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When You're Such a Cute Baby... || Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha Part A


That your mother literally dies of joy...

  • It is interesting that the kind of peace and happiness that the Buddha was known for bringing later in life sort of seems to happen to his parents before he is even born.
  • Healing miracles performed by Queen Maya. Similar in some aspects to the miracles of Jesus in Christianity, though several hundred years before,
  • Easiest. Birth. Ever.
  • Sometimes with these "Birth of Savior" stories, there is a reason that a savior is born at a specific time. Is there a specific reason that the Buddha was born when he was? Did the gods have some specific plan?
    • Since the gods pay tribute to Buddha like he is a god himself (or something greater), did they decide when the Buddha would be born? Or did he "decide"?
      • The language kind of suggests that the Buddha determined his own parents so why not also his time of birth?
      • Was he born because of his parents? They are said to be very generous or with great virtue. Did the Buddha decide to be born because he found a suitable pair to be his parents?
  • Might have been the easiest birth ever, but Maya doesn't last long after that.
    • The cause of death was kind of vague.
      • Did she die of joy?
  • It kind of seems like people knew what the Buddha was before he was born. That someone would become the Buddha. Is this part of a previous religion?
  • I find it interesting that the king would try to shelter Siddhartha from the evils of the world when he was prophesized to eliminate said evils. How does one fight the evil of the world if they do not know that said evil exists?
  • The encounters are ordained by the gods. Could a brahmin have been able to interpret the encounters thusly? Such that the king need not worry about what Siddhartha is seeing?
The Encounters of Siddhartha

Bibliography:
Unit: The Life of Buddha
From: The Life of Buddha
By: Andre Ferdinand Herold

Photo Credits:
The Encounters of Siddhartha

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