I've just started reading a book. It's a pretty good one called "Letting Go Of The Person You Used To Be: Lessons on Change, Loss and Spiritual Transformation by Lama Surya Das. The writer is a Buddhist and in the first few pages tells the story of the very first Buddha. I asked some friends if they knew who Buddha was but none were able to tell me. They have seen many Buddha's...everywhere seems full of them...shops which sell ornaments, jewellery shops, 'new age' shops which sell crystals etc...wherever you look you see a Buddha, so it seems, but not many stop to wonder who Buddha was.


There have been many Buddha's, but this is the story of the very first one and who Buddhism is based on today:


More than 2,500 years ago in ancient India, on the border of what is now Nepal, there was a parent who wanted his child to live a pain-free life. His name was King Suddhodana, and he was the father of the man, born as Siddhartha, who we know as Gautama, the Buddha. Suddhodana was a powerful leader, wealthy enough to build a walled castle filled with flower gardens, elegant food, gracious furnishings, beautiful music, and great luxury.


Legend has it that before Siddhartha, the child who was to become the Buddha, was born, his mother had a dream. She saw her son as a great spiritual warrior, a radiant Bodhisattva who was transformed into a white elephant. The elephant climbed a golden mountain, then a silver mountain, and finally, carrying a white lotus in his trunk, touched the mother on her side. The white elephant then dissolved like vapour into her pregnant womb.


The seers summoned to interpret the dream told the king that the child who was to be born would either be a universal ruler or an enlightened sage, a Buddha. Like many parents, the king wanted his son to follow in his footsteps; he didn’t relish the notion of raising a child who would renounce the world in favour of monasticism and a homeless mendicant’s begging bowl. With that in mind, the wise men issued a warning: If the king wanted his son to embrace a royal vocation, he must make certain that the young prince never left home, for if he went forth into the world, he would see suffering. Then he would most certainly be moved to become a spiritual seeker.


Because Suddhodana wanted his son to live the life of a prince, not an ascetic, he decided that he would protect his son from the sight of any suffering. Then, as now, the world was filled with poverty, pain, injustice, sickness, and death. To make sure that his beloved child never came in contact with the miserable aspects of life, the king determined to keep his son in the palace surrounded by high walls and provided with all the luxuries of life. And whenever the young prince appeared reflective or questioned the meaning of life, the king ordered more lavish sporting competitions and entertainments, reminding everyone that the prince was never to go out beyond the palace walls. Suddhodana was a loving parent; he wanted desperately to shield his son from unhappiness. And, of course, he couldn’t, because eventually the young prince Siddhartha convinced his faithful charioteer to take him out into the city. That’s when Siddhartha saw those things that he had been sheltered from his entire life. Siddhartha saw a sick man, and elderly crippled man, and a corpse at the cremation ground for the first time, he saw poverty and pain.


When he ventured beyond his father’s palace walls, Siddhartha suddenly became aware of the range of human suffering. Think about how deeply the young prince’s innate compassionate heart must have been touched by what he saw. Siddhartha lost his precious innocence. He lost the ability to avoid or deny reality and the fact of the misery that was on display among the people around him. With these losses everything in Siddhartha’s world changed; he became thoughtful and restless. He was disturbed by what he had viewed. Siddhartha’s encounter with loss readied and prepared him for what he saw on this next trip outside the palace walls. That’s when Siddhartha met a wandering ascetic Hindu holy man, a peaceful and radiant sadhu, who seemed to have mad peace with life. Siddhartha realised that he needed to understand more about the cyclic nature of life and death; he wanted to find answers that would remedy universal pain and suffering. He made the decision to seek the truth on the spiritual path and give up the life he had in favour of the new life that awaited him. He slipped out of his father’s palace in the middle of night, under the cover of darkness, while the divas and angels using their soft wings, muffled the sound of his horses footsteps.


These four sights, representing sickness, aging, death, and peace, are said by history to be the turning point of youthful Prince Siddhartha’s iconic life. Siddhartha’s response to the loss of innocence, points out something that most of us know. Whenever we lose something – anything – we come to one of life’s little crossroads. With every loss or separation comes the possibility of change, growth, and transformation. Each loss provides a genuine opportunity for learning. We can gain through loss if we open ourselves to this counterintuitive jewel. This is the positive kernel that is potentially contained in each loss that any one of us suffers, like the inner irritant that can produce a lustrous pearl.


Siddhartha was 29 years old when he left his father’s palace.


On his travels, Siddhartha learned the teachings and philosophies of the most prominent thinkers and spiritual wise men of the time, but none of the answers he gained satisfied him. It was a case of the blind leading the blind. Siddhartha soon joined a group of five pupils of a former teacher. They tried to become in touch with their senses through abstinence and penance.


Siddhartha practiced this form for six years. He abstained until his body became shrunken and withered. His veins protruded from his skin, which had dried up. For the six years he suffered he eventually realised the absolute futility of complete abstinence and penance.


Taking guidance from all his findings, Siddhartha came upon the Middle Path of thinking, or the Majjhima Patipada. Sitting under a Bodhi tree in deep meditation, he attained enlightenment and became Buddha. Buddha taught that suffering was due to the selfishness of clinging to life and its passions. As Buddha, Siddhartha taught his philosophy until the age of 80, when he passed into Nirvana. (Nirvana being a Sanskrit word meaning an end of suffering, the ultimate enlightenment which is for all eternity....Heaven.)


Buddha was therefore a man, and anyone who has attained enlightenment can be Buddha. A Buddha exists to teach and to point out the path of salvation. Buddha teaches people to rely on themselves and no one else. Depending on others for salvation is negative, while depending on oneself is positive. According to Buddhism, anyone can reach a state of perfection and enlightenment. The concept is far more spiritual than religious.