Wide Awake
A Buddhist Guide for Teens
By Diana Winston

Buddha

This image of the Buddha is available as a poster from Buddhism Depot.

Chapter 1: who was the Buddha?

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1

Wide Awake

To order this book, head to your nearest independent bookseller or to Amazon.com. Published by Perigee Books (A division of PenguinPutnam Group). Publication date 5 August 2003.

If you were to ask me, "What is the essence of Buddhism?" I would answer that it's to awaken. And the function of that awakening is learning how to serve.
—Bernard Glassman, Zen Teacher

The historical Buddha did not begin his life as some magical awakened being. He started out as an ordinary young man who was actually quite spoiled. But he was intensely curious about the world. More than anything, he wanted to understand why life worked as it did. He was willing even to disobey his parents in order to find the truth. This is his story:

Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince of the Shakya clan in Northern India about 550 BCE. When Siddhartha was born, his parents, like other parents during that time, received a prophecy. They were told that their son would have one of two paths in life. Either he would be a great king and ruler, or he would be a mystic and saint. The idea of raising a child to be a mystic was no more appealing back then than it might be to parents these days. To have a saint would be like having no son at all. So the prince was brought up as a warrior-king, learning the arts of archery and sword fighting. He learned to win at battle, to strategize and gain the trust of his men. His parents gave him everything imaginable: lovers, delicious food, jewels, silks, horses. If he lived now he would probably have ten TV sets, designer clothes, DVD players, and fantastic cars.

Siddhartha's parents also sheltered the young prince from "real life." He lived luxuriously behind castle walls and never saw poor people. No old people served in the palace. When the prince and his entourage toured the town, the king's men would police the streets in advance, hiding away the sick, dying, homeless, and insane. For nearly thirty years, the prince never saw nor came in contact with suffering.

Then one day, when he turned twenty-nine, Siddhartha felt a restlessness he couldn't explain. He had a beautiful wife and child, yet his life felt meaningless, empty. He felt disgust for this indolent palace life. There must be more to the world than stuff, he thought. (Does this experience feel at all familiar?) So, late one night when the family and servants were asleep, he sneaked out of the palace gates. With his charioteer friend Channa, he entered the city, without illusions for the first time.

According to the legend, the Prince encountered four signs. First he nearly tripped over a man in the street who was covered in sores and breathing shallowly. "What's wrong with him?" asked the repulsed Siddhartha.

Channa told him the man was sick.

"Sick, what is sick?"

"The body is subject to decay and disease. It's not always healthy like yours."

Next they met a woman whose gray hair, missing teeth, wrinkles and bent-over back baffled the prince.

"Channa, what is wrong with this woman?"

"That, my prince, is old age. We all will get old one day."

"Even me?"

"Even you."

Just then they stumbled on a body that wasn't moving.

"Channa, there's no air in this man's lungs."

"Sir, he is dead."

"What is death?"

"Death cannot be escaped. Everyone you know will die, including you."

At that point the prince got depressed. He sat down on the side of the road with his head in his hands.

Now as a side note, is it possible a young man in ancient India had never seen a sick, aged, or dying person? Hardly likely. Although I like the story as it is, I take it as a metaphor: that the truth of the signs had never sunk in until that night on the street. Sometimes we can be told about sickness or death, but it is only when we experience for ourselves that we finally understand it.

As the prince sat there in his despair, suddenly a man with a shaven head, dressed in orange robes, a spiritual seeker of sorts, appeared in his line of vision. He seemed, what was it? So... peaceful, at home in the world.

"Channa, who is he?!!"

"That, my lord, is a mendicant. He has renounced the world to seek the ultimate meaning of all things. He seeks to unlock the mystery of old age, sickness and death."

"I want to do this, too!"

"Your parents won't like it."

Channa's words haunted the prince, and proved correct.

"What do you mean, you're leaving?!!" his father shouted at him.

"I want to understand life. I can't stay cooped up in this castle. Dad, it's all been a lie. Why have you withheld reality from me?"

They bargained and fought until late into the night, the king pleading that if Siddhartha left it would kill his mother. The prince stood firm.

I imagine Siddhartha felt the worst about leaving his wife and child. This decision has been debated throughout Buddhist history. How could he be so selfish? Would he have become the Buddha if he stayed with his family? I can't make excuses for the prince, he was doing what he thought he had to do. Later his wife and child also became enlightened. But that, as they say, is another story.

The next morning, Siddhartha left the castle with Channa. He cut off his long, thick hair &ndash the sign of the Shakya clan. He went into the forest, as countless others had done, to find the meaning of this world.

During this period in Indian history, spiritual teachers populated the forest, practically one under every tree. What a dynamic time to have been alive! For six years, Siddhartha traveled from one teacher to the next. It is said that he excelled everywhere. In a short time he learned to concentrate his mind so well he surpassed his first teacher. He sought out another teacher of high repute. Again he exceeded his teacher's ability, and again he moved on. Although he learned significant spiritual practices – mysticism, meditations, yoga, fasting, and prayers – not one answered the question of the meaning of life, birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Over time the prince became a celebrity. Soon five wide-eyed disciples followed him from teacher to teacher. Prince Siddhartha was always the best – the best at debating, the most blissed out, the greatest spiritual practitioner among thousands. He worked particularly hard at learning to control his senses by not eating – thinking mistakenly that fasting would get him enlightened. At one point he was down to only one grain of rice per day. He was so skinny he could touch his spine by poking his belly. (There are statues of the starving Buddha all over Asia today.)

However, in spite of the training, discipline, teachings, and practices, Siddhartha was not satisfied. He had been practicing for years, and still he felt no closer to the truth. When he got in touch with his body, he realized, "This is really getting me nowhere," he thought. He wondered whether he would die of hunger, failing at his task.

At that moment a young girl named Sujata walked by and offered him a bowl of rice milk. He didn't know if he should eat it. Suddenly a memory appeared before his eyes. He remembered being a young boy sitting in the shade of a rose apple tree while his father worked in the gardens. He felt protected by the tree and experienced a bliss and peace he had never felt before. In that moment he was doing nothing to starve or challenge his body, but something wonderful had happened in his mind.

"Maybe I have gone too far," he thought. "Maybe starvation isn't the way to freedom."

Returning to the present, he accepted Sujata's milk and drank, feeling his body strengthen. His self-righteous disciples were horrified. They accused him of giving up and they went off in search of someone more holy.

In that magical moment when Siddhartha had his childhood vision, he had been sitting under a beautiful pipal tree with heart-shaped leaves. Today it is known as the Bodhi Tree, or tree of awakening because it became the site of the Buddha's full awakening. He was no longer hungry and could think more clearly. "Let's see," he mused, "Since asceticism didn't work, and no teacher has been able to explain the meaning of life to me, perhaps I need to look within. Could it possibly be inside me?" Then he made a vow:

If the end is attainable by human effort, I will not rest or relax until it is attained. Let only my skin and sinews and bones remain. Let my flesh and blood dry up. I will not stop the course of my effort until I win that which may be won by human ability, human effort, human exertion.

The prince sat under the tree for twenty-four hours. There are many stories about what happened that night. Some may be folklore, some may be true. They say that in the first six hours, Mara – the God of temptation – harassed him. Mara's daughters danced and caressed and tried to seduce the prince. More realistically perhaps, Siddhartha's mind tormented him with memories and fantasies of sexual desire, wonderful foods, and all the worldly pleasures he had left behind. Next, Mara dispatched his armies to defeat the prince. They shot him with arrows, burned his body, and clubbed and beat him. In truth, it is more possible that mind-numbing pain tortured the prince's unmoving body.

Then Mara tried to make him doubt his task: "Who do you think you are to understand the nature of reality? You arrogant, self-centered, spoiled prince, you worthless nothing. You'll never..." (Can you relate to this? Have you ever made a vow or determined to accomplish something and had to face doubts that arose to stop you?)

For twelve hours Siddhartha battled his mind. At the height of the combat when he could take it no more, he reached down and touched the earth. He begged for strength and clarity. Statues across the Buddhist world immortalize this pose: "Calling Earth to Witness." The earth came to his rescue and offered her strength. He did not give up.

In the final six hours, what is called the last "watch of the night," Siddhartha finally got it. A veil lifted and he saw into the world from beginningless to endless time. He understood the origin of the universe, and how we are reborn. He uncovered what is called "dependent origination," or how suffering that binds us to the cycle of birth and death is created. He understood how to get free of this cycle. He entered into this freedom and, as they say, "went beyond" and touched nirvana – the unconditioned, unborn, deathless. Prince Siddhartha became enlightened and from that moment on was known as The Buddha, or The Awakened One.

As you can imagine, all Siddhartha understood in that night was intense for him. He basked in the truth for seven days. He considered permanently hiding out in the forest – after all, how would anyone now be able to understand him? But a god named Brahma Sahampati persuaded him to teach. For although most people were confused, there were a few whose "eyes were only partially covered with dust" and might be able to hear and follow his teachings. Brahma assured him that if people learned of the Buddha's discovery, they too could walk the path and discover freedom for themselves.

The Buddha began a forty-five-year career as the leading spiritual teacher of his time. During his lifetime, he wandered from village to village, through towns and cities, resting only for three months during the rainy season. He taught exactly what he had discovered for himself, and he led thousands of people to reach the same insights he had attained. His teachings are called the dharma – which means "teachings" or "truths" that lead to harmony in life.

An order of monks became his followers, and later an order of nuns formed, too. He had many students from all different backgrounds. He taught kings and queens, merchants and servants, the rich and the poor, and even children. He preached teachings of wisdom, love, and compassion to all who asked. He offered a path of practice that encompassed the development of generosity, renunciation, ethics, wisdom and meditation.

The Buddha was not interested in teaching a lot of theory. He said, "I teach one thing and one thing only, suffering and the end of suffering." He was not interested in speculations such as where the universe comes from and why we were born. He cared that humans were suffering, and how that suffering could come to an end. He did not say that God would liberate us or intervene to help us. In fact, there is no deity in Buddhism. Instead he talked about the power of human ability, human skill, human perseverance. Each of us could find our own freedom from suffering in this life if we put in the effort.

The Buddhist texts are filled with stories of his teaching, and the ways that countless lives were transformed by it. Some stories are of a mystical nature. Others are more down to earth. In all cases, the Buddha uncompromisingly advocated for clear seeing, skillful action, and an ending of suffering.

Then what happened?

Though Siddhartha was not childless, when he died at 85, he left no spiritual heir. He often said that each of us must be our own guide, our own true teacher. The teachings of the Buddha were memorized by his followers and were not written down until five hundred years after his death. You can imagine his words were subject to interpretation and anyone might claim they had the true teaching of the Buddha. In fact, at one point there were 18 schools of Buddhism, all of which claimed they taught the real thing!

The many schools of Buddhism spread throughout Asia over two thousand years. Followers brought them from ancient India (where the Buddha's teaching later died out) down to Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia – Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia, then North to China, then Tibet, Korea and Japan. Within each country also arose great masters and teachers, following the steps of the Buddha, but forming their own schools and lineages.

Wherever the teachings flourished, they mixed with local culture and tradition so that each country had its own unique "Buddhist" flavor. The practices and teachings differ outwardly from each other, although they are similar in essence. For instance, in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, followers chant about the heavenly realm and hope to be reborn there. Whereas, in Thai forest monasticism, some Buddhist monks live in caves and practice silent meditation for years at a time.

The Buddha didn't call his teachings "Buddhism." In the nineteenth century, European scholars labeled the religion practiced throughout most of Asia "Buddhism." I will use the term Buddhism for convenience's sake, since that is how we commonly know this spiritual and religious movement. Today, approximately 500 million people all over the planet call themselves Buddhist. It is the world's fourth largest religion.

Eventually Buddhism came to Europe and North America. First, Asian immigration brought the whole range of Buddhist practices to the developed world. Immigrants started their own temples and practices on the foreign soil and often taught anyone who was interested. Europeans and Americans traveled to Asia, early in the nineteenth century and then later in the twentieth century, especially during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In the 1950s, the Beat poets of San Francisco and New York were introduced to Japanese Zen teachings, and their writing exhibits that Zen influence. A decade later, the hippies and spiritual seekers flew or back-packed overland to India and Thailand, lived for years in monasteries and temples and practiced with great masters. They brought back to their home countries the sacred teachings and practices that they had learned from masters all throughout Asia. The seekers in turn started their own meditation centers and temples.

My own teachers, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield and others traveled to Thailand, Burma, and India, some lived as monks and nuns in the 1970s, and came back and taught the practice of insight meditation, which I learned in the 1980s.

Currently in my city of Berkeley, California, we can find a Japanese-influenced American Zen Buddhist temple on the same block as a Thai temple where Thai Buddhist monks live. We have several different kinds of Tibetan centers, a Japanese Buddhist university, a nearby American insight meditation retreat center, and a Chinese Buddhist monastery.

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When I reflect on the Buddha's life, I am amazed by his story. One young man chose to step outside his parent's expectations and to look deeply inside himself. His discoveries affected millions of people for the next thousands of years!