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The influence of Buddhism on Indian culture
The influence of Buddhism on Indian culture
The influence of Buddhism on Indian culture
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The Buddha is a PBS documentary that follows the life of Gautama Buddha, discussing the history and teachings of Buddhism. The film is directed by David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, and features various experts on Buddhism and the history of the Buddha, including the Dalai Lama, poets, scholars, and practicing Buddhist monks. The movie combines ancient artwork, contemporary animation, and modern-day footage of India to educate viewers in an engaging and interesting way, with the various experts typically speaking in the background, and occasionally appearing onscreen. The documentary starts with a story of the birth and early life of Siddhartha. The first story is of Siddhartha’s mother, the queen of an Indian kingdom, who had a dream before she …show more content…
The dream involved a white elephant offering the queen a lotus flower and then entering the side of her body. She consulted sages to interpret the dream, and they predicted she would give birth to a son destined to be a great leader or holy man, who would go on to either conquer the world or become the Buddha. Siddhartha was born within ten months, emerging from his mother’s side. His mother then died seven days after he was born. As Siddhartha grew, his father shielded him from worldly issues, giving him a youth of pure pleasure and satisfied his every whim. At the age of sixteen, his father married Siddhartha to his cousin and the two fell in love. One day, Siddhartha leaves the palace with his attendant and has four encounters that show the world for how it truly is. On his trip, he sees a sick man, and asks his attendant what it is, who responds “that happens to all of us.” Then, Siddhartha sees an old man and asks his attendant, and the attendant
Siddhartha is a much respected son of a Brahmin who lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in their town expects Siddhartha to act like his father and become successful. Although he lives a very high quality life, Siddhartha is dissatisfied and along with his best friend Govinda- wants nothing more than to join the group of wandering ascetics called Samana’s. This group starves themselves, travels almost naked and must beg for the food they survive on. This group of people believes that to achieve enlightenment and self-actualization: body image, health, physical and material desires must be thrown away. Although this is the life Siddhartha wished for himself, he soon discovers that it is not the right choice for him. Near desolation, Siddhartha happens upon a river where he hears a strange sound. This sound signifies the beginning of the life he was born to live – the beginning of his true self. Hesse uses many literary devices to assure Siddhartha’s goal of self-actualization and creates a proper path for that success.
...his son. The boy is the first person that he had ever truly loved. The boy despises life with his father and never listens or is nice to his father. Finally the boy can no longer live a poor simple life and runs away. Siddhartha wants to follow but the old ferryman tells him not to. It is then that he realizes it is just as when he was a boy and hated his father so and wanted nothing but to be out from under his roof. I suppose it is this way with most Father and Sons. Finally his friend the old ferryman led him to the river for one more lesson. He told him to listen and asked what he heard. It took awhile but finally he heard that the river first had happiness, joy, and sorrow. Then when he listened closer he heard the ‘om”, and he knew he had reached enlightenment. The old ferryman saw his friend finally achieve enlightenment and he walked into the woods to die.
The beautiful courtesan, Kamala, taught Siddhartha the importance of love along with the pleasures of it. While in the town of Samsara, he was introduced to a life of luxuries by her. She taught him how to please a woman and how to keep her satisfied. He also learned how to gamble and the art of running a business from her friends. Although Siddhartha felt moments of joy, nothing fulfilled the longing in his soul. Over the years, one of the more important lessons he gained from Kamala was that he could have this life of pleasurable things and yet still yearn for a deeper meaning in his heart.
After leaving Gotama, the Illoustrious One, Siddhartha entered the life of a human being. He met a beautiful courtesan named Kamala and asked her to teach him the art of love. She said anyone who came to see her must be wealthy and therefore, she wouldn't teach Siddhartha for he was just a ragged Samanas. She introduced him to a rich merchant named Kamaswami and from this man that Siddhartha learned to trade and became rich. Obviously, Siddhartha came back to see Kamala and she accepted him. They learned the game of love together and she taught him many many love lessons that she knew. From her that he learned love could not be forced, people could buy love, ask for love, but could not steal love. He also learned that people must grow old and die and that there was no endless life. Together, Siddhartha and Kamala had a son, Siddhartha, who could not love anyone, loved his son with all of his heart.
It is even written, “He felt deep love in his heart for the runaway. It was like a wound; and he also felt that the wound was not for wallowing, that it must become a blossom and shine” (111). This “wound,” that Siddhartha suffers from is vital to his mission to achieve enlightenment, for it expands his global understanding beyond that of himself. Siddhartha found from the loss of his son that wisdom is the readiness to be at peace with the universe, no matter one’s current state of being (114). Just as Siddhartha achieved wisdom from his son, Siddhartha is ascended into nirvana after he shares his wisdom with his lifelong friend, Govinda. Govinda’s role in the novel is to illustrate that one may not attempt the journey to Nirvana alone. Govinda comes to Siddhartha after many years shocked to see how a man who lived a life of sin could bear the same smile as the Buddha, which proves that the experiences and “sinful” relationships Siddhartha had were vital in his journey (117). After trying to explain his ideas on enlightenment to Govinda, Siddhartha serenely kisses his forehead, which is an experience that grants Govinda wisdom, “He no longer saw his
He strives to obtain and absorb knowledge constantly, and he is searching for enlightenment. In order to do so, he feels he needs to seek the Oh Mighty One, the Buddha, and learn from him. He leaves the Brahmans to go against the continuities of the Brahmans. Siddhartha joins the Samanas, but only to leave them for the same reason as he left the Brahmans. He finds that being a Samana will not lead him to enlightenment. He then moves on to find a courtesan. She tells him all the ways he needs to change in order for her to teach him. He quickly does everything she says, hoping this will result in some kind of enlightenment. Siddhartha becomes increasingly rich after some time, but finds this will not lead to enlightenment either. He gives up all of his riches because he comes to the realization of how childish his lifestyle has become. He relates his way of living in a game called Sansara. He goes back to Vasudeva, a man he had previously met while on his way to the Courtesan. While living with him a while he reaches enlightenment, and finds that his son, who had run away, was on the same journey as Siddhartha and there is a new cycle of
Siddhartha, in Herman Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, is a young, beautiful, and intelligent Brahmin, a member of the highest and most spiritual castes of the Hindu religion, and has studied the teachings and rituals of his religion with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Inevitably, with his tremendous yearning for the truth and desire to discover the Atman within himself he leaves his birthplace to join the Samanas. With the Samanas he seeks to release himself from the cycle of life by extreme self-denial but leaves the Samanas after three years to go to Gotama Buddha. Siddhartha is impressed by the blissful man but decides to lead his own path. He sleeps in the ferryman's hut and crosses the river where he encounters Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, who teaches him how to love. He is disgusted with himself and leaves the materialistic life and he comes to the river again. He goes to Vasudeva, the ferryman he met the first time crossing the river. They become great friends and both listen and learn from the river. He sees Kamala again but unfortunately, she dies and leaves little Siddhartha with the ferrymen. He now experience for the first time in his life true love. His son runs away and Siddhartha follows him but he realizes he cannot bring him back. He learns from the river that time does not exist, everything is united, and the way to peace is through love. Siddhartha undergoes an archetypal quest to achieve spiritual transcendence. During his journey, he both embraces and rejects asceticism and materialism only to ultimately achieve philosophical wisdom "by the river".
Sometime after this discovery, Siddhartha falls into a deep sorrow due to the loss of Kamala and the running away of his son, young Siddhartha. He doesn’t know what to do any more until he finally accepts the fact that his son ran away on his own journey in a similar way that he did, leading him to accept the fact that there is nothing else he can do to hold back his son. He realizes that he was doing what his father had done to him, forcing him to become a mirror image of himself. When he puts into perspective what he was doing, he decides it’s okay for his son to also venture out and experience life for
The novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a timeless story about one man’s journey of finding peace in his way of life and thoughts. Siddharta is a young Brahmin’s son, who is dissatisfied with his worship and in turn sets out to find the lifestyle that is right for him. Siddhartha is faced with many external, physical conflicts, yet that is not the most prominent type of conflict in the story. Hesse builds excitement and suspense through Siddhartha’s internal journey to create an emotional response usually associated with external conflict.
In his early life, he was born a Kshatriya. Until the age of twenty nine, Siddhartha lived a luxurious life as a prince. Siddhartha’s father, King Shuddodana consulted Asita, a well-known soothsayer, concerning the future of his son. Asita proclaimed that he would be one of two things: He could become a great king, even an emperor. Or he could become a great sage and savior of humanity. This made King Shuddodana wary of what his son may become, therefore he did anything in his power to surround his son Siddhartha with beauty and health to show Siddhartha that there is nothing to save humanity from since it is perfect. If Siddhartha was my son, I would let him see all the suffering in the world and allow him to take action instead of hiding it. It is selfish for the King to hide humanity’s flaws. One day, Siddhartha had seen two wandering, sick and old men. He also, for the first time, experienced death. Due to the sights he had seen, he escaped the palace and lived in a forest where he followed a spiritual life of meditation. After only six years, he achieved enlightenment under the famous Bodhi tree. Siddhartha claims that everyone is able to achieve enlightenment and we all possess
... middle of paper ... ... He makes Siddhartha listen to the river and Siddhartha laughs at how he chased his son. Siddhartha is soon reminded by the river of how he left his own father.
Siddhartha starts to get over the leaving of his son by learning the secrets of the river from Vesudeva. He understands the unity that Gautama taught, through the river. He learns 3 secrets from the river: time doesn’t exist, the river is always the same and the river has many voices. The world is like this river, eternal and whole. Now that Siddhartha can really listen to the river too, Vasudeva reaches Nirvana, and he leaves the river with Siddhartha and moves on. Govinda hears about a ferryman and goes to find him. He doesn’t recognize Siddartha and asks for help to achieve enlightenment. Siddhartha says that everything is part of a whole and is always in the present
Siddhartha Gautama is famously known as Gautama Buddha and was the founder of the idea of Buddhism. The Buddha was known to possess supernatural powers and abilities. He was born in the holy land of Nepal and his journey began in India when he decided to travel and teach himself about life. In the midst of his journey, he discovered Buddhism after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. Buddhism became a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and since then Buddhism has been popular throughout many civilizations. Buddhism is now one of the most ancient religions in the world, where people follow Buddha, which stand for “awakened one,” and Buddhism which has gained popularity because of the teachings of the Buddha.
"Buddha and Ashoka: Crash Course World History #6." YouTube. YouTube, 01 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
This is a critique of" Roger And Me", a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these people security in their middle working class home life. Life in the city of Flint was good until Roger Smith the CEO of GM decided to close the factory. This destroyed the city. Violent crime became the highest in the nation, businesses went bankrupt, people were evicted from their rented homes. There were no jobs and no opportunity. Life was so bad that Money magazine named Flint the worst place to live in the entire nation. When news of the factory closing first broke, Michael Moore a native of flint decided to search for Roger Smith and bring him to Flint.