Extra Credit Reading Notes: Life of Buddha, Part A

First Encounter

Story source: The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).


Plot:

So there is this prince who was incredible sheltered from the outside world.

one day someone told him about how beautiful nature was outside nad he desperately wanted to go outside.

The king wanted his son to see no evil so he ordered all the sick and beggars and allowed his son to go out.

there was an extravagant chariot made up and the king basically decorated the whole town so that what his son saw would not be how things actually are. 

The gods became jealous of all the praise that the prince was reviewing so they sent an old man and made him cross paths with the prince. 

The prince was confused at the man as he had never seen anyone elderly. So he asked his charioteer if the man was a monster.

The charioteer told him that this was just an old man, and that one day this would happen to the prince too. 

Thoughts:

I love this story because it is such a crazy, almost theoretical statement. It seems impossible ot be sheltered to such an extreme but I love it. I would probably use the same starting of a sheltered prince and then introduce some new things to see what he thinks. Maybe some special food, maybe a girl. who knows? But the reaction is so pure because he is not encumbered with experience. 

First Sight Picture



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