Intro: buddhism originated in north india, Vedic period. 6th century BCE founding figure siddharta Gautama, oldest missionary religion , no belief in personal god
350 million buddhist in the world 98 % in paisa, 38 Theravada, 62 Mahayana. Majority of population in Sir Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are buddhist. large number of buddhist in japan, china, south Korea, and Singapore people were unsatisfied with Vedic religious teaching, caste system Vedic rituals and brahmin priest which led to mahavira founding janise people broke away

life of buddha siddharta was born to a the kingdom of kapilavastu to a king and queen. border district between Nepal and india below the foothills of the himalayan mountains. sage asita predicted that if he stay home he would become a great monarch and if he left home he would be a great universal spiritual teacher that will renounce the world. siddharta’s father wanted him to stay home and become a great monarch/warrior. so his dad built 3 palaces for him, employed thousands of servants and thought him martial arts. He also gave him all pleasantries of life such as wife and concubines and hid unpleasantries such as death and sickness.

siddharta grew isolated within his comfortable lifestyle and never saw outside world. he grew older and became restless and unsatisfied but his comfortable but confined lifestyle. at age of 29 he wanted to see outside world. took four excursions into city with charioteer channa, and saw four things that changed his life. decrepit old man, dead man, wandering ascetic monk, diseased man. four sights. shocked and confused he decides to leave his wife and newborn baby and the palace and this is called the great renunciation.

after leaving his family he palace siddharta found religious masters (gurus). first was the state of nothingness (arada kalama) and the second was netiher perception nor non perception. in short period he mastered everything from those teacher but still unsatisfied with the truth that he was looking for. he then joined 5 monks and embarked on an ascetic path. this involved controlled breathing, fervent fasting, and long hours of unperturbed meditation. after years of party he grew weak and could not even sit upright, he realized that he couldn't reach his goal in this type of condition and decided acesticism was no effective. so he decided to take the middle way avoiding two extremes of self indulgence and self mortification. he then left the 5 monks. they were disappointed and dismayed

practicing middle way one night under body tree, while siddharta was meditating he went through four stages of trance like consciousness. while being tempted with fear and lust by mara the demon. after the temptations he gained self realizations and various other forms of special knowledge called nirvana he became buddha, the enlightened/awakened one. after enlightenment buddha was tempted to stay isolated and not teach his new found knowledge to humanity but benevolent gods persuaded him and told him there would be people that will listen. he went to the sacred city varanasi just outside of hindu and found his 5 monks. he preached to them the first sermon known as setting of the wheel of dharma into motion and this content contained the eightfold path and the four noble truths. the 5 monks formed the first buddhist sangha Joseph Campbell - the hero with a thousand faces published in 1949, certain important myths shares same structure called mono myth. 3 stages listed below. each stage has set of substage with 17 stages listed in all. rare to find myths with all 17 sub stages. but myths closely follow this structure

departure born usually a supernatural event occurs call to adventure refusal of adventure crossing the threshold experiences belly of the whale ( dangerous realms where the rules and limits are unknown)
Characters

1. hero - main character
2. heralds - character who issues call to adventure or prophesies concerning