The Buddhist Awakening: Life in the Garden of Eden

On the other side of the spiritual psyche lies Buddhism. Its no surprise that while Christianity was founded by a poor carpenter’s son, Buddhism was founded by a Prince, a man who had everything.

Buddha’s story is of the rich person’s angst. The myth of the Buddha goes like this. He was born as Siddhartha the son of a prosperous King. At the time of his birth the King was paid a visit by Asetha a well known sage. Asetha prophesized that the new born Prince Siddhartha would either be a great ruler or a great redeemer.

Siddhartha’s father did not like the idea of his new born son becoming an ascetic sage. So he decided he would raise Siddhartha in a very sheltered way. He would provide the young prince with every luxury possible and make sure he was insulated from anything that might make him feel want. According to the myth he is even prevented from venturing outside the palace walls lest he see something that could upset him. Its almost like his parents wanted to prevent him from thinking.

Does this kind of a life seem somewhat familiar? If you have lived in an American suburb doing a cubicle office job it will. In the suburbs every physical want you might have is taken care of. Even sex is available, at least virtually through pornography if not physically. Nothing prevents anyone from leaving the suburbs except our own fear of something happening.

For Siddhartha real sex was readily available. He was married young to a beautiful princess Yashodhara. Writings from that time suggest he was quite the Playboy and had many concubines too, the palace was well known for its hedonistic orgies.

All the food, stimulants and sex you could want, what more is there to life? Of course boredom would set in and he had to leave it all. As the story goes, there comes a time when he begins wondering what lies outside the palace walls. What lies outside his sheltered life? Who is he actually? This is the beginning of awareness, the first emergence out of narcissism.