A quest for wisdom and ultimate truth cuts through cultural barriers. People desire to know the meaning of life, why they are here, and what is going to happen after they die. This is no different in the story set that I read for this week, which was titled "The Life of the Buddha."
The whole entire premise of the life of the Buddha is finding ultimate wisdom and being freed from the cycle of life and death. I found this entire unit interesting, and quickly realized that I knew nothing about Buddhism and its origin! The stories detail the life of Siddhartha, and his quest for knowledge. The way that he goes about getting knowledge is quite interesting.
I came away from this story set being really disappointed. The whole entire premise of Buddhism is to numb yourself to your desires. Although I believe that human beings are born with an evil nature and we can have sinful desires, I also believe that desires are beautiful things! Maybe this is my inner ENFP coming out, but desires are why we choose our college majors, why we get married, why we travel the world, why we help the poor, and so on. Desires that are left unchecked can turn into horrible things. Having a desire to eat chocolate can turn into gluttony, a desire to help the poor can turn into a self-exalting mission, and so on.
One of the stories was really interesting to me, because it contradicted basically everything that we know to be true of gathering knowledge. In the story "Siddhartha Deserted by His First Disciples", the Siddhartha literally lays beside a river for six years. When we think about gaining knowledge, we think about going to class, asking questions, and seeking out answers. Not passively hoping that answers show up in our lap as we waste away. Maybe that is critical, but if you don't study for a test, you won't pass. If you don't seek out knowledge, you won't get it.
Then in the story "Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha," the same basic pattern happens. The Buddha sits around, and suddenly all knowledge is given to him. I just wish there were a little more description as to how he came to understand all of these things. It just doesn't seem realistic to me.
The Buddha succeeds in his quest about gaining wisdom, but I don't think this story has anything I would ever want to apply to my life or education. If I sit around by a river, I won't become a guru, and I won't get a good grade in this class either.
The whole entire premise of the life of the Buddha is finding ultimate wisdom and being freed from the cycle of life and death. I found this entire unit interesting, and quickly realized that I knew nothing about Buddhism and its origin! The stories detail the life of Siddhartha, and his quest for knowledge. The way that he goes about getting knowledge is quite interesting.
I came away from this story set being really disappointed. The whole entire premise of Buddhism is to numb yourself to your desires. Although I believe that human beings are born with an evil nature and we can have sinful desires, I also believe that desires are beautiful things! Maybe this is my inner ENFP coming out, but desires are why we choose our college majors, why we get married, why we travel the world, why we help the poor, and so on. Desires that are left unchecked can turn into horrible things. Having a desire to eat chocolate can turn into gluttony, a desire to help the poor can turn into a self-exalting mission, and so on.
One of the stories was really interesting to me, because it contradicted basically everything that we know to be true of gathering knowledge. In the story "Siddhartha Deserted by His First Disciples", the Siddhartha literally lays beside a river for six years. When we think about gaining knowledge, we think about going to class, asking questions, and seeking out answers. Not passively hoping that answers show up in our lap as we waste away. Maybe that is critical, but if you don't study for a test, you won't pass. If you don't seek out knowledge, you won't get it.
Then in the story "Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha," the same basic pattern happens. The Buddha sits around, and suddenly all knowledge is given to him. I just wish there were a little more description as to how he came to understand all of these things. It just doesn't seem realistic to me.
The Buddha succeeds in his quest about gaining wisdom, but I don't think this story has anything I would ever want to apply to my life or education. If I sit around by a river, I won't become a guru, and I won't get a good grade in this class either.
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| Sidhartha Buddha. Source: Pixgood |
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