Page 9 - Suffering

S iddhartha Gautama, born a prince and destined

to be a Universal Monarch, renounced the world to be a

wandering ascetic to seek an answer to the 4 sights –
1. an old man, wrinkled and fragile;
2. a sick man, bent and holding a walking stick;
3. a corpse being carried to cremation, and
4. a wandering ascetic, well compose and calm.

These 4 sights took the Prince by surprise as he was
kept hidden away from the realities of life in the palace by
his father, King Suddhodana, who was told by his wisemen

that the Prince will either be a Universal Monarch or an
enlightened teacher known as the Buddha.

Before the Prince was born on earth, he was a
Bodhisatta residing in Tusita Heaven. The time has come for
the Bodhisatta to take rebirth on earth to become a Buddha.
According to the Dana Sutta*, those who do meritorious
deeds with the intention of helping others would tend to be
reborn in Tusita Heaven upon death.

Prince Siddhartha left his royal life to seek answers

to what he saw, and he began his training in meditation
and asceticism in hopes of discovering the root of human
suffering. Rejecting the luxury of the palace and the self-
inflicted penance of the wandering ascetics, he chose to
pursue a “middle way” between the two extremes.

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