*Siddharta Gautama*
The central figure of Buddhism is not a god but a human being, Siddharta Gautama. According to Buddhist tradition, Gautama was heir to a small Himalayan Kingdom, sometime around 500 BC. The young prince was deeply affected by the suffering evident all around him.He saw that men and women, children and old people, all suffer not just from occasional calamities such as war and plague, but from *anxiety, frustration and discontent,* all of which seem to be an inseparable part of the human *condition.* People pursue wealth and power, acquire knowledge and possessions, beget sons and daughters and build houses and palaces. Yet no matter what they achieve, they are never content. Those who live in poverty dream of riches. Those who have a million want 2 million. Those who have 2 million want 10 million. Even the rich and famous are rarely satisfied. They too are haunted by ceaseless cares and worries, old age and death put a bitter end to them. Everything that one has accumulated vanishes like smoke. Life is a pointless rat race. But how to escape it?
At the age of twenty-nine Gautama slipped away from his palace in the middle of the night, leaving his family and possessions.He travelled as a homeless vagabond throughout Northern India, searching for a way out of suffering. He visited ashrams and sat at the feet of gurus but nothing liberated him entirely – some dissatisfaction always remained. He did not despair. He resolved to investigate suffering on his own. Until he found a method for complete liberation. He spent six years meditating on the essence, causes and cures cures of human anguish.In the end he came to the realisation that suffering is not caused by ill fortune, by social injustice or by divine whims.Rather, *suffering is caused by the behaviour patterns of one’s own mind.*
The above is a quote from the book *Sapiens* written by Yuval Noah Harari, a noted historian and philosopher.
WSLB been saying interalia, since 2008 (and I from 1982), that:
- All suffering *is in the ‘story’* constructed in the mind about ‘what happened’, and not in what happened.
- That the germination of the dissatisfying thoughts lies in the deep *Inner Need, our unmanageable characteristics (UMs) and the cover ups (DoCs) humans use to shield and protect their perceived inadequacies.
- Resistance causes Persistence
- That there is a way to *access* the way out, through the use of a chosen Golden Key, a newly acquired set of characteristics.
Our workshops on AA’s 12 Steps, have been entirely founded on these principles, providing *access* to this *release to freedom* that was first enunciated in 500 BC by Siddhartha Gautama we lovingly call *The Buddha*
On this the day of celebrating *Guru Purnima*, I prostrate before the great Buddha for passing down his wisdom to generations that have followed.
I’m on Twitter @jsvasan