James Baquet

Buddhist tradition says Prince Siddhartha left his life of luxury to become a monk practicing austerities in the forest and, eventually, attained Buddhahood.

When the boy was born to the King and Queen of Kapilavastu, sages told his father that he would become either a great king or a great religious figure. Naturally his father wanted him to follow in his own footsteps, so he kept him from ever seeing anything that might stir his compassion and cause him to pursue a holy path.

He was given three pleasure palaces, one for each season of the Indian year, and supplied with all the delights a young man could want. No ill people were allowed to be around him, nor anyone who was elderly. And of course he never saw hint of death.

But the curious Prince began asking his driver to take him out into the city. Even though the King arranged for all unpleasantness to be hidden from him on these excursions, on each trip he saw: first an old person, then a sick person and then a dead body. Each time, his driver explained that, yes, these things would happen to him some day. On the fourth trip he saw a wandering ascetic, and learned that this man was seeking a way out of suffering. This experience is called “The Four Sights.”

Arriving home from this fourth trip and pondering all he had seen, the Prince learned that on that very day he had become a father. He muttered that this child would bind him to the life of this world, and so the child was named Rahula, meaning “fetters” or “bonds.”

That night, to celebrate the baby’s birth, the King had arranged for him to be entertained by dancing girls. But the young Prince, tired from his journeys, fell asleep. The dancers took a break, and they, too, fell asleep. The Prince woke to find these otherwise beautiful women snoring and even drooling in their sleep!

“It is all just appearance!” he thought. “Beauty and youth are fleeting.” And so, in what is known as “The Great Renunciation,” he crept into the room where his wife and son were sleeping, bade them a silent goodbye, and slipped out of the palace to go into the jungle seeking enlightenment.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. having spit fall from the lips

2. giving up of something

3. thinking about

4. temporary, passing

5. do the same thing he did

6. spoke lowly and unclearly

7. person who denies himself all luxuries

8. extreme religious practices

9. give rise to, cause

10. comfort and elegance