The Buddha - Story Continues - How He Almost Killed Himself!

This continues on from THIS blog post. It's his first few adventures outside the Palace trying to seek his answers. In his search, he tried everything. Literally everything. He even almost killed himself. The following takes place between 20 minutes and 41 minutes of the Movie...

Once he leaves the Palace and is out on his own.

1. He puts on the orange robe, cuts his hair and is now homeless with no possessions or money.

2. At his time, there were THOUSANDS of people who had done the same - gave up all possessions and all belongings to seek spiritual enlightenment.

They were trying to exit the re-incarnation cycle.

3. His time believed in dying and being re-born according to your previous life, your Karma.

4. It is said that Siddhartha had lived many lives before this one as animals, humans and even Gods or Sages. He had experienced life in many different forms.

5. The Buddha himself had a Guru that he lived with early on to learn meditation and to learn how to free his spirit.  Interesting, even the Buddha had a Guru early on! 

Of course, it is said, that soon he himself surpassed even his Guru's knowledge.

6. Yoga is involved in this tradition - it's been around for centuries. This was how the spiritual leaders used their bodies to tame their minds. To meditate.

7. Buddha practiced all these practices and excelled, however, he kept finding himself still stuck in these pains and the suffering. He was not getting his answers. He found them as only a temporary escape from the problems, but not a solution.

8. Siddhartha moved himself to another Guru, but his results were the same.

9. He eventually concluded that "these practices do not lead to what I seek…" - he left this Master as well and continued his search, drifting further South.

10. His question remained "Why do human beings suffer? Is there any escape?"

11. The next practice he took on was punishing his body to hardships and pains - there were believers at that time that felt this would lead to ultimate wisdom and truth.  Siddhartha joined them as well. 

12. He punished himself for 6 years, literally tortured himself trying to destroy anything inside himself that he saw as "bad." 

He was eating one grain of rice a day, he was drinking his own urine, he was sleeping on nails - he tried it all. He was on the verge of death...

13. That's when he remembered something…a day when he was young and sat by the river with his Father (at a Spring planting festival). He remembered seeing the ground and thinking about the ants and their eggs that were destroyed when the field was planted - he remembered feeling great sadness and compassion.

The Buddha - Story of Siddhartha Before Age 29

I'm watching this documentary movie called: "The Buddha - Story of Siddhartha" and the first 20 minutes focus on his life BEFORE he left his palace (at the age of 29). I learned quite a bit.

For example:

- Did you know he left a wife and new-born son behind?
- Did you know he was a bit of a play-boy in the mansion before marriage?
- Did you know that when he was born it was said he was destined to be a great King OR a very enlightened being?
- Did you even know he left when he was 29 - I thought it was much younger.

** Interesting, even Jesus started his preaching at 30. What's with this age, I almost wonder if there is some significance to it?

Anyways, here are my notes from the movie (the first 20 minutes only so far):

1. Before the birth of Buddha, his mother had a dream (interesting, so did Mother Mary).

2. When experts were asked in that time to analyze her dream, they said she would give birth to a son who was either destined to become a great ruler or a great holy man.

3. The Queen died only 7 days after giving birth to the Buddha.

4. Interesting - Dale Lama says… "You are your own master, the future it depends on you and rests on your shoulders. The Buddha can only show you the path." 

Interesting, this would fall in line with most religions. Even in Christianity, Christ can only show you a path, you have to follow it.

5. Born 500 years before the birth of Jesus.

6. The Buddha's name was "Siddhartha" - he was the son of a King born in a palace with every imaginable luxury. He was a Prince among a clan of warriors.

7. He was brought up very delicately as a child, protected at all times from even the Sun and dust.  

8. His father wanted him to be a great King and be the ruler of India. At that time India had 16 rulers, but his father felt that he could become king of all Kings.

9. His father never wanted him to know that anything was wrong with the world because he wanted him to be a great King, and feared that his son may go the other path (as predicted at his birth) as a enlightened being. 

10. His father married him to his cousin and he fell deeply in love with her. 

11. He indulged himself for 29 years before the bubble of pleasure finally burst. One day he went outside as he traveled through the Kingdom and had his first foreign encounter.  He saw an old man and wanted to know what that was. His attendant explained that men get old.  He eventually saw a sick man and attendant said "oh everyone gets sick - even you will one day."

Now he goes out multiple times, seeing more horror. On his 3rd trip, he sees a corpse and he immediately he sees the suffering, the death - the real world he had been kept from.

He was shocked and he realized that this is my fate, I will become old, ill and I will also die - how do I deal with these things. These are Universal questions in almost all beings.

12. His 4th trip outside, he sees a spiritual seeker, someone who has decided to live a life other than his to escape suffering and all. 

13. At 29 he resolved to leave the palace and seek the answer to suffering.  His wife had just given birth to a son.

14. When he tried to leave the God of Desire tried to get him to go back by telling him that he would one day rule a great Empire. Siddhartha refused. 

** The desire of God almost resembles some kind of DEMON in this story. Once I finish watching this movie I really want to draw some parallels between this story and the story of Jesus. There seem to be uncanny matches.

Who Was Jesus? His Childhood

I just watched Epsiode 1 of a Discovery series called "Who Was Jesus." This one is all about his childhood and in what conditions he grew up. It' was SUPERB. 

I think there are 3 episodes, I will definitely finish them all soon. But, I've gone ahead and made notes for you from Episode #1!

Enjoy!

The Childhood of Jesus:

1. Mother Mary was told before conceiving Jesus that she would conceived through the Holy Spirit

2. The Angel was the one to name Jesus, she told Mary to do so.

3. Being pregnant without marriage was a crime punishable by being stoned. But now she finds herself pregnant and has now broken all moral rules.

4. Joseph was told of Mary's conception by an Angel. But they had to leave their town to go to Bethlehem to escape her persecution for being pregnant.

5. Most scholars now agree that Jesus was not born in a stable. There was very title wood back then to build a stable.

6. It was more of a cave he was born in underneath a Church. 

7. In the Jewish tradition, the Messiah must be from the House of David, which is from Bethlehem. Is this maybe why the Gospels put Jesus being born there?  But was he really?

8. Jesus was NOT born on December 25th in the year Zero - this we already know. The monk who devised the Calendar made a mistake in his math.

We have no other evidence of his birth because people did not care in those days. 

Most believe his birth was more in 4 B.C.

9. Nazareth was a small village with a very small population and his childhood was very tough. His family was very poor and they all had to work from an early age to make the family work.

10. Evidence of recurring famine during the time of Jesus has been found over and over in the bone analysis of many people from his town during his time.

11. 50% of children in that time never even reached the age of 5. 

12. Infectious disease, lyce, and malaria were very common during that time.

13. Archaeological evidence shows that even severely disabled people were very well taken care of by their families and many lived to very high ages.

14. The Holy family is typically seen as just Jesus, Mary and Joseph. When in reality Jesus grew up in a house full of children - who's names we know from the Gospels. Matthew 13:55.

15. Some believe that Joseph was a widower and that Jesus's brother/sisters were from Joseph's prior marriage but not from Mary.

16. Growing up, evidence shows that Jesus was most likely picked on and bullied, treated as an outsider while he was growing up. 

17. It is likely that Jesus knew from an early age that he was the Son of God, feeling different himself from all the other boys.

18. Jesus joined his father in learning and practicing Carpentry by age of 12. 

19. Jesus grew up in a very trying time - the rich were getting richer and the poor, poorer. 

20. The Roman Empire was really hurting the people and suppressing the Jewish people a lot. 

21. When Jesus was 12 years old, the Romans sent a decree to survey to Jewish people again to raise their taxes - this led to a major uprising. The Jewish believed that they should only be paying their taxes to God - not the Romans.

But the rebellion was put down and thousands were killed to set an example.

22. Jesus was most likely able to read and write because Jewish boys his age are taught to read the Tora very clearly in that time. 

23. According to Gospel stories, Jesus had a very sophisticated knowledge of the scriptures from even a very young age.

24. The Priests of the Jewish temples in Jerusalem are known to have made deals with the Roman leaders which afforded them very wealthy lives. The Jewish population began to become very unpleased with the Temple leaders over time. 

If you can, I highly recommend watching this series. I just ordered the DVD even though it's free on Netflix to stream...

10 Questions For The Dalai Lama

I watched a Documentary called "10 Questions For The Dalai Lama" - my first touch with Buddhism. This movie is less about religion and more about Tibet and the political battle. However, still an engaging movie. You can learn about how Buddhists THINK - which is a big part of understanding Buddhism.

Here's a trailer of the movie:



  

Out of the 10 questions asked, I chose the following to reveal to you. I don't want to reveal all 10 as that would be disrespectful to the actual film :)

Question #1: Why does it seem that people are RICHER in India than even in the West. Obviously, wealth wise, the West is far wealthier. Why is that the Poor smile more than the Rich?

Answer #1: [Paraphrased] "The poor have very little to lose, very little stress. The rich have much to lose and always absorbed in wanting more, more, more. They're never happy because of greed. The poor simply want enough to make their daily needs then they are very happy. The more possessions, the more we have to lose, the less happy we will be."

Question #2: Why is the crime rate so much less in India, even with a higher population than places like the United States?  Why are people in the West so much more prone to anger than the East? The East is so much more prone to patience, is it because they have just accepted their faith?"

Answer #2: [Paraphrased] "It has to do with self discipline and being aware of consequences. The East separates desire with the right/wrong better. In the West you grow up in a society where people are more emotional and more reactive. The East you're trained to be more aware of consequences and of what is right or wrong. It's mostly cultural based."

Question #3: What do we do about religious differences and the fights it creates, especially in places like the Middle East?

Answer #3: [Paraphrased "There needs to be more personal respect, that's all. We need to simple respect the beliefs of another and not impose our own onto them. Two should first participate in festivals and mutual celebrations and become PERSONAL friends, THEN, they should discuss serious matters such as land...especially in the Middle East."

The movie was a good overall watch. But I guess I don't specifically recommend it if your only goal is to learn about Buddhism. I. however, am glad I watched it because I had NO understanding of the Tibet issue - now I do!
 

What Is Islam - The 5 Pillars of Islam

I just watched a great 30 minute documentary, episode 1 called "Christianity and Islam, Ep. 1 - The Tenets of Islam." The following are my notes - it was very resourceful. I found it on LIVE Streaming for Free on Netflix.

My Notes:

1. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, especially the West. It's 2nd largest religion today. The largest Islam nation is Indonesia.

2. Both Christianity and Islam believe in ONE true God.

3. Islam claims:

"We worship the same God that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and even Jesus worshiped."

4. Islam - from aerobic root that means 'Peace' - 'Surrender to the will of God to achieve Peace."

5. The 5 Pillars of Islam:

1. Shahadah - Declaration of Faith
2. Salahn - Prayer (5 times a day, everyday. This  wat it is a constant reminder, knowing your Lord). - Must be done in Arabic. Reciting opening versus of the Quran.
3. Sawm - Fasting. Cultivate discipline and self-control. Most important is Ramadan. This is when the angel appeared to Mohammed to reveal to him the Quran.
4. Zakah - Financial Obligations Among Muslims. Required to pay at least 2.5% of wealth to help needy.
5. Hajj - Pilgramage to Mecca. Once in lifetime they need to do this as long as they can physically do this.

6. Islam has no "baptism" persay. There is no gateway, to recite the Shahadah infront of 2 believers and really mean it is to become a Muslim.

7. Mohammed is considered the last prophet to God. But he is not given divine attributes, he states that he is simply human and a messenger to bring the laws of God.

8. When Mohammed was meditating, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and gave to him the Quran. He eventually wrote these words down and that was how the Quarn was created.

9. Mohammed had to carry out many military campaigns to protect his people, but to also cleanse temples of Idols to protect the real worship of one and only God - Allah.

10. Mecca is most important city in Islam. All prayers are done in the direction of Mecca. Mecca is important because when God gave message to Abraham, Abraham built the first house of worship in Mecca under instruction to God.  Abraham offered Ishmail, not Isaac, but Ishmail at Mecca to God but God stopped the sacrifice.

MOVIE Review: The Passion of The Christ

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I had the random idea to watch "The Passion of the Christ" movie about a week ago when I was a few chapters into the "Dummies For Christianity" book. Just came to me...

I'd never seen it. When it first released, there was a LOT of controversy around it. Why? The only way to really understand is to see the movie. Christian or not, your eyes will tear up.

Jesus gets whipped, slashed and tortured. It's absolutely torturous to watch. They show the Jews as the ones who are killing him for "blasphemy" (as is described in the religion). Obviously, this would bring up some "controversy."

I Was Mistaken

I thought the movie was about the LIFE of Jesus. So I was hoping to learn more from it. However, I learned in the movie (a great lesson in itself), it's about his death. When someone say "Passion of Christ" they're referring to his willingness to suffer and die for our sins.

My Review:

DEFINITELY a must-see. BUT, read about Christianity first or else the movie will not make sense. The movie assumes you understand what terms/phrases and what the story is. It begins at him getting captured. It begins with him performing a miracle. It begins with the apostles.

You won't know any of that unless you've read first. After reading though, I kept having "OHHH AH HA" moments. 

Excellent excellent movie but my jaw was open the entire time. It's one of those movies you can't watch, but can't bare to even think about turning off. Just be warned, it's highly graphic and makes you FEEL every second of it.

Here You Go! I Found It On YouTube!