Meow: Gautama Buddha and Life Essay

Submitted By oquendodylan
Words: 396
Pages: 2

Conscience vs. Money, Fame, and Power

Due to people’s inability to find truth because of the backwards, narrow-minded, and corrupted ways of society, most are led to believe that the only way to make it big in life is through wealth, power, and fame. Although it is through these selfish motives that many have become powerful and important people, Siddhartha Guatama was one who found truth and genuine happiness through his own conscience. Siddhartha, a Hindu prince, gave up his power and wealth that he had in order to become “awakened”. He went out on a long journey with absolutely nothing to find teachers in hopes of learning all that there was to learn about life. Prince Siddhartha wanted to live an ascetic life so that he would be able to achieve nirvana, the state of being free from suffering. To reach nirvana, Siddhartha would pursue a life of deep meditation. Detaching himself from all the materialism in life, Siddhartha would now be known as Guatama the Monk. Guatama lived his life by The Four Noble Truths, which is one of the main beliefs in Buddhism. One of these four short statements states that attachment is the root of all suffering. The reasons for suffering are desire, passion, ardour, pursuit of wealth and prestige, striving for fame and popularity, or in short: craving and clinging. Once Guatama freed himself of all things causing suffering, he had become Buddha, “the awakened one”. Buddha’s life might not have been most people’s idea of exciting, but he found the true meaning of life. It