Martha Aitchison
Martha Aitchison is a Theravada Buddhist who enjoys painting, drawing and telling stories. She lives in England with her husband and cat and all the animals that wish to populate her small garden, which is kept as a wild life sanctuary.
Illustrations and text by Martha Aitchison
The tale of how a prince came to abandon a life of luxury and comfort and went away to discover the secret of happiness, suffering much penury before he reached his goal, seems the stuff of fairy stories. Yet it was a real man who achieved such a selfless and extraordinary deed. We know this man as the Buddha, the All Enlightened One, and this is his life told as simply as possible for young people.
Based on
A Young Person’s Life of the Buddha by
Bhikkhu Silacara
1 ~ A long time ago, in the kingdom of Kapilavatthu in the north of India (the ruins of which now lie in Nepal) there lived King Suddhodana of the Sakya clan with his Queen, the good and lovely Mah¤m¤y¤. The family to which the King belonged was called Gotama so his full name was Suddhodana Gotama. Queen Mah¤m¤y¤ was near to giving birth to their child so she wanted to travel to her family in a nearby town. On the way the royal party stopped at a beautiful garden for a rest. It was there in the Lumbini Grove that the Queen, holding onto a low branch of a sal tree for comfort, as it was then the custom, gave birth to her baby. Thus, among the birds and the bees and the flowers, the future Buddha was born. The King was delighted to have a son to rule after him. Unfortunately, a few days after the birth, Queen Mah¤m¤y¤ died and the grieving Suddhodana had to entrust the raising of the baby to Princess Mah¤ Paj¤pati, sister to the Queen. The wise men who came to bless the baby told the King that his son was going to be a great man, either a great king or a great religious leader. He was given the name Siddhattha, which means one who succeeds in everything he sets out to do. King Suddhodana wanted the little Prince to grow up to take care of the kingdom after him and did not like the idea that he might give it all up to follow the holy life.
Prince Siddhattha was born in the beautiful Lumbini Gardens among the flowers, the birds and the bees
2 ~ His aunt, the kind Princess Mah造 Paj造pati, brought up Siddhattha as if he were her own son and the Prince grew up happily in the palace. No effort was spared to make his life cosy and easy but all these treats did not turn him into a spoiled child. He was obedient and very intelligent, learning easily all that was deemed necessary to become a good king. Prince Siddhattha did not like to harm or upset anybody or anything and he was always mindful of the needs of others. Even though he was the heir to the throne and therefore the most important person in the palace after the King, the young Prince was always respectful of his teachers, kind to his servants and compassionate towards animals. One day, while walking with his cousin Devadatta in the grounds of the palace, a flock of swans flew by. Devadatta, who was carrying his bow and arrows, promptly shot one of them down. When he saw this, Siddhattha ran to the injured bird and carefully took the arrow out. He was allowed to keep the swan, to the displeasure of his cousin, and in his tender care it soon recovered its strength and flew away to rejoin its companions.
The kind Siddhattha rescues the swan injured by his cousin
3 ~ Every spring, at the time of sowing the fields, it was the custom in India for the King to open the ploughing of the fields with a ceremony guiding the first team of oxen. All the village people then followed his example and set to work with their own oxen. It was a day of celebration. One year King Suddhodana decided to take his son to the festival. While his father was heading the procession Siddhattha soon found himself quite concerned for the oxen. He saw how they strained and sweated in the relentless heat. He also noticed that the plough uncovered many worms and that birds were swooping down to eat them. Although it was a day of feasting and merrymaking for some, obviously not everybody was happy. Observing all this, Siddhattha wondered off until he found himself under a tree where he sat, more and more immersed in his thoughts. In the shady peace, away from the crowd, with a calm and clear mind, he realized that underneath all the beauty and pleasures of the life his father presented to him there was quite a deal of suffering and ugliness. After the ceremony the Prince was found quietly sitting alone, away from the feasting. This was reported to the King who worried that Siddhattha would after all become a holy man instead of taking charge of the kingdom.
During the Spring Festival not everybody is having fun, some are working hard and animals are suffering.
4 ~ Siddhattha grew into a handsome and thoughtful young man and King Suddhodana, still very worried, resolved to make his life so pleasant and full of fun that he would not want to consider leaving it to become a holy man. So he ordered the construction of three palaces for Prince Siddhattha. The first was made of wood, nice and warm for the winter with panels of sweet smelling cedar inside. The second palace was all in cool white marble for summer and the third was in sturdy brick with a solid roof to keep him dry and cosy during the rainy season. All these splendid buildings had large gardens all round full of flowering trees, ponds brimming with lotuses and winding paths for the Prince and his retinue to stroll along. King Suddhodana then made sure that there were always plenty of servants to cater for every whim of Siddhattha. The food and drink was of the best quality and he engaged musicians and dancers to entertain him day and night. The King appointed only beautiful, young, fit and healthy people to work in all three palaces because he did not want any more thoughts of suffering and ugliness to occur to the Prince. Despite all these efforts Siddhattha did not seem to be enjoying himself as much as his father would have wished.
As a young man Siddhattha lived a pampered life in his father’s palaces but he was never really happy
5 ~ Fearing that all his efforts would be useless to change his son’s inclination towards a retiring and meditative life, King Suddhodana found himself despairing of ever awakening in the Prince an interest in the affairs of the kingdom. It was then that his advisers suggested marriage as a good remedy. That seemed an excellent idea; a beautiful wife would enchant Siddhattha out of his melancholy, thought the King. So the plan was put into practice. Princess Yashodhar¤ from a neighbouring kingdom was introduced to Siddhattha so the two young people got to know each other and love grew between them. The wedding was a fantastic affair and for a while the Prince seem to be quite happy, delighting in his new life with his beautiful wife. The King kept making sure that only smiles and laughter and happy faces surrounded the couple and it was forbidden any reference to illness, old age or death in the presence of them. Still the Prince kept brooding and when his son was born he named him R¤hula, which means an obstacle. By giving the baby this name Siddhattha only meant that the love for his son would make him fulfil King Suddhodana’s wish to be his successor. Clearly Siddhattha was already considering that family ties were getting in the way of his spiritual fulfilment, although he dearly loved Yashodhar¤ and little R¤hula.
The Prince married a beautiful Princess and they had a baby boy
6 ~ When the Prince went out to visit the surrounded countryside and villages the King ordered than anything sad or unpleasant should be hidden from Siddhattha’s eyes and everybody had to great him with smiles and cheers. Despite of these precautions on three occasions Siddhattha managed to see more than his father had planned. The first time he met an old man, the next a sick person and finally a dead body being carried to the funeral pyre to be burnt. He asked his servant Channa many questions. Channa truthfully replied that all three conditions were part of life and that nobody can escape getting ill or old and eventually everybody dies. This was quite a shock to the Prince because he had never seen such suffering in his whole life and it seemed that even his royal rank was not sufficient to protect him from the same fate. Safely back in the comfort of his palace all that he had seen in the last few days kept going over in his mind. The insight he had as a child during the ploughing festival was now confirmed; life is full of unhappiness. He wanted to seek a cure, a way out of so much misery. He seriously began to think that to achieve this goal he would have to leave the palace with all its luxuries as well as his beloved family.
The unhappiness of others distressed him
7 ~ On a fourth outing he saw quite a different sight; in front of a cave in the mountains a dignified man was sitting in meditation, dressed in the robes of a recluse, his face wearing a calm and noble expression. Channa explained that this was a man that had left the pleasures and comforts of the world to find another kind of happiness. He sat in meditation most of the day and ate what kind people would give him, sometimes very little. In this way he concentrated in developing a peaceful mind. This encounter impressed Siddhattha who decided there and then to dedicate himself also to pursue a similar path and so perhaps he could find the cure for all the suffering and misery that everybody experiences sooner or later in life. He returned to the palace but he was even more wrapped up in his thoughts than usual. He wanted to know the secret of true happiness and contentment because he definitely did not find it in his present life, despite his father’s efforts. The King, knowing of his escapades, tried harder to keep Siddhattha amused but it was all in vain, the young man had made up his mind.
One day the Prince met a man who lived a simple life with no luxuries but was very contented
8 ~ So one night when the palace was still and silent, Siddhattha quietly left his sleeping wife and child, not without sadness, to start his new life as a homeless wanderer. This decision was not taken for selfish motives but his intention was to return to his family bringing back with him the secret of happiness. He had asked the faithful Channa to saddle his favourite horse, Kanthaka, and now they all were ready. The Prince quietly rode out of the palace gardens and then out of the city walls with the servant hanging onto the horse’s tail. After a while Siddhattha dismounted and took off all his jewellery, which he gave to Channa to take back to the palace. The latter was distraught and begged to be allowed to continue on the journey but his master told him that it was not the right time for him to do so. So Channa went back to the palace leading Kanthaka by the reins, feeling very sad to leave his master. And that is how Prince Siddhattha Gotama, having abandoned his family, a life of luxury and all his wealth, with only the clothes he had on and on foot, became Gotama the Wanderer.
So one night Siddhattha left the palace to seek that happiness for his family, for himself and for everybody else
9 ~ Siddhattha had heard of a saintly man that lived in the forest and decided to ask him to be accepted as a disciple. This holy man was ¡l¤ra K¤l¤ma. Under his guidance the former prince learned to achieve a very high degree of mental concentration but he soon found that this did not lead to the cessation of suffering. After a time Siddhattha had reached such level of understanding that ¡l¤ra K¤l¤ma asked him to stay to guide others. However Siddhattha’s enquiring mind had not been satisfied so he did not accept because he wanted to find the secret of happiness and therefore he decided to leave. So he went to practice with another highly respected holy man, Uddaka R¤maputta. Again he was a diligent disciple and practiced very hard until he knew as much as his master who also wanted to keep him alongside him. But as he only learned to achieve an even higher degree of concentration than before, once more he had to leave to resume his search. Uddaka had taught him all he knew and still there was no answer to Siddhattha’s question. After these disappointments Gotama the Wanderer went alone further into the forest because he realized that all he could do now was to seek the truth within his own mind.
He joined the holy men in the forest to learn from them the secret of happiness
10 ~ Some people believed then, as still some do now, that a very effective method to strengthen the mind and reach profound spiritual knowledge is to starve the body and punish it by any possible means. So Gotama applied himself with great dedication to all sorts of extreme practices. He went without food and without sleep and meditated for long periods in uncomfortable and even dangerous places, striving hard to find the truth by his own efforts. So hard he tried that he acquired a reputation for being a great ascetic and soon a small group of five disciples gathered around him, all trying to be as diligent as him. After some six or seven years of wandering and living through all these torments and privations he was very weak and still he had not found the answers he sought. Clearly this method was not working as the goal was nowhere in sight yet. His common sense told Gotama that there must be another way, neither too soft nor too hard, a Middle Way. In his wanderings he came to a secluded bamboo grove with a smooth river flowing through it where he could bathe and as there was also a village nearby where he could beg for food, he settled there with his followers.
He studied hard and fasted to clear his mind but he only got ill and weak
11 ~ Once, when he returned from bathing in the river, he fainted with weakness. A poor shepherd boy that was passing by revived him with a few drops of milk from one of his goats. Gotama was very grateful and asked to drink from the boy s dish. The young shepherd was shocked and said that his dish was not a fit drinking vessel for a holy man, a noble person. The former prince replied that there was no difference between them, one a holy man and the other a poor shepherd boy, as the same red blood flowed in their veins. Then he added that what makes people noble is doing noble deeds not their birth or how much wealth they have. So he drank the warm milk from the boy’s dish and felt much better for it. Now Gotama realized that with a weak body he had no hope of having a clear mind so he decided to eat, not too much, because overeating also would cloud his understanding. From now on he accepted food from Suj¤t¤, a kind lady from the neighbouring village of Uruvela, who every day brought him rice boiled in milk. When the disciples saw him eating, they thought that he had given up the struggle and had gone back to a life of ease and comfort and soon they all abandoned him.
He saw this was not the right way and found that with a little food and milk he could think better
12 ~ One night, alone in the forest, Gotama sat under a banyan tree to meditate, vowing that he would not rise until he had found how to conquer suffering. As he reflected on his past and on recent events he began to wonder if perhaps he should return to his previous life as a prince. The wish to give up was strong, but not as strong as his determination to find what he had set out to find. All night he persevered and eventually he suddenly saw the solution. He had long been aware that even under the most delightful pleasure there is always some suffering. Now, fully awake, more so than any man has ever been, he realized that all around us and within us everything is always changing. Refusing to accept change is what makes us unhappy. Finally, he saw that the way to achieve contentment and freedom from suffering is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path, and so train the mind in wisdom, morality and mindfulness. With this realization Siddhattha touched the earth as his witness to his Enlightenment. Thus, under the full moon of May, the former Prince became the Buddha, the Enlightened One, and from that moment on he dedicated his life to impart his Teaching to those who were ready to listen.
Under the banyan tree the recluse Gotama became the Buddha, when he saw how everything that is here today will sooner or later change. Clinging to anything brings unhappiness, only being mindful of the changeable nature of life brings freedom and lasting happiness.
Gotama the Buddha lived for a very long time during which he travelled over a vast area in the north of India. He gave many sermons and taught everybody, from beggars to kings, the Middle Way he discovered. Many stories could be told and many pictures could be drawn and perhaps one day so will they be.
A colouring book for children based on this eBook can be obtained from
The Buddhist Publication Society www.bps.lk Wisdom Books www.wisdom-books.com Amazon
Vesak greeting cards and colouring pages and teaching material for children by the same author in
issuu.com/nottwobooks