Buddhism

In keeping with the chronology let us first visit Buddhism.

From Siddhartha’s experiences with the world around him, stemmed what are known as the Four Sights.

Until he was 29, he is believed to have led a very protected life. All of his needs being met by an army of servants. But in the span of a few days, everything changed. And those were the Four Sights.

The Four Sights are Gautama’s encounters with a person who was ill, a person of old age, witnessing a funeral procession and finally seeing a monk. Upon seeing the suffering that was normalized as “this is how it is”, Siddhartha Gautama took to the Vedhas to understand what was happening and how all this suffering could be solved. But all he saw was more of the same, “this is the law of life, this is Karma.” He realized pleasure was momentary, but that did nothing to absolve everything else he’d learned the past few days.

Finally when he saw the monk, with his shaggy clothes, begging for food. He noticed something. The monk looked happy. He looked at peace. The monk had rejected all worldly possessions. He had no care for such things. That night was when Gautama realized that desire was the antichrist. That desire was the cause of all suffering.

He grew disgusted of desire, and yet compassionate of who possessed it. And so deciding to help such people, he left in search of the path to Moksha. He decided to live a life of a monk in order to embark upon that journey.