Page 6 - Understanding Buddhism
P. 6
This painting depicts Siddhartha—who later became the
Buddha—encountering sickness, old age, and death for the
rst time after living a sheltered life. This incident led him to
the realization that human existence is lled with suffering.
thinking at that moment, “I, too, am subject to old age.” He won-
dered whether he should be “troubled, ashamed, and disgusted”
at the sight of the ancient villager? “This seemed to me not fi t-
ting,” the prince told himself. “As I thus refl ected, all the [joy of] my
youth suddenly disappeared.” 7
Very soon after that, Siddhartha came upon two other sights
he had never encountered—a sick person and a corpse. The
deceased’s relatives were carrying the body through the local
streets on their way to the graveyard. Shocked, the prince asked
his servant if disease and death were common in Indian society
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