It is thought by many that the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born having this title and did not have to endure any hardships throughout his life. Despite these thoughts, Siddhartha Gautama was not born the Buddha, but had to find his own way to achieve enlightenment and become the Buddha. Before and after Siddhartha's birth, Siddhartha's mother and father knew that their son was special and had two paths in life that could lead Siddhartha into being a great king or a Buddha, a remover in the world of the veil of ignorance. In an attempt to steer Siddhartha's life to the path of the great king, his father, King Suddhodana Gautama, used health and beauty to shelter Siddhartha from the outside world of suffering, pain, and death. Only after twenty-nine years did Siddhartha want to venture out beyond the walls of his sheltered world and into the city, but little was it known that Siddhartha would get his first glimpse of the world of suffering through the four sights (Smith 84). Once Siddhartha has renounced all worldly things, his begins his long, hard journey towards enlightenment, which ends while Siddhartha sits underneath the Bodhi tree.

After twenty-nine years of being sheltered from suffering, sickness, and death, Siddhartha wanted to journey out into the world. King Suddhodana was told by the Brahmins that if and when Siddhartha ventured away from the sheltered walls of the palaces and gardens, that the prince would see the world of suffering through the four sights (Mitchell 19). The four sights as told by Huston Smith says:

After hearing Asita's words, Queen Maya and King Suddhodana name the child Siddhartha, which means he who achieves his aim.

With the yearning to partake in the life of withdrawal from the world, Siddhatha set forth on his journey towards attaining Nirvana. Siddhartha searches for a way that leads to enlightenment, trying several methods being taught by other ascetics. On such ascetic, Arada Kalama, taught Siddhartha the method of one-pointed concentration and deep meditation, but his method, ending at the Sphere of Nothingness, did not lead to the absence of passion, tranquility, higher knowledge, or Nirvana, therefore Siddhartha abandoned the method. After Abandoning many methods that were unfulfilling, Siddhartha joined a group of ascetics whom dedicated their lives to the most extreme forms of self-mortification. Surviving on one grain of rice and one drop of water a day, Siddhartha fainted while bathing in a river one day and came to the conclusion that mortification of the flesh was not the way to Nirvana (Lopez 39). Siddhartha, although scorned by the other ascetics for abandoning their ways, went on trying to find a way to attain Nirvana. Huston Smith writes, Siddhartha, one evening, sat down underneath a peepul tree, which has now come to be called the Bodhi tree, and vowed not to move from that spot until enlightenment is achieved (85-86). At this time the evil one, Mara, fearing that the Siddhartha will attain his objective begins to make his presence felt through doubts emerging from to back of Siddhartha's mind. The Evil One, Mara, begins to attack in battalions and Siddhartha says to Mara, as Donald S. Lopez writes, "O Mara, lust is your first battalion, your second is called discontent. Your third is hunger and thirst, your fourth is craving. Your fifth is sloth and torpor, your sixth is known as fear. Your seventh battalion is doubt and your eighth is hypocrisy and cant (42)." At these words Mara attempted to frighten and drive Gautama away with a whirlwind, a cloudburst, a shower of meteors, and a dense blackness, but to no avail. The wind, which could have uprooted trees, did not even cause the edges of Siddhartha's robe to flutter. The rain

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Approximate Word count = 1745
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)