Knox Academy RMPS Learning Log

·Recognition that the stories are heavily rooted in oral tradition and therefore, have become exaggerated/amended.
·Name prior to enlightenment was Siddhartha Gautama (perfect fulfilment).
·Buddhism is a religion of experience – therefore it is crucial to understand the life of the Buddha
·Birth in Lumbini, raised in a Palace at Kapilavastu in modern day Nepal
·Part of the Shakya clan + Kshatriya caste (warrier).
·Dramatic birth narrative – Queen Maya’s vision of the white six tusked elephant + the newly born Siddhartha declaring the Dharma from birth.
·Predictions of Asita – Either Siddhartha would grow up to be a great warrior/leader or a great holy man/religious leader.
·King Suddhodana wanted Siddhartha to remain within the confines of the palace, preferring the first of Asita’s predictions.
·Marriage to Yashodhara and birth of son. Siddartha begins to learn the art of being a warrior.
·Siddhartha continued to grow restless with his palace existence.
·Made several journeys out of the palace with his Charioteer, Channa. What Siddhartha witnessed on these journeys has been referred to as the Four Sights
·An Old Man – Siddhartha was informed that everyone grows old (youth does not last).
·A Sick Woman – Channa told Siddhartha that sickness could not be escaped; it was part of our earthly existence (health is not permanent, physical suffering is an inevitable part of the Human Condition).
·A Dead Man – Siddhartha learnt that we all die, our physical bodies are finite.
·A Holy Man – Siddhartha discovered that a life of an ascetic appeared to be more peaceful/fruitful, despite being deprived of material possessions.
·Siddhartha leaves the palace at the age of 29 and begins his religious quest for enlightenment.
·7 years are spent with ascetics, practising bodily mortification (meditating in extreme conditions) and depriving the body of physical comforts (eating only one grain of rice a day).
·Siddhartha turned away from ascetic lifestyle, preferring to follow a Middle Way (magga).
·Vow to meditate under a Bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment.
·Temptations of Mara
·Enlightenment – a full understanding of existence and the Three Conditioned Marks of Existence.
-Anicca: Impermanence, nothing lasts forever
-Anatta: No fixed self/soul, everything is co-dependent
-Dukkha: Suffering, there is a general unsatisfactoriness about life. We are never content.