As a child, Siddhartha was given the best education. He had the best teachers sent to him, yet the spent much more time on his own in the palaces built by his father, Suddhodana. Although protected, but his constant imagination and quest for knowledge beyond the walls of the palaces help me realize that one may be confined physically but mentally and spiritual we can break-out from these walls. We must constant strive to go beyond the walls of our own minds.
Walls that put there by up upbringing by our parents and their parents through our social and cultural conditioning.
Just as Siddhartha's parents who meant well, our parents and relatives are as well but we need to breakthrough these "walls" if we truly want to find ourselves and be truly happy.
Siddhartha has shown us that is possible to be ourselves by leaving the palace and founded the Dharma and expounded what we know as Buddhism today.
He became who he wanted to be, not what his father wanted. Sounds familiar?
Siddhartha was given the freedom to wander and to explore.
We were told that on one occasion when he was seven, he wandered away from the noise and busy-ness of the occasion and went to sit under a tree.
There he got a glimpse of the nature of life when he witnessed a bird carrying a worm that was being turned up by the farmer's plough.
This sight caused him to be unhappy. He then shut his eyes in and for the first time, went into a state of meditation and relaxed.
His power of observation was fantastic.
He took the time to observe and he "felt" what he was observing and took action, even at a tender age of 7.
He inspires me and reminds that no matter how busy we make ourselves to this life, we need to take time to step back to look at things.
He also inspires me to help my friends take steps back to observe and to feel the environment in their own way, making them less busy and more focused.
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