Buddhism Emily and Zoha

Our Claim Prince Siddhartha was very curious about his community, and the outside world. He looked through to the world with widened eyes and an open mind. The prince looked at the world beyond him self, and he cared about the health and welfare of others.

Our Three Opinions Prince Siddhartha was a very curious man. He looked through to the world with widened eyes and an open mind. Until he was 16, Prince Siddhartha was kept inside his palace, hidden by his father from the outside world. This is why the young Prince was so shocked when he saw three ways of suffering for the first time. Prince Siddhartha started his way towards enlightenment the wrong way, but soon found himself taking the right of the middle way.

You, might ask, “If the Buddha was so skinny, why in statues is it so fat?” Well, we were asking the same thing. Then we came down to one answer: There are lots of theories. Some think the Buddha represents Prince Siddartha himself. But the true meaning of the Buddha just means “one who has achieved a state of perfect enlightenment” and there have been several people who have been given the title. Some people believe that being overweight was associated with prosperity. The last theory is a theory held by most Buddhist scholars. The theory claims there was a monk that called himself “Knowing This”, (850 A.D. to 916 A.D.) He carried a fat pack, and was famous for his big belly. No one knew where he came from. When asked how to obtain nirvana he would simply set his pack down and not say a word. When asked what happens after nirvana, he would pick his pack up and leave. He is probably the inspiration for Fat Buddha, as the statues started appearing in the late 800’S, 1200 years after Prince Siddhartha died.

How Buddhism Relates to Modern Day We believe that Buddhism relates to modern day through many ways. Across the globe, there are many people practicing buddhism. But, as we researched, we found stories of adults and children both making religious sacrifices and choices. For example, we found the story of a young adult who was meditating for six months straight, not moving, not eating, and not drinking. This boy had been bitten by a very very poisonous snake, and had made the statement that medicine would not save him, but six straight years of meditation would.

enjoying his royalty before he became an ascetic. This is a Buddha meditating, possibly finding This is a picture of Prince Siddhartha his enlightenment. enjoying his royalty before he became an ascetic.

Other pictures of Buddhas meditating Other pictures of Buddhas meditating. The first statue is made of cherry wood, the second statue is made of gold. We believe that this represents that you can take two different paths. One path is royalty and wealthiness. The other is giving up some wealth to help others around you.

This picture shows Prince Siddhartha seeing one of the three forms of suffering: sickness. We believe that this picture represents how happy and peaceful Prince Siddhartha felt after reaching enlightenment.

Bibliography Website Sources http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/boy-hailed-as-a-modern-buddha-has-been-fasting-for-six-months-517774.html http://www.aboutbuddha.org/english/buddhism-today.htm/ http://www.shambhala.org/buddhism.php

Our real world expert is Robert Thurman.