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Siddhartha Leaves
- Siddhartha decides to leave and calls for his horse. The heavy gates opened of their own accord to let the prince through.
- Siddhartha traveled a great distance away. When he came to the woods where many hermits dwelled, he dismounted and sent the horse back. He took off his necklace, and gave it to Chandaka to give to his father. He told them not to grieve.
- He cut of his hair, and shed his robes for a more normal one. A hunter came by wearing reddish-colored robes, who willingly gave it up for Siddhartha, then ascended into the sky.
- Gopa woke up to the realization that the prince is gone. The king closed the city, and sent everyone in search of the prince. Chandaka returns to the palace with the jewels.
- The horse returned to the stable, in grief, and promptly died.
- Arata Kalama teaches the doctrine of renunciation to a great number of disciples.
- They refused food prepared by man; they will eat only fruit; they will drink only water. The heat of the sun scorches them; they expose their bodies to the bitter winds; they bruise their feet and knees on the stones of the highway. To them, virtue comes only with suffering.
- He chose to leave Arata, to seek the rule to which we must submit before we can have done with suffering.
- Siddhartha enters the city of Rajagriha.
- People were amazed by his beauty, and word got to the king. He sent people to find out where the hero lived (at the slope of the mountain near the city).
- The king pleads for the hero to come to the city to live with him.
- Desires are like poison; wise men despise them. Desires are as perishable as the fruit on a tree, they are as wayward as the clouds in the sky, they are as treacherous as the rain, they are as changeable as the wind! Suffering is born of desire, for no man has ever gratified all his desires.
- 5 disciples joined him.
- The hero was so deep into mediation and contemplation that he stopped breathing and fell one day. Maya, the hero's mother living among the Gods, heard this and feared for the life of her son. She descended to earth and scattered flowers over the body of her son, weeping. He eventually stirred awake.
- The hero remained on the banks of the river and meditated for 6 years.
- He started to grow weak, before he realized that if he died from starvation, he would never reach the goal he set for himself.
- He finally went to the village nearby, and the head man and his daughters would bring the hero food. Eventually, he started going to the village to beg for his food. He finally started to regain his strength.
- The disciples left him.
- After 6 years, his robes are worn. He got new robes from the shroud that was covering the body of a dead slave. It was very dusty, and he had no water. Sakra came down to the earth, struck the ground, and a pool appeared. He offered to wash the robe for the Saint, but he said no, saying I know the duties of a monk; I myself shall wash the shroud.
- Mara, the Evil One, made the pool very steep. The Saint was unable to climb out of the water, so Sakra addressed a prayer to the Goddess in a nearby tree to help.
- He had 5 dreams.
- He woke and realized that the day that he was going to become the Buddha is near.
- The Buddhas of old had their last meal from a golden bowl. Sujata offers the Saint milk and honey in a golden bowl, so the time has come for him to be the Buddha.
- He took the bowl, went to the stream, and said If I am to become Buddha this very day, may the bowl go upstream; if not, may it go with the current. The bowl hesitated in the middle of the river, then started upstream.
- He came upon the Tree of Knowledge, sat under it, and said, Even if my skin should parch, even if my hand should wither, even if my bones should crumble into dust, until I have attained supreme knowledge I shall not move from this seat.
- The light from the hero's body reached even to Mara, the Evil One.
- Mara gathered his people and planned to attack the hero. His son tried to warn him, but Mara paid him no mind.
- He who is insane with pride will never recover.
- Mara tried to scare the hero before his army approached. He roused the winds, uprooted the trees, devastating villages, shaking mountains, but the hero never moved.
- He tried to summon rocks, but as they approached the hero, they fell to the ground as flowers. He then commanded his army to attack, and their arrows too, turned into flowers.
- The soldiers of the Evil One fled. Mara had been defeated.
- The first watch: arrived at the knowledge of all that had transpired in previous existences.
- The second watch: learned the present state of all beings.
- The third watch: understood the chain of causes and effects.
- To exist is to suffer. Desire leads from birth to rebirth, from suffering to further suffering. By stifling desire, we prevent birth, we prevent suffering. By leading a life of holiness, desire is stifled, and we cease to endure birth and suffering.
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