“I was delicate, most delicate, supremely delicate,” said the Buddha while remembering his days as a prince in his parents’ palace. “Lily pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my benefit. Blue lilies in one, white lilies in another, red lilies in a third. … A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that no cold or heat or dust or grit or dew might inconvenience me.”
Imagining all this opulence, one can’t help but wonder how someone so fortunate could even think about leaving all of it behind to lead a life of complete renunciation and extreme austerities. Yet that’s exactly what the Buddha did at the age of twenty-nine. Many of us know about his eventual discovery of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. But what do we know about the time before that and the reasons that prompted the Buddha to leave his former life of luxury? This is one of many subjects taken up in a wonderful book titled The Life of the Buddha According to the Pali Canon based on the research and translations by a Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Nanamoli. What this book is trying to accomplish is to present us with the earliest canonical version of the Buddha’s life as described in the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism.
In describing his former life, the Buddha said that he “had three palaces; one for winter, one for the summer, and one for the rains.” Indeed, he was surrounded by servants, good food, entertainment, and all the riches of his kingdom were at his disposal. But there was something that troubled him amidst all this wealth. The Buddha recounts:
Whilst I had such power and good fortune, yet I thought, “When an untaught ordinary man, who is subject to ageing, not safe from ageing, sees another who is aged, he is shocked, humiliated and disgusted; for he forgets that he himself is no exception. But I too am subject to ageing, not safe from ageing, and so it cannot befit me to be shocked, humiliated and disgusted on seeing another who is aged.” When I considered this, the vanity of youth entirely left me.
I thought, “When an untaught ordinary man, who is subject to sickness, not safe from sickness, sees another who is sick, he is shocked, humiliated and disgusted; for he forgets that he himself is no exception. But I too am subject to sickness, not safe from sickness, and so it cannot befit me to be shocked, humiliated and disgusted on seeing another who is sick.” When I considered this, the vanity of health entirely left me.
I thought, “When an untaught ordinary man, who is subject to death, not safe from death, sees another who is dead, he is shocked, humiliated and disgusted, for he forgets that he himself is no exception. But I too am subject to death, not safe from death, and so it cannot befit me to be shocked, humiliated and disgusted on seeing another who is dead.” When I considered this, the vanity of life entirely left me.”
He concludes with this reflection, “Why being myself subject to birth, ageing, ailment, death, sorrow and defilement, do I seek after what is also subject to these things? Suppose, being myself subject to these things, seeing danger in them, I sought after the unborn, unageing, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, undefiled supreme surcease of bondage, Nibbana?” And so his main search for the path to transcendence began.
Complement this particular portion of The Life of the Buddha with the Buddha’s simile of teaching as a raft and then revisit Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s lecture on the Noble Eightfold Path.
[…] Complement this particular portion of Dhammapada, a practical and accessible guide to the Buddha’s timeless teachings, with Bhikkhu Bodhi on liberating quality of limitations in Buddhism and his lecture on the Noble Eightfold Path, then revisit The Buddha’s famous simile of teaching as a raft and the reason why he left his parents’ palace to become a wandering ascetic. […]