Week Five Essay: The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha Meditating. Tinh That Kim Lien. 

The stories of the Life of the Buddha were some of the most interesting I have read yet in this course. I had never heard anything about Siddhartha, the man who was to become the Buddha. However, I understand now why there is a religious following of the teachings of Siddhartha. I loved hearing about a religion where views about society, thoughts about the universe as a whole, and understanding why people are the way they are.

Within the unit, my favorite story was the story of Siddhartha Becoming the Buddha. I really liked this story, as it was the perfect ending to the overarching story of the unit. Siddhartha In this story, it was really cool seeing all the different perspectives of the world that Siddhartha had about the world while in his deep meditation. There weren't many stories that I didn't like. Each of these stories was really important to tell the whole story of Siddhartha in his quest to become Buddha.

I didn't know anything about Buddhism before reading this unit and I think that could be something helpful for those reading this unit. I thought that all of the stories had great motivation behind them and I really liked how each story complimented the one before it.

In this course, I really want to learn more about different cultures, legends, and things that I have never heard about. I have always wanted to learn about Buddhism and this unit helped me reach my goal for the class and get to learn about something I have always wanted to learn about. I wasn't surprised by this unit but I did love that I got to learn some great things about Buddhism and the entire story behind Siddhartha.