wishing spontaneously to be of benefit to all living beings. The wisdom realizing the middle way has to do with the ultimate nature of existence, with the ultimate way that things exist.
In a dream, Queen Maya dreamt that an elephant touched her womb with it's trunk. In her dream, holy beings appeared to her and informed her that she would bear a divine child. Weeks later, Queen Maya, a virgin, discovered that she was pregnant. Toward the end of her pregnancy, Queen Maya took an entourage with her into the forest where she would give birth to her child. The delivery was painless, and the boy she named Siddhartha was able to walk and speak immediately. As he walked, lotus flowers appeared beneath his feet, and as he spoke, leaves on the trees turned to listen.
When Queen Maya returned with the child, she presented it to the King, who declared that Siddhartha would be heir to the throne, the next great King. The King's advisor warned him that his son was destined to be even greater than a king, but the King would not hear a word. He kept his son in the palace and showered him with riches, women, food and drink, whatever he desired, ordering his soldiers to ensure that Siddhartha never had a single uncomfortable moment.
One day, at the age of 18, Siddahrtha asked his father why he had never seen the city over which he would preside as King. After much insistance, Siddhartha's father granted his son's request to tour the city. The King ordered his soldiers to prepare a parade route, and to make sure everyone along it was clothed, well fed, and happy, and that they had many nice things to say about Siddhartha, lest he experience a single moment of suffering.
All went well until Siddhartha caught a glance of a starving old man crouched in an alley way. He asked his attendant, "Why is that man white in his hair? Why is he so thin and weak?"
"He is old," the attendant said. "And dying from hunger."
Siddhartha's pure heart immediately went out to the suffering man, and he fled his chariot so that he might be able to help him. When he arrived at the other side of the alley way, he saw that thousands were suffering and poor, that the dead and diseased were being burned in piles on the beach, that children were without food, and that their parents were old and close to death. Siddhartha's heart was moved with compassion, and it was this compassion that motivated him to flee the luxury of the palace and pursue a life dedicated to helping others.
Along his travels, Siddhartha encountered a group of Hindu Aesthetics. When he asked what they were doing, they replied that they were trying to attain enlightment for the benefit of all living beings. Wish to be of benefit to others, Siddhartha joined their group, and went in just one week from living in opulence and luxury to surviving only on a diet of tree bark and seeds as he practiced the extreme self-deprivation techniques of Aestheticism.
After months travelling with the Aesthetics, Siddhartha was sitting near the edge of a river when a family passed by on a boat. The son was learning to play a guitar, and his father was teaching him. The mother was preparing food to eat. While meditating, Siddartha overheard the father speaking to his son, saying, "My son, if the string is tuned too tight, it will break. If the string is tuned too loose, it will not play." Siddartha saw a profound wisdom in these words, and it was upon hearing them that he attained his first realization.
The mother saw Siddhartha sitting near the edge of the river, and she called out to him, saying that he looked weak and should have some food. Siddartha, breaking his Aesthetic's vows, accepted the meal and nourished his body. Carrying the meal, he called out to the other Aesthetics, saying "My friends! The path between enlightenment is the way between all opposite extremes! Starve yourselves no longer. Come and eat with us!" But the other Aesthetics felt that they had been betrayed, and they left him.
Siddhartha withdrew into solitude. After some time, Siddartha sat himself in the lotus posture beneath the Bodhi tree and made the determination within his mind not to rise from sitting meditation until he had attained enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. There, beneath the tree, he encountered many illusions sent to him by the maras of his mind. He encountered temptation; he encountered monsters and things of horror; and lastly he encountered his own self. Upon encountering his own ego, Siddhartha reached out with his right hand and touched the ground, saying "The earth is my witness: you do not exist." It was at this exact moment that Siddartha became Buddha.
Buddha travelled India for the rest of his life giving teachings on the path to enlightenment. He died at late age.
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>> And this unique template... there's a method to it. It's based on the human life process. Every one of the stories using this metaphor can be interpretted as a metaphor for the life cycle of a human.
I think you're right. In terms of the virgin birth element of these stories, I think it's meant to imply a sort of fundamental purity possessed by all living beings. It's a misconception that sex is an inherently impure act, but since sexual interaction is based largely on lust and attachment, and since these are two obstructive mental habits, it could be construed as such.
Soulmotion, there's a book about the similarities between the life of Buddha and the life of Christ, as well as the similarities of their teachings. The parallels are truly remarkable, absolutely uncanny. It was a lovely read, but I've forgotten the title. A few searches on Amazon.com should bring it up.
>> Point implied is buddha would not have given up his wealth if he didn't have the security of something to fall back on (king daddy)if things went wrong. John Safron made the analogy with rich westerners turning to buddhism with the same sense of security to fall back on. Sure John was trying to be funny, but I think there's some truth to it.
You're probably right that a number of Westerners have made that mistake, but I think it's completely wrong to suppose this of Buddha. The path Buddha followed and taught was epitomized by compassionately motivated abandonment of the material world. If his renunciation were insincere, and if it was in the back of his mind that going back to the palace was always an option, he'd never have developed the necessary potential within his mind to attain enlightement, and as a result he would not have become a timeless spiritual figure known for his 84,000 volumes of profound teachings. In fact, it was the stark contrast between the life he experienced in the palace and the life that he experienced just 100 feet outside its walls that was the very basis for his insight into the meaninglessness of worldy pleasures.
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Gyroscope full album available SoundCloud or MySpace
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