Essay on Jesus and Buddha

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

In the beginning, Siddhartha went into meditation and pondered about the evil in the world. He thought if only people could see the consequences of their selfishness and wrong behaviors they would run from them. People put themselves through hell. The world is full of lust and pleasures which only ends in misery. Siddhartha began to understand the Dharma, Buddhism’s sacred law, and became enlightened.

In the novel, Siddhartha, there is a concoction between teachings and his own experiences found in his concept of attaining wisdom. The Brahmins taught Siddhartha every religious aspect of their culture, including all the rituals, mantras, and holy books. Although he gained a significant amount of religious wisdom, he believed this was not enough to become enlightened. As a result, Siddhartha decides to join the Samanas with the goal to reach Nirvana. He became a wanderer with no possessions, in order to stop the body’s desires. From the samanas he learned how to fast and meditate, but this was not enough. Siddhartha says, “What I have learned so far among the samanas, O Govinda, I could have learned more quickly and more simply” (Hesse 16) . In other words, Siddhartha is explaining to Govinda that his transformation to a samana has had no significant effect in his life. He believes fasting and meditating is not his ultimate goal. As a result, Siddhartha leaves the samanas with Govinda to meet Gautama. Siddhartha believes he has not gained the true wisdom needed to reach the state of nirvana or enlightenment; he has only learned how to run away and suppress situation, without really being able to dispel of them.

After three years, Siddhartha realizes that he is not progressing toward his goal. He had learned all the Samanas could teach, and "he lost himself a thousand times and for days on end he dwelt in non-being. But although the paths took him away from Self, in the end they always led back to it" (15-16). Siddhartha discovers this was not the path he sought; escaping from one's Self did not bring one to salvation. His wisdom grew when he accepted there was another path and this short escape from Self is experienced by others in a quite different way such as people who drink numbing their senses like he did with the Samanas. He sees that in truth, there is no learning and that his questioning and thirst for knowledge could not be satisfied by teaching. Seeking another path, Siddhartha hears of a Buddha named Gotama, and with Govinda, who also chooses to leave, ventures to see him.

Siddhartha grew to be an intelligent boy, fluently speaking 64 different languages and excelling at mathematics as well as archery. He lived a sheltered life in the king’s palace, marrying his cousin, Yashodhara at 16 years old. It wasn’t until his late twenties that Siddhartha was finally allowed to venture from the palace. He witnessed sick people, old people, poor people and even a corpse. These slowly chiselled away in his mind, leaving him with a significant compassion for the suffering people. This made him develop a strong desire to free every being from their endless distress. At age 29, the very day off his son, Rāhula, was born, Siddhartha ventured off to lead an ascetic life, with his hair cut off with rich clothes replaced with religious robes, to find out a way to relieve universal

Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha began spreading his knowledge to help others achieve ?Nirvana?, which means to be released from the reincarnation cycle. He preached that there were 4 Noble Truths: (1) all life is suffering; (2) the source of suffering is desire; (3) to end desiring is to end suffering; (4) there is an eight-fold path to end suffering; to have the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This idea of being released from suffering attracted many people, and Buddhism soon spread rapidly through Northern India, and then through Southern India.

Siddhartha joined the Samanas and assumed the life of an ascetic hoping to attain Nirvana. He believed that by denying his body, his soul would flourish. To become empty of all things- thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow- was the only way to become empty and let the Self die. “He ate only once a day and never cooked food. He fasted for fourteen days. He fasted for twenty-eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks. Strange dreams were reflected in his enlarged eyes. The nails grew long on his thin fingers and a dry, bristly beard appeared on his chin. His glance became icy when he encountered women; his lips curled with

To begin this young man started off in a rich state of living, he had everything he could ever need, thanks to his wealth family in the year 560 B.C.E. Finally one day Siddhartha left the palace and saw life for how it really was. Siddhartha went through what they call the “four passing sights” the first stage was Decrepit old man, Siddhartha did not know that old age existed. The second was a diseased person, Siddhartha didn’t know that sickness exists. The third was death he also did not know death existed. Finally last but not least Ascetic, Siddhartha didn’t know that people would live an austere life- from due to religion.

It is said that history is shaped by the lives of great men.  Great men are leaders.  They bring about change; they improve the lives of others; they introduce new ideas, models, and theories to society.  Most of the world's religions were founded, developed, or discovered by great men.  Two particular religions - Christianity and Buddhism - developed in different parts of the world, under different circumstances, and in different social atmospheres.  But each religion is based upon the teachings of a great man.  When one compares the life of Buddha with the life of Jesus, one finds that the two share many things in common.  This essay aims to compare and contrast the lives of Buddha1 and Jesus in two key areas:  conception and birth.

Siddhartha explained to the Buddha, “I am resuming my wandering---not to seek a different, a better teaching…but to leave all teachings and all teachers” (Hesse 33). He realized that there is no better teacher than experiencing things for himself. This first awakening happened in a harsh difficult path described as, “all he now wore was the loincloth and the unstitched, earth-colored cloak. He ate only once a day, and no cooked food. He fasted for four weeks. The flesh vanished from his thighs and cheeks” (Hesse 13). Along with the Samanas, he learns to endure all pain and desire along this path. Siddhartha experiences suffering and self-denial from something that he hadn’t After this awakening, Siddhartha felt that he could think, see, discover for himself than doing these things because they were part of the teachings instructed by a teacher. This realization set out a different path which made the quest to Nirvana be his own experience and

Asking a child which snack he prefers, a vegetable or something better suited for dessert, it is more than likely he will choose the tooth-rotting goodness of his favorite treat, even if it is against his parents’ demands. It is quite extraordinary how a child, although in a situation less life-changing than an adult may be in, can also make the choice to do something ruthless because it is too irresistible to pass up. Due to this atavistic tendency, the message of making the right choices is ubiquitous in media. In Michael Lehmann’s drama Heathers, Veronica Sawyer finds difficulty in assuaging her situation because of her oscillation between choosing to carry out all opportunities to take revenge or to stick to ethics, leading into the idea

At first glance the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism appear very different from each other. One centers around a God that was at one time physically manifest on earth in the human form of his "son" Jesus Christ, the other primarily worships a historical figure that gained divine status through enlightenment. This assessment is broad at best, especially in the case of Buddhism where the Theravada and Mahayana traditions differ significantly. Christianity also has division within itself, the most prominent being between the Roman Catholic and Protestant systems. There are however, despite obvious differences, some very interesting similarities between Buddhism and

Horror writers make suspense in many different ways. The way that they explain in the books makes us the readers very focus on the book without wanting to stop reading. They write some really creepy and interesting myths and that is how they use suspense. All good horror movies make a great deal of suspense. “It was the man I had been drawing, whose portrait lay in my pocket.

Buddhism’s founder was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, meaning “one who realized his goal.” Buddhists believe that when Siddhartha’s mother, Maha, was conceived she had a dream involving a white elephant carrying a lotus flower. She interpreted the dream to mean that her son would grow up to become a great spiritual leader. Just a week after Siddhartha was born, his mother died. Upon her death, he lived with his wealthy aunt and his father on a large estate. As Siddhartha grew up, his father kept him away from all suffering and anguish of the world. Unlike many of his peers, he was well educated and free from the world’s sorrows.

Although initially hesitant to share his insight on the grounds that humanity might not be ready for such a teaching, the Buddha decided to communicate his discovery to those willing to listen. His first converts were the five ascetics with whom he had lived when he himself followed the lifestyle of the ascetic. To these he preached his first sermon in the Deer Park at Benares, outlining to them the Four Noble Truths. Out of this small group the community of monks (or sangha) grew to about sixty in size and included Buddha's cousin, Ananda, and his son, Rahula. Later the Buddha was persuaded by his step-mother and cousin to accept women into the sangha.