12
All of this self-punishment eventually turned out to be point-
less, Siddhartha learned. Torturing himself this way did not help
him find life’s truths and attain a state of enlightenment, or great
wisdom. In fact, he later said, a seeker of wisdom should “be
moderate. Let him eat and drink according to the needs of the
body.” Keeping “the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise
we shall not be able to trim the lamp of [attain] wisdom, and keep
our mind strong and clear.”
9
A Newly Awakened Intellect
As near as modern scholars can tell, Siddhartha was around thirty-
five when he began eating normally again. He also washed himself
thoroughly and put on clean clothes. Within a few months he had
regained his health and felt ready to try once more to attain great
wisdom and discover the cause of human suffering.
Omens of Siddhartha’s Birth
As in the cases of many other founders of faiths, later fanciful stories grew up
about the Buddha. One says that Siddhartha’s mother, Queen Maya, was implanted
with her son’s seed by miraculous means. Supposedly, in her sleep she dreamed
that a sacred white elephant entered her chamber. A passage in the
Jataka
, some
fth-century-CE birth tales about the Buddha, states that in its trunk, the creature
“held a white lotus [ ower]. Trumpeting, he entered the golden mansion, made a
right-wise circle three times around [Maya’s] bed, smote [struck] her right side,
and appeared to enter her womb.” The next morning, Maya awakened and told her
husband, the king, about the dream. He called together some monks and asked
them to explain what the dream meant. They concluded that the white elephant
was a sign that the queen was now pregnant. Moreover, the child would be a boy
possessing special insights about the world. Not long afterward, other omens oc-
curred. In one, a bright light blazed in the night sky while Maya was sleeping. In
addition, several deaf people regained their hearing, and some physically disabled
people were suddenly able to walk.
Quoted in E.J. Thomas,
The Life of Buddha in Legend and History
. London: Kegan Paul, 2003, pp. 31–32.
